Communicating with intent means you understand that all communication has only one goal: invite people to take one more step with you. You cannot jump the steps and go instantly from them having awareness that your business exists to pitching them to buy your widget. When you combine connecting as a human with communicating with intention, everything starts to come together.
As we are nearing the end of 2023, we’re going deep into our plans for 2024. If you want to know what it will take to succeed as a leader in 2024 as a business owner in 2024. It will be those people who can figure out how to connect as a human first, on a larger, deeper scale.
Business owners often face challenges because they don’t think big enough. They feel passion for what they want to do burning inside them. They have a dream of the business they would like to own. But what they are doing will not get them there because they are playing too small.
While that list of pitfalls and marketing don’ts may seem very long, the great news is you can embrace just a few DOs and have a big impact pretty quickly. The important thing is that you don’t try to change everything at once. The goal is to make changes, get good at them, and then build from there.
In business, putting bumpers in your gutters means using strategies that will help you avoid missing your goals entirely and make it easier for your efforts to achieve a result. So when I talk about putting bumpers in your gutters, I mean we want to keep you from going too far in a particular direction that becomes counterproductive for your business goals.
Creating a Client Acquisition System prevents these cash flow peaks and valleys and is essential for building and scaling a successful business. Additionally, a good client acquisition system takes into account your goals, strengths, how you deliver on your promises, and the tactics that work best for your target audience.
While most businesses understand the need for systems in areas like accounting or client fulfillment, having a client acquisition system is something that is often overlooked, even by my high-level seven-figure clients. However, client acquisition systems are essential for sustainable business growth.
Intentional lead generation is the piece that I see that is missing for so many businesses. A systemized approach to lead generation can solve most or all of the problems I mentioned above: not finding the right people, getting stuck in reaction mode, running out of time, and experiencing sales peaks and valleys.
Networking can be one of the key components of how you move people over the bridge from your marketing efforts into sales conversations. Having a strong network of people who will send you referrals, and people who will support you, is one of the things that turns that bridge into a shortcut.
Marketing consists of all of the things that you do to create awareness of your business. Sales is the mutually agreed upon conversation that you engage in when you discuss exchanging services for money.
That makes intentional lead generation the activities that move people from engaging with your marketing to having sales conversations about working with you. Without intentional lead generation, there is a gap in the client journey, and that gap unfortunately often results in a gap in a business’s cash flow.
