In project management, they have a principle called the “critical path”. It's the set of key steps on the plan that if any of them were delayed, would delay the whole project.

Other activities can get behind schedule and the overall project won't be late, but any problems with the steps on the critical path and you're going to miss your deadlines. Conversely, speeding up the tasks that aren't on the critical path doesn't speed up the project – you need to save time on the critical path to have an overall impact.

There's an analogy in marketing too. Not a perfect one, but a helpful one.

There are some activities you do in marketing that have a big impact on the number of clients you win. And there are others that don't.

If you want more clients, you have to do more of the “critical path” activities or do them better. Doing more of the non-critical activities has very little impact.

Unfortunately, most of us treat all activities the same. Partly because we just keep doing what we've always done. Partly because some activities are easy to do on a regular basis (you go to that monthly networking meeting that never leads to any clients because you don't have to think about it and it's a pleasant event).

And partly, it's because we haven't really analysed which of our activities has the most impact. 

If you get out a piece of paper and look at where your last clients came from you'll undoubtedly see patterns.

It's relatively easy if you do most of your business online like me – you can track the sources of traffic and what people do before they become clients.

If your clients come primarily offline, make sure to ask them how they first heard of you if you don't know that already.

For me, the vast majority of Momentum Club members either join after watching my “How To Get More Leads and Clients” webinar or they join after being subscribers for a while and eventually the time is right and one of my regular emails triggers a purchase.

Where do most of your clients come from? If you don't know, you really need to. Understanding your marketing critical path is critical to make sure you're spending your time on the right activities instead of wasting time on things that just don't get results.

Tomorrow I'm going to talk about a “hidden” source of clients most of us overlook that for most people is the very best place to focus your time.