I meet many business owners and professional people who are ‘doing their best.’

They are working hard. Making contacts, networking, filling their ‘sales pipeline,’ collecting business cards, phoning people and meeting people.

And it’s just not working.

Their flourishing, prosperous business is a highly elusive — so it would seem — figment of their imagination.

Why?

Here are my top 10 reasons why it’s not working –

1. People know how to make the thing they sell but they don’t know how to sell the thing they make. They have a great product or service yet they’re just not good at sales and marketing.

2. Not getting the right kind of marketing or sales help in time — or not at all — and not having a Marketing Plan.

3. Not understanding — and/or — half-arse implementing the Core Management Strategies of any great business including Purpose, Vision, Values, Culture, Brand, Point of Difference, Ideal Client/customer, Key Marketing Message, Optimum Sales Strategy and Outrageous Service.

4. Not understanding the seven key drivers of profit of any business from Wal-Mart to Royal Dutch Shell to Toyota to Fred’s Chicken Shop… and even worse than that, not having a clue how to use the right strategies at the right time to ramp-up the profit drivers.

5. No differentiation — trying to market — me-too, same-old, lame-old — non-attention-grabbing stuff.

6. Not delegating or hiring part-time help to do the things that most of us want to hang onto but we know ‘deep down’ that we have to let go — if we want to move forward.

7. Not having a systematic referral system. We need a referral engine. A referral strategy is a lead strategy, it’s a customer service strategy, it’s a process strategy, it’s a competitive strategy, it’s a management strategy, it’s a people strategy and it’s a financial strategy.

8. Not understanding and not taking full advantage of the greatest productivity rule ever discovered — the 80/20 rule.

9. Failing to calculate the life-time value of a client and therefore not understanding that business is about the ‘long-game’ not the ‘short game.’

10. Neglecting to communicate and market to your existing clients/customers… the ones that already like, trust and respect you. The ones that have decided to belong to your ‘tribe.’

Okay so I could list a few more like not forming strategic alliances, trying to be all things to all people and perhaps underestimating the time it takes to grow a successful business, however the ten listed above are the keys to why it’s not working. This is based on my experience with over 5000 business owners in Australia and New Zealand over the past 30 plus years.

As a business owner you have your hands full.

With precious little time in your day and so many new ways to reach prospects (to grow your business) it’s hard to even know where to start when it comes to marketing your products and services. Social Media? Email? Blogs? Video? Search Engine Optimisation?

Only action creates results… and if you’re going to stand out from the crowd and identify, attract, engage, win and keep more customers and clients, you’re going to have to take some smart, yet simple steps to get in the game… with just-in-time guidance to point you in the right direction.

More to come on this subject…and in the meantime the question is not about doing your best — the question is ‘did I do what had to be done to be the best?’

So UPYOURS.

Up your attitude , UP your thinking, Up your energy and Up your action and I’ll see you at the Next Level.

Good Luck and (always) Good Selling

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