3 Excellent Tactics Proven To Kill Any Business Fast. (#2 Is Spreading With Epidemic Speed!)
Tricky question: What’s as valuable as knowing what works to grow your business?
Answer: Knowing what doesn’t, so you can avoid it like a plague!
That’s what I will share with you today. Three pesky, business-killing little buggers that run rampant in nearly every business. Let’s get to it.
Warning: I was feeling extra zingy today so this blog post definitely follows my PET formula. If you love it – great. If you hate it – that’s cool, too. If you have no pulse – leave!
1. Spray and Pray.
Symptoms: Frustration, complete inability to generate leads, months (more like years) of struggle to get the business off the ground, and insanely expensive advertising that never generates any results.
If everyone is your prospect than surely no one will be your client!
This problem afflicts those who refuse doing any market research, make their marketing decisions based on assumptions and perceive anyone with a spine who can fog up a mirror as their ideal prospective customer.
Solution: Identify WHO your ideal customers are and study them until you know more about them than they do.
2. Hop and Drop. (a.k.a. Bright Shiny Object Syndrome)
Symptoms: Deeply rooted cynicism that nothing works (you know “for sure” because you’ve tried it all already!) and mistaken assumption that marketing your business is too expensive and you can’t afford it.
Oh, did I mention massive frustration?
If we approached walking and talking the same way most business owners go about making marketing strategies work, none of us would be a walker or a talker; we’d all still be crawling on all fours and trying to communicate by making in-articulate, single-syllable sounds!
Because we’d give up after just one unsuccessful attempt.
Solution: F.O.C.U.S. – Follow One Course (of action – a.k.a. strategy) Until Successful!
3. Show Up and Throw Up.
Symptoms: Long-winded sales meetings that result in prospects entering witness protection programs just to avoid ever running into you again! Empty bank account.
Even if you’ve been blessed with a gift of gab, a sales conversation is not a place to showcase it!
Potential clients don’t want to hear everything there’s to know about you, your service or product, and how you struggled in kindergarten, but graduated first in your class from Harvard.
Instead, your prospects want just one thing. To be heard!
Solution: Get curious. Ask better questions. Shut up and listen. Oh, and learn basic sales skills!
Coincidentally, you can learn how to SYSTEMATICALLY solve  problem #1 and #3 at the next Revenue RevUp Live. I leave solving problem #2 to your mother and your significant other – surely they’ve mastered the art of nagging. ;)
Since you’ve read this far, I’ll give you a bonus – one more amazing business killing tactic…
4. Expecting Miracles.
Symptoms: Thinking that it makes sense to wait to start learning better marketing and sales skills UNTIL AFTER you attract more new clients and generate more revenue. [Wait… WHAT? Exactly! I’m very puzzled by this!]
Waiting until your business grows to invest in learning marketing is like staring at an empty glass and willing it to fill itself with orange juice; it ain’t gonna happen! It makes zero sense, yet it’s probably one of the most frequently used excuses made by budding entrepreneurs and new business owners.
Stop staring at an empty glass, waiting for it to fill itself with orange juice. Learn to market your business!
Stop staring at an empty glass, waiting for it to fill itself with orange juice. Learn to market your business!
If you’re seriously want to grow your business invest some time, attention, efforts and money into learning how to be a better marketer, entrepreneur and a leader of your business instead of just working on being a better technician. There’s no lack of options to help you with that. And I’d humbly suggest my Revenue RevUp Live as one solid choice that’s right in front of you. Bottom line – stop waiting for things to change and start changing the things you can.
I’d Love To Hear From You…
- What other big mistakes have you made in your business?
- What big, costly mistakes do you see others make a lot?
Comment below and let me know…
Great points, Adam. After being self-employed for almost 14 years now, there is one thing I know for sure – lasting business success is built upon great service and mastering the fundamentals of sales and marketing. End of story. :)
Amen! ;)
I took your advice, I’m learning sales. And anyone who doesn’t have your Attract Clients Like Crazy program is crazy. It’s one of the best, if not the best programs on the market about marketing. And you make a good point about the research. You have to know as much as you can about the people you are selling to in order to both speak their language and touch their pain points.
Who can argue with your three proven killers Adam!
I’d bet #’s 1-3, have done in more than their fair share! LOL!
And while they definitely sound fairly simplistic, the havoc they consistently wreak, are anything but! Thanks!
And man, you can never ever do enough worthwhile market research, now can you?