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Get big wins from little steps

Posted byIan Brodie on February 24th, 2013.

No gardening disasters this time I'm pleased to report…

A while back I got a call from the head of a division of a large international firm. The conversation began…

“I've been reading your blog for a couple of years…I'm a big fan”.

As you can imagine, the chances of working together when the conversation starts out like that are pretty high.

For me, the most significant words in that quote are “a couple of years”. And they're important for two reasons.

The first is that it's often a very long time from when a client first starts paying attention to a problem or opportunity to them deciding to take action to fix it by hiring someone to help.

The second is that the thing that convinces clients to work with you usually isn't one big “hit” – it's the gradual drip, drip, drip of great content, great ideas, great stories.

When those two things come together, that's when the magic happens.

Most of us put the majority of our marketing effort into going for that big hit. Trying to make a tremendous impression with one meeting, one advert, one free report, one sales letter.

But as my example shows, what really counts is the day in, day out drip, drip drip.

Shouldn't we be putting more of our focus onto that?

More Clients Memorandum

Dripping blood, sponges and something that may be holding you back

Posted byIan Brodie on February 17th, 2013.

Here's something that happened to me a while back that was painful at the time (literally) but taught me a valuable lesson.

I was re-glazing one of our greenhouses and managed to walk into a sticky-out metal bit that the door runs along. Man it hurt. Nasty cut on the side of my head.

Five minutes later I do the exact same thing again. Cut on my forehead this time.

Fast forward 15 minutes and I walk into it again.

Luckily by this time, Kathy had spotted the blood dripping down my temple, asked me what on earth I'd done, and had taped a sponge over the offending sticky-out metal bit.

So this time no injury (well, just to my pride).

It's funny how with many things in life we keep making the same mistake again and again.

Marketing that just doesn't work, yet we keep on doing it. Arguments with co-workers or employees or family we just keep repeating.

We've all got blind spots. And sometimes it takes someone looking in from outside to spot them for us.

Unfortunately, in business, the evidence of those blind spots isn't quite as obvious as blood running down your forehead.

For others to spot our mistakes we need to open up to them. Tell them what we're doing. What results we're getting. What we're concerned about.

And that's tough.

What if they see through our veneer of competence? What if they think we're no good? And what if they tell us?

It's a big step to open up like that. But if you're not doing it, you're missing out. You're bound to have at least a couple of blind spots that are holding you back.

So find someone you can trust to open up to. A friend, business partner, significant other, coach, mentor. Or a group you can speak to regularly.

It'll make a big difference to your business.

More Clients Memorandum

How to get more marketing done in less time

Posted byIan Brodie on February 10th, 2013.

Like most people, I often feel as if there just aren't anywhere near enough hours in the day to get everything I need done.

I used to think the answer was more efficiency. I've tried out pretty much every productivity system and “to do list” app under the sun.

And while these systems are helpful to keep your tasks under control and to make sure you don't drop any balls, I've found that any time I save with a better productivity system soon gets eaten back up with more stuff to do.

Have you found something similar?

I suspect I'm not alone. Many professionals I speak to have this same issue. The most common challenge I hear is “I know I need to do more marketing, but I just don't have the time”.

Well, what I've found that actually does work for me is what I call my “radical productivity system”. You might want to try it to see if it works for you.

Here it is….

….drum roll….

Stop doing stuff that doesn't work.

Yeah, OK, that probably doesn't sound very clever. You might even be thinking “come on Ian, I don't waste my time doing things that don't work”.

But have you ever really checked?

When I tracked back my very best and biggest clients to where they came from, there were actually a very few sources.

Some came from referrals from previous clients. Some were people who'd seen me presenting at an event. A lot came from people finding my website, subscribing to my newsletter and calling me when the time was right to do something together.

And some came from recommendations from people who might normally be considered my competitors but because I've built good relationships with them, recommended me when they thought I'd be able to do a better job for someone.

Networking? Not so much. I was spending hours every week at events, but it turns out that it rarely led to winning clients.

Surprisingly, despite the fact that many people will tell you that a great way to win clients is to establish yourself as an expert by answering questions on Linkedin groups and forums, it didn't really work for me.

(Well, technically, it worked a couple of times years ago – but these days Linkedin groups seem to be more filled with vendors trying to pitch stuff than clients).

By simply cutting down on the activities that weren't making much of an impact for me I saved about half a day per week.

Some of that time's been taken up with more effective marketing. Some of it I've saved for myself and my family.

Of course, the things that really work will be different for you. But the key is to make sure you really know what does – don't just assume – check.

Then grit your teeth and cut back on the stuff that doesn't work.