This week’s motivational phrase is:

A person who can not persuade, who can not direct their customers into the proper channels, who can not overcome their own fears & tendencies to procrastinate, isn’t a sales person at all…he or she is merely a conversationalist – Charles B Roth.

All entrepreneurs are in sales and marketing. Let there be no illusions, your lifeblood relies on sales. If you are not producing what you would like to produce (revenue wise), you may possibly be a conversationalist rather than the salesperson you need to be. You can still have conversation with clients. But ensure that they are persuading, revenue generating ones.

I call it “Grass Is Greener Syndrome.” I have heard others call it “chasing multiple rabbits.” Regardless of the vernacular, the point of the saying remains the same and many of us entrepreneurs (including myself) suffer from it. Going after multiple different opportunities either at the same time or starting one and before it is to fruition you begin on another.

Let me paint you a picture. I am partners in a data management company. We help maximize business continuity and initiate multiple levels of redundancy for your data. In other words, we keep your business going and your data backed up automatically. During the course of getting that business up and running, I helped to develop a fantastic process (currently patent pending) that secures your data. It is data protection on steroids. So now we do data management and I also have to start seeking avenues to promote data protection. Not a far cry from each other as they both deal with data.

About this time, one of my other companies, a web hosting and development company, began to take off. We took on two other partners and our volume, as well as services, began to grow. Because I am the partner that is sought for innovation and marketing, now I am faced with actively promoting and working with my partners to develop processes to handle the growth. So, now I have data management, data protection and web site hosting and development.

Not long after this, I had an associate from the northeast region of the US contact me about another opportunity. As I said, I am sought for innovation and marketing. They knew of this technology in Europe that will eliminate the need for landfills. It can process medical waste and the resulting processed material is non-toxic. When you combine this with a gasifier you can literally turn trash into electricity or remove landfills and make the area arable land again. So, I jumped on board and brought in a few other people. We acquired the exclusive distribution rights for the US and US Territories. We made appropriate partnerships here in the US with other companies that can enhance our solution and augment our offering. I got the ball rolling with strategic partnerships and started my marketing mojo.

Soon after this got started I was asked to (I am just going to list things now rather than full stories or we will be here forever) help with the sale of home medical equipment, limousines, promo gifts, glyconutrient supplements, video intelligence software, 3d technology, Bill Mack art work and some original plans for parts of the Panama Canal. I am sure there were more. But that is all I can remember at the time.

Slowly but steadily things began to spiral out of control. I went from doing a few things excellent to many things mediocre. I am not a mediocre person and this situation did not sit well with me. I suffered from Grass Is Greener Syndrome. Every single one of these opportunities were 5 figure and higher deals. They were all legitimate and not pie in the sky dreams. That is what sucked me in so quickly. As I got one started, I looked at the next and the grass looked greener over there where the new opportunity was. So, I would head on over there to the greener grass until my eye spotted another opportunity in an even greener pasture. A good friend of mine said that I was going to chase many rabbits and catch none.

After he told me this and I figured out why I was unhappy (I was unhappy because I was not performing excellent in any one category), I sat back and evaluated my life. I cleared the table and began to evaluate every opportunity that I had before me. I decided to put a majority of my effort into one main goal and effort into two other projects if and only if I had any down time. I picked the one project I had the most time invested in and the most experience. Then I picked two other projects in the same manner. I cleared my plate of all other opportunities. I didn’t thrown them away, simply put them on pause. And I began to pour all of my effort into that one main project and only working on my other two during times of inactivity with my primary focus.

Things began to turn around for me internally. I was excelling again and no longer performed mediocre. The project with my main focus began to flourish and will soon be on autopilot, not requiring my constant attention. When that happens, one of my other two projects will come to the forefront and another one will move into one of my two secondary positions for projects. I was told by people who had already achieved multiple millions of dollars to focus my concentration. I thought I knew better. They were right. I corrected. Now I am repeating what they told me and my experience.

All of you rabbit chasers and people who suffer from Grass Is Greener Syndrome, heed my warning. Focus on one business or main project at a time. Build it up until it runs by itself (off of processes) or you sell it, then move on. For those of you who choose not to listen because you know better. Please visit this post when you change your mind and leave your comments for others to learn from.

This is a post I wrote when I was featured as a guest author on the TPE Blog in September of 2008.

First, let me qualify the title. Free, for the purposes of this article, carries the definition of no monetary compensation. As we know, time is money so time is never free. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s proceed onto the current topic of how to get free advertising for your business.

You can have the most innovative product in the world or the highest quality service conceived. None of that matters if no one knows about it. Sure, you can pay for advertising. But there are truly effective ways to advertise with little to no capital outlay. There are many mediums on which you can advertise: newspaper, TV, radio, internet, yellow pages, etc. Some mediums are easier to achieve free advertising than others. We will cover the easier ones to achieve maximum benefit with no cost.

• Visit your local newspaper and ask if they have a community update section (title may vary). Most local newspapers have a section where they post new businesses opening, achievements by local business people and/or their employees, and special business occurrences. If you are preparing to start a new business, write up a brief paragraph with your company’s pertinent information and submit it to the newspaper. A week before you open, write a paragraph notifying the newspaper of your grand opening. After you open, write another paragraph stating that you are now open. Repeat this step every time something new happens: hire someone new, you or an employee get an industry certification, you launch a new service, etc. Don’t think you are submitting too much. The newspaper will let you know. They will be your barometer. I have done this for years in multiple cities without any issues.
• Develop a referral system for your company. Whatever your product or service, there is a way to create an incentified referral system. Clients acquired through a referral of one of your current clients are more likely to spend higher dollar amounts, more frequently, and be less price sensitive. That is why many of the largest companies in the world develop referral systems. Reward your existing client and make a special offer to the new client. Develop tangible referral material to help your clients help your company.
• Volunteer your time. Volunteer with local civic groups, schools, and charities. Many entrepreneurs believe that the more you give the more you will receive. When you volunteer you are able to meet people and get to know them on a personal level. You have the opportunity to acquire new clients while helping your local community, charity, or school. These clients tend to be less price sensitive due to the perception of your philanthropic time giving. They know you personally do things for free and this lessens any thought of greed or over pricing.
• List your company online.
  • Visit sites like Merchant Circle, Google Maps, Yahoo Local, and the Microsoft Local Listing Center and list your business. Merchant circle allows you to create online coupons to offer your clients. All the sites I listed will list your company’s pertinent information along with a map of your physical location.
  • If you own your own website, submit your domain name to the main search engines (Google,Yahoo, & Live Search) every month and make sure your website has targeted meta tags. Meta tags are descriptive words located “under the hood” of your website. Some refer to them as “keywords.”
  • In addition to your standard website architecture, implement a blog. Wordpress is flexible and free. Blogs work and your reading of this article is proof. Every time you write a post, you have the opportunity to submit new targeted meta tags which will exponentially increase your virtual footprint. Make sure you have a good comment tracking system. It will help with demographic data collection. I suggest IntenseDebate, it is feature packed and free. In conjunction with your blog, comment on blogs you read. Each blog has a comment system that allows you to leave your name and website. Leave quality comments and eventually you will catch other people’s attention and have the ability to convert them from readers into clients.
  • Lastly, create company profiles on MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn at the very minimum. Invite all family, friends, and colleagues to join.

Combine and cross promote with the various tactics I have listed. Promote your referral system through your Facebook profile. Tell the newspaper your company really believes in a cause and has started volunteering to help that cause. Everything I have listed takes time, effort, and patience to acquire results. But once you employ these methods and become adept at cross promotion across multiple tactics, the processes will seem second nature and inversely less time consuming to keep the processes maintained. Deploy these strategies and help your cash flow. You’ll earn more and be able to keep more of your increased revenues.

Do you know the psychographics of your target demographic? Did you understand the terms I just used? If your answer to both questions was “No.” Then it is time to learn a little marketing.

Demographics are the characteristics of human populations. They are normally expressed in measurable criteria such as age, gender, race, sex, income level, education, etc. Your target demographic is that group of people that has been deemed as your ideal client.

Psychographics are not crazy pictures. Psychographics are the interests, attitudes, and opinions of the human population. They are normally studied within certain demographics. And the studies attempt to determine the preferences of that demographic.

Knowing who your target demographic is and what their associated psychographics are can dramatically increase your revenue. Wouldn’t you like to know that your best clients are women between the ages of 29 and 35? And that if you packaged your products in a pastel yellow that they are 75% more likely to purchase than if your product is packaged in any other color. Or that if your team wore baby blue that you gained more of their confidence when speaking to them or if your business had a fragrance like Jasmine floating in the room that they were calmer and 30% more likely to make a purchase before walking out?

All of these numbers are fictitious but the data types are all real and reasonable to acquire. Companies like Disney, IBM, and Pepsi (to name but a few) spend tons of money to determine all of this information. They do not do so to simply waste money. They do so because it dramatically increases their bottom line and adversely decreases it when they are wrong. Most consumers purchase because of emotion rather than logic. Psychographics are extremely important. You should know who your target demographic is and their associated psychographics.

You are probably wondering where to start your quest to obtain this information. The first step is to determine your target demographic. To do this, there are many avenues. The easiest first step is to go through your current client database and determine the age, sex, race, income level and education of all of the decision makers or buyers in your list. (Contact information is assumed to be acquired already.) You can simply ask them. But people are reluctant to just give this information out. I suggest you tell them that your entity is starting an appreciation program whereby you want to send your clients a card on their birthday. You can send them a card with a gift or a special offer like a discount on selected products. This way you are giving something for the information. You can also collect this information when documenting client information when you first acquire them. There is a plethora of different ways to obtain this information. But the information should be obtained from those who already patronize your business.

After you acquire your information and determine your target demographic, you should determine your target vicinity. Map out where your clients live or, in case of businesses, where they operate. Review the map and you will begin to see where the concentration of clients are from. Depending upon how many locations your business has and how many clients you service, you may have multiple concentrations of clients. They may be concentrated with segments of a city, an entire city, area, state, region, or country. Regardless, you should know the target vicinity where your target demographic resides.

Now that you know who they are and where they live, you need to know what they like. You can design your own tests. But unless you have experience, I would suggest either purchasing a psychographic test to be administered by your company or purchase the information from a research company that has already completed the testing. If you administer it yourself, do so in a manner so that your clients see you as trying to better your client service rather than trying to figure out how to sell to them better. Send out the survey to your clients with an intro that states, “in order to serve you better we would like to ask you a few questions.” Otherwise, it may be more expensive but less hassle in the long run to purchase the information.

Ok. So now that you know who your target demographic is, what your target vicinity is, and their psychographics you are ready to begin the process to modify a wide range of visual, audible, and olfactory preferences. The data is no good to you simply sitting on your desk. More revenue will not be garnered just because you have the data. You must act on this data. If you act correctly and in accordance with the psychographics of your target demographic, your revenue will certainly increase.

As a final note, if you are not interested in doing any of the work required to collect this type of information or the task simply seems too large and overwhelming, hire a marketing firm. A good marketing firm should be able to help you acquire this information or direct you to a reputable company that can. In addition, a marketing firm can help you alter your image (graphics, signage, logos, uniforms, etc) to conform to the psychographics of your target demographics for maximum effect. Regardless of how you proceed, you should understand that this is not an option. That is if you want to stay in business. If you aren’t doing it, one of your competitors is. Demographic and psychographic information is vital to growth and longevity of operation. Do not put this one off until later. Start gathering your information now.

This week’s motivational phrase is:

Marketing leads the effort. It doesn’t follow it.

This is something that I have seen entrepreneurs and business people alike forget. You figure out how to sell the product or serivce and then further the development of it. If you do not market you will die off. What good is having a revolutionary product or an awesome service if no one knows about it or if they do not understand the benefit. Do not overlook your marketing.