Posted by PeterMitchell on June 8, 2010 under Uncategorized | 
As a consultant to businesses, I used to ask for a referral at the end of each project when I was finishing work with that particular client. This always gave me a fair number of referrals to contact people that they were prepared to recommend me to. Now I have adopted a completely different strategy which has produced a much better result. It goes like this. On my first meeting with a prospective customer after I have list listened long and hard and got all the information that I require, I launch into this sort of script. “Mr. Prospect, I was interested to note that you heard from me from Mr. Brown and he gave you my number. Would you be interested in finding out how I have operated my businesses successfully for the last 30+ years with out any expensive advertising? “ Normally the answer is positive.
“I get clients through word-of-mouth using a nontraditional method. At the beginning of the relationship with the prospective client just like the situation with you, I explain that we don’t advertise and rely totally on referrals. Every subsequent meeting I have with the client I bring up the subject of referrals in a positive manner. On the bottom of my proposal to them, I include the fact that we get 97% of their business through referrals. This is repeated on our literature and on our invoices . During our relationship, I find that I get referrals from this existing client on a regular basis. My record is 12 referrals over a 10 month period. Of the 12 referrals 9 prospects signed us up for work.” Basically, what I’ve done is to set some expectations for referrals, it’s as simple as that. For more valuable business information of this sort go to PL Michell.com
Originally posted 2010-06-10 07:33:08. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Posted by Cash Miller on under Uncategorized |
Welcome to the SmallBusinessDelivered.com Author’s Blog. If you’ve taken the time already to visit www.SmallBusinessDelivered.com then you already know that we have some great author’s sharing their insights and experiences with our readers. What’s even better is that all of our author’s are business coaches working in various fields helping small business owners every day. And now through our blog many of them will be sharing their day to day experiences with our readers even more regularly. I do hope all of our readers and our authors find real value in this blog as I want it to become a real resource for small business owners and entrepreneurs to use in the search for entrepreneurial success.
To start our blog off I’d also like to welcome the first of our contributing authors. Art Consoli, Caroline Jordan, Julissa Fernandez, Steve Smith and Peter Mitchell.
Regards,
Cash Miller
Editor
www.SmallBusinessDelivered.com
Originally posted 2010-04-04 20:51:39. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Posted by SteveSmith on under Business Coaching, Uncategorized |
Do you have goals? Have you been able to achieve them? If your answer to the first question is ‘No’, then you need not read any further.
Goals are like great ideas… they are worthless unless you are serious about achieving them. Your goals are what you truly want from your business, your relationships or any of life’s pursuits that you have committed substantial time and resources towards. So why do so many people fall short of achieving what they say they really want?
First, let’s understand what goals really are. Goals are measurable end results that are time specific. They require plans, objectives and action steps to complete. They should be relevant to something that is important to you. They should be results you really want. When a goal is achieved, you should know it without question. Now, back to the second question; “Have you been able to achieve yours?”
When business owners fall short of their goals, it’s often attributed to depleted resources or harsh economic factors. And while these conditions may challenge the ability for some business owners to reach what they have set their sites on, these are only effects. The usual cause is a loss of commitment to do what is necessary to achieve the results they initially planned for.
As a small business coach, I work with many business owners who are well intentioned and truly desire the outcomes they profess. Unfortunately, their ability to consistently pursue the ’often times’ long road to success leaves many of them without hope of ever seeing their goals realized. Frequently, this could mean missing a certain revenue milestone, not being able to expand by hiring the right employees or not having the equity to sell the business and retire. All are significant goals that typically require a commitment to planning and action in order to realize.
So what can you do if your most important goal seems too lofty or out of reach? First, go back and revisit the reasons for setting this goal. Was it something significant enough to change your life (major weigh loss, financial freedom, successfully launching and establishing a business you’ve always dreamed about). If your goal does not alter your life or your living standards enough to envision what things will be like once you are there, commitment to do what is necessary over time will be tough to maintain.
Next, review your plan for how you intended to get there. Were your expectations in line with the complexity of the goal? Did you get others who have already accomplished what you want to review your plan for soundness and outcome predictability? Many times, your best intentions or greatest desires may overlook all the steps necessary to reach what you have committed yourself to. This is one of the main reasons people never achieve their weigh loss goals. They simply don’t realize what methods work best or the time needed to effectively and permanently shed the pounds. In the business world, the usual area that is underestimated is the approach required and time needed to develop a consistent, predictable client list.
Finally, if your initial ideas and desires are sound and you correctly assessed what was needed to meet your goal, you may be lacking the support to keep going long enough to stay the course and achieve the results you want. As time passes and you continue to struggle with each area of your plan, commitment can start to wane. Left unrecognized, hope begins to evaporate and before you know it, you have lost the real passion you had to reach what you always wanted. You simply give up and move yourself to the sidelines while others you know move forward to their own finish lines.
Many people don’t understand coaching and see it as an admission of failure. Contrary to this notion, people who get coaching are considered more committed to their outcomes than most. The idea of achieving something you may never has accomplished in your life or business required doing things you have never done. Those business owners who realize this fact and pursue help to learn and execute the necessary steps recognize that an investment in them, trumps all other investments they could make in programs or infrastructure. They realize that until they are able to master the process of continually accomplishing each step of their pursuits, little else will have as significant or lasting an effect.
Coaching is simply a method of assuring that your focus, your efforts and the decisions you make along the way are in sync with the outcome you want. Once you realize that having a business coach can guide you along a path headed toward a predictable outcome, you only need to determine that the outcome is worth the investment and that you are coachable!
If you are tired of having to continually re-do your plans, rethink your strategy or put your goals on hold because your resources continue to decrease because of trial and error methods, make the commitment to get help. If finances are the issue, do the math on the investment versus the desired outcome. A 10 to 1 return is not uncommon. I have seen much greater results in terms of performance, confidence and peace of mind from business owners who were motivated to do what was necessary to achieve what they always wanted.
Whether you consider coaching for your small business or continue to go it alone, don’t wait to have this conversation with yourself. Continuing to do the same things over and over will only insure you get the results you have now. If you have been at it for a while without any signs of progress, waiting longer will only jeopardize the benefits of coaching. Having a coach will speed up your momentum if you have enough to work with. Waiting too long may mean your only decision is whether or not to file for BK.
Originally posted 2010-04-12 21:18:27. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Posted by ArtConsoli on under Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Uncategorized, Website Marketing |
A few days ago I received an e mail from someone I knew who wanted my help; “Art; … to get this business off the ground, I need your help. Please check out the web site and give me your honest feedback. The good, the bad and the ugly, let me know what you think. Is something missing? Anything specific you’d like to see?”
I responded; “Before I look at your site – please tell me the search phrase or phrases to which you planned your site would come up #1 on page #1 in Google.”
She replied: “Well, that’s a question with a complicated answer. For now, since our site is so new, we are targeting long-string search terms as there is less competition for those phrases. Over time, we do want to be a top ranker for phrases including …. “
After thinking about how to help, I sent her the following:
There are two reasons to create a web site:
1. To put information about what you do in the hands of someone who has asked for information or someone you think might be interested in knowing what you do. Think in terms of a direct mail piece or a replacement for a brochure to be handed to someone. This type of web site is best designed by someone skilled in creating advertising material – which I am not.
2. To provide a glimpse of what you do in front of the millions of people who might want to know you exist. People you don’t know and have no idea where they are. These people enter into Google a search word or phrase to see how closely what pops up on page one (first 3 to 5 results) seems to match what they want. They will then click on the ones that they think will best fit and if the message provided is well written they will contact the business. This is the kind of web site I figured out how to do.
The author of the web site (it is a writing genre) must first and foremost very specifically identify the search phrase the web site is trying to match. This technique is called reverse search engine analysis. Once the author has narrowed down the search phrase (s) each must be “searched” and the top 3 – 5 results analyzed to see if they are applicable competition for your product or service. If they are you have found the right phrase then you have to figure out how to make yours appear higher. Those sites become your template. If the top ones aren’t offering what you are, then that search engine is not the right one.
To illustrate enter either business strategist or business tactics in Google or MSN – you will see that my sites come up pretty high, and check to see how many results were provided on each of those search phrases. The other results are my competitors.
Know what you want to accomplish and demand more from your web site developer.
Art Consoli
www.BusinessStrategyArtConsoli.com www.BusinessTacticsArtConsoli.com
Originally posted 2010-04-06 16:41:08. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
