Bill Gluth's Creative Business Strategy Blog

Vision Means Passion - What's Yours?

Interestingly, the word vision can be interchangeable with the word passion.

But small business owners often forget to promote the true reason for being in business. They’ve lost touch with their passionate vision.

Passion is defined as an intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction. Vision means unusual discernment or foresight - a person of vision.

Our vision (passion) is that intense driving conviction of unusual foresight that involves people in our sales and marketing story.

It is an authentic story because it comes from our heart. It’s the reason we do what we do. And authentic stories are how we persuade people to use our service or product (ideas) over many other choices.

But for a majority of people in small business, vision is lost somewhere between starting the business and dealing with the day-to-day challenges and opportunities that arise.

Ask Yourself This Question: Why did you go into business in the first place?

Like many people, you probably got started with a vision you felt passionate about.

Somewhere along the line you fell victim to day-to-day, reactive thinking and never returned to your original business vision. It became diluted and never rose from the ashes again.

What Can I Do to Rediscover My Vision?

Remembering the reason you started your business is the first step.

Next, tell people the story of how you got started and why you love what you do. That story should be on your marketing collateral, web site, sales presentations and phone messages.

Passion is that single, illusive thing that attracts clients. Passion helps you stand out from other businesses who are selling rather than telling a “passionate, authentic story about a unique business vision”.

Action Steps to Develop Your Vision

1. Create an Authentic Vision Story. Start by considering the reason you started your business in the first place. Think back, when you first started out, what were you excited about?

2. Write down one sentence that tells the value you provide to others. This is the true reason anyone is in business.

3. Next, write down your competitive advantage. How are you different than the competition?

4. List single sentence statements that tell people your identity. Remember, image is dead. Clients and prospects need a strong authentic identity to understand exactly who you are and what you stand for.

5. Add your niche to this list. What single group of people do you best serve?

6. List the type of client you most enjoy working with. Include both professional and personal qualities. Understand who your ideal client is.

7. Weave the 6 points above into a compelling story. This is your Authentic Vision Story.

8. Memorize that story. Focus on your ideal clients only. Tell every ideal prospect you talk to this week your Authentic Vision Story.

9. The results will surprise you. Your prospects will seem more receptive. Your clients will be more willing to help you spread the word. The reason is your sales and marketing story is authentic and comes from your heart.

Follow these steps and you will definitely find greater satisfaction and more enjoyment in your business.

Who is Blogging?

Matt Sussman who writes the thelayoffbeard.com blog analyzed exactly who is blogging. He reported his finding in an article featured on Technorati.

Here's Matt's report. Very interesting information.

So who are the bloggers? Let's delve into the demographics:

• Two-thirds are male

• 60% are 18-44

• The majority are more affluent and educated than the general population

    ◦ 75% have college degrees
    ◦ 40% have graduate degrees
    ◦ One in three has an annual household income of $75K+
    ◦ One in four has an annual household income of $100K+
    ◦ Professional and self-employed bloggers are more affluent: nearly half have an annual household income of $75,000 and one third topped the $100,000 level

• More than half are married

• More than half are parents

• Half are employed full time, however ¾ of professional bloggers are employed full time.

So it seems that well educate and successful people blog. The reason? They are committed to adding value to the lives of others.

Your Greatest Business Challenge

Everyone faces challenges in their business, everyday. Sales, staff, time, planning, management, accounting, growth, marketing, strategic direction; the list goes on and on.

However, the challenge that rests at the root of all the challenges small business owners and entrepreneurs face is easy to identify and fix.

That challenge is consistency and its power is generally overlooked.

. . . If you contact and follow up with clients faithfully, they will reward you with more business.

. . . If you reach out to 10 new prospects every business day, your sales pipeline will never go dry.

. . . If you send out 50 greeting cards a week to a list of people who mirror your best existing clients, you’ll find new prospects who are interested in your products or services every month.

Consistency leads to success because it is predictable. Action A leads to result B, which in the end is your desired result.

The problem is, staying consistent can be difficult. The main reason can be summed up in one word -- distractions.

Handle distractions by following a plan.

Reacting to the events of the day will lead to greater problems.

You don’t follow up with clients faithfully; so you wonder why people only do business with you once or twice; never for the long haul.

You have no plan in place to make new sales contacts. You hope that you’ll meet someone at networking or through referrals alone. You wonder why it’s so hard to keep your sales pipeline full of qualified people.

You think mailing is a waste of time, so you don’t do it.

Any area where procrastination or doubt plagues your business is where profit is slipping out the door.

What can you do now to reverse the trend of inconsistency?

1. Get a plan together and follow it every day. Make sure it realistically reflects your available time and business goals. Simple.olgy is a big help in learning how to take a straight line approach to reach your true desires.

2. Do one small thing every day to grow your business and revenues. 90 Minute Time Manager shows you how to break overwhelming tasks into small, easy-to-manage steps.

3. Take sales seriously. The most successful companies agree that a direct sales effort is the # 1 way to generate more revenue. When you develop a winning sales process you’ll know what to do every day to grow your business.

Try the ideas mentioned this week and see what you think. You have consistency and greater revenues to gain. And stress, fear, doubt and worry to lose.

Your Personal Wisdom: The Pathway to Higher Profits

When it comes to defining competitive advantage in a sales and marketing sense one thing stands out over almost everything else.

This one factor builds credibility for the companies who demonstrate it. It gives buyers confidence when used correctly in sales situations.

That one defining advantage is something any company can leverage yet few do.

The most valuable competitive advantage you have right now is the industry specific wisdom that your company offers to its clients and prospects. That specialized knowledge adds authentic value to any sales and marketing conversation.

Your first question probably is; what is wisdom?

Wisdom is simply knowledge that has been verified through first hand experience.

When you take what you know into working situations and produce a favorable result you have gained wisdom on how to make that specific piece of knowledge work.

As you build experience more of your knowledge turns into wisdom.

So how can you use your new found wisdom in sales and marketing? All you have to do is openly share what you know.

In marketing, share your wisdom on a blog. Educate. Add value to a sales conversation before it even starts. Then use these tidbits of information when closing sales.

When you are seen as a thought leader in your niche the competition starts looking like a poor second choice when compared to you.

Create additional marketing value by leveraging your industry specific wisdom in a magalog or eBook.

When you do you can open every sales conversation with, “Can I have your permission to share a book (white paper or article) I wrote that talks about __________ (the problem you solve).”

If you have a real prospect with a problem they want to solve they will be more than happy to receive information from you.

It works the same way on the sales side.

Send a proposal and share your wisdom.

Give your prospect a perspective they did not have before. 

Just be sure to focus on the 3-things your prospect cares about most. Those 3-things are making money, saving money (reducing costs), improving efficiency/saving time.

The beauty of this is that in today’s world, you can share your wisdom a number of different ways.

You can write or you can record a video and post it on You Tube. You can even interview clients and put a short audio on your blog.

If you’re not sharing your wisdom as a sales and marketing tool you are leaving money on the table.

Build a wisdom sharing platform in your sales and marketing campaign. Your clients will appreciate you and value you more and your income will rise at the same time.

Social Media is Like a Savings Account

Is Twitter, Facebook, blogging and other social media activities really worth the time and effort?

If you’re looking for immediate sales lead generation the answer is no.

The best activity to spend your time on if you need business today is personal and direct outreach to a tight niche group of prospects.

You have to think of social media more like a savings account.

You put 10% of what you earn into the account. Over time your savings grow. A little interest accrues and you have a chunk of money down the road.

Social media works the same way.

You add an article or blog post a few times each week. Spend 5 minutes 3 or 4 times a day adding something interesting and compelling on Twitter. You add a friend or two to your Facebook profile each morning.

Over time your content footprint and online reputation grows.

You have more followers on Twitter and more friends on Facebook. They become interested in what you have to say so the pay attention. You get a strong sale lead or referral from your social media activity.

That’s how it works. So the question is, are you willing to save or not?

We’ll know by your content footprint online.

Bonus Idea:

To find your content footprint online just type in “YOUR NAME” (with quotes) in Google and see what comes up. Notice the number of hits for you name in the search results area.

What To Do With Clients Who Bug You

It’s inevitable in any small business. There will be people you take on as clients who will bug you.

Maybe it’s because they are demanding. Perhaps they have a hard time making a final decision. Or they hire you for your expertise but don’t actually follow through with the direction you provide them with.

Whatever the reason, you have to realize something very important about clients who bug you.

That realization is it’s not their fault they bug you, it’s yours.

OUCH. Harsh to hear, I know. I can hear you all the way over here in Surprise, AZ.

“Hey Bill, they bug me, they don’t do this or expect that. How is that MY fault?”

Here’s the thing I’ve learned over the past 30-years in business.

Expectations are set by the seller and not the buyer.

The buyer tells you what they need. You need to listen and fully understand. First, be sure you understand their expectation. Make sure it’s realistic and you can deliver.

Understand past challenges your client has had in advance.

Find out how decisions are made as the project progresses.

In other words, understand your client, their working style and decision making process. When you do you’ll avoid being bugged mid-project every time.

Remember, being a great vendor is up to you. It is not up to your clients.

Be the preeminent choice in your market because you care the most about client results.

Make the effort to understand how your clients like to work. Know how they make decisions at the onset of the project.

When moments arise that bug you coach them. Help them to see how they are reacting. Point them in a direction that gets the project completed, meets their expectations and helps them reach their goals.

After all, every client wants one thing. A result.

No matter what business you are in you always have to realize your true role. You are a vendor, expert in your market niche, provider of service, coach, consultant and sometimes psychotherapist.

Above it all though, you are always the person who cares the most about the results your clients achieve and the value they receive from working with you.

Sales Prospecting: What's Working Today

Sales performance expert, Connie Kadansky has a Linked In Group called Profitable Prospecting.

Today she asked the question "What is working in prospecting out there in this wacky business environment?

For me right now my Search Engine Optimization is what is working. Please share your thoughts and experiences!"

It made me think, what's been working for me?

One person said that follow up, staying in touch a number of times has helped him close new sales.

I agreed. Follow up is no longer just necessary. It's REQUIRED activity if you are going to make sales. We always have to respect the timing requirements of buyers. Follow up allows us to do that.

The thing that I've seen work really well lately is the process that has been developed for a CA company I'm doing work with.

We have been doing Teleseminars that are sponsored by someone who has the ear of the target market.

We get about a 2% Teleseminar sign up rate from an email campaign sent by the sponsor.

44% sign up for the soft step that opens the sales conversation.

56% of those people qualify for the closing step.

And 60% of those people buy.

So, I've become a fan of Teleseminars sponsored by people who have a niche audiences ear.

How Finances Can Teach You Time Management

There's a secret that people who have money know that people who struggle with money miss.

That secret is simple to do.

All it takes is to have the discipline to plan how you'll spend and keep track of your money as you spend it.

There is a useful method that can help you do that called Zero-Based Budgeting.

Plot out every dollar you'll spend next month on paper first at the beginning of the month. Include everything you'll spend money on. Then keep track of your spending and live within the budget that you set.

The secret of time management works the same way.

First realize that you don't manage time. You control it. You make the choice each month, week and day to control time or let it control you.

Now apply the Zero-Based Budgeting principle to time control.

Start the month by writing down what you want to accomplish that month.

Break it down into what you'll accomplish each week that moves each accomplishment for the month forward.

What will you do each day to accomplish the weekly outcomes you set?

Write down the task, plan an exact time you will do it, make an appointment with yourself to accomplish the task. And don't do anything else during that time.

You'll be in control of your time. Or you can keep doing what you're doing now and let time control you.

Controlling both time and money is a choice you make. You either do it or you do not do it.

What choice will you make today? Will you control or be controlled?