“If you reject responsibility or assign it to someone else, you voluntarily give up control. And that affects the way you think about the world and your ability to succeed quickly.”
~ No BS Magnetic Marketing Letter
What Areas Are You Abdicating Responsibility for Your Actions and Results?
While actions don’t always guarantee a satisfactory outcome, inaction almost always guarantees that you won’t get the results you were hoping to achieve!
When it comes to marketing, I’ve lost count of the people who tell me they’re ‘planning their marketing calendar’, but when I ask them what they’re doing, the answer is ‘not much’. That answer is reflected in their results. I have this discussion even with some of my long term (and fairly well trained) clients.
Have you ever been guilty of this behaviour? (Quarantine has made this even worse!)
- You go to a seminar and add one or more ‘must have’ activities to your marketing calendar;
- You divert resources (time, attention, energy) from an in-process or almost completed activity and never get it finished;
- Your time (and your team’s) is so full of new things that you don’t stop to plug holes in existing systems and evaluate their effectiveness;
I’m sure you can add at least 10 more items to this list in a matter of minutes, but you get the idea.
It’s not until you STOP.
EXAMINE your results.
Take RESPONSIBILTY for the actions that are delivering those results.
… That you can trigger meaningful change.
What Difference Does it Make Anyway?
When it comes to marketing your business and expanding your customer base, action makes the difference between success and failure. There are always money more opportunities to attract qualified customers profitably than you can possible use (unless you’re Amex, Coca Cola, or similar behemoths with bottomless marketing budgets), so while there are good, better, and best opportunities, the absolute worst thing you can do is wait for more information before taking action.
Apply the principles of direct response marketing to the best of your ability, analyse your results, and add, subtract, experiment, or change as indicated.
This shift in attitude from finding reasons and excuses for your inaction or ineffectiveness (Why isn’t … working as I hoped?) to asking:
- What must I do/change to achieve the desired results? And
- How can this be accomplished?
…is tremendously powerful.
It represents the difference between:
- “I’m working on it;” and “I’m improving my results.”
- “I hope that this will be profitable;” and “This is starting to deliver promising results.”
- “I’ll launch it next week;” and “It’s launched and now I’m improving it.”
- “What message will resonate with my audience?” and “Well, now I know that my message resonates;” or even “Well, that wasn’t a good direction to take!”
Victorian businesses, employees, and others who are waiting for the government or ‘someone else’ to tell them what to do or offer them money are losing opportunities. I do appreciate that this is a tough time and we are all mourning things we’ve lost (possibly for ever), but now is the time to step up and implement!
Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” is an excellent foundation for the existence and direction of your business or for evaluation opportunities, but when you start to use this question about actions, processes, and results, it often leads to reasons and excuses rather than implementation and analysis of results.
overall motivation,
The Danger of Distraction
As I mentioned at the start of this article, quarantine and the explosion of virtual events is dangerous for the undisciplined. The truth is, while there are some really terrible teachings about marketing your business out there, most of them fail because of lack of consistent, disciplined implementation.
A while ago, I was working with a couple of start-up clients in the coaching and speaking industry and providing strategic mapping and oversight. For the first 6 weeks they were both doing very well, consistently moving through the plan, implementing step-by-step, and gaining traction and fully appreciating the value of their investment. Then their paths diverged…
Client A enrolled in an online course with a well-known social media marketer planning to use two ways simultaneously. I started to hear two distinct messages:
- I haven’t finished implementing the next stage in the plan; and
- The program I’m in isn’t fulfilling the promise and it’s too complicated.
Client B also started following other marketers because he realised how critical marketing was but he steadily followed through on the plan.
By the 90-day mark, Client A had enrolled in a third program, was complaining that he couldn’t afford all the additional tools these programs demanded and the promising flow of leads and opportunities that we had generated at the start had all-but dried up. Client B was ready for stage 2 of our plan which involved getting outside implementation help (fully funded by the fruits of his lead generation) and he had decided where his next area of expansion and learning would be.
Today, Client A is still a struggling start-up showing immense powers of perseverance, and Client B is heading for his first 7-figure year.
Consistency and focus beat distraction every day!
Marketing-Focused Growth
Without great marketing, businesses wither and fade.
You may not like that, but it’s the reality. The most successful businesses aren’t necessarily those who do the best work, they’re the ones who invest in disciplined, consistent, and creative marketing systems.
Systems are important in marketing because they create a baseline from which you can expand. Once you have a core system that is consistently generating three-, five-, or ten-times your monthly investment then you can play with new ideas, markets, and products, knowing that your essential costs are well and truly covered.
Once your marketing is reliably delivering qualified leads who are pre-disposed to buy from you into your pipeline then you can afford to expand your products, employees, and other aspects of your business. If you try to expand before you have satisfactory lead flow and conversion then your growth will be sporadic and is more likely to look like two-steps forward, one-step back.
How Big is Your Circle of Control?
Where have you abdicated control in your business?
What areas do you say, I am waiting for X to decide / do / buy / happen etc.?
It’s true that no man is an island and our actions are affected by other people, governments, and plans. It’s also true that there is always at least one thing that you could do to create momentum, growth, or opportunity that is 100% dependent on your own efforts alone.
Find that thing… And do it!
I’ve noticed that when you do that thing, the next opportunity and action becomes clear and it’s not long before you see results.
Magnetic marketing systems help you attract your ideal customers, so you can deliver amazing results and create a strong base of fans who happily pay what you’re worth (and think it’s cheap at the price), sing your praises, and come back to buy over and over again. Learn more at https://hiltoncopy.com/marketing-strategy/