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.
There is no wrong answer when it comes to which market position you choose. You can choose to be a low cost leader, and you can choose to be an exclusive, high-end, luxury brand. Neither are wrong, as long as you do it on purpose.
One of the reasons people have problems knowing what to say is that they don’t “do” the work before “going” to work; they just go out into the world and do random acts of marketing. If you put thought into what you are going to talk about in advance, you will encounter fewer blocks and feel more confident in what you want to say to promote your business.
Many business owners end up in a cycle that looks like this: you market to get a new client. When you get the client, you stop marketing. When you are done helping that client, you market for the next client. These starts and stops in your marketing and client acquisition create gaps in your cash flow
All of the pieces of your marketing must come together in a cohesive way that creates predictability for your ideal client so that their decision to work with you is less risky to them. Your overall brand should let people feel confident that their decision to work with you is the right, safe, good decision that they want it to be.
The truth is, you don’t need to do more things to market your business or hire more people to do more things. You just need to do the right things.
The things you did when you first launched your business may no longer be working for you as you try to grow and scale your business. Not only will the tactics and activities that got you started not get you to your next level, but the mindset that got you started will not take you where you want to go.
If you are not creating your company’s brand intentionally, it is happening by default. Unfortunately, I see this far too frequently when I work with business owners. In this article we are going to discuss what makes up your business brand, how having a cohesive brand helps your business, and how to build an intentional brand of your own.
Consistency is another thing that actually creates an in-demand brand. I am not talking about consistency in terms of what you do regularly, like consistently posting on social media. In this context I am talking about ensuring that all of the pieces of your brand are consistent so that the feeling you want to create with your brand is exhibited no matter how somebody is interacting with you.
