Consistency is the Key to Success in any Endeavour
Every year Mike* goes to an industry Trade Show in Sydney, sets up a booth, promotes his wares, and collects the names and addresses of contacts. Every year, the Trade Show generates a flood of business which dwindles to a trickle as the months pass. Every year, his profits surge and then fade and his hopes of a bumper year vanish.
Eighteen months ago Mike tried a different strategy. When he came back from the Trade Show he plugged all those contacts into his address book and began to send out a mix of physical and email communications. They weren’t too sophisticated – announcements of a new range with an invitation to browse pictures online, a catalogue, some discount coupons, information on industry developments – but he noticed something strange. Instead of orders dwindling as the months passed, they continued to flood in – and most of them actually increased in value!
The cost of preparing and mailing those communications was nothing compared with the volume of sales, and the margins on most sales also increased. Last year when he attended the Trade Show again his booth was mobbed with eager buyers – some returning, others new. “I’ve never experienced anything like it!” he said. “I felt like a celebrity, and my business is totally unrecognisable.”
Consistency Pays Off
Your marketing efforts need to be consistently produced, measured, tweaked and re-produced if you expect to build a thriving business. If your business is not growing, then it is actually going backwards, but growth comes from faithfully and consistently taking actions to promote your business in the community.
These actions should be taking place both online and offline to reduce your vulnerability to changes in the market. I’ve written about “The Danger of One” elsewhere, but in this post I want to stress the importance of consistency. Your prospects are bombarded with offers from many places. Some companies they recognise, others they don’t. Particularly when they are making a big financial commitment or choosing a provider for a mission-critical purpose they will tend to lean towards someone they know and trust.
As a Business-to-Business provider you are usually providing this kind of high value, mission-critical expertise so you want to build your prospect’s trust with consistent, valuable communications. In a month, or even less, your prospect (even current clients) can forget who you are if you do not make an effort to reach out and remain on their horizon. Unless you have no competitors and deliver an absolutely essential service the last thing you want to do is to fade into the background and have to start all over again in your mission to attract attention.
See-Saw Marketing will lead to sporadic growth.
You cannot simply market to prospects when you need more clients or when you have time. You need to set up systems, deadlines, and plans (and implement them), so that there is a steady stream of clients into your orbit. Even if you are a service business, and wonder if you can handle much extra business, you need to keep marketing when you are flooded with clients so that your business can steadily grow in value and reputation.
Setting up simple systems, and continuing to follow them is the secret to perseverance. If you rely on ad hoc procedures you will continue to experience the see-saw of feast and famine and will never be quite certain when your next client will show up, but if you consistently communicate with clients and prospect you will find your business growing like Mike’s in the coming year.