5 Things You Need To Change Today That Will Ignite Your Business

Try Something New!

So I did something today that I have never done and it was INCREDIBLY SUCCESSFUL! I signed up for a texting service that gets people on my email list (and I have their text contact as well). I mentioned it during a speech and offered the audience a FREE PREMIUM worth $ 97 if they would text 444999 and send the message B2bacon. Out of a room of 45 people, I had 32 people send me their information. That’s over a 70% sign up rate. In the past, when I passed around an email signup sheet, I was overjoyed if I saw a 50% sign up rate. You have to keep trying new things to grow your business!

Let’s face it; everybody wants to grow their business, right? I mean, if you’ve got too much business, then send some our way, because we could all use it. One of the things I want to talk about today is the difference between principles and tactics and a lot of people dabble in tactics. An example of tactics is ‘let’s try some Facebook ads.’ Does it work? Maybe. Another is ‘let’s try advertising on Google.’ Does that work? Maybe. Maybe you try webinars and seminars and maybe some other things. The key thing is that it can all work, but you need some core principles to start with that will help you grow your business.

I’m going to talk about five things that you need to change today that will ignite your business.

Spend $ 1 Make $ 2

Number one is the basic principle of spend a dollar, make two. It sounds pretty simple, you spend a dollar and you make two. I always like to say that marketing is comprised of two things. First, it needs to be an investment in your business not an expense. Secondly, it’s a participation sport that I will talk about a little bit later. Spend a dollar and make two, it sounds like a crazy simple principle, right, but not everybody adheres to it. Sometimes they just start down a path and everything gets out of control.

Now, I’ll give you an example. I’ve got two different customers, one of which spends $ 5,000 per month on Google and the other one spends $ 12,000 per month on Google. Which one do you think is more successful? Well the one that spends $ 5,000 per month on Google has the potential with one project to make $ 50 to $ 150,000, so talk about spending a dollar and making two, it’s a little bit more than that. The other company spends $ 12,000 a month on Google, but after we looked at more closely, we found out that they were making maybe $ 2,500 to $ 5,000 on that. Why? Because they weren’t measuring what they were doing.

Know Your Numbers

Which brings me to principle number two and that is, know your numbers. Now, what I mean by know your numbers is you wouldn’t dare run a business without having some kind of accounting system, right? I’m a Quick Books junkie. I love looking at my numbers. If something’s not making me money, I will stop it. I’m not going to promote it; I’m not going to invest any more in it. One of the problems with that person who is spending the $ 12,000 is they were not checking out their Google Analytics to see if it was driving traffic to their website and if so, what kind of traffic was it driving? They weren’t measuring whether that traffic was actually converting into sales.

You’ve got to understand your numbers from a business perspective and Google Analytics is one of the best ways to do that for your website, but also you’ve got to have your accounting system set up and review it often. Now I know a lot of companies that actually never check their books. They just send it off to their accountant and they’re not really paying attention to it. On the other side of the fence, I know a lot of companies. I’ve taught them how to read Google Analytics. How often do they check it? If they checked it once a month I’d be happy but more often than not, they just forget and don’t check it at all.

They’re not measuring what’s happening with their marketing, with their business and how they’re driving traffic to their website, where people are entering and exiting and what kind of effect everything that they’re doing is having on driving traffic to their website and creating relationships.

We Are All In The Relationship Business

Now, that brings me to point number three. We are all in the relationship building business. I don’t care whether you’re selling products or services; you are creating relationships with your audience and with your customers. One of the things you have to keep in mind is how to generate really great relationships. Coke knows how to build a brand. Comcast knows how to build a brand. One of the things they try to market is we understand you and we care about you.

One of my favorite quotes is, nobody cares about how much you know, until they know how much you care. The key is you need to be able to care about people. They want to feel like you have their best interests in mind. If you’re going to drive people to your lists and to social media, you need to interact with them on a regular basis. That means you have to be human.

You have to be willing to answer their questions, maybe wish them happy birthday. Do something that says that you’re more than just somebody out there pumping out stuff to sell your crap. What you need to do is develop relationships with your audience that includes your past customers, your current customers and your potential customers.

Follow-Up and Follow Through!

That brings me to point number four and that is, follow-up and follow through. When you create a relationship with somebody, it doesn’t matter whether they’ve called you and asked for something and maybe they didn’t make a decision at the time, or maybe they even said no.

It still pays to follow up and say hey, thanks for connecting with me. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do. As a matter of fact, I had a call from somebody who contacted me after a webinar and said hey, I want to learn more about your Bacon System and I want to see if maybe you could help our company grow with it. I went as far as to set them up, gave them a free trial and let their marketing person play with it. I kept following up and following up and following up and finally he called back today. He said I love what you’re doing, but we’re not in need of this right now, so I’m just going to let it go. That went into my voicemail.

What did I do? I picked up the phone and I followed up and I followed through and I said, thank you very much for the phone call. I understand that you’re not ready for this right now, but if something changes, let me know. But more importantly, if you know somebody else who could possibly benefit from the things you’ve learned in the time I’ve spent with you, then please forward their contact information to me and let me be a resource for your friends. That, my friends, is referrals. You may not get the sale, but you might just get a referral because you acted human. You created that relationship, you built that relationship and you followed through on that relationship. In social media, in your email marketing, do everything that you can to help grow that relationship.

Give Your Best Information Away For Free

Number five, one of the best ways to grow a relationship is to teach people something. In other words, give people great information and give them your best information. Many people are afraid of throwing away their baby with the bathwater. Giving away their best stuff, but you know what? Most people cannot execute everything, especially if you’re just giving them nuggets that will help change their lives. One of the most important things that I’ve learned from my teachers, my mentors and my coaches is to give away your best stuff.

By doing that, you’re going to let people know that you’re a cut above the other people who are just out there selling their crap. Make sure that you’re doing everything that you can to help current and potential customers and even people that call you up to say, we don’t need you right now. You need to do everything you can to help make them successful. Don’t just promote, make sure that you’re doing something that is going to propel the relationship and propel your customers.

Let me go over those five things again. Number one, spend a dollar to make two. Make sure everything that you’re doing has a return on your investment, that there’s a value in it. Number two is knowing your numbers. Put it in your calendar to check your Google Analytics and your accounting system weekly to know what’s happening in your business. Number three, we’re all in the relationship business, so make sure you invest in others and give them your time, your attention and more importantly, give them something of value. Number four is follow-up and follow through. Connect with them. Number five is if you value people and provide them value, they’ll return the favor by valuing you and your business.

Final Thoughts

I used all 5 of those principles in my speech. I was paid to give the speech and then sold my books. I spent hours prepping, but made at least double my investment. I know the numbers … the more people I can get into the room, the more I can become successful. Using the presentation and the text to email app builds relationships that I can continue conversations with. My email program will do the follow-up and I followed through by delivering the bonus I promised. Finally, I spent 3 hours educating people with my best stuff. People paid $ 20 each to attend, but I had more than one person come up and say, “I have paid $ 200 for presentations and received much less content.” Under promise and over deliver and you will always exceed expectations!

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments and maybe some other limiting beliefs you have overcome!

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