This can be a completely frustrating feeling. After all, it’s your business and you’ve done things in the past to boost sales, so why aren’t things working NOW?
There are lots of reasons why. But the reason I see most: Your story isn’t resonating – you’re starting to sound like everybody else. The reasons you’re giving prospects to buy aren’t as important or unique as they used to be.
After 3+ decades of working with small businesses I’m beginning to think I’ve seen all the reasons sales aren’t growing as fast as an owner knows they can be.
But there are two parts to the solution. Clearly, 1) you need to figure out why. But it isn’t a solution until 2) you’ve implemented a change and made refinements to that change AND sales start to head north again.
Even though it’s very likely I’ve dealt with your situation before, I don’t have an answer for you in my back pocket. I learned a long time ago every situation is unique. Hey, I mentor other marketing consultants. You’d think all I’d have to do is just say do what I do, right? But you’d be wrong. Because every situation is unique.
If you’re looking for someone else’s solution it’s best to go buy a book. If you’re looking for a solution to YOUR situation, keep reading.
Part One: Understanding Why Sales Aren’t Growing
I have a process that will get us to the answer. It’s a simple process – – you might even call it a painfully simple process. But that’s good news. Simple is usually better, and in this case simple means it doesn’t take a long time or cost a lot of money.
I call it a Marketing Check-Up.
This is a three-week process designed to uncover what about your marketing is working, what’s not, give you a sense of what your customers are thinking (right now!) and, from all this, create a path forward. This is not a full-blown marketing plan that looks out 12 months with multiple strategies and budget.
Instead, I create a path forward; a first step. A marketing campaign that gets you headed in the right direction.
I audio record the interviews so you can hear what I heard.
The Process
I telephone interview you and any key salespeople inside your firm. I go to school on what you know, and what you believe about why you’re different and why folks buy from you.
I telephone interview a handful of your customers. I ask them about the process they went through when they selected you, about the criteria they used and the concerns/fears/objections that were part of their decision process. This isn’t a report card on you. It’s a way to have the people I’m charged with attracting more of inform my recommendations. I audio record the interviews so you can hear what I heard.
I write a brief report that includes my recommendations and budget and present everything in a web meeting.
We keep it simple and inexpensive. Most fall in the $4,500 to $7,000 range. I can also coach you through the process if you can do the work for about half this cost. These figures do not reflect costs associated with implementation.
Part Two: Implementing the Changes
Like I said, figuring out why sales aren’t growing is one thing, and an important thing. That’s what the Check-Up accomplishes, plus, it lays out a marketing campaign designed to move you forward. Next comes implementation.
We have the ability to implement our recommendations. In the vast majority of instances clients hire us to do the things we say need to be done. We can be as large or small part of the implementation as works for you.
The reason implementation is important is simple. More than ever before, today’s marketing is a process. A process that needs measurement and refinement every step of the way. It’s a fool who tells you, for example, they can improve your website performance by making changes to a handful of pages, without also telling you there’s a good bit of work that follows to test, measure and refine your new content. That’s just the way it works.
Let’s talk about what’s happening right now with your sales. Call me at 480-948-0029 or email me.
