Good Marketing, Good Business
Have you noticed so much business and marketing content out there is so abstract and airy fairy - what they’re saying sounds good, but what do you actually need to DO?
That’s where the Good Marketing, Good Business podcast comes in, this is where I share practical strategies to help you grow your service based business. Everything from exactly where to find more clients through to how to follow up properly without pestering.
Your host, Shannon Stone is an award-winning business and marketing consultant and for the last 10+ years she’s been diving in deep with small business owners, helping them to make more sales and get more done in less time.
The Good Marketing, Good Business podcast is here to make your life and business a whole lot easier as long as you’re ready to put in the work - if you’re a good-hearted business owner who wants to grow, this is the podcast you'll want to call home.
Good Marketing, Good Business
076: Five Ways Being Sharper In Business Will Help You To Grow
Ambiguity and assumptions are not going to cut it as we go into 2025 and beyond, and this applies to all areas of your business. The sharper we can get whether that's with lead generation or in our systems and processes, the greater chances you will have to move with the market and continue to grow your business.
From hooks and headlines to promises, next steps and call to actions, this episode is an invitation for your business to get sharper so you can get far greater results because as we know, what once worked a treat is now struggling to keep a business afloat - so it’s time we not only get savvier, it’s time we get sharper.
By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:
- How your business can sharpen the axe, get deeper and speak clearer
- How to get sharper with your targeting, messaging and showcasing results
- What is market sophistication and how it’s extremely relevant to changes in business
Enjoy!
Resources:
If you’d like to work together with me as your 1:1 business and marketing consultant, book a call here.
H ey, welcome to the podcast. Super, super excited for this episode. I'm sharing five ways. Being sharper in business will help you to grow.
Shannon Stone:This is going to be a real interesting episode. It's one of those small and mighty changes and sometimes, if we don't make particular changes in business, it can feel like we're banging our heads against the wall. So I want to walk you through what this means and how this can help you to grow in business, generate more clients and make business a lot better for you. As I was putting this episode together, it was actually birthed out of a conversation I was having with a client and she said the things that capture her attention are those where the messages are so specific to her. So once upon a time, you know, people can share a marketing message or say, hey, this is what I have and this is how it can help you, would you like it? But now we have to be so specific, so tailored, so niched, and just her saying that really validated the fact that we do have to be sharper at what we do. That really validated the fact that we do have to be sharper at what we do, and I've got five different ways that we can do this in business.
Shannon Stone:But I do want to start with this quote that I really, really love. It's one that I've always kind of kept handy for me. It's a Jim Rohn one. It says don't wish things were easier, wish you were better, and I love that. I love that so much, particularly in business, because so many things are out of our control and it would be so easy to say I wish things were easier, I wish things would like when are things going to get easier and easier for us? But that's very external In some ways. That's very outside of our hands. If you wished you were better, I think that puts the power in your control to see okay, well, what can I do better, what can I do differently so that I see better results in the business? So before I get into sharing what these five ways are, I want to share a bit of a marketing lesson. I guess you could say with you it's this term called market sophistication and it'll make sense as I share it, but it'll make these five areas even more powerful.
Shannon Stone:So once upon a time, when it comes to selling things, so someone could be selling back in the day a diet pill and they could just market that to people and say, if you take this pill, you will lose weight and back then it was so easy to sell things. We weren't in the, we didn't have the excess of supply that we do now. So it was very easy to have very simple marketing messages like that. But as things evolved, as competitors came into the market, as the market, as in the people, got savvier and savvier, they needed to know more than just the fact that this pill will make you lose weight. They wanted to hear something like the next iteration could be take this pill, 3,000 women have seen 10 kilogram loss in three months, for example, like some type of measurable result against the product, so that might be one of the next iterations of it. Another iteration as it continues to evolve is take this diet pill 3,000 women have lost 10 kilograms over three months. The ingredients are from the Amazon forest, some secret discovery that they've made.
Shannon Stone:So as time goes on, as a lot of variables start to change and become more competitive, we have to sharpen the marketing messages. We can't just say I help you to make sales, I can help you to have a really good website, I can help you to build your personal brand. This is really the time, now, literally more than ever, that we have to adopt some of this market sophistication. So we'll get into some of these five ways that you can do that to be sharper but keep that in mind of how am I pitching, what it is that I do, how I'm helping people. Have I stuck by the same terminology for far too long, whereas now I need to be sharper at explaining the value that it provides people?
Shannon Stone:So the first way that you can be sharper is of who you target, so the type of clients that you want to work with. So what type of clients are they? What do they look like? How can you identify them? What makes them different from a broader market? Now, you would have done this type of thing at some point, if not multiple points in your business, but the idea that you need to get sharper just says that you need to do this exercise again. How are they different?
Shannon Stone:Say, for example, you are a mortgage broker. How have your clients changed? Or how can you identify them more specifically, more laser targeted, what are the things, what are the attributes around them that make them a really really good client? So who you target? It can be the same people, but how you pinpoint them, how you describe them, how you pick them out out of the crowd in a sea of other people, that they're the kind of things that you need to pull from. So who you target is a really, really important one. You could target, say, you could be that mortgage broker. You could target first home buyers all across Australia. But maybe to be sharper, to adopt some of that market sophistication it's that you only work with, for example, sophistication it's that you only work with, for example, self-employed first home owners who have a $50,000 deposit, or only self-employed who have been in business for at least five years. You know what are the attributes around who it is that you target. So apply this to you and your business and the type of people that you work with.
Shannon Stone:So that is number one. Number two is in your messaging. So we've kind of touched on this with the diet pills in particular. But how can you get clearer on your message, on the message that you're wanting to portray? How can you make it more tangible, how can you make it more real for your market? Your market, like everyone's market, has definitely evolved, so their buying behavior has also evolved too. So if that is the case, what is it? What are you going to evolve in your business, in your marketing, in your messaging? I think that's a really important point. It's that, yes, things have changed, but what are you going to change as well?
Shannon Stone:I think a really good book recommendation is who Moved my Cheese Literally one of the greatest books of all time, I swear. Very relevant to business. I also think very relevant to all walks of life. But definitely this is a great time to read that book. It's like, literally, you'd read it within an hour. It's a very short book, but it really packs a punch.
Shannon Stone:But number two, your messaging. How can you get clearer on that messaging? You're not just selling the diet pill. What are the clearer things that you need to convey to people? You know we're not hundreds of years back, so even a couple of years back, we are where we are now and we need to be stronger and sharper in the way that we portray how we can help people. Number three this is probably my I was going to say my favorite one, and then I saw four sitting there, but it's definitely up there and that is showcasing results.
Shannon Stone:So whenever I work with people, I always want to know tell me the type of results that you help people with. And kind of two things happen. One, they bounce off all these different results they help people to achieve. So they know they help, just like you. You know you help your clients. But the second part, that doesn't actually happen as much as it could or should, and this is what you can do this is a change we all can be better at is being more specific around the type of results that you help people to achieve. More specific around the type of results that you help people to achieve. So, if you are someone that does do websites, for example, do you help them to increase their traffic by a certain percentage. Do you help them to generate a certain amount of leads within, say, 30 days of launching or relaunching their new website? How can you be more specific, like, how can you add metrics to the results that you help your clients with?
Shannon Stone:So number three is showcasing the results. So what kind of results specifically? Make them tangible, make them measurable, and also for what kind of specific client as well. Sometimes it's just calling out. I swear. So much of marketing is. Let's just pull back the curtain and see what's going on here. Tell me more about those specific results, tell me more about those specific people or businesses that you work with, and let's bring all of that front of mind in your marketing. So For me, for example, I don't work with all types of businesses. I can help all types of businesses to make more sales, but I specialize in service-based businesses, and not only that, established service-based businesses. I generally don't work in the startup space as much as and this would be the same for you as much as you could help everyone in your type of niche and your category, who are the ones that you really want to work with, who are the ones that you really thrive to work with? And that is one of the really good ways to get sharper in your business. Okay, number four and this is probably equal playing field as far as it being a favorite of mine and that is matching your offer.
Shannon Stone:So your offer, your package, your service, what it is that you're selling to people. This is probably one that we nearly don't bring as much attention to, and it's looking at how can your service meet the needs of your clients and your future clients even better. I always think we can do better and better, and so how can you make sure that your offer, especially as things have changed, what is it that you're selling? Is there anything that needs to look differently? And I did this with one of my clients recently. This can be internal and external. So external is you know what are the features, the benefits, the inclusions within that service or that service offering. Another way is internally. So are there better ways that you can put that service or that package together? Can you be more efficient in that? If it makes sense for your business, can you do some of that work offshore? So really reviewing your offer from multiple angles can really help you to be more sharper.
Shannon Stone:What I would also say with this is have a look at what needs to be included and excluded. So if you get more clear on who you want to target, make sure your offers and what it is that you're selling really matches that as well. I've got a client where you know video. Video has always been one of those things where it's, as more years go by, it continues to take over and you want to. So in their case, it's making sure that their packages include the video elements to it. So just make sure that you're aligning everything, because if you're selling outdated services and packages, it's very obvious why it's going to be a struggle for you to sell them because they're outdated. So getting sharper around your offer and your packages and your services is going to be a really great way to not only keep up with the market, but also to be very innovative as well and be very forward focused.
Shannon Stone:Okay, the fifth and final way that you can be sharper is having a look at your systems, your processes and your efficiencies. So when you're having a look at these and let's say we apply it to your service offerings, if you're reducing the time spent per service, that is literally money back in your pocket. That is giving you more space in your schedule or your team's workload to be able to work with even more clients. So never underestimate systemizing things, putting processes and efficiencies in place, because when you do it the right way and when you reuse that renewed time that you've gotten back, when you use that wisely, that can really help to grow your business. So there's kind of two ways to grow it. One is to work with more people and two is to cut down the time it takes to work with those people so you can work with even more people Really good way and perspective to look at it. So have a look at what systems do you need to help you to speed things up for you, for your team, even your clients as well. You know, in certain sectors clients slow down getting the project completed and when the project takes longer to get completed, you know that business isn't getting paid until the project is completely done as well. So other things that you can do to help the client get things done quicker as well. All right, just to wrap this up. So the five ways that you can get sharper in your business and it will help you to grow. Number one who you target. Number two your messaging. Number three showcasing results. Number four, matching your offer. And number five, systems, processes and efficiencies.
Shannon Stone:Before we get into the action steps, just to wrap this up, ambiguity and assumptions are definitely not going to cut it moving forward in business. We can't assume people know the results that you bring or the impact those results will have on them. We can't be ambiguous as well and kind of hope that people will fill in the gaps. The thing is, you do what you do every single day of the week, but your clients generally they don't. So we can start to, I guess, be so in it that we don't see what everyone else sees. So this is a really good time to check in with these things and see what we can do better. Which does bring us to the action steps. What I would suggest is choose one of these areas that we mentioned, one of the five, and focus on being sharper, in that you could even set yourself a bit of a long-term project where, for the next five months, you work on one of these per month, and doing that is a really good way to sharpen your business, grow your business, and I'm sure you're going to see a lot of benefit from doing that as well.
Shannon Stone:So that is what I have for you today. If you have any questions, always reach out. I'm hanging out on LinkedIn so much these days, so feel free to come hang out and connect there if we haven't already. But I hope you have an amazing week and I'll talk to you soon.
