What’s going on you might ask… I seem to be telling lots of people about what I do and how I can help them, but still they’re not buying?

Marketing methods that fail

We can go to a networking meeting, not feel comfortable and not pick up any business. When this happens it’s easy to say, I went…I met 20 business owners…and not one of them bought, then you conclude that networking doesn’t work.

You might also try advertising, may not be 100% clear on the offer, but still spend a few hundred (or thousand), get little or no interest, and say that doesn’t work either.

You might not like writing, try half-hearted to write one, have no interest and give up saying that doesn’t work either.

We could claim the same issues with direct mail, websites, flyers, phone calls or a hundred other marketing methods.

Marketing Methods that work

Not so long ago I was chatting with a guy who makes a good six-figure income and his only marketing method is networking. One of my peers tells me one advert she runs generates a 38% response. I can tell you our newsletter builds confidence and awareness in what we offer and that over time it generates lots of good will that eventually turns into confidence and awareness in what we offer.

And these marketing activities are no different from the ones people may claim don’t work. So what makes the difference?

Using the strategy of Olympic Medallists

Olympic medallists are not just born. They dedicate untold hours to making minor adjustments that give them an edge, a fraction of an inch that might just make them a champion, rather than an also-ran.

It’s about small improvements made over time, and sometimes you need outside expertise on these things.

At CommunitySoul, we made a change on one of our web pages recently that changed the take up by just 3%. That doesn’t sound like much, but when 1000 people hit that web page and the product is £1200, it’s a very worthwhile adjustment.

So, generally, when people are not buying what you offer, it’s not that the strategy doesn’t work, it’s that the way you’re using the strategy hasn’t worked.

With marketing you have to keep refining things until you get results you want.

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit.  If you liked this article, then you’ll LOVE his blog at http://www.communitysoulblog.com
Visit our website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

One method of attracting new clients is through making true and bold statements.

But in Britain we’re often loathed to do this, as we feel we’re blowing our own trumpet. But if we fail t o make bold statements that tell others wh at they can gain, we fail to communicate the benefits we can deliver.

At CommunitySoul we know our advancedconnections membership can deliver a return on investment of at least 25 to 1. We know the Insiders Secrets series can deliver a reduction in  your working hours of up to 11 hours a week and a create a leap in income of up to 128%. As we have seen this happen, we can make that statement.

Creating a bold statement

What I’m encouraging you to do is believe in what you do 100%. Know you make a difference and tell other people about that difference. In order to do this you’re going to need to know what your clients and customers are experiencing.

Last year we asked some of our members about their results as a result of spending time with us. The answers they gave in some cases was jaw-dropping.

I say jaw-dropping because they told us things we never knew. They told us about results they’d achieved. They told us about techniques they’d been using that they’d picked up from one of our speakers, or one of our education slots.

What this told us is what people were really getting instead of what we thought or hoped they were getting.

The additional pay-off…

So feeling good about what people told us increased our confidence in what we were delivering. As a result we told people about the results more boldly, and in turn this made us wonder, what’s even better than those results – so we upped our game and began thinking bigger.

And if you believe more in what you do, I suspect you can succeed in making your difference even more – I mean getting it out there and earning your living from it.

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit.  If you liked this article, then you’ll LOVE his blog at http://www.communitysoulblog.com
Visit our website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

If every day you want things to be a bit different, yet everyday you’re faced with the same issues, (i.e. want more clients, more money, or want to be making a bigger contribution to the world), try this…

Breaking the cycle of not having what you want

First take some time out. Take your challenge with you and go somewhere to mull it over.

Jo and I have been doing this monthly for about a year. During these sessions we’ve noticed lots of detail, considered what we’ll do about it and then implemented things very quickly, because we knew what needed to happen and who would do it.

Having your vision for your future materialise faster, can actually mean doing less and planning more. Planning is like cutting wood with a sharp saw rather than a blunt one. You just cut through the wood quicker if you take the time to sharpen the saw.

Creating the Space for better business ideas

When we create this space to think, what we end up doing is asking great questions rather than dwelling on what doesn’t work.

Planning, earlier in the year, resulted in some tweaks to our web pages which resulted in a 50% jump in on-line sales on one product in a month.

As a result of this, more people found the help they needed and our income rose.

So, the pauses where we plan are actually more effective than actually doing.

It all sounds simple, but I bet the biggest challenge for most people is the attachment to being at their desk or work place, because they have been socially conditioned to believe that they have to be at their work place to make money.

The best ideas come when you’re open to them

Down the years I’ve always found my best ideas come when I’m relaxed, away from my desk, dozing off or chatting with a coach. So be prepared to take some time away from your desk.

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. If you’d value time with someone who can help you reflect on your ideas, coaching is available at CommunitySoul and you will be connected with lots of good people who can help you.

One key to Success is knowing your long-term vision and setting short-term goals or actions.

I could talk about setting visions for hours.

First, you need to know what you want. You need to be able to describe what you want your business to be like when it’s all done and dusted.

You need to write it down. In fact you need to do it better than that – you should really write it down every day. I do this, and I can tell you it’s a powerful daily reminder of what I need to focus on. Also, it can be even more powerful if you draw it out. If you write it down and draw it out you use both sides of your brain and this is very powerful for getting your goals to sink into your subconscious mind.

Once it’s written down and drawn it out, you need to play with your imagination and see it happening in some way. For some people this means sitting down and closing their eyes and visualising. For me, I imagine my vision unfolding before me as I work. For example as I was brainstorming for a tele-seminar, I was imagining you taking notes and finding valuable information that will help you move ever closer to your goal. I was seeing my words float out of my mouth like magical fairy dust, down the phone line and into your ear, where you hear it, write it down and then take action on it later.

And this fits in with my vision for CommunitySoul in that everyone, who associates with us, becomes ever increasingly prosperous.

Next you need to affirm your vision. This doesn’t mean doing meaningless affirmations over and over again. This means noticing what you say, what you do and what you think, and then paying attention to anything that contradicts what you want. When you notice a contradiction, you have to correct it and change it to something that moves you towards your goal. For example, “I can’t find any clients,” could easily become, “I’m learning new ways to attract clients” and then you back that up with the action to, perhaps, go on an educational programme that helps you refine your skills until you get the habits and the desired results.

When your mindset is right, when you’ve decided to succeed and have stopped the mind chatter that holds you back, when you have a clear vision, you start to become more attracting in terms of the goals you want to achieve. You’ll attract what you think about most. You’ll begin to attract the right people and resources.

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit.  If you liked this article, then you’ll LOVE his blog at http://www.communitysoulblog.com

When you learn to drive a car, you start off driving consciously, thinking every gear change, brake, accelerator, clutch movement. Then, over time, it starts to become more and more natural. The one day you brake into a corner, accelerate around it and slip through the gears, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th without thinking and you then realise, smile and go, “Oh yeah!”

Business can be like that too and it changes when you all the things you once did consciously now become second nature and the learning you’ve been doing becomes knowing.

The knowing comes in the results – from the growing expectancy that you actually now are succeeding and can literally see your dream coming true. In driving it’s when your movement become instinctive. In business it’s when you have ideas that are grounded in habits, strategies, systems and processes and you know what tool to apply to what problem so that your dream continues to unfold naturally and effortlessly.

The expectancy comes in signs the results are coming. In business that might be signs that a product is right because the research checks out or sales start clocking up or that a marketing campaign is working because it’s generating leads and sales.

But the decision to succeed is made earlier. It’s made when we commit to doing the things you need to do to succeed. It happens when we stop making excuses. It happens when we stop saying “I can’t” and start saying “I will.”

Let me give you an everyday example. A recent CommunitySoul poll said 76% of businesses number one challenge is finding new business. So let’s use that as an example.

Let’s say your currently worried about where the next client’s going to come from and you’ve got a bottle neck of other things that need to get done. You’re waking up in the morning saying I don’t know where to start… I wish I could find more clients… I wish I could make more money… but before I do that I have to do deal with XYZ.

And you’re right. You have to deal with XYZ. In fact you have to deal with it to the extent it’s eliminated or severely reduced because right now it’s choking you.

I once worked with someone who complained they had no business coming in. I asked them to give me a breakdown of their typical working day. They told me they did yoga at 9am. Meditation at 11. Made lunch at 12. Walked the dog at 1.30. Did computer practice at 2.30pm then began the evening meal. This was an extreme case. But it clearly shows how the hours of “doing stuff” go by. Now for you that stuff might be emails, phone calls, admin, office tidying – it’s all the same.

But you have to realise that that stuff is stopping you from success and you need to put that aside and decide that you’ll stop doing that and start doing the work that will actually keep you in business.

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit.  If you liked this article, then you’ll LOVE his blog. http://www.communitysoulblog.com