New Business – Page 4 – Pauline Bright Business Coach

The best ways to grow your customer database without spending a fortune

Size. Isn’t. Everything. When it comes to a customer database, having thousands of thousands of people on a list doesn’t mean anything unless you have a relationship with them.

So don’t go getting all scammy and spammy with the latest tricks to build a list of people who are not now, or never will be, your ideal customer. You’ll find no joy there.

A small intimate responsive database can be a beautiful thing and it’s really enjoyable to serve those people by offering them interesting relevant information, intriguing offers and genuinely helpful content that they can’t wait to receive. Develop a “No Junk Mail” policy when you contact your database or they will bin you for wasting their time.

Here’s how to grow your list without resorting to sneaky underhanded tactics.

You cannot just put someone on your list because they gave you their business card – you’ll need to ask permission. But better than that, have a real conversation with the person and offer to send them something helpful – and NO that is not your brochure or catalogue unless they have specifically asked for it. It might be a newspaper clipping or a referral to your dentist or a great website you discovered. It can be anything as long as it is helpful.

If you were clever you’d be building a bank of your own useful information to share.

Here are a few favourite places and ways to find the best people to add to your database:

Networking events and industry groups – local chambers of commerce are a good place to start.
Business networking groups – go regularly and make friends. Get to know these people, they are your best referral sources and there are things you can help them with too.
Meetup Groups cost next to nothing – choose carefully before you commit the time but you will definitely meet people – even if it’s a walking group.
Attend workshops and chat to the people you meet there. There are plenty of low-cost- to- no-cost business seminars out there – and you’ll learn a thing or two as well!
Online in social media groups – find groups with similar interests to yours and start contributing. But don’t sell unless the rules of the group say you can – it’s SOCIAL – no-one likes a pushy person who is always selling.
On holidays, at the shops, in elevators, at the beach – start talking to people – you’ll be so surprised at the connections you can make.
Have a lead capture form on your website – offer something they consider valuable and highly desirable in exchange for their contact information. It might cost you nothing.
Do direct response marketing – everything you put out needs a call to action to get the person to take some action i.e. contact you for that highly desirable “thing” – not the super big things, just a little taste test. Why do you think supermarkets offer free samples of something yummy in the aisles?
As people to share your content, your business cards, your highly desirable offer, let it go naturally viral. If you are in the women’s market you have inbuilt viral marketers. They will naturally tell friends when they find something of value.
Get over your nerves and learn to speak in public – give talks and presentations. When people see you as an expert they’ll give you their contact details to get more of what you have.

We’ve just scratched the surface.

You’re only limited by your imagination. Get together with a group of other business owners and brainstorm this – there are hundreds more answers. Then put the strategies into action and hold each other accountable to getting results.

Best of luck. Let us know how you go. And if you have a unique way of adding genuinely interested people to your database, we’d love to hear it.

The obvious way to grow a business that almost everyone ignores

Business is only as complicated as you want to make it.

You might be spending disproportionate chunks of time, when you’re not actively engaged in doing the work of your business, adding more bells and whistles to your offering, making your office look better, getting new business cards, updating your website, trawling through emails, improving your systems and ploughing through dreary hours of admin… ad infinitum.

But there is one blind spot that people will not, or choose not to see because it makes them uncomfortable, they don’t know how to do it and they don’t know what to do about it…

You can spend countless hours on polishing your product, looking as busy as the next person and tweaking everything about your business – or focus on the one truly effective thing that is guaranteed to grow your business – YOU CAN MAKE SALES.

Nothing happens until a sale is made – doesn’t matter how pretty your office looks or how cool your product is, if you don’t sell it, you don’t eat.

If you’re not actively selling to prospects who are in the market to buy, all those coffee meetings, “important” phone calls and endless networking events aren’t worth anything. In fact they’re costing you plenty in time and money and missed opportunities.

It might surprise you to know that you need to invest at least 20% of your time in sales producing activities – even more if you’re a new business – up to 80% of your time should be focused on sales.

You’ll need a repeatable process to bring you more customers on a regular basis if you are going to grow your business.

The first step is to make sure you’re talking to people who want what you have and are happy to pay for it. That’s an exercise in marketing and making sure you’re in the right business.

The second step is to get MUCH better at selling – so here’s my gift to you…

The Elegant Selling eBook, for people in professional services who think they can’t sell – just click to download. It’s full of ideas, scripts & techniques to overcome sales fears and phobias.

Enjoy!

Need some sales training for your team? Ask about “The Art of Selling” workshop. Book a phone call here to see how it can work for you.

Why a coach’s perspective is so important when you want to expand your business

“You know what you should do?”

…and so it starts again… the well-meaning but often unsought advice from someone who really doesn’t have a clue about your business.

“Here’s what I’d do if I were you…”, but they’re not you are they?

Everyone’s got an opinion – even people you’ve just met – and they’re more than happy to share it. But who do you listen to and trust enough to give you the right advice?

Unfortunately a lot of well-meaning advice gets tainted with emotion; friends and family want to see you do well, but they worry that you are overworking and not looking after yourself. They want to keep you safe.

They want you to be successful but maybe not too successful in case they lose you! You might get big and rich and famous and leave them behind!

Unless you’re getting business help and advice from a respected successful impartial friend or family member (which is amazingly brilliant and rare – lucky you!) then you’ll need to filter out the noise and concentrate on what YOU want.

So, why would you listen to a coach – aren’t they just another voice in the noise?

Well, the role of your coach is NOT to give you advice.

A really good coach is impartial, has no emotional stake in the business and will listen, guide and reflect back to you everything you need to get ahead. You already have most of the answers – you just don’t know that you do until your coach asks some key questions and keeps digging to get to the heart of things.

A good coach will educate you so that you can make informed decisions – but they won’t make the decisions for you.

If your coach has also walked a mile in your shoes before you, in their own business and life experience, then they may act as a mentor to show you what worked or didn’t work for them, but they won’t do it for you.

A good coach will see you as you are in the moment, without any of the life baggage you may be carrying around, and will be able to tap into your vision for the future, often stretching you way beyond what you thought you were capable of.

As Les Brown says “You have Greatness in you!” Why would you settle for mediocrity?

A good coach doesn’t take any BS – no excuses, no counselling, no jumping the fence to have a pity party with you. Sure, we’re tough but we’re compassionate, we can have a laugh, and we SEE you – I mean really SEE you – the best version of yourself.

We don’t dawdle; we like plenty of movement and momentum – as they say in kindy “You can have fun, but you’ve gotta get it done”.

A really good business coach is well versed in business – not just finance or sales or marketing or systems or HR – but ALL of the aspects of business and how it all fits and glides together.

It’s very likely there are some holes in your business – maybe you’re aware of them, maybe you don’t know what you don’t know.

Shall we go digging together to see what you don’t see right now?

CLICK HERE – a 15 min phone call may change your life!

The Super Short Guide to Making Wise Business Decisions

Decisions are like “the Trouser Legs of Time” as my favourite author Terry Pratchett put it.

And whichever leg you choose you end up in a different space, which is unfortunate if you don’t end up somewhere you want to be, but fabulous if you do.

Now, you don’t want to get it wrong but neither do you want to be stuck – and no decision is still a decision.

Here’s the 3 Point Super Short Guide to Making Wise Business Decisions: ask yourself these questions…

Is this good for ME?

He said “I make decisions based on the 3 most important things in my life –

1. my Health,
2. my Wealth and
3. my Family

It has to be good for all three without compromise”.

Run the decision by your 3 most important values and trust your instinct to let you know when something isn’t a good fit.

WHY am I making this decision?

What are the repercussions of this? Is this something I can live with for a long time? (This is vitally important when you are thinking about business partners).

Am I rationalising this decision and trying to ignore what my intuition is telling me? If you are trying to “hard sell” the idea to yourself and others, it’s probably not in your best interests.

Can I live with the consequences? Will I still be happy about this in one year, two years, ten years from now?

Do I need more time; am I being rushed by others into making a decision?

WHO is involved in this?

If I’m about to make a decision that involves huge amounts of my input, time, money and/or energy –i.e. if it’s all me, we could be in trouble!

Who else can I involve in this? What expert help can I get? Is this a joint decision or mine alone to make?

If you’re struggling with a business decision right now and you want some expert help – someone to approach it with fresh eyes then let’s talk.

Book a 15 minute phone conversation with Pauline Bright here.

How to get your business Mojo back

Humans are goal-seeking missiles – but what happens when you actually reach your goals and you don’t know it?

Watch the 42 second video to find out how you’ll know

Or if you prefer to read – here’s the video script:

“You know, If you’re feeling a little bit irritated or you’ve lost your mojo or things aren’t quite going according to plan and you want to keep messing with your business a little, take a step back and have a think about this… What if you’ve actually reached the goal that you set out to reach in your business and now because you don’t have another goal you’re just messing with all the details and that could be messing with other people too which is totally messing with their head, so, step back, re-evaluate and think ‘Have I actually reached the goal I set out to reach? Is it time to reset a new one?’

Enjoy that thought.”

How to set new goals that light your fire

If your daily tasks feel like filling in time and doing things for other people then it’s likely that you’re not working on the projects that can help your business take a leap forward.

Getting your Mojo back will require a bit of thinking time, so set aside an hour or two to think about what you originally intended when you first started or bought your business. You might have to sacrifice some TV time.

What were the big adventurous courageous visions you had? Tap back into those feelings.

Now take one of those goals – because that’s what they were – and flesh it out a little. Break the milestones down into bite-sized chunks then work out a time-line of WHEN it will happen and HOW it will happen.

If you’re not confident with this or need a fresh set of eyes to show you what you can’t see – that’s what we can help with. Let’s talk!

You can book a free 15 minute appointment with Pauline Bright here.

Evolutionary Business Design

Category: New Business