Uttered by Robot B9 from the TV series Lost in Space, the phrase warns someone when something really downright dangerous is about to happen.
Now this “danger” might not apply to you…but then again, it might. So let’s err on the side of safety and lay the danger out there.
Can I start with a little background first?
There is a hierarchy by which almost all of us advance ourselves in our business.
- Awareness
- Processes & systems
- Skill development
- Mastery
Almost all of us follow this arch—you, me, your customers, all of us.
For the most part we pass the awareness step.
We become aware of the issue we are trying to solve, the challenge that has kept us stuck, the problem that keeps us up at night. And usually through enlightenment or the aid of a master, we figure out the issue/challenge/problem. And through the master or our own investigation, we also become aware of a solution.
The spot where many of us get hung up is the second step—processes and system.
Every day our approach to our business differs from the day before. We don’t handle our emails the same way (for example, touch them once). We’re always messing with our product funnel and how we offer it to a prospect. Some weeks we call prospects…too often we don’t. And then where do we put the info we gathered? What they said and when we should call again?
I recently read that 96% of failure comes from system failures…not having them or not having the right ones.
And we’ve all heard that 98% of businesses fail because they don’t have enough sales…which means they either didn’t have enough prospects and/or they didn’t put enough effort into selling those prospects.
When I take all of this into a shaker and jiggle the daylights out of it, three things seem obvious to me:
- You must put effort into growing your prospects…and the best way to do this is building your database list
- You must step up to reaching out and talking to your prospects to turn them into customers—and most sales take 5 to 12 touches before you get the “YES”
- Having processes and systems to support your prospect-building and sales efforts will make your life that much easier—and sales and profits happen that much faster
Will you do yourself this favor?
Right now…before you are drawn to do seven other things…write down five places where you can go on-line or off to build your database?
With on-going efforts to build your database you will never be without opportunities.
Now simply align some processes and systems to those efforts. They can be manual processes, even a routine.
When you do this, you’ll discover your business becomes more machine-like and less You-like.
Go forth and do great things,
Martha Hanlon and Chris Williams
P.S. Did You Know—most of you know that our webinar, “Rapid Listbuilding to Compound Your Effort: The 7 Most Important Tweaks You Can Make to Triple or Quadruple Your List in the Next 6 Months” has been moved to September 3rd due to a scheduling conflict with our guest expert. Join us September 3rd.
For those of you who have yet to R.S.V.P. you still have a chance to do that. This is—without a doubt–my personal favorite tool we use in our business to grow our database…and would give you one of the processes we talked about above. Click to R.S.V.P.
I wouldn’t be a good friend if I didn’t share. So please R.S.V.P. and join us. R.S.V.P. Now