Business Growth Development Consultant

Drip campaigns; lead nurturing, multi-channel and multi-touch marketing automation

There is nothing more time consuming and off putting than either getting too close too quickly or spending time following up on leads with prospects that are just not ready to buy yet.

Spending time with current or potential customers that are in no position to make a decision is not a great use of your company’s valuable selling assets. Instead they should be focusing their time on leads which are ready to start looking seriously at what you are offering and don’t require “converting” because they are already aligned with your model as shown by your marketing and their continued interest, so it’s just a question of details.

Michael Gerber speaks on building business systems that are the true vehicles of unleashing growth and why getting your sales and marketing systems right are essential to being able to grow beyond what appear to be the limiting boundaries and resources of your business.

As an engineer I understood and valued the amazing power of building proof and using evidence to formulate a basis of your decisions and actions. Yet for years I allowed myself to be dictated a set of sales and marketing belief’s in business which were for the most part a bunch of mumbo jumbo nonsense.

When I finally sat down and actually researched and proved to myself what worked and what did not, things started to change.

Right from the get go I’ve been a supporter of a hung parliament for this present time and especially a Tory and Lib Dem coalition.  In fact I changed my vote strategically to purposely balance votes on the Conservative and Lib Dem side and hopped that others would follow.

I feel there could not have been a better time than now for a hung parliament to give us the much needed focus on those important debates that will be the deciding factors in navigating our way out of this mess.

Some days you just can’t help hitting the roof and blowing off a bit of steam, whether it’s a bad day at work or problems at home, there’s always something that gets you worked up, but most of the time it doesn’t push you over the edge.  You grab a drink, watch a film, cuddle up to a loved one or chat with a friend and put the world to rights, finally waking up the following day with a clearer head.

I’m not a religious devote myself but I do see lessons and teachings in everything that we can all learn something from.

Easter celebrations are the modern day equivalents of a Pagan festival.

While most people both religious and non-religious celebrate the coming of spring, it is the religious folk that celebrate Jesus’s resurrection during a feast which comes at the end of Lent, a period of fasting and patience.

The general symbolic story of the death of the son (sun) on a cross (the constellation of the southern cross) and his rebirth, overcoming the powers of darkness, is a story that echoes from the ancient world where there are plenty of parallels to be drawn and rival resurrected saviours.

When I first went self employed a lot of things went wrong and for all sort of reasons, most of which were mistakes I’d made.

They’re painful and costly experiences but I learned far more from them than I had done at any other point in my working life.

You can’t avoid the mistakes, so make them as they will make you more effective.

Where Growth Comes From

Growth occurs where you have a very simple equation that describes the coming together of demand and supply.  The greater the demand and the weaker the supply the faster the business growth develops, similar to the simple equation to calculate force which Newton describes in his second law, Force = Mass x Acceleration or F=ma.

There are however other factors that will impact the trajectory of growth in your business which come from shifts in the market that alter what is now deemed in demand and ultimately where supply comes from.

No matter how good your sales and marketing is, it will become ineffective in the long run if your products and services are a pile of tut.

Even Sir Alan Sugar, who’s been labelled himself for producing some questionable products said (and rather well) during one of the apprentice shows:

“I sent you out on a mission to France, to sell quality British products. I gave you a list of organic farmers, people who use tender love and care to create something special, that they take a pride in. And I wanted you to take that product and say “This is what us British produce, this is not mass-produced tut…” and what you do, is you go and buy a breeze block-load of bloody cheddar cheese!”

When faced with difficult or seemingly impossible situations most think about giving up, but its often those that are prepared to face their fears and to keep on, keeping on, that go on to reap the rewards from their efforts.

Fear cripples us all in some shape or form.  I remember fearing public speaking, so I joined Toastmaster International which helped a great deal.

What did you fear and how did you overcome it ?

For some time now I’ve been extending my own social media activity, slowly. When you don’t have lots of staff and massive budgets and you are focused on helping your customer its a tough thing to do and get right. You know what it should look like but creating and engaging amongst everything else you are doing is a tall order indeed.

Just being in a position to “listen” or watch the conversations unfold can be very eye opening and you begin to get a feel for what people are saying, doing and why.

Will Smith on developing a successful attitude in your business.

One of my customers finally gave up….doing what they had always done and decided they had no choice but to find an alternative way of doing things.

I had discussed this with them many times before, and they had resisted the change because they didn’t have to….it was (tough) business as usual.

Well things finally came to ahead when the “business as usual” approach drove them into the ground and almost wiped the business out. As a last ditch attempt they said go on then see what you can do.

The Business landscape is changing fast which for sometime now I have been predicting and talking about with individuals and businesses directly, and on this site, many of whom are just not ready but are aware that things are changing and the pain it brings.

The CBI have produced a report which confirms that change is indeed taking placing and that a new business model is evolving.

The business world is changing and especially so with selling and marketing.  What worked 20 years ago won’t work as effectively today…. why ? technology has advanced beyond recognition, selling and marketing is getting tougher, trust is being slowly eroded and choice and competition has exploded.

All businesses now have a whole series of hurdles and hoops to jump through to win new customers and we just don’t have the time for irrelevant, time wasting, unproductive and non measurable sales and marketing activity.