“… the quickest way to transform your business (and your life) is to master the art of selling.”
~ John Carlton
Are you struggling to attract leads and convert enquiries into sales? I’ve got some good news and some bad news for you.
First the Bad News: Hope, Pray, and Spend More Money Doing SOMETHING is NOT an Effective Cash-Surge Generation Strategy!
Most of the time when business owners tell me they are struggling to attract enquiries in the first place and then to convert those enquiries into sales, what they are really suffering from is a cash flow problem.
Ask a few more questions and often the reality is that the person is seriously stressed about their ability to pay their bills and pay themselves and agonising over whether this business is worth the toll it is taking on their health and well-being.
A bit more digging and I discover they are extremely busy blogging, posting on social media, and networking when they’re not actually working with clients in a desperate effort to find more prospects. Often they’ll be spending money boosting their social media posts, advertising, and focusing on upgrading their business cosmetics (website, logo, colours…etc.) in a largely random fashion. None of these actions are worthless or ineffective when they’re executed properly, but they’re not a first-line win-or-die strategy when it comes to results (i.e. cash-in-your-bank-account)!
The GOOD News is that there are Simple Strategic Actions You Can Take to Create a Cash Surge in Your Business
IF… you know your target market and know how to talk to them, then you can generate quick cash flow in any business. Over the past two months I’ve worked with a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Practitioner, a business coach, and a cosmetic dentist to do just that.
Depending on exactly how you want to generate your cash-flow surge and what the nature of your business is you can do this in several different ways including (but not limited to): high-value in-person clients for individual or group programs, automated information products, online coaching, or recurring monthly programs. Different businesses prefer to follow different strategies and many find that once the initial urgency is over a hybrid approach is most effective.
In the three businesses I referred to above the initial cash surge was generated by strategically focused advertising of a specific package that was designed to appeal to a specific category of client. We exceeded our goals for each of these businesses within the first month and each of them has set out on a journey to ensure that they never-again find themselves in this position again (although they also now have an evergreen asset they can roll-out when they want extra cash for a holiday, party, or to cover an unexpected expense.
Are You Willing to Leave Your Comfort Zone in Pursuit of Success?
“When Opportunity Shows Up, Never Forget that it’s WORK that Answers the Door.” ~ Brendon Burchard
The two biggest reasons that business owners fail in their cash-surge generation efforts are:
- You don’t know your market well enough so your offer doesn’t appeal; and
- You are afraid of doing the necessary tasks.
Let’s start with the second one. You’re almost certainly not afraid of work itself, but you may resist executing the specific tasks required to urgently attract more customers. One of the most effective ways of getting new customers or reactivating past customers is calling them, and this is something many people hate doing. I have known business owners who have asked their sales or reception staff to call prospects because they desperately need to generate appointments, yet who accept their feeble excuses for not doing so… usually because they themselves hate the task. It’s an interesting response, because the truth is that past customers or clients are often responsive when you reach out to them as it shows them they are missed. Even total strangers can be open to an appealing offer within a carefully crafted pitch so utter rejection is rarer than you might think.
In addition to getting on the phone to selected prospects who you have reason to believe are open to your offer, here are two other cash-surge generating tasks you might be afraid of:
- Sending direct mail; and
- Crafting attention-grabbing ads.
All three of these strategies are capable of doubling, trebling, or multiplying your monthly income by larger factors if you use them effectively. BUT… they all depend on your intimate knowledge of your target market AND your willingness to use that knowledge to exacerbate their awareness of the problems and their desperate need for a solution.
Many business owners, especially in this age of political correctness, don’t feel comfortable doing this… even though they realise they have the tools in their possession to turn misery into joy. So, they selfishly keep their solution under wraps and suffer the struggles and stresses of financial constraint.
Need More Leads, Clients, or Cash Urgently? … Here’s the Solution:
Alan suddenly realised that he had spent the money he needed to pay his quarterly BAS. He didn’t want to ask for an extension but he needed $17,000 within 10 days! He was lucky. He was able to pull out his cash-surge strategy, make a couple of minor tweaks to the design and copy, check his customer records and prospect lists and activate the campaign.
His receptionist had to call five people each day from a list of potential prospects and run through a prepared script as well as sending out 50 letters each day, and he invested in a fairly aggressive advertising ($50 per day budget) and email campaign. He had the money in less than a week.
What it takes to run a successful cash flow surge campaign:
- Intimate knowledge of your target market and their problems;
- Willingness to test different offers and media – the only time I’ve seen this type of campaign bomb completely was with a person who had no clue what their target market cared about – testing is about improving your results;
- Multi-faceted approach – the combination of house list, aggressive targeted list-building, and personal outreach is magic;
- Tightly-controlled budget where spending is strictly dependent on results;
- Irresistible offer and firm deadline.
When all these elements are lined up, this method cannot fail and I’ve seen it work in a variety of industries on both small and large scales. After you’ve tried this a few times you’ll be able to accurately predict just how much this campaign will bring in and how long it will take for the cash to roll in.
If you’re in Melbourne, why not visit our Magnetic Marketing Mastermind which meets monthly in Box Hill. To learn more and sign up for notifications visit https://memg.com.au
