Well, my pipeline is running a bit on the dry side, and it’s not hard to figure out why: I’ve slowed down on my marketing activities over the past few weeks. Shame on me.
So yesterday and today I’ve taken specific steps to get my business accelerating again:
1. I contacted three potential referral sources — real heavy hitters — and continued or began conversations with them about generating business.
2. I’ve put a plan in place for the next few weeks to ramp up my marketing activities.
You get out what you put in. About 60% of my consulting clients love learning about how to do business development the right way, and then never put anything into action. It’s as if they want the answer for general knowledge or Trivial Pursuit. It’s a waste of their money!
When I call them on it, they admit that they do need to take action, I give them homework to develop an action plan for us to work on, and that’s the last I hear from them (even with follow up, which results in excuses). Yes, I can and do hold their hand from there, but it’s remarkable. Lots of people want to be successful, but don’t want to or won’t or are afraid to take the action required for success.
So: Do you need to up your level of marketing activity? Are you getting the results you want? Are you putting in enough to get those results? (And a different but also critical question: Are you using the most effective techniques and strategies to get the biggest bang for your investment and time?)
In conclusion, at least for this blog — are you taking action? If not, start today.
On an unrelated note, I don’t usually forward funny web links, but the following animation is one of the funniest I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a satire of Bush and Kerry, regardless of your political orientation. If you follow US politics even a little, check it out (give it time to load and for the intro to start and stop):
http://www.jibjab.com/thisland.html
Have a great weekend!
Andrew Neitlich
