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

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

Are information marketers “full of it” and simply greedy?

Afternoon gang…

How has 2012 been treating you so far?  Broken any generational boundaries yet?  I certainly hope so….

One of our fave clients at Nexus sent me an email this afternoon… she wanted to show me what one of our competitors is doing to attract clients to them… and I have to say it started to make me think about how genuine some of these “self acclaimed” information marketers are…

Why do I say this?  Because some of the claims I see information marketers “create” make me cringe…  This particular one was saying that a specific industry is doing really badly and they are the only people who can help!  Is this clever marketing or is it unethical… as it is completely incorrect?

It seems to me that information marketers know how to make money through only one means…. RAMP UP THE PAIN AND INCREASE THE FEAR.  Ethical marketing and selling tells us to stay away from these tactics and utilise creative ways to capture the attention of our clients, and this, my friends, will help build long lasting relationships that will have your clients coming back to you time after time.

Now obviously not ALL information marketers are like this… there are some exceptions… not many but they do exist… how can you tell the difference?  Simple… as soon as they add a whole load of fear into the mix – walk away very quickly… as they have yet to learn the right way to sell and market and therefore what are they really going to be able to teach you?

Remember there is no “magic pill” or “quick fix” in business… hard work, clever strategies and preparation is what makes a business successful.

There are some great marketers and sales people out there – spend the time researching and separating the good from the bad, and invest wisely… these core competencies are crucial for your business, why wouldn’t you work with people who genuinely get it, and are not simply after “stuffing their pockets” with money?

of course I could be completely wrong… would love to know your thoughts!

Cheers

N

Should Spiral Dynamics Be Used For Selling?

Afternoon All…

One of my absolute favourite topics is the theories around Spiral Dynamics and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  I was sitting with two colleagues having lunch yesterday and we got onto the topic of the difference between the two theories and how society can fit into to either one of them.  We then started to question the sales technique of using (in particular) spiral dynamics to convince people to part with their money and give it to the seller.  This got me thinking…. should something as important as understanding human dynamics and behaviour be used to manipulate people into buying – or is it simply “smart selling”?

For those of you who don’t know what Spiral Dynamics is – here is a brief overview…. Spiral dynamics argues that human nature is not fixed… and that humans are able, when forced by life conditions, to adapt to their environment by constructing new, more complex, conceptual models  of the world that allow them to handle the new problems.  Then each of these models transcends the previous model allowing them to “move up” through the levels within spiral dynamics – and these levels are based on a core value system that is sometimes referred to has vMemes – don’t get thrown by that – just see it as a value system.

So Spiral Dynamics is used to explain where culture, societies, people and even mindsets are situated –  and the only way to move up through the  7 levels – or 9 (depending who you listen to, or read about) is to learn new skills and develop your mindset.  The levels look like this:

Level 1 – Instinctive – Needs are: food , water, shelter, safety etc – i.e survival

Level 2 – Animistic – Needs are: Social, family, tribe, honour, respect elders, ancestors, spirits i.e lives for past

Level 3 – Egocentric – Needs are: Pschological, power driven, exploitative, priviledge i.e lives for now.

Level 4 – Absolutistic – Needs are: Abstract, purposeful, authoritarian, dualistic, dogmatic i.e lives for future

Level 5 – Materialistic – Needs are: Entreprenuerial, strategic, growth and success. i.e Lives for gain

Level 6 – Humanistic – Needs are: Community, harmony, liverty, equality i.e lives for cause

Level 7 – Systemic – Felxibility, spontaneity, competence, balance i.e lives for Synergy.

Levels 8 and 9 are about targeting the “greater good” and those in these levels are living entirely for others… i.e the Dalai Lama.

So how are people using this as a sales tool?  There are people in todays market place that use this theory as a way of selling products and programs… and they do it like this….

They start of by explaining Spiral Dynamics, and they talk about examples – this is a direct quote from something that was said in a room I was in once… “The average australian employee mindset is at level 3 – but if you want to be successful in business you need to be level 5, I can only see and recognise 3 level 5s in the room (this was a room of about 100 people)” this then went on futher when this person was selling from the stage and used “I don’t want to spend my time with the employee mindset or level 3s – I want to spend my time with level 5s” and this where those in the room who are desperate to have successful businesses convince themselves that the only way to get to level 5 is to buy the product or program… almost the “blue pill to level 5 thinking”!

Now I am all for using NLP, human behavioural understanding to ensure that you are able to talk about services or products in a way that you can align with your customers or potential customers… however, I am not sure how ethical it is to utilise something that is a conceptual theory to manipulate a crowd to believe that if they don’t buy something they will never progress or develop… I personally believe that anyone can work their way through the levels as every human can adapt to situations and evolve their own thinking…

I know this is a heavy blog… but would love to know your thoughts…

Should Spiral Dynamics be simplified and reduced to a common sales tool?

All Together Now… 1, 2, 3…. HOW!?!?!?

Morning Everyone…

I have been getting quite a few phone calls and emails about how you are all enjoying my blogs… and I am thrilled – who knew that my strong opinions would ever serve me well…

Many of you don’t know that I have the ability to speak 5 languages… English (probably my worst language), German (fluently), French, Japanese and Persian Farsi (my newest and not quite mastered yet).. language is something that I have had a long lasting relationship with.. it fascinates me, intrigues me, encapsulates me and more importantly fills me with utter enjoyment.  Simply understanding how a language is spoken… and not just what the words mean really “floats my boat” – I see it as understand the “art of the language” and not just “what word means what”.

I think this is an important distinction in most areas of life… the “how” versus the “what”… and it so neatly brings me to the 4th thing that I really wish mentors, coaches, and so called “experts” understood… Business owners want the tools of HOW to do things… not just theory (what)…

For example I could learn the word for “love” in German…. “liebe” – but if I wanted to tell someone I loved them then suddenly I would go into overwhelm as I wouldn’t know “how” to construct a sentence to be able to express myself properly… but as soon as I learned the grammar, the nuances, the tonality and where to place the emphasis I would know exactly how to tell someone I loved them…”Ich liebe dich”, or “Ich liebe Sie” (dependant on the person and the relationship)… then what happens if I turn it into past tense “Ich liebte Sie”.  So as you can see, just having the word “liebe” doesn’t get you very far.

Just like being told “go and do online marketing”, “go and sell into corporates”, “come up with a new offline marketing campaign”, “sell it from stage”… is great information – but is worth didlisquat unless you know HOW to do these things.

I so often see business owners who have all the theories, all the “what” the “liebe”- have been to the seminars, taken the courses but never been shown the “HOW” – they don’t have a system in place to complete all of the action items and quickly, but very surely, they enter into the state of overwhelm… where they get lost, disalusioned and quite frankly… peeved at all the money they spent on hearing more theories…. and as I have too been put in that position… I say it’s time to take a stand…..

It’s time for these mentors, coaches and so called “experts” to take a very long hard look in the mirror and stop spouting “liebe” and start educating their clients in “ich liebe dich”….

So folks… stand with me… post a comment to show these “WHAT” sayers that we are ready to hear the HOW… the art of business….

Cheers

N

American marketing will be the death of small business in OZ

Morning everyone…

I have just got into the office after a gruelling hour in the gym with my PT.  During my torture session he was quizzing me on sales copy and marketing techniques… the techniques he was specifically referring to were tear sheets, faxes, long form sales letters and sending random emails… also known as spam.  He was asking me if they work… here’s the thing… all marketing works, as long as you target it to the RIGHT market and not the wrong market.  Sounds simple right?  Wrong….

This is the 2nd out of 7 steps that I really wish mentors, business coaches and so-called “experts” understood…“Don’t give them a whole load of rehashed american concepts that have NOT been tried and tested in this market”

The amount of times I have been to a “business workshop”, a “mastermind class” or even had a conversation with an “expert” who has tried to resell me the concepts of some of the great Frank Kern’s or Ryan Deiss’ marketing techniques has been phenomenal… and the best part is – they never change.  There is always the same formula for sales copy, there is always the process of landing page with a special report followed by autoresponders then there is the free stuff you give away… then the social proof then finally you sell something… I have to say, I get this process… most of us do… then the question that begs to be asked is… why is it not as successful as when the Americans do they same thing?

This is something I have thought about, tried and tested, and watched others in the market place do… not very successfully I might add… and the answer was staring at me in the face… for the same reason that American Sales techniques don’t work here in Australia…. we are a completely different breed.

So if this is the case, surely I am not the only one to notice that these methods are having limited success here in Australia… then why do the people we go to for expert advice keep rolling out the same rehashed version of marketing techniques….  Why can’t they come up with an awesome and rocking Australian Sales Copy formula… keep the sequence… but “Aussie it up” a bit.  Why do these “so called” experts recommend sending tear sheets out… when the Aussie market are known sceptics and “why oh why” are there people out there suggesting to their clients to send faxes to cold leads?!?!?   Seriously guys… lift your game!

Marketing to the Aussie market can be an absolute blast… all you need to do is think outside the box… have a little fun and be really comfortable and most importantly proud of what you are sending out to your list… and remember – have an open mind with different forms of marketing online, offline and social media – you will always have the best outcome when you employ all three in your marketing strategies.

So… Aussie it up folks… be proud of our quirky sense of humour, our healthy scepticsm on overall our ability to laugh at ourselves.

Cheers

N

Making Mastermind Groups Brilliant!

Morning all….

I have to say I have been blown away with the response and the amount of readers to my last blog about “Are mastermind groups worth the time and money?” – it is clearly a very hot and contentious topic at the moment.  We had some fantastic responses ranging from those who have had bad experiences, to those about how mastermind groups should be run…

This topic is very close to my heart, as we at Nexus run a similar concept group called Sales Club, which is why I guess, people feel comfortable coming to me and talking about their experiences with other mastermind groups… now I wouldn’t be congruent with myself if I didn’t follow up the last blog with a “what makes mastermind groups brilliant” type of post… because there are some fabulous groups out on the market and it is unfortunate that they get “over looked” simply because of their unethical, uncaring, profit hungry compatriots..

So if you have been in a mastermind group, sales club or other organisation that has really “floated your boat” and allowed you as a business owner and entrepreneur to learn, get motoivated, ensure your success then we want to hear from you…

What made your group, club or organisation absolutely brilliant?

Cheers

N

Are masterminds groups really worth the time and money?

Afternoon all……

As a small business sales and marketing expert, I am always surprised at the amount of people the come to me complaining about mastermind groups around the globe… which made me think… are “mastermind” groups really worth the time and money you spend on them?

I think in order to answer this question we need to first explore a) what a mastermind group is and the objective of being part of a group, and b) what are the complaints?

In my opinion, and from others  I have spoken to, the term “mastermind” originally started as a way to hang out with someone who’s really successful, has the key to help other to be successful, is willing to teach their success strategy as well as having the ability to around a small group of other business owners in similar circumstances.

So if this is the case… then the complaints that I am hearing are making a load of sense…”there were over 30 people in the group”, “I didn’t feel I got any of the mentor’s ‘mind space’”, “It was clearly just a money making strategy that had very little ethical standards”, “the mentor didn’t have my best interests at heart”, “the program was over sold and under delivered” and finally.. and probably the most concerning of them all “participants seem to have quick success and not necessarily sustainable success”.  These are all people who have paid upwards of $25,000 a year for the privilege.

Does this mean that business owners and entrepreneurs who are ready to take the next step and be as successful as they choose to be, are now left in the lurch as there are so many poor mastermind groups out in the market place that they are all getting a little sceptical about the concept?  Or does it mean that mastermind groups need to wise up and get a little more “ethical and user friendly” about the way they deliver these programs…. surely they are a great idea when executed properly?

Would love your thoughts…

so close to Friday champers…. woohoo!

N

100 Brands in 100 Weeks – so it begins!

Afternoon!

Hope you all have had a great weekend and looking forward to the cup just as much as I am…. I have a feeling “So you think” will come through with the goods and so that’s where my money is going.  He has been consistent, elegant, successful and has never let Bart Cummings down – wouldn’t it be great if all brands in Australia were that reliable!

We have had so much feedback about the new campaign that ist’s almost taken us all week just to get through and answer all the emails, posts, phone calls and questions coming our way – what a great sign.  It means we are all wanting the same thing…better customer service in Australia!  I have also been approached by some media outlets for interviews so this could get “interesting”.

I wanted to give you a brief outline of how this is all going to work as we are starting with our first brand NEXT WEEK!

We have decided that in order to be as fair and unbiased as possible, that we need to look at ALL areas of each brand including; telephone sales, commercial sales, corporate sales, consumer sales and even support to get a really good overall view on what is happening from an organisational culture – because we don’t want to base it all on something that one person has said once to a client…. get my drift?

We are also going to do this from a National level – we know from experience that customer service and sales differs state to state in our “land of plenty”, so it’s only fair to ensure we are capturing the full picture.

As the head of this campaign I have also made an executive decision to protect my team, no one from the Nexus team will be named whilst completing this exercise – so if there is any fall back, it will lie solely on my shoulders.  Hope you, as my readers, can understand why.

On Monday of every week I will be announcing to the Nexus team the brand in which we will be investigating, I will also divide the task up and give each member a role to play.  They will be given a “character, questions, objectives and objections to present to the brand” – and they will report on their findings.  On the Thursday of every week I will collate the details and write a blog stating who, where, how and what went down.

To be completely fair, I will also send a copy of my report to the brand themselves and give them an opportunity for “right of reply”.

If you think I have missed anything, please post or send us a comment – we are always happy to receive feedback.  Of course, we are also still accepting nominations to add to the list as well!

I am off to have lunch outside before heading to the gym….

Have a good one everyone!

Cheers

N