How to sell well and increase profit. (You may be surprised by the answers!)

These business related questions have come up in conversation in the last 24 hours and while I feel strongly that my coaching can address all of these fast, I appreciate coaching is not affordable to all, so I hope this article helps to get your sales moving upwards!

• I’m struggling to grow my business, I’ve’ got awesome products and services why is it not working?

• I’ve paid for ads on Facebook and that’s not worked and Facebook seems to be a waste of my time at the moment!

• Should I pay for PR?

• How do I get people to notice my business above everyone else’s that does the same as me?

I get questions like this all of the time and my first answer is not what many would expect.

The problem with these questions and many like them is that you are jumping in the middle. A baby does not attempt to drive a car or go to university. Obvious right?

And yet business owners so often are wanting to do quite complex and detailed marketing strategies when they’ve not built the strong foundations.

The strong foundations include these questions;

• Who are we as a company?
• What are my personal values and the company’s values?
• What are my personal and professional beliefs?
• What do we want to help people with?
• Why are we offering these products and services?

These questions all help you to focus on what your company represents and help you to build the brand. If you build a marketing strategy without fully appreciating what your brand is then you risk diluting your message, which the short answer is means you risk missing out on sales and repeat business.

By answering these questions in a ton of detail (bear in mind if I’m working with a coaching client then these questions could easily make up 1 to 2 hours session. You really need to understand these fundamentals!) you are able to really appreciate what your business is about. And that means if you can really appreciate this, then this features strongly in your marketing, communication and even your business growth actions because you are laser focused on what you want to achieve and why.

Top tip; When I work with a client, we will put one question on a piece of large paper and then I ask them a stack of coaching questions to help them really get to the very foundations of their business. This is critically important. Use coloured pens, post it notes, use mind maps, Veng graphs, Excel spread sheets.

Make it an incredibly personal journey. This means that as your company grows you can have a clear report that enables any new team member or marketing agency to get on board and sell from the same metaphorical hymn sheet as you! (One of the reasons that Marketing agencies fail to deliver for small companies is because the fundamentals have not been adequately addressed.)

When you’ve answered those questions, you’d think we can get on to the marketing strategy to bring in the sales right?

Nope! Again, people jump in the middle. If you find this is you, you may like to read The Shiny Thing Syndrome STS Article on my site. Hopefully it will make you less like a Catherine Wheel too. 2 articles I know have helped a lot of people. So let me know how you get on.

So the next step after understanding who you are and who your company is and that you know you are not going to go off in a hundred different directions and become this disjointed ineffective marketing demon. Is to understand the answers to these questions;

(Please do not dismiss any of them. I know from coaching thousands of people that to grow a business powerfully these answers come up time and time again. So don’t scrimp on your time here.)

When you answer these questions you will need to work hard to remind yourself not to become confined by comfort zones, limiting beliefs and thoughts like;

• I’d like that but I don’t know where to start.

• I’d love this but I have no tech skill.

• That would be great but I just don’t have the budget for that!

• I think that I just don’t have the time to do this, so it’s not for me is it?

The idea here is to think big picture, dream business, happy life, Disney Princess/Prince, Business Mogul, Ridiculously successful Entrepreneur. Have not one limiting thought. (You can see why you usually do this with a coach right?)

• How many hours do I want to work a week?
• How much holiday/free time/family and friend time do I want?
• How much money do I want to make?
• What life style do I want my business to create?
• Do I want to have staff?
• Do I want office (s)?
• What impact do I want to have on the world? My community? My causes?

Again as with the above questions, only put one question on one piece of paper, use a way of getting your ideas out that feels natural to you.

These questions enable you to start to see your price points and by understanding your price point you can start to understand who you are targeting and guess what? When you understand who you are actually targeting and not who you thought you wanted to (but they just wont’ spend any money, right?) then you can create a powerful marketing strategy! And get paid a decent salary to do it!

The point is that by understanding these really really really (have I stressed how important this stuff is?) important questions in minute detail then you “magically” can create a more powerful marketing strategy.

It is too much to start looking at your marketing strategy and plan in this blog article (because you may risk jumping ahead) so let me know how you get on and next;

• There’s a ton of free resources on this website and The Business Womans Network.
• I’ve a £5 a month mastermind group that is confidential (there is no upselling to be had here, it’s priced like that so it is accessible to all. And don’t let the price make you think it’s not high value. The Insiders are a power house of a team of business owners that don’t like posts for the sake of it, share genuine advice, feedback and ideas (not the likers that never buy or would like anything if they thought it would lead to a sale) and I add a ton of content and work sheets so that whatever you are facing we are able to support you to build confidence, build sales and a business you love. More info and to sign up 
• If you are ready to invest a little my courses could be ideal. Public speaking, marketing success, elevator pitches, confidence boosting, 6 week business growth and foundation course. They are between £14 and £25 so not a big investment but could be an awesome ROI (Return on Investment.)
• And if you are attending The BWN I really am happy to sit and have a chat before or after any event.

Do let me know how you get on and don’t scrimp on investing in you – you deserve to be incredibly successful. xxx