Mindset Challenge

In business and in life there are ups and downs.  Often you can enjoy periods where everything is firing on all cylinders.  Your marketing is working, employees are stepping up, revenue is growing and you are even starting to get free time.  Then there are time that it seems like you are stuck in sludge.  Nothing quite works right, revenue is stagnant or in a decline, employees are complaining and it’s just downright frustrating.

When you feel caught in the muck and it just feels like a grind there is no finer time to focus on your mindset.  While we haven’t exactly been stuck in the muck lately, we have been battling “head trash” that has kept us from firing on all cylinders (some of you may have noticed we missed a few episodes).

In today’s mindset Monday we explore some of the items that have caused us a challenge to help you avoid the pain and get to the period where everything is going your way.

Listen in and read on to find out how you can challenge your mind to help you reach the success you deserve:

Key Items

1. Old Recurring Bills - When was the last time you really poured through your credit card statement?  I mean, not just glanced at it and paid it, but really went through each item.  Are you using everything you are paying for?  Have you failed to cancel a bill because it is just “$9 a month and it would take longer to get on the phone than just pay”?  Those nagging recurring bills may not seem like much but they weigh you down.  They distract your hard earned dollars from tackling something new because in the back of your mind you allocate money for those recurring items that you aren’t even using.  Take the next 1-2 months and cancel away!
2. Nagging Task List - Do you have items on your task list that just never seem to get done? Have written and rewritten the same task for days, weeks, maybe even months?  Have you asked yourself “is it really that important?” and “why do I keep moving it if it is so important?”.  Take time to really evaluate what is on your list.  If it is a long term project then break it into pieces that you can digest and accomplish so in a few weeks or months that goal really is done! Or cut it completely and it will free your mind.
3. Set a deadline - Have you ever noticed you can get your house in order right before guests are coming over?  Or “magically” when you have a new bill that is due your business suddenly really takes off and you find the revenue?  These aren’t accidents these are deadlines that are put in place and you end up achieving to reach those deadlines.  The challenge for many business owners is that no one is putting any pressure on them to hit deadlines.  After all you are your “own boss” you can do what you want….right?  But are you really doing what you want or struggling just “doing”?  Whether it is an accountability partner, business coach, or mentor put deadlines in place to help you get out of the funk and into achievement.

Joe Says So

• Mental Task List – Avoid the mental task list.  When your mind is only thinking of items you have to do in the next hour, or day you will miss your big ideas.  Write down your task lits, put it in One Note, etc, just don’t waste your mind on keeping track of tasks.

Sponsors

• Perry Marshall – As the co-author of the Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, creator of the Adwords Bootcamp and one who has developed ninja level marketing programs you are sure to find a marketing strategies and tactics that will help your business get to the next level.
• Email Autoresponders – Staying connected with existing customers and prospects can be a challenge when you are relying on only your own activity.  Implementing an email autoresponder sequence will help you to engage prospects over time until they are ready to do business with you and keep existing customers thrilled that you are staying in touch.  Find out more about the solutions that can help your business today.

Want Your Challenge Featured?

With each challenge we tackle, we look to not only solve the problem we look to shed light on new opportunities for our listeners.  We invite you listen to a couple of the business owners who shared their challenges and to submit your own today!

Business Challenge

For some reason, unless you are a Dr. or a Lawyer, people seem to think that a process is easy when they hire you to complete it.  We see this challenge occur in many different service verticals (Plumbing, Digital Agencies, Real Estate, Construction, Pest Control, Car Repair, etc.) and when not addressed it can lead to frustration both on the service business as well as the customer.

Helping customers and prospects understands the depths of work that you complete for them should be your mission when you want to keep happy customers and increase long term value.  Today’s challenge hits right at home of the providing insight into the tasks you truly complete and still providing a great customer experience.

“My prospects and clients think all I do is change bids, what do I do?”

Listen in and read on to find out more:

Key Items

1. Avoid Common Mistakes –  There is a fine line between a great customer service and over-simplifying what you do.  Instead of saying phrases like “no problem” or “of course we can do that’ make sure to share how you do evaluations to ensure it is best for their business before taking action.  You can of course share that you can solve their challenges, just try to avoid making it sound too simple.
2. Prospect Interview – If your existing clients think all you do is change bids and they send you a referral that referral is going to think the same thing.  While it is great to get a referral from an existing client take time to interview them to understand their business, their challenges, and gauge expectations.  Even if your specialty is paid search consider having a questionnaire that is in-depth which digs into all marketing areas of their business.  This will help your prospect to see that you are looking at their business as a whole to see how paid search can fit in as a part of it.  If there is resistance to doing the interview share with them that in order for you to help efficiently it is imperative that you understand more about their business and that you aren’t a match for everyone. If you are in a space where works needs to be done more quickly, create a pamphlet to hand to the client that outlines the number of items you evaluate/complete on a given job while you handle their more immediate problem (i.e. if a toilet is over flowing they might not want to listen to your process, but they still need to understand it to be happy with you long term.)
3. Initial Audit – One of the key items after the interview and after the prospect signs to become a customer is the initial audit.  Many customers think “everything is fine” and that you can just start working away on their account.  Performing the audit, identifying the challenges, and then outlining when those items can be resolved will set the tone for the prospect that there is a great deal of work ahead!
4. Outline the Process - When someone says they will return your call ASAP for some people that means in 30 seconds, and for others that means 24 hours.  To help your customers and prospects understand the road ahead outline the processes that you undertake.  You could share with them the process that you evaluate before making a bid change, the process of creating new ad copy, daily management, etc.  Outlining a few of the processes that you and your team complete will help your customers to understand the level of detail and work that is required.

Sponsors

• Perry Marshall – As the co-author of the Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, creator of the Adwords Bootcamp and one who has developed ninja level marketing programs you are sure to find a marketing strategies and tactics that will help your business get to the next level.
• Email Autoresponders – Staying connected with existing customers and prospects can be a challenge when you are relying on only your own activity.  Implementing an email autoresponder sequence will help you to engage prospects over time until they are ready to do business with you and keep existing customers thrilled that you are staying in touch.  Find out more about the solutions that can help your business today.

Want Your Challenge Featured?

With each challenge we tackle, we look to not only solve the problem we look to shed light on new opportunities for our listeners.  We invite you listen to a couple of the business owners who shared their challenges and to submit your own today!

Business Challenge

Quite often the best customer is the customer you already have.  While we always want to continue the journey of adding new customers, there is often a missed opportunity of focusing on retention of existing customers and maximizing the value of those customers.  Keep in mind that “maximizing the value” doesn’t just mean raising prices on existing customers (i.e. like some of the big companies do when they know you won’t leave)…no, it means finding ways to add real value to their lives and in turn your business.

In the effort of adding new value to existing customers and revenue to your business, today’s challenge is:

“How do I get my customers to buy more?”

or

“How do I increase my customer value?”

Listen in and read on to find out more:

Key Items

1. What do your top 10% of customers and top 1% need? – In any given business there are 10% of your customers willing to pay a higher premium for better service of your existing offering or a higher quality of product.  The top 1% of customers are willing to pay a higher premium (i.e. think VIP or Platinum level).  Understanding the needs of your customer base will help you to craft the right product and offer.  For some businesses this can be dedicated time with you (the businesses owner) and for some it could be providing an over the top guarantee on your top level service.  Consider doing a survey to your clients to understand what more you could offer.
2. Continuity offer after a one time Service - In service businesses (i.e. computer repair, plumbing, etc.) the engagement is often a one time service event.  Even if you do a great job it could be months or years before that customer calls you back because you did such a great job for them!  For businesses that are often a one time service event there is an opportunity to provide a continuity service to increase the customer value.  In computer repair we had one client offer a monthly service to each client after service and his adoption rate was over 70%!
3. Could you expand your product or service line? – Increasing customer value could be as simple as adding a related service offering.  Now this is one you have to be careful with as you want to remain an expert in what you offer, so being an “expert” in 100’s of products or service lines isn’t likely.  Select your related offerings carefully (avoid the “We sell water and cell phones”…yes we have seen that) to ensure it maximizes the customer value, it is not just chasing revenue.

Sponsors

• Perry Marshall – As the co-author of the Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, creator of the Adwords Bootcamp and one who has developed ninja level marketing programs you are sure to find a marketing strategies and tactics that will help your business get to the next level.
• Email Autoresponders – Staying connected with existing customers and prospects can be a challenge when you are relying on only your own activity.  Implementing an email autoresponder sequence will help you to engage prospects over time until they are ready to do business with you and keep existing customers thrilled that you are staying in touch.  Find out more about the solutions that can help your business today.

Want Your Challenge Featured?

With each challenge we tackle, we look to not only solve the problem we look to shed light on new opportunities for our listeners.  We invite you listen to a couple of the business owners who shared their challenges and to submit your own today!

Business Challenge

The “thank you” page is often a forgotten page.  After all someone has made a purchase or opted in for a webinar or report, what more could you do?  Looking at the page it can even be challenging to think of the copy beyond “thank you”.  The reality is that you have captured a level of interest once you have been able to get someone to give you their information and/or even payment information.

Today’s challenge hits right at home of the problem of maximizing the customer interaction when they hit your thank you page. The challenge that we are tackling today is:

“What should I put on a thank you page?”

Listen in and read on to find out more:

Key Items

1. Is your “thank you” page or “congratulations” page post purchase or for something free? – This is a big distinction.  A page that is used post-purchase can have a very different purpose vs. a page that is shown to the visitor after a free optin (or registration for a webinar).  Put yourself in the mindset of your visitor, what would you want to see after going through your funnel or engaging in your landing page.
2. How can you increase the “value” of the interaction? - When someone provides you with their information or makes a purchase, they are exchanging their information or money for value (or a product) from you.  Immediately following that exchange of initial value, consider how you can increase the value of that initial exchange.  Can you offer a killer bonus that they didn’t expect?  Could you provide a coupon for a future purchase? Could you offer a set of quick start videos to help them get the most from your training course?  Consider items that will add nearly instant value that will keep them on your site or eager to buy again soon.
3. What do you want your prospect or customer to do next? - As you consider what to put on your thank you page, consider how what you put on the page will impact your customer life cycle.  Can you get them closer to a purchase after the initial free download (i.e. like offering a book to be shipped for .01?)?  After an initial product purchase, could you get them to enroll in your monthly subscription program for a discounted rate they won’t find anywhere else?  Think about what stage they are in when they see your thank you page as that can dictate what you offer.
4. Quick ideas to put on your page – When you are looking for quick wins, consider putting adding any of the following on your thank you page: Affiliate link to a related product, Premium item/service on your website that has a price not available anywhere else, an opportunity to speak with you 1 on 1 (time is incredibly valuable), video lessons on how to get the most out of what they just opted in or/purchased, or a bonus free offer and encouragement to share the original optin with their network.

Joe Says So

• Olympics – Once every 4 years we get to celebrate greatness in the Summer Games.  Part of the magic of the Olympics isn’t just the pursuit of being a champion but the stories behind those efforts.  Check out some of the Olympic stories of triumph and think how you could share stories with your customers.

Sponsors

• Perry Marshall – As the co-author of the Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, creator of the Adwords Bootcamp and one who has developed ninja level marketing programs you are sure to find a marketing strategies and tactics that will help your business get to the next level.
• Email Autoresponders – Staying connected with existing customers and prospects can be a challenge when you are relying on only your own activity.  Implementing an email autoresponder sequence will help you to engage prospects over time until they are ready to do business with you and keep existing customers thrilled that you are staying in touch.  Find out more about the solutions that can help your business today.

Want Your Challenge Featured?

With each challenge we tackle, we look to not only solve the problem we look to shed light on new opportunities for our listeners.  We invite you listen to a couple of the business owners who shared their challenges and to submit your own today!

Business Challenge

Developing a new product or even a new service line is an expensive endeavor.  From the initial idea phase to production to launch there is a great deal of time, money, and energy that is required in order to be successful.  While the big companies can develop expensive prototypes, and have in-person focus groups to help them determine if there is interest, those can be budget busters for smaller companies.

Of course, even not having a 7-figure R&D budget there are methods you can employ to help you gauge interest without breaking the bank.  Today’s challenge hits right at home of gauging interest before hitting full scale production.

“How do I find out if there is interest in a product before development?”

Listen in and read on to find out more:

Key Items

1. Customer Survey - A customer survey is a classic way to find out if there is initial interest.  If you are expanding a product line and you have been in business for some time then surveying existing customers is a route you can go to see if they would have interest in another product of yours.  If you have a small list or are a new company there are now plenty of methods you can use to survey (for a low cost) to see if there is interest (Survey Monkey, Google Surveys).  Take time to design your survey questions to help you find out if there is immediate interest (i.e. I want to buy now), if your product is something they would consider, and even if there are variations that would make it more useable to the end client.
2. 
   Instagram Interest - We saw this platform used to gather interest in a product before the company had a website (their website now is still really just a single page site).  The company is Gater Supply Co and they have a full spare tire holder that can be added to an SUV using the hitch.  Their instagram page showed pictures of the product in use and asked those interested to email.  This is a great way to connect with potential customers, get feedback (for all we know it could have been just 1 or two prototypes), and build a list of interest.  The visual nature of Instagram is a great way to show prototypes of products and then connect with groups that could be interested to see if you can gain initial momentum.  Consider having different versions of photos and see which ones get more likes to judge the success.  If you can capture interest by sending to a landing page that is great, but, as Gater Supply shows, you don’t have to.
3. Pre-Launch – A pre-launch or “coming soon” marketing campaign is common in the training and info-marketing space.  You can develop basic course outline, a few videos, and then have a way to optin or pre-order the course.  The method here is to make a steep discount for those that are eager to partake.  If your course is going to retail for $99 then you might make it $49 or even $29 for the early adopters.  If you can’t get enough interest then you can refund the early adopters. Let them know that if you don’t hit your target number of customers that is what happens as it makes it even more risk free.

Sponsors

• Perry Marshall – As the co-author of the Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, creator of the Adwords Bootcamp and one who has developed ninja level marketing programs you are sure to find a marketing strategies and tactics that will help your business get to the next level.
• Email Autoresponders – Staying connected with existing customers and prospects can be a challenge when you are relying on only your own activity.  Implementing an email autoresponder sequence will help you to engage prospects over time until they are ready to do business with you and keep existing customers thrilled that you are staying in touch.  Find out more about the solutions that can help your business today.

Want Your Challenge Featured?

With each challenge we tackle, we look to not only solve the problem we look to shed light on new opportunities for our listeners.  We invite you listen to a couple of the business owners who shared their challenges and to submit your own today!

Mindset Challenge

It’s a new month and that means a new Mindset Monday.  Items we cover in Mindset Mondays aren’t submitted to us, but they are often the items that we see preventing business owners, entrepreneurs, and business leaders from achieving their true success.

The mind and our egos have a funny way of preventing us from taking ownership of our situations (business, life, etc.)  Even when times are challenging we find ways to explain what is occurring in a manner that keeps us safe.  We generally don’t want to admit that we failed at a task or that we aren’t good enough at a skill.  Certainly there is some reason that it didn’t work out?  It was likely the economy.  Or maybe it was my employees aren’t talented enough?

Excuses are nearly wrapped in our D.N.A, and unfortunately excuses are one of the biggest reasons we don’t get to our big goals. Embracing excuses can lead to experience failure.  Here is what legendary runner, Steve Prefontaine had to say about failure:

“A man can fail many times but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame someone else.”

Listen in and read on to find out how you can challenge your mind to help you reach the success you deserve:

Key Items

1. What excuses do you rely on? - You might not even realize you are making excuses as it happens so often for so many.  When a project doesn’t go the way you planned, what are the first thoughts that you think of?  Are they “I can’t believe my employee didn’t do that right.” or “The economy/industry isn’t ready for my idea” or “If only we had started this project on time”?  Think carefully about the words that you use on a daily basis.  Even if you feel like you don’t rely on excuses, are your inner thoughts using this same kind of wording?  Maybe you don’t use excuses in business, but you use them for items like working out “if only I had more time…”.
2. It’s not about excuses it’s about making adjustments -Challenges are going to occur  in business.  Instead of making an excuses (or as some say “it’s not an excuse, it’s a reason” ) about why something happened approach the challenge by making adjustments.  Now this is not to suggest that if you have a big goal and your plan isn’t working that you “adjust” your goal, no, it is about making adjustments to hit your targets in a different manner than you originally anticipated.  Train your mind, your team’s minds, and even your vendors to look for alternate ways on how to accomplish each mission.  When you constantly look to make adjustments then excuses will no longer be a part of your mindset.
3. Are you preparing to win? - Excuses can get ingrained in the mindset from a lack of preparation.  Think about the last few projects, launches, or even businesses that didn’t go the way you had planned.  Did you have a plan put into action that was setting you up for a win?  Or was the plan a bit haphazard and set you up for a “failure” and the inevitable excuses that go along with that failure.

Joe Says So

• Steve Prefontaine – There are few more well known distance runners for those outside of running than legendary runner Steve “Pre” Prefontaine.  He is known for more than his raw running talent, he is know for his ability to dig deeper than his opponents and come out with the win.
• Team Hoyt – This father and son duo is well known for not merely competing in over 1,000 races, but competing at an elite level.  They are Boston Qualifiers and Kona Qualifiers and inspire people throughout the world.

Sponsors

• Perry Marshall – As the co-author of the Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, creator of the Adwords Bootcamp and one who has developed ninja level marketing programs you are sure to find a marketing strategies and tactics that will help your business get to the next level.
• Email Autoresponders – Staying connected with existing customers and prospects can be a challenge when you are relying on only your own activity.  Implementing an email autoresponder sequence will help you to engage prospects over time until they are ready to do business with you and keep existing customers thrilled that you are staying in touch.  Find out more about the solutions that can help your business today.

Want Your Challenge Featured?

With each challenge we tackle, we look to not only solve the problem we look to shed light on new opportunities for our listeners.  We invite you listen to a couple of the business owners who shared their challenges and to submit your own today!

Business Challenge

In today’s era of Social Media Stars and attention to athletics sponsorship has taken on an entirely new angle.  No longer is the act of sponsoring an event or even a popular individual left for “the big guys” it can be embraced by businesses of every size.  In Episode 98 we mentioned one of the ways to build a local brand was to sponsor local events.  That led to the deeper question of really taking that to the maximum as a system.

The challenge that we are tackling today is:

“How do I get the most (exposure, leads, interest) from sponsoring a local event? ”

Listen in and read on to find out more:

Key Items

1. Multi-Channel Exposure – Many local events and charities are used to running their sponsorship in a certain way.  They offer something like “Please donate $500 and we will put an ad up for you.”.  While this is nice, there are certainly more ways to support the organization that they would likely be willing to offer if you made the suggestion.  Ask if your sponsorship can include exposure on their Facebook page, handouts, website, and even email newsletter.  Many organizations have these channels of communications, they just haven’t thought to offer them as part of the sponsorship package.  Have your assets (images, videos, etc.) ready to offer so you can make it easy for them to accept.  For bonus points, give them your domain with tracking parameters (Google Analytics – UTM) to help you track the success of the different channels.
2. Offer to Bring in Related Businesses - There are many businesses that are related to aren’t in competition with each other but complement each other.  Think of Real Estate and Insurance or a car dealership and car wash.  Local events are often having to chase down sponsors from people they know, but if you can bring in related businesses that you have affiliations/relationships with you can not only help the organization you can bring in businesses that will likely refer you even more business.
3. Multi-Year Discount. – Especially for events with a good track record of attendance and a strong alignment with your brand ideals then locking up a multi-year deal can be extremely beneficial.  Committing to a multi-year deal can not only get you an additional discount it can even get you more premium advertising.  Many events have levels of sponsorship (i.e. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum) and committing to a multi-year period can get you an uplevel (or two sponsorship for the same price you are paying today.
4. Can You Provide an Item of Value?- We mentioned “small give aways” as a way to build your local brand in Episode 98.  You can use these items of value in conjunction with local events or you might even create something that helps the local event.  For example if there is an annual 10k that you want to support, think about branding your own water bottles for the aid station.   Don’t worry about trying to sponsor all of the water as that could be a budget buster, but offer to sponsor a specific aid station with your own branded bottle of water (even without a ton of research you can get these for a very effective cost).

Sponsors

• Perry Marshall – As the co-author of the Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, creator of the Adwords Bootcamp and one who has developed ninja level marketing programs you are sure to find a marketing strategies and tactics that will help your business get to the next level.
• Email Autoresponders – Staying connected with existing customers and prospects can be a challenge when you are relying on only your own activity.  Implementing an email autoresponder sequence will help you to engage prospects over time until they are ready to do business with you and keep existing customers thrilled that you are staying in touch.  Find out more about the solutions that can help your business today.

Want Your Challenge Featured?

With each challenge we tackle, we look to not only solve the problem we look to shed light on new opportunities for our listeners.  We invite you listen to a couple of the business owners who shared their challenges and to submit your own today!

Business Challenge

Redesigning a website is a big task.  It is such a big task that we couldn’t tackle the entire challenge in just one episode.  Listen in to Part 1 of Redesigning a Website to get key items that will help you make the most of the project of giving your online presence a new look and feel.

The challenge with redesigning a website is that too often we see that businesses of nearly every size over simplify the task.  The requirements are often something like “please redesign my site, make it look nice”.  Today’s challenge hits right at home with the challenges faced when looking to undertake a redesign.

Today’s challenge is:

“I am thinking about redesigning my website, where should I start?”

Listen in and read on to find out more:

Key Items

1. Requirements Document? – This is a tough one for many businesses owners.  Taking the time to set down and write out a 20-60+ page document that outlines the requirements of a website isn’t usually fun.  Whether you plan on investing $5,000 or upwards of $30,000 on a website, a requirements document will help you to ensure you get the most out of your investment and will help the firm that helps you to meet your goals.  Consider documenting overall functionality and even functionality by templates (i.e. a product template, blog post template, etc) to ensure you cover as many bases as possible.  Dig deep into as many areas of your site as you possibly can such as:
   1. Integrated Systems – From pixels to CRM systems document what is tied in to your site.
   2. Content – Are you just moving content? Creating new content? Need to enhance content?
   3. Style Guide – Do you have your H1-H4′s documented? Sizes of buttons? Colors?  Get it all documented for a great user experience.
   4. Forms – Do you have different contact forms on your site? Where do they get directed to?
2. Be prepared for the journey – A redesign can easily take 3 months or longer than a year depending on the size of the site.  If you are migrating a large volume of content then make sure you have a detailed plan of how that content is being moved over to the new site.  Understand that something will go wrong (it always does) even with the best plans.

Joe Says So

• Peter Sagan Montage – With the Tour De France over we are left to wait another year for the great race.  Enjoy Part 1 and Part 2 video from Peter Sagan, winner of the green Jersey to enjoy.

Sponsors

• Perry Marshall – As the co-author of the Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, creator of the Adwords Bootcamp and one who has developed ninja level marketing programs you are sure to find a marketing strategies and tactics that will help your business get to the next level.
• Email Autoresponders – Staying connected with existing customers and prospects can be a challenge when you are relying on only your own activity.  Implementing an email autoresponder sequence will help you to engage prospects over time until they are ready to do business with you and keep existing customers thrilled that you are staying in touch.  Find out more about the solutions that can help your business today.

Want Your Challenge Featured?

With each challenge we tackle, we look to not only solve the problem we look to shed light on new opportunities for our listeners.  We invite you listen to a couple of the business owners who shared their challenges and to submit your own today!

Business Challenge

Redesigning a website is a big task.  While many businesses redesigned last year with the need to have a responsive website there are still many businesses that haven’t done a redesign in some time and many more that will need to undertake a redesign in the near future.  Truly a website is “never done”…it just goes through different iterations.

The challenge with redesigning a website is that too often we see that businesses of nearly every size over simplify the task.  The requirements are often something like “please redesign my site, make it look nice”.  Today’s challenge hits right at home with the challenges faced when looking to undertake a redesign.

Today’s challenge is:

“I am thinking about redesigning my website, where should I start?”

Listen in and read on to find out more:

Key Items

1. What is the goal? – A new look and feel is great, but it is going to be an investment.  As you look to undertake this investment for your business, how will you judge success?  Is the goal to make it more friendly for mobile visitors?  Is the goal to make it easier to launch new landing pages?  Is the goal just to upgrade the “back-end” to make it easier for your team to use?  While the end result might be a nice looking website, understanding what you expect out of the project will help you as you determine budget and to judge the eventual success.
2. Does your platform need to be changed? - There are literally millions of people on WordPress and maybe that is good for you.  With relatively new entrants (founded in 2006 but quite a bit of momentum of late) to the market like WIX or enterprise level solutions like Sitecore, Adobe, and EPiServer you have a great deal of platforms to select from.  That small list doesn’t even include ecommerce focused platforms such as Magento, Big Commerce, Woocommerce, and more.  While a platform change could be part of your big goal, take the time to consider this as an aspect of your redesign efforts as it can add additional investment and time to the project.

Joe Says So

• Google Material Design – Google continues to push the internet in all areas.  Explore Google Material Design to see how it is helping transform web design.

Sponsors

• Perry Marshall – As the co-author of the Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, creator of the Adwords Bootcamp and one who has developed ninja level marketing programs you are sure to find a marketing strategies and tactics that will help your business get to the next level.
• Email Autoresponders – Staying connected with existing customers and prospects can be a challenge when you are relying on only your own activity.  Implementing an email autoresponder sequence will help you to engage prospects over time until they are ready to do business with you and keep existing customers thrilled that you are staying in touch.  Find out more about the solutions that can help your business today.

Want Your Challenge Featured?

With each challenge we tackle, we look to not only solve the problem we look to shed light on new opportunities for our listeners.  We invite you listen to a couple of the business owners who shared their challenges and to submit your own today!

Business Challenge

After 100 episodes we have been pleased to tackle a variety of challenges on the show.  We get the enviable position of people emailing us and even phoning in the challenges they are facing.

Since we just did an anniversary show in Episode 90, we thought instead of highlights we would share some of the common challenges that are components to the issues we have tackled on the show.  While we have tackled many specific items on the show, we have found that there are common themes to the challenges.

Yes there are differences in each businesses, but the problems each one faces are more often the same than most would want you to believe! Listen in and read on to find out more about the top 5 common challenges we faced to see how tackling these can help you reach the success you deserve:

Key Items

1. Business does not have Documented Systems - Many people start their own companies or even new divisions within larger companies because they are tired of how “things” are being done.  They want to blaze a new trail, grow the business, and they will do whatever it takes to get that growth.  This is good, however, that enthusiasm can often translate to working hard but avoiding processes that will help for long term growth and efficiency.  While you don’t want to have documentation for documentation’s sake, having well defined processes from instructional guides to process maps will help you keep quality high and your company growing.
2. Relying on One Marketing System – All too often we see a good business running off of one marketing system.  That system might be a dealer network making sales, word of mouth advertising, or even paid search…but relying on one marketing system is where we see businesses susceptible to changes in the economy.  With only one system running businesses can often get stuck in survival mode. Be where you need to be as cost effectively as you possibly can.
3. Being Goal Oriented instead of Process Oriented – A close relative of not embracing process is focusing too much on the goals.  For example in an environment where sales are driven by in-person meetings staff can get discouraged if they don’t make a sale on a meeting.  While the sale is the goal, the process to embrace is booking more appointments!  Yes you want to have a high conversion rate, but focusing too much on the end result will leave you discouraged when you go on a bad run.
4. Not really being open to Change – People want their business to be better, they want growth, but when asked to make changes we get answers like “we have tried that before, it didn’t work” or “we have always done it that way”.  If you want to get to the next level you will have to embrace true change.  Be open to trying a new method, possibly letting go a “favorite” employee or even ditching a product line.  The more open to change you truly become the greater growth you will enjoy.
5. Not Maximizing People or Systems - It often takes an outsider to see what is really going on.  For example if you have an employee that you love, that you think is doing great, and they tell you the best they can do is 20 calls a week (for appointments, bookings, etc.) then you likely accept that that really is the best, especially if everything else is working.  But what happens we diagnosed their schedule and found they could 60 calls a week?  And that 60 calls would triple your revenue…what would you say then?  We see that both in people and in systems that the business isn’t being pushed as far as it could go.  This can mean in pay per click raising the budget to 4x normal or it could mean challenging that go-to employee to do 2x as much activity in the same time.

Sponsors

• Perry Marshall – As the co-author of the Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, creator of the Adwords Bootcamp and one who has developed ninja level marketing programs you are sure to find a marketing strategies and tactics that will help your business get to the next level.
• Email Autoresponders – Staying connected with existing customers and prospects can be a challenge when you are relying on only your own activity.  Implementing an email autoresponder sequence will help you to engage prospects over time until they are ready to do business with you and keep existing customers thrilled that you are staying in touch.  Find out more about the solutions that can help your business today.

Want Your Challenge Featured?

With each challenge we tackle, we look to not only solve the problem we look to shed light on new opportunities for our listeners.  We invite you listen to a couple of the business owners who shared their challenges and to submit your own today!