Everyone in business intends to be successful. But are you planning how to actually get there?
Plan?? Who me? I hear you groaning.
When I ask clients, what's your current marketing plan, most often the answer I hear is: My plan is to get more clients and make more money.
Uh huh, I say. And exactly what are the structures and action steps that accomplish that?
Well, uh, I hear, I put a profile up on the internet, and I have business cards, and I sent a letter announcing my services to chiropractor's offices but I haven't really gotten much business yet. I guess I just need to do more of that.
Okay, let's stop right here. This is not a plan.
A plan at minimum identifies what you want (goals), what you need to have and do to get it (actions), how you will know it's working (measures), and when you are holding yourself accountable for getting things done (timelines).
A marketing plan is your road map to success. It keeps you focused on the effective and efficient actions that will have the desired payoffs. It helps prevent detours into the land of self-sabotage.
And even prior to thinking through your marketing plan, there are 3 very necessary steps you can take, starting right now.
That's why I introduce my clients -- most of whom are introverts just like you who go into heart pounding, sweaty panic at the idea of promoting themselves at networking events -- to the step by step foundation building and advanced actions that get them on that road to private practice success.
What are the first necessary steps -- before a marketing plan, business cards, profiles, and referral solicitation contacts?
- carve out a minimum of 3+ hours every day for developing your marketing plan, building the structures, taking the actions, and evaluating the results
- start with narrowing your marketing to one ideal client type
- know their psycho-graphics inside and out
If you haven't done these three necessary steps, no amount of planning, or profiles or business cards or letters to others will help you fill your practice on a consistent basis.
Following up on yesterday's blog, I am wondering today what others do in their morning marketing routines. (No, I don't mean like jogging to the Starbucks -- although if you do that wearing a tee shirt with your business logo on it, that might count. LOL)
Like Dolly Parton, I tumbled outa bed and stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition....and then I turn on the computer and get to work. In an hour or less I have done all the following:
- glance at the news headlines on my start page -- reassure myself that the world is still out there
- check email for urgent notes from clients and friends / family, and skim through AlterNet.org e-news
- scan through / respond to new posts on forums for counselors and coaches, get ideas for blogging
- scan through Twitter, get more ideas for blogging, and respond to any Tweets from followers
- scan through Facebook and do some keeping in touch with colleagues
- blog or deal with the urgent emails
- check appointments for the day and my other projects task list
Since starting that routine I've generated 6 new clients. Of course, I have all the foundations in place -- like my websites -- and often on my project list is the designing, marketing or giving of a signature talk or the writing and sending of a email campaign. Those activities I do in the second hour of the workday, or later in the afternoon, depending on my client appointment schedule.
The systematic approach really works. What's yours?
Do you ever feel that time is moving way too fast? Is it creating a sense of urgency in you that's promoting frustration or anxiety?
This is not an uncommon occurrence, especially for people in business for themselves. Usually when we have this sense, it's our internal clock that's responding to some story we're telling ourselves about our needs and priorities. Gotta hurry, it's important, this HAS to get done -- all are forms of the childhood Chicken Little message of the sky is falling, the sky is falling.
Paradoxically, the best way I've found to manage that feeling is to stop everything. That's right. Stop. Stop trying to do more. Stop trying to go faster. Stop telling yourself the messages that create the urgency.
Take a breath. I mean that literally. Take a long slow deep breath. Exhale in the same long slow manner. Breathe more time into your body, and into your mind.
Now, combine that breathing -- I hope you're still breathing long and slow -- with stretching. Yup, actually get up off that chair, step away from your desk, and reach for the sky, pardner. Reach beyond your comfort zone just a little bit while inhaling. Then let your arms fall S-L-O-W-L-Y to your sides while you exhale.
Take a fast, deep breath through the nose now, hold for nanosecond, and blow it out fast through your mouth. That's a cleansing breath. Do that again, so you get the hang of it.
Now bring a new, oxygenated mind to your time management and ask yourself these questions:
- What 3 things do I really need to get done today? Is that possible?
- What 2 things can I cancel or reschedule? Do that right now. (go ahead, I'll wait)
- What is my most important priority today that will serve my health, my relationship, my spirit, or my work?
- How can you most efficiently accomplish that priority in the most satisfying way? Schedule that into your day.
There are lots of time management tricks floating around, I'm sure. This one works for me. I hope it works for you.
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