TRUE or FALSE (For Your Business): “Our marketing material inspires me.”

What happens when our Marketing Materials - the website, the flyers, the brochures, the leave-behinds - do not inspire us?

Well, think of it this way, if our own marketing material does not inspire us - moves us emotionally - what are the chances that they will inspire our prospective clients?

The faculty us humans have been given to make decisions is not intellect; it's emotion. We make buying decisions emotionally and justify them intellectually.

If our marketing materials don't inspire us, the probability that our prospects  will do business with us goes down - dramatically.

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"I am satisfied with the QUALITY of opportunities in our sales pipeline": True or False (for your business)?

There are FOUR reasons why a company's sales pipeline - a list of business opportunities waiting to be closed - does not have enough Quality of prospects in it. And there are four corresponding ways - PATHS - to fix this problem, once and for all.

FIRST PATH You are not clear about what makes an IDEAL prospect. How do we define an ideal prospect? Ask yourself the following questions: Whose problems am I solving? What kinds of business? What kinds of people? Business owners? Presidents? CFOs? CIO? VP's of Sales? How important is it for these people to solve the particular problems my business addresses? Would they have the authority to spend the money to buy my products or services? Are they the final decision makers? Who else would get involved in making the final decision?

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We always have more prospects in our "sales pipeline" than we can comfortably handle": True or False (for your business)?

There are three reasons why a company's sales pipeline - a list of business opportunities waiting to be closed - does not have enough quantity of prospects in it. And there are three corresponding ways to fix this problem, once and for all.

FIRST PATH Your MESSAGE to your market does not have a strong enough "What's In It For Me?" component. A crucial component of attracting a large quality of prospects to your business is your MESSAGE. A very important part of this message is a blunt, no-nonsense SOLUTION statement to a problem that they are struggling with. Example: A busy executive who is conscious of his dirty shoes hurrying to catch a flight to an important business meeting reads these words at the airport: "Two- minute Shoeshine." Would the message get his attention? How many more executives like him would the shoe-shine shop attract? What's your blunt, no- nonsense WIIFM (What's In It For Me) message for your market? Is it attracting a sufficiently large quantity of prospects? What KINDS of prospects does attract? Follow the link "Want to Jump Start Your Sales? STOP Marketing!" for more on why and how to craft such a message.

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We EXCEED our sales and revenue expectations every month, month after month: True or False (for your business)?

If you think about it, there are only five reasons why you would not be exceeding your sales goals consistently and five corresponding ways - or PATHS -to make sure that you do.

FIRST PATH You don't have the RIGHT prospects in your "sales pipeline." The key component of attracting the RIGHT kinds of prospects to our business is your MESSAGE. This is a "blind spot" that trips even the savviest of businesses. The right message will attract the right kind of prospects. The WRONG message will attract the WRONG kinds of prospects - who will waste your time, your energy and your efforts. The most fundamental of all the messages is a 10-word slogan or a 10-second commercial. Is your 10-second commercial or a 10-word slogan targeting your ideal prospect? I have written tons of stuff on how to create your business' core message. Follow the QuickLink "Want to Jump Start Your Business? STOP Marketing" on the right hand side bar for more.

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Biggest Stumbling Block You Face to Your Success - You!

Achieving dramatically higher sales and profits is really very simple: that has been the message of this series of articles. We learned that we could multiply our sales results, without having to change our selling style or your marketing activities. All we have to do is get clear about three things: 1) what business we are in, 2) what our prospects and customers get by doing business with us in specific, direct terms that they can relate with and 3) what makes us unique that is hard to duplicate for others.

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