What’s next for you?
The problem isn’t a lack of ideas, it’s too many. Which to choose and how to implement?
Together, we can figure this out.
Uncertainty around what to do next costs you time — it keeps you from taking that next step.
You’ve grown to this point by doing what you know how to do; what’s worked. What’s worked is you doing it yourself and now it’s becoming pretty clear that won’t grow things to the next level, will it.
That’s what brought you here, right? Even though you know more about your business than I ever will, I can help you decide what to do next and make your next step easier and more effective.
Hire me to be your Virtual Director of What’s Next. I’ve been a small business marketing consultant for 30+ years. I’ve helped literally hundreds of small businesses take the step you face right now.
Like the remodeling contractor that came to me wanting to advertise a product they have finally received a patent on. I helped them start a marketing campaign, but not about their patented product. That was more than 20 years ago. We’re still working together today. Or like the partners of a consumer law firm who had been struggling for almost two years with the idea of making a major shift in their advertising. It was a big shift and it just felt too risky for them. I got them unstuck and moving forward with their idea, finally. And the idea we moved on was about a mile past their original thinking. And almost got me fired until cases increased 60%.
I’ve boiled down the parts of taking that next step — changing your marketing — to its few, critical parts. Get these things right and people respond.
It may sound simple, but make no mistake, it isn’t easy. There’s a lot standing between you and where you know you can be. Wrong turns, ideas that sound good and that smart people tell you will work, struggling to know what next step to take, and as so often happens, hit-and-miss implementation.
Implement better — maybe different. Owners can make a lot of mistakes implementing, from hiring the wrong creatives and paying too much to not tracking results. Not to mention quitting too soon on an idea (not everything about an idea that fails, fails). These things won’t happen. I won’t let them.
Implementing, tracking, refining (fixing the things that don’t work, keeping the ones that do) in small steps, and doing it well, is more important than the idea. It’s what we’ll do. If you don’t have the people to implement the idea I can assemble a team.
Plus we’ll start implementing early. Planning is fine, and we won’t skip this step, but going live with an idea, quickly, putting it in front of live prospects, quickly, reveals the next step far better than any plan.
This may be different for you, but in this digital world, it’s the fastest, least expensive path from where you are now to a marketing campaign that succeeds.
Like the client who proudly announced that direct mail doesn’t work. After asking for details it was obvious they made a handful of obvious mistakes; but not so obvious if you haven’t sent a lot of mail and email. We fixed things and dropped another mailing that generated more new customers in three months than the company had attracted in the last three years. And gave the owner diarrhea for two days. But in a good way.
Filling in the blind spots. It is what it sounds like it is. You have blind spots. I can fill them in.
You don’t know how many times I hear, “Oh, we tried email before and it doesn’t work.” Or Google Ads or direct mail or banner ads or whatever you’ve tried that didn’t work. The reality is: the way you tried it didn’t work. Practically any assumption you make, from why people buy to what does and doesn’t work in your industry is a potential blind spot. I don’t have those. I won’t let them limit our possibilities or slow us down.
An entrepreneur bought a custom door manufacturer and wanted my help to grow it. The previous owner had basically one message and that was quality. Quality, quality, quality. I discovered a blind spot: that while quality will get you to the dance, it won’t get you danced with. Reliable delivery appeared to be a key buying motivator, which was missing in their message. (By code, exterior doors must all be installed before certain work can begin inside the home.) After we added a reliable delivery guarantee to his message, sales started to takeoff.
We’ll take small, measured steps. We’ll test, refine, measure, rinse and repeat.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Glad you asked. The real answer is we do what needs doing. Typically, though, it looks like this:
We’ll meet twice a month in a Google Meet meeting. More planning and brainstorming early in the relationship, moving into fine-tuning current projects and assessing new ones as time goes on. In between, we communicate via your favorite collaboration platform.
This may feel less concrete than you prefer (i.e., I’ll do X, Y, Z and 1, 2, and 3 each week), but I leave it open and flexible because, as I just said, we do what needs doing, we start where you are.
My best advice is if something I’ve said strikes a chord, call me, let’s talk. This is my cell, 602-369-1009, if it’s during regular hours, MST, I may answer. If we both are comfortable, let’s just start. The fee is is based on an estimate of the time required. It can range from $1,750-$4,000 per month, paid via credit card and billed the first of each 30-day period worked. Either party can cancel at any time.
So here we are, you and me…
I’m sure you have a million questions. At least, I hope you do. And I’d love to hear more about where you are and where you want to go. You can call 602-369-1009, email me or complete the form. Or move on to the next website. But do something, right now, while you’re thinking about it, before something else interrupts. Thanks for your time.
