How to grow my small business?

Hi All

There has been one question that has been haunting me over the last couple of weeks… am I a “plumber with a leaky tap?” – and no… I am not actually a plumber – but the CEO of a marketing and advertising agency in Melbourne, Nexus CG.

do I let it continue to “leak” or should I do something about it?!

You see… what has prompted this question is a little bit of “self evaluation” – I am 31 years old… and am I where I thought I would be 3 and a half years ago when I started this business with my business partner… and mother… Sheila?

In order to answer this question I have to take you back to those days and what was happening, what is happening now – and try to figure out – have I reached my goals – or do I know theoretically what I “should” be doing and just not “getting around to it” – or is there a deeper problem?

Why am I doing this in a blog that is open for speculation, criticism and even cynicism? Simple… it is how I started this business – open and honest to the public in order to hold myself accountable – plain and simple – and if anyone can learn from my challenges then even better.

So what has led me to the “self evaluation”?

Well I have just come out of hospital for the same operation that I had 3 and a half years ago – that prompted me to start this business.  I wanted a fresh start – to be able to build something for myself and my family that we can have an element of freedom of choice and the ability to leave a legacy.  In order to do that I needed to rid myself of some very toxic things in my life…

• an ex-boyfriend, that I probably should never have been with in the first place
• living in Canberra in a role that I probably should never have accepted in the first place
• some friends that just wanted to go out and get drunk… who I probably should never have fallen in with in the first place
• A work situation - which I probably shouldn’t have let get as far as I did….. in the first place.

…. seeing a pattern here?  I was making some very bad decisions based on some very bad reasoning… I was unhappy.  It was time to create a life that made me innately happy being me.

So I did… the creation of “Nexus Coaching Group” – as it was known then was created – whilst lying in that hospital bed over three and a half years ago.  So no wonder I was starting to “evaluate” matters whilst lying in that very same bed for the very same operation all these years later…. here is what I have discovered so far:

• my love life is the best it has EVER been.  I have met the love of my life and I am “different” with him – I am kind, I am warm, I am open… and most importantly – I have found “that bliss” that people talked about, that I never understood.  It wasn’t always this way – we have had to work hard at our relationship, but everything we do we do as a team, and I am excited about what this team can and will create.  Mushy I know! (but notice… I am not apologising for it… more change)
• I am not living in Canberra… I am living in Melbourne.  Up until this operation I was living with the best gal pal ever… Kim… in Elwood – but since then we have both decided to move out.  She has moved in with her boyfriend who she met one week later than I met mine… after going online dating together – weird huh? I am living with mum, until mine and Krish’s place is ready to move into… exciting!
• friends…. hmmm… ok, not nailing this one so far… but working on it… will shed more light shortly.
• I love my work! BUT…. it isn’t growing in the fashion I thought it would.  Surprise, surprise… all of the “formulas” that I have followed have only gotten me so far…. herein, lies my challenge!

So the two things that are not working “as well as I would like” is the “friends” component and the growth of Nexus.  Maybe I can look at them both in the same light.

In one particular friendship I have… I am trying really hard.  I am doing everything a friend should do… I am texting, I am calling, I am Facebooking… and I am constantly getting the same responses… nothing, or one word short replies. As hurtful as this is, I thought… come on Naomi… make this work – don’t give up…. so I continued – I was doing the same thing over an over again and hoping for a new outcome?! definition of insanity right there. I then looked at one of my other friendships… Kim… we are always there for each other, there is no drama, we miss each other, and we genuinely want to hang out… but I don’t feel that I need to follow “certain rules” to have this friendship… it is easy and successful – I just went about it in my own unique way.

So how can this help the growth of Nexus?  Well no surprise here, but when I got into business I bought very heavily into “modelling others’ success” and I have to admit – it got me further than the average business starter…. but not as far as I want it to go.  So I kept doing the same thing over and over again – hoping and believing all would change… that was what the “formula” said… but it wasn’t… it’s NOT working.  I am working with the same sort of customers time and time again… but we want more… we want that freedom that we once dreamt about – and in order to achieve this I believe we need to look into a new pool of customers, look at a new way of doing things… and ultimately looking BIGGER at the things that we are doing.

I was told about a conversation recently about a new business starter that was speaking to a friend of mine… she told him that she has started a new business and instead of handing out business cards, she is going to hand out her own book.  Great! I thought… this is the start of a very well known formula…. when my friend asked this business starter to give him a 30 sec run down of why her business was better than others (as he doesn’t have time to read the book), she walked away… the formula is floored, as are so many others….

So… no more formulas for me… I am going to work with my business partner in a whole new way – we are going to look BIGGER than ever before, and there are going to be some massive changes, and some risks that we are going to go through together… that’s my promise to myself, my business partner and our employees… I am ditching the formulas that are holding us back and I am going to create our own unique way…

As for my friend… who knows… but that formula of doing all of the work is now ending as well.  It breaks my heart that this could be the end of “a beautiful friendship” that I held so dear to my heart – but I cannot and will not flog a dead horse for any longer… that’s my promise to me!

let’s hope this is the case….

I am not sure if this blog is going to be of any use to anyone…. but I hope it is… self evaluation will stop me being the plumber with a leaky tap – and ensure I know how to grow this small business… our way!

Cheers

N

 

 

Marketing and advertising agencies love internships, but are they a complete wrought?

Marketing and advertising agencies love internships, but are they a complete wrought?.

Marketing and advertising agencies love internships, but are they a complete rort?

Afternoon gang…

I hope you are all well – getting ready for the lead up to Christmas and enjoying the party season… I certainly am

This time of year is also big for another reason. It is the time when new creatives are graduating from uni, or simply finishing up for the year and looking for some real life, hands on experience in the marketing and advertising industry… so they go out and search for internships.

Graduates keen for an internship… do they know what they are getting in to?

Internships are a great way for these new, fresh and excited minds to gain some much needed experience (if the program is run well), and it also allows them to get their foot in the door at some really great companies. Well that’s how the internships are sold to these young minds anyway…

In reality, most companies are using and abusing young interns for free labour, and the labour that they are doing won’t even be considered as real work experience to help them get a role in the future. Why? Because they spend their time making coffee, stuffing envelopes and running errands.

Don’t get me wrong, everyone needs to do these sorts of activities once in a while (they’re character building and all that jazz) but I don’t think it’s appropriate for an intern to do them. Why? Simple. Here in Australia we are currently experiencing a massive skills shortage and on top of that there are very few roles available in this industry. This means that only highly skilled people are getting the roles and these newly educated people are missing out due to “a lack of experience”. So isn’t it our duty as leaders in this industry to skill these people up and get them job ready? And not just use them as dogs bodies?!

I believe that there is so much talent out there going to waste. They are being put up on the shelf due to a lack of experience, but what people fail to recognise is that these are the people that are going to shape the future of this industry. They are the ones that are going to come up with the innovative ideas. They are going to keep our legacy going and take it to new lofty heights… but they won’t reach their full potential and industry standards here in Australia unless they are given the room to learn, work and develop.

Personally, I am so passionate about the internship program at Nexus CG- we have had graphic design interns, multimedia interns and marketing interns. Out of the recent eight internships we have offered, we have awarded five of them a role so far. That is because they never once made coffee, they never once stuffed envelopes (unless it was a marketing campaign) and never once were treated like dog bodies. I personally spend as much time with each of them as I possibly can, to mentor them and to ensure they are constantly learning. We train them to work in an agency – and preferably our own.

Over the last six months our interns have:

• created cartoons;
• written marketing strategies;
• developed launches for brands and businesses;
• built websites;
• designed building signage;
• created brochures for the likes of large multinational organisations;
• and have been fully integrated into the Nexus family.

We even run competitions that allow the interns to win some great prizes, and also give them an opportunity to showcase their work at the end of their internship. Our internships promote learning, real life experience and a sense of working in the real world. Without the internship program I am happy to say that Nexus would not be where we are today.

So folks… to put it bluntly, stop the free labour and treating your interns like crap! Give them some credit, trust them a little and they might just surprise you. You might discover the next leader in this industry – and you might even help this industry reach its full potential.

Say “NO” to douche-bag internships!

Cheers

N

Teleworking and creatives… do they mix?

Afternoon All.

It looks very appealing, but is “teleworking” really workable?

Is ‘teleworking’ the way of the world going forward? The lonely figure sitting in a cafe working remotely from her team, her office, her collaborative influence?

That’s what the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, is after.  She recently announced that she will commit 12% of Australian Public Servants to a teleworking arrangement… what does this mean?  They will basically have the flexibility of working remotely, from their homes, their favourite cafes, from the Great Ocean Road…. basically wherever they want.

The cynic inside me wonders is there a hidden agenda here for the Gillard Government, is it to justify the enormous cost of the NBN to the tax payers by giving them a new “shiny thing” and new “buzz word” to focus on?  ”Working from home”, as we all know it, is nothing new. Large and small companies alike have been doing it for years… so why the new name and the new focus on TELEWORKING?  I would hate to assume the worst but it is hard to ignore.

Teleworking has worked really well in a lot of organisations. In fact, I am doing it right now whilst writing this blog.  I am sitting in my local cafe sipping on lattes and getting my creative juices flowing.  But will this always work?

In the industry that Nexus CG and myself belongs to, Marketing and Advertising, it’s all about being creative. And whilst I can be creative by myself sitting in a cafe writing a blog, if I was to develop a new marketing launch for a new product for example, would I really do as good a job by myself as I would with my esteemed work mates?  I doubt it.

You see what I’ve noticed about running a team of creatives is that they quite literally feed off each other.  They get more and more creative based on the people, the environment, the mood, the activity and the conversation around them.  They will always create something quite magical with their teammates in comparison to creating something on their own.  So for Nexus CG, I can’t see teleworking being a workable system for the majority of time.

This isn’t to say I wouldn’t be open to it. On some occasions I totally get the need to get away from the office to get a whole load of work completed. I do that every Wednesday; it means an uninterrupted day of work. But can I trust my staff to do the same thing?  Absolutely.  For me, teleworking can only work if you trust your staff - and if you don’t need that collaboration time.

What a lot of people seem to forget is that most businesses are started from home, or “the coffice” (cafe office)- and Nexus CG was no different. I started it from my mother’s house and it was a great way to keep costs low.  One thing that many people don’t realise is that you can become very lonely working by yourself. And that loneliness is almost catastrophic to the creative juices because you start focusing on the loneliness and not the creativity.

So maybe teleworking is for some industries and not others…. maybe teleworking is for some people and not others… and maybe we as employers need to look at each person’s situation individually and create a teleworking policy for them… not the company.

For me I would need to work through many considerations in order to either agree or disagree to the individual teleworking policy. These are:

• How much work experience does the individual have? The less experience the more likely they are to feel lost in a teleworking scenario.
• What kind of work is the employee doing?  Do they need to be around peers to do the best job possible?
• Insurance, where will they be working and will I need to “sight the premises” in order for my insurance company not to “crack the sads”?
• What are the implications of taking customer’s IP out of the office? Will our customers be ok with this?
• Will our customers see this teleworking policy as almost like “outsourcing overseas” and therefore lose that element of control and human interaction?  The whole notion of outsourcing their marketing is challenging enough for most of our customers.
• What kind of person is the employee? Do they create better work surrounded by a team and in a positive environment?
• What kind of environment will they be working in and is it “workable”? For example, a busy pub in Richmond is probably not ideal to hold customer teleconferences re their branding.
• There is obviously a massive cost saving for teleworking but is the money a good enough reason to potentially sacrifice the quality of work through creative collaboration?  I think not.

Thank you Julia Gillard for the “Shiny new buzz word” and thank you for trying to deflect from the real issue of the cost of the NBN. However for me and for Nexus CG, we will work on an individual teleworking policy… and not offer a blanket “12% of workers will be teleworking” because of that 12% who knows if it will actually be the making or breaking of their careers?

I care about my staff and their development too much to just simply add a metric to their careers in order to hide an agenda… surely we should be focusing on developing these people for sustainable growth in a workforce that is seriously struggling with skill shortages.  How will these people learn from experienced peers I ask?

Here are a couple of pics of Team Nexus CG. I would hate to lose this kind of collaboration and integration:

Would love your opinion on this one….

Cheers

N

Small Business and Marketing

HI All

“If people don’t know you are in business… how can you expect to STAY in business?”

Little ole me

I am sitting in my office having an amazing realisation today… you see 3 years ago I started Nexus CG with the help of my Co-Director Sheila – and up until about 18 months ago, I worked out of Sheila’s house, never drew a wage and we were quite literally doing everything from stuffing envelopes, to finding new business and creating operations manuals…and everything in between.

However, today, we both sit on the second storey of our beautiful office, and we can hear the creative discussions going on downstairs between our staff members – today we have 5 others in – and they are creating some magical stuff.  So it is really a great opportunity for us to sit back and take stock of what we have achieved in such a short time.

It, obviously, hasn’t all been tea and biscuits… or champers and nachos… it has been 3 years of working out what works and what doesn’t work- and being flexible and honest enough with ourselves to make the necessary changes in order to be successful.

This isn’t the same story for a lot of my contemporaries.. did you know that there are 100,000 new businesses in Australia every year, and of that 100,000 80% of them won’t survive.  I could almost put money on the fact that those 80% of failed businesses never had or implemented a:

• Business plan
• Sales Strategy
• Marketing strategy
• Marketing calendar of activities

… and they simply lay all of their hopes, dreams, wishes and money on the belief that ‘If I build it, then they will come”.  I would like to say one thing to this attitude…”Grow the f*** up!”  Why should people help you in your business, if you are not willing to put in the effort to help yourself?

Marketing and sales are not the easiest of activities… granted… but you have to do it in order to stay in business – no matter if you are an online business, a coach, a printing company or even a football club… no matter what you do, or who you are marketing and selling needs to be core of what you do until you reach a point where you can hire people to do this.  Another thing I would like to add… a couple of facebook status updates, does not a marketing strategy make!

So folks – try something different, stand out from the crowd of new businesses out there – don’t be one of the 80% who fail simply because you can’t be bothered to create some marketing – or get advice as to how to go about it.

We don’t get it right all of the time… but we are always trying new things to be different… here is just one of the things that we are implementing to “get noticed” by some new people…

So go on… give it a go… after all:

“If people don’t know you are in business… how can you expect to STAY in business?”

Cheers

N

Has Google Made Us Arrogant In Business?

Afternoon All…

I am not sure if you are all aware, but some of the staff and clients from Nexus CG, my housemate Kim, and I are training for this year’s Run Melbourne Marathon… I am specifically running the half marathon – which is a bit of a challenging slog I can tell you!

Anyway – this challenge has me up and running about 3 times a week, and this morning was no different. I got up, got dressed and started my run. About 3kms into the run I started to notice a little niggle in my right calf muscle, but as I have loads of problems with my legs, I chose to ignore it – as “it will go away”… but it didn’t – in fact, I had to suddenly stop as I was in agony! I thought.. “oh crap – what do I do now? I know… I remember a search on Google recently told me to RICE – Rest Ice Compress and Elevate – that’s what i will do” – Google, and therefore I, know everything.

As the day has gone on – my predicament has got me thinking.. what has created this arrogance that I believe that I can self diagnose through a search engine rather than go and see a doctor and get a team of experts around me to aid me in my plight to be better by the weekend so I don’t miss any runs? This got me thinking even further….

This is what I see business owners do all of the time. Now I am still a new business owner, only 3 years young, but there is something that really bothers me… When someone suddenly becomes a business owner, it’s like they become an overnight expert in ALL things business. They are suddenly a marketing expert, a sales god, a CPA or even an IT wizz – they believe that because they have downloaded a few special reports or YouTube clips that they know how to do all of these aspects of business better than the “real experts”.

Now this is the part that confuses me… suddenly they realise that their “calf muscle” isn’t getting better as quickly as they thought, or their business isn’t generating as much revenue as quickly as they thought so they finally go and see a doctor.. or a “real expert”, but when they sit with that expert they start to tell them what’s what, and what they are not prepared to do and what they are to prepared to spend.

Reality is that in Australia there are over 100,000 new business each year, and of those 80% of them won’t last five years. The businesses that don’t survive fail for many reasons – one of them is not surrounding themselves with a support crew of experts that know their SME better than the business owner does. Being successful in business doesn’t have to be lonely – it can mean bringing in people who do it better than you do, that are smarter than you… and who understand elements of business better than you do.

How do stand out from the crowd of 100,000 new businesses every year – you try something different, you protect your investment dollars by spending money on the support crew that will create a return for you – one thing I say to my customers all of the time is “just because you build it, doesn’t mean they will come” – so creating a reason why they should come is important – and Google will only get you so far.

So gang… Google needs to be your back up – your disaster plan, not the support crew that is going to get you and your business raking in the cash, seen by thousands of potential customers, or the clever little bugger that will maximise your tax return. If you have already spent thousands of dollars starting up your business – don’t you think that you should find that little bit extra cask to secure your return – and not base your success on the whim of a search engine?

Oh… and one final thing… it’s all well and good going to the doctor, but listening to them and taking their advice is a whole new ball game. This is the same thing for when you start to pull together your support crew… listen to them, hear what they are saying, and most importantly… take their advice – they have done more than watched a YouTube clip or two ..

This approach may just make you turn from:

 

 

 

 

Into……………………………….

 

 

 

 

Just saying

Cheers

Naomi

Scrambled eggs with no toast is like marketing with no selling!

 

Morning All…

As I went for my morning walk with my housemate Kim this morning… we were talking about a whole array of tough political, game changing, worldly topics.  One of the topics was “scrambled eggs should never be served sans toast”... come on it was 6am after all! What did you expect?

Our theory on scrambled eggs with no toast is that it may do what it needs to do initially, but with out a doubt an hour and a half later you are absolutely ravenous again… at which point we gorge on food that possibly isn’t the best for us… see pic!

So by simply adding a slice (or two) of toast with our morning scrambled eggs… we can go through to lunch and not feel the need to binge on high sugar, high fat yet delicious and scrumptious snacks… At this point I felt the need to take it that step further and compare it to marketing without selling….

You see, I come across so many well meaning, enthusiastic business leaders and owners who are determined to get their bodies (I mean businesses) into shape through marketing… and unfortunately I am seeing that they are starting to gorge themselves silly on non effective, pricey, and unproved marketing activities instead of simply adding a “sales” activity.

Like scrambled eggs and toast… marketing and sales should never be separated – they should and need to start working together if your ROMI (return on marketing investment) is truly going to be seen.  If you are going to create a brochure… great… and whats the objective for that brochure and how is it going to make you money?  Create an online campaign… great…. what are you going to do in the follow up sales activities that is going to give you a return that you never thought possible.  Do a letter drop… ooh wait…. never do a letter drop – period!

So how can you add a simple equation of selling to your marketing?  All you need to do is everytime you create a marketing activity ask yourself these questions:

1. After the marketing activity is complete… now what? (TIP: the answer is NEVER another marketing activity)
2. Has my marketing activity driven any revenue?…. if the answer is NO – then you have yet to sell!
3. Have you earned the right?  What I mean by this is that sure you have done a great marketing activity… have you in fact managed to build great rapport with your customer to the point where they are begging to buy from you – and you don’t need to ask?  If not… INSERT SALES ACTIVITY.

So don’t be stingy on the toast… yes you will get some short term benefits – try to start thinking of the long term gain though, and that does not include spending copious amounts of money on sugary, fatty marketing delights!

Would love to hear your thoughts…

Cheers
N

Young Female Professionals Entering The Lion’s Den

Afternoon All

Today’s blog is by special request… from my wonderful right hand gal, Christie.  It was sparked by a meeting we had yesterday where we, Team Nexus, were facilitating a board room meeting with a high performing sales team.  When I asked her why she has requested this specific blog she replied with “when walking into a boardroom of men who are experienced in both age and career, it is almost like walking into a lion’s den – and I am not sure how to handle it – but you seem to do it with ease…. so I want to know the secret and I’m sure others do as well”.

I have to admit – when I sat down to write this blog I found it really challenging as I was unsure which “secrets” she was referring to – I simply “get in there and get on with it”… but was I always this way?  It was an eye opening experience to think back to the days when I didnt “get in there and get on with it”… I started to remember the nerves, the feeling of inadequacy the dread of stuffing up, of not being heard and most importantly – letting my team down and not delivering on what I had promised.

So I taught myself the art of dealing with the lion’s den… or more specifically, the art of being a young female professional walking into a board room of experienced and professional men.  Here is how I do it…

1. the 5 Ps…. “Preperation prevents a piss poor performance”… if you are going to walk into a board room meeting with people that can possibly intimidate you, the best weapon is to be prepared at all times – know your “stuff” better than they do, have an agenda, an objective and know your specific outcomes for the meeting.

2. When you walk in, go to every single person in that room, shake hands (firmly) whilst looking them in the eye – let them know you are there, you mean business and you are not afraid to be the expert.

3. If you are running the meeting, set the agenda with certainty… don’t look for approval…. no one cares!

4. If you are participating, then participate – if you don’t feel confident – no one cares… and they will smell your fear – the lions will circle!

5. In your introduction, give them some background info on yourself – this is your elevator pitch and gives you the opportunity to show them why they need to listen to you…. establish your own credibility.

6. Expect to be tested every step of the way… strong alpha men like to ensure you know who’s boss – I ensure that they know I know… but then I also allow them to see that they have an equal in the room that needs to be respected.  If they talk over me, I call them on it, if they don’t listen to what I have to say – I call them on it… in short – don’t let them get away with their “crap”.  (note, there maybe more than one alpha male or “resistant” male…make sure you cover them all off – don’t let them get away with it, or you will lose the test)

7.  Keep on topic…. another way they will try to manipulate the situation is by talking about topics that are unrelated – this is ok to a point i.e building relationships, however, you are there to do a job – so keep them on track my favourite line here is “I’m conscious of your time gents, lets keep moving” – this allows their egos to be stroked while maintaining control.

8. Summarise and give actions – Another way to show your knowldge and credibility is to show your ability to accurately summarise the meeting and to give actions.  it sounds simple, but it shows that you are in control and you are assuming accountability and responsibility – showing you as the natural leader we all know you can be.  Make sure you follow up on all actions and ensure everyone is completing them.

9.  Finally, as you leave, again shake hands and thank them for their time.

When walking into a board room meeting, it is so important to establish yourself as someone who is in control and for this to happen there is no room for fear or lack of confidence.  Even if you have to fake up to a certain point – until you start believing in your own abilitities…. then do it!

Take a deep breath and enter that den…. chances are its full of hot air and shite anyway!

Cheers

N

Natural Selection and Marketing… will your business survive?

Afternoon All…

Hope you are having a super week.

I was recently chatting to my housemate about the theory around Darwin’s Natural Selection… where basically only the “strong survive”… this can be in reference to the animal kingdom, fuana and flora, human evolution…. and I was referencing dating – crazy but it does actually work.

You see, both myself and my housemate are single – and as you know I have recently been embarking on the online dating “thing”… so many conversations have been had about “what a man wants?” vs “what are we?”  So I started thinking that Darwin’s theory can be likened to dating… only the strong will survive and make it through… because you need a lot of perseverance in the dating game.  Is this the same for small business? absolutely….

As a small business owner, you are constantly up against the “big guys”… think of your local green grocer and Coles or Woolworths… it’s an ongoing battle that will never die down.  Why?  Simple… Coles and Woolworths have found the secret formula that ensures that their strength will always float to the top in the minds of consumers – but does this mean that the small green grocer should give up?  Absolutely not!

Many small businesses almost wear a “badge of honour” stating that they are proud of the fact that they don’t do any marketing, that they are a “referral only business”… I hear all the time “I feel that we are doing a better job because we are growing organically – people know us by reputation and therefore we don’t need to market!”.  Reality is, that is one whopping big cop out for someone not wanting to understand marketing and possibly a little fearful of failing in the subject.

If the “big guys” still feel they need to market – then what on earth makes you think that you can compete with them with absolutely no marketing at all – and only run a business off referrals… that would be like dating only in your circle of friends… the pool gets kinda small that way (and a little incestuous)!

If you are ready to be one of the strong who survives… and survives well… then you need to be able to put your best foot forward – be part of the evolution, not the history of evolution!

I am more than confident that simply acknowledging that your business needs to grow in a way that is proactive makes you part of the strong… then acting on that acknowledgement will make you and your business BE the strong.  It’s time to stand up to the “big guys”… show how fearless you can be and create something magical.

Have a great week all.

oh… and my housemate and I have decided that we will BE the strong in the dating game… and we definitely won’t die out!

Cheers

N

There is more to running a business than just marketing….

Morning All…

Beware… a rant may be coming!

As a marketing expert I know the above heading may seem a little odd… but hang on in there with me whilst I explain what I mean.

Often I see business owners and organisations coming to me to “build their business”… and they are absolutely right… marketing can help build your business – but what often happens is they think that because their marketing is being taken care of, that they can sit back and relax… WRONG!  Let me show you why…

Firstly, if you are not turning over $1Mil in your business per year, then you need to be spending 80% of your time on marketing AND SALES.  Without the selling component marketing becomes redundant and vice versa… if you don’t have the marketing how are you going to find the people to sell to.

Here is the system we work with at Nexus….

Sales Cycle

1. Notice – this is where are potential customer is noticing that they have a need and they are starting to see all of the suppliers who offer that solution – aka MARKETING

2. Identify – it is here that a potential customer sees that you specificall may have the solution that they are after – aka MARKETING

3. Qualify – you have your first meeting, and you qualify whether or not you are the right fit for the potential customer  - aka SALES

4. Refine – after qualifying that you and the potential customer are the right match – you start to refine their needs – aka SALES

5. Solution – here you provide a solution based on the customers requirements and budget – aka SALES

6. Negotiate – if needed, you start negotiating – aka SALES

7. Close – you finally close the deal – aka SALES.

8. Reverse market – keep marketing to this customer to build a long lasting relationship – aka MARKETING.

No matter what you sell, whether it is a service, product or a coffee and a muffin – you go through this sales cycle, it may take you 30 seconds, or it may take you 18 months, either way this sales cycle happens whenever you are trying to sell something i.e your business.

If you look at the sales cycle, marketing only occurs at the beginning and at the end – without the additional commitment of selling you will never get the kind of customers and revenue that will help you turn over $1M in a year.

So what I am saying is this… stop being lazy about selling.  Stop relying on marketing to save your business…. marketing will help – but nothing will help your business more than YOURSELF and your commitment to SELL.

This is almost a love triangle that should never be broken… YOUR COMMITMENT: MARKETING: SALES.  The three should never be parted.

oh… and yes, I am aware that in most multi-million dollar organisations the sales and marketing teams are working to separate goals and separate visions… that doesn’t make it right!  I would put a lot of money on they fact that when these organisations were just starting up… that they too had a love triangle going on!

Anyway.. that feels better lol

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Cheers

N