The 8020 Blog

This question has nothing to do with the other-all-important subject of clients being happy. This question has everything to do with YOUR happiness.

The question is this: “How many new clients do you need every week in order to feel happy?”

You will either “get” this question immediately or you will be wearing a “huh-what-the?#!?*&?” frown.

The latter category of responders will send me emails reminding me that true happiness should not depend on any external circumstances and I sincerely agree with that - and for me that’s still a work in progress.

Until I crack that particularly challenging little Zen concept I am equally content to set myself a weekly goal for new clients and to base my happiness on the achievement of that goal (or to base my misery on the lack of achieving it).

So: how many new clients do you need each week in order to be happy?

Don’t lie to yourself: face reality - regardless of the aforementioned Zen theory, if you are a solopreneur or business owner then you will be less-happy (a.k.a. “grumpy”) if you go for a week without a sale.

Unhappiness is a great motivator. Use it to help more people and in the process help yourself to be happy.

“New client happiness” is one of the best dysfunctional concepts I know of and baby, I’m gonna milk it for all it’s worth!

I had a conversation with a switched-on business accountant this morning. His partners are worried about the natural attrition of clients and the fact that they are not replacing them fast enough. He said his partners are also sitting behind their desks staring at computer screens all day.

Not surprisingly, the partners do zero Marketing Activity (e.g. gathering referrals, approaching and engaging new clients etc) each week.

The reason that the partners don’t engage in Marketing Activity is two-fold:

1. They still think of themselves as “accountants” rather than “marketers of accountancy services”

2. They have not developed a clear and compelling approach that when executed has their prospects:
a. financially salivating and being very grateful that the accountant made contact
b. eagerly requesting more information
c. wanting to know the price
d. hoping like heck that they can afford it

That’s the work of Marketing Development and once you have created a clear and compelling approach then you can re-purpose it and use it face to face, on the phone, in your brochure, on the back of your business card, in articles, editorials, advertisements, on your web site etc etc etc until you have so many clients you create a problem of supply  – which is a better quality problem than not having enough clients and sitting at your desk worrying about it.

I had some response to my post on Marketing Activity where I pointed out the not-so-strange correlation in my surveys between the lack of new clients and the lack of marketing activity.

The question I was asked after that post was “What’s the difference between Activity and Development?”

The answer is also the clue as to why otherwise smart people don’t engage in Marketing Activity but still worry about getting new clients: it’s because they have not done the hard work of Marketing Development.

The latter is a term that I use to cover all of the processes that need to be developed in order to seamlessly and smoothly take a product to market in a relatively stress-free manner. That includes processes for prospect identification, an approach process (whether on-line or off-line), early and easy engagement of that prospect, a nurture process, an up-sell process and so on.

For example, if you knew that your product proposition was so clear and so compelling that your ideal client would eagerly ask for more information (e.g. the price and how they can buy!) how much more comfortable would you be about approaching new clients?

My hat goes off to the good people at www.notyourdaughtersjeans.com whose proposition is “Look younger and feel a size smaller”. That’s one example of a business that has done some of the hard strategy work in coming up with both a product and value propositon that is clear and compelling.

I preach this message from dawn to dusk most days: “find a specific unmet need in a small part of a large market and then develop scalable (key word) product features to meet that need”. If you will do that then your marketing efforts will yield fruit and you find that the truism is true: the riches are in the niches.

If you want to see what a tiny, tiny niche can yield ($20 million) then please click here:

http://www.guzer.com/videos/needle-art.php

My thanks to my friend and colleague Graham McGregor of TwoMac Consultling (one of the best sales and marketing guys I know) for taking the time to share this with me…

Successful business owners work hard.

And so do almost all of the unsuccessful ones.

So what’s the difference? Well there are a bunch of things but one of them is that the successful hard workers are focused on executing an effective strategy. The unsuccessful ones may be spending just as much time, energy, money and ability but they are scattering the power of their resource because they don’t have a one clear strategy to focus on.

Once a business owner has a great strategy the next trick is sticking to it without being distracted by the enemy. The enemy of great strategy is the good idea.

In other words it’s easy to be seduced by all of the offers in the market place promising us the world on a plate if only we buy their product/service. Once you have a great strategy, learn how to stay focused by saying yes to everything that is aligned to the execution of that strategy and no to everything - and I do mean “everything” - else.

Most weeks I do a survey of marketing activity levels amongst solopreneurs and business owners. At the risk of sounding like a broken record I’ll share with the results of this week’s survey which is very similar to the results of past surveys.

84 people participated in this week’s survey and I asked two questions:

The first question asked if they thought they had a great product but not enough clients.

85% said they had a great product but not enough clients

15% said they had a great product and enough or more than enough clients

The second question asked how many hours they invested in marketing activity every week. They could choose from 0-2 hours, 3-7 hours or 8 hours and more.

16% said they did 8 hours or more marketing activity every week.

It’s not rocket science is it?  Most people get the outcome (more clients) when they do the inputs (marketing activity).

There is surely a lesson in here for us all.

The market place doesn’t care that you are passionate about your product.

It doesn’t care what you think your product is worth.

And despite what it says outwardly, provided you are honest, the market doesn’t care about your values or beliefs or principles or mission or vision.

Neither does the market care about your board of directors or your flash shiny building or your newsletter or your pretty logo or your super cool web address.

The market cares about it’s specific unmet needs. And it will listen to you eagerly once your message speaks to the sweet spot of specific unmet needs.