How Much Is A Sale Worth To You?

Whatever you’re doing- just stop a moment.

Stop and take a minute to be truly grateful for this time we live in…

Sure, we can complain about how “things just ain’t what they used to be” on a number of fronts, but let’s face the fact:

There has NEVER been a better time to market your business. Think about it-

We have so many avenues we can use to promote ourselves, and free of charge too.

With this abundance of opportunity comes an abundance of options. But time remains just as precious as ever. So the question you need to ask is:

What forms of marketing are truly worth investing time into?

Now, before I list the ones worth your precious time, let me leave you with the most important question to consider as you read:

How much is a sale worth to you?

So let’s begin:

#1. Social Media

If you’re a product-based business: Share your latest offers or brand new products on your social media accounts (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest etc). Wherever your business has a social online presence, keep those who follow you in the loop and up to date.

If you’re a service-based business: What jobs are you working on this week? Is there a ‘Before & After’ story you can share that highlights why people should reach out and contact you or your team?

The trick here is to remain present. Your online audience may scroll down without clicking. They might barely notice, on a surface level. But being consistently present works, and it’s the same reasons global brands pay top dollar for signage at prestigious sporting and entertainment events:

Because your name sinks into their subconscious mind. So be present!

#2. Regular Articles

Look, I admit it straight up- blogging is something close to my heart, and it’s something I love doing for clients. But the reason I love blogging is because of the long-term value it delivers, and how it manages to attract new clients and re-engage old ones.

After all, this is where the money really is, no matter what business you’re talking about!

Yet it amazes me how many businesses still don’t have somebody doing this on the regular- if at all. Do they realise what there is to gain from sharing regular articles with their online audience? Maybe not- but have a look at these current stats for yourself:

Some Real Numbers To Make You Re-Think Blogging

What makes this great is that there’s always something to write about. You’re not just sharing ‘How To’ articles or the hot topics relevant to your industry- you’re also giving your readers a behind-the-scenes tour and showing them what goes on every day, every week in your business.

It pays to introduce them to yourself and your team. Even if you’ve never met, this helps them to feel as if they know you personally. This makes a crucial difference because even if the person reading isn’t in the market for what you provide right now, that might change in 3, 6, 18 months or 5 years time. If you’ve planted the seeds and had an ongoing dialogue with them, when their situation changes and they need somebody like you, who do you think they’re going to reach out to?

That’s right- you!

So think for a moment: How much is a single decision like this worth to you?

#3: E-mail Database

Do you have an e-mail database?

If not, the best time to get one is NOW. There are several ways you can do this- have a competition with a prize on offer and get people’s e-mail addresses in return for entries. Cold call if you need to. The aim is to build up a list of e-mail addresses (your database) and to send them out to your database on the regular.

What do you mean by “on the regular”?

I mean, once a week at least. Yes, some people are going to unsubscribe. Many people are going to send your efforts straight to their junk folder. BUT…provided you use the e-mail platform to share your latest articles, offers, events and keep your list up to date?

You’re present. This works the same as having regular updates on your social media accounts. Many will pass by, but they don’t completely ignore you. The larger your list, the greater your chances of getting people who stop to read your e-mail and follow up.

Again- how much is a sale worth to you?

#4. F2F

Recently, I read an article that pointed out that, even though connecting with eachother has never been easier (regardless of where we are in the world), we’ve also never lived in an age where isolation is so easy. We’re an increasingly individualistic society, which is great for personal freedoms- but it means we’re more disconnected than at any other time in human history:

On The Infestation Of Small-Souled Bugmen

Fact is- we were made for community.

If you’re not part of a business networking group, or attending regular events that bring you into contact with other business owners and professionals, now’s the time to get involved and to connect.

Doing so gives you the chance to interact with people on a personal level, and it also gives your business a 3-dimensional presence.

The more 3-dimensional you are, the more people trust you.

The more people trust you, the easier it is to sell to them.

Not only that, but getting amongst it on the regular also opens us to new concepts, ideas and build new alliances that have the potential to take our business to new heights. We can’t build a truly great business without interacting, learning and sharing.

We were made for community.

#5. Website

This is the grand terminus for all the other ideas listed here.

If you’re sharing content on social media, you want to make it easy for people to check out your website via clicking a link that leads them there. Same goes for your blog, your regular e-mails or the business cards you hand out when you meet with other professionals.

Make it easy for them to find your website. This should ideally tie in with the rest of your marketing efforts, and all the key information should be in the one place:

Who you are

What you specialise in

Why people should get on the phone to you, order or send you an e-mail

Your website ties all your other marketing channels together, in the one place. Think of the rest like balloons of different colours, on strings of different lengths- people notice different balloons first, but they all need to be tied to something for people to realise that they’re connected. This is what your website does.

The time you devote to these different marketing channels is your call. But remember to ask yourself:

How much is a sale worth to you?

Not only that, but how much is somebody who buys repeatedly from you worth-

4 figures?

5 figures?

6 figures?

More?

By taking care of the 5 different outlets I’ve shared here, you discover the value of your answer to these two questions.

However…

No matter how proficient you become at this, all of these methods require time. They demand constant maintenance to ensure your message continues reaching your most valuable audience…

So if you’ve already got enough on your plate- but you recognise just how much a single sale is worth (let alone a repeat one)?

Let’s talk:

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

 

 

How To Make YOUR Story Sell- A Demonstration:

 

Can you write a post that keeps your readers entertained, tells them more about you AND sells?

I’ll cut straight to the chase here- yes you can- and here’s the 3 step formula:

1. Story
2. Segue
3. Sell

Want to see how it’s done?

Then let me give you a demonstration:

Come back with me to March of this year. I’m staying with an old friend in the nations’ capital, an area known for having plenty of bike paths. I take full advantage of this one day and set off on my friends’ bike, riding along the paths and through the leafy suburbs. It’s a lovely Autumn day outside and I have plenty of energy- so much that I keep riding until I cross the border and enter the neighbouring town of Queanbeyan. I take a breather at Seiffert Oval and watch a bit of an inter-schools footy game taking place there. After a while, I saddle up again, for the return leg back into the heart of Canberra. I look forward to riding back, getting something to eat, grabbing a drink and then relaxing at my friends’ house the rest of the afternoon until he returns from work. I’ve secured two client projects in the past 2 days, it’s a beautiful day outside, I’ve gone on a long ride and managed to take some great photos. It’s one of those days where it feels like everything is going your way.

And then I coast down a hill, under a railway bridge and back across the border…

The space between X and Y= 30 metres that changed everything…

But up ahead, there’s no verge on the side of the road for about 30 metres- just the edge line of the road and then grass. Beyond that, a bridge crosses a creek with a pedestrian walkway on my side. So I do the safest thing- veer off the road and onto the grass shoulder as cars pass by. I reach the bridge, ride over the creek and up the hill beyond that. Then, at an intersection, I pull up and the bike feels a bit ‘springy’- was there a leak in one of the tyres?

I look down- to discover both the front AND back tyres are covered in thorns. Thorns so big and sharp I prick my fingers pulling them all out, as they leave another hissing puncture in their place. Clearly, that 30 metre patch of dry grass just back down the hill was full of these thorns- and now they’ve decimated both tyres. I’m surrounded by remote paddocks and bushland, with nobody in sight. In front of me lies a long, upward stretch of road…

It sinks in: my only option is to dismount and push the bike along. My day has gone from awesome to a complete disaster in less than 30 seconds, thanks to a 30 metre patch of grass. That’s all it took to bring my whole afternoon (and a round-trip of over 20 kilometres) crashing down.

I push the bike along the side of this lonely road, as the sun bears down. I search on my phone for the nearest bike stores and call the closest Big W and K-Mart to find out if they have inner tubes in the size I need? As the crow flies, I’m about 4 kilometres away from the closest bike store- except that Canberra Airport is in the way. There’s no chance of me taking a short-cut through there, not even if I wanted to!

Instead, I have to go the long way around the airport perimeter road- on foot- pushing this bike- until finally,  I got to the Majura Park Shopping Centre, wheeling the bike in and picking up new inner tubes at the Big W. I walk up to Toys R Us. Did they fit tyres? There’s a guy who does, but he’s not in today. Apparently, there’s a bike store on the other side of Costco. Great! So I wheel my bike back up through the shopping mall to the other end, out through the car park, past the Costco outlet and then find the bike store on the other side- the farthest store in a strip of shops. I wheel the bike in. Can they replace the tubes and pump them up?

Can do- except for two things:

1. The inner tubes are too small- I had 20” (based off the bike frame saying it was 18.5”) and apparently needed to grab 26” tubing;
2. The tyres were too damaged from the thorns, pricks still lodged halfway through them that’d only puncture the new inner tube.

So I leave my bike there, walk all the way back, past Costco, into the shopping centre and right down near the end to replace the inner tubes AND hopefully buy two tyres cheaper than the cheapest suitable tyres in the bike shop (at $35 a piece). I find the inner tube and two 26” tyres for $20 each- then walk back through the centre all the way to the other end, back through the carpark, past Costco and into the bike store. I try my hand at getting the front tyre off but after nearly 10 minutes struggling I give up and let the guy there take care of it. ..

Half an hour, 2 new inner tubes, 2 new tyres, 2 hours wasted, sunburnt arms and nearly $70 later (for a bike that’s not even mine), I got out of there at last. What a day! If I’d only walked the bike along the very edge of the asphalt on that road…how different it all would’ve turned out!

***

Let’s skip forward now, 6 months later. I’m visiting my friend again. This time I take my own bike down. Monday comes, I decide to go for a ride. It’s a clear, cool day outside, the trees are skeletal and the air is bracing- the end of Winter. I take the same route out through the suburbs, across the border and through Queanbeyan. Determined to make this time different, I coast along the same downhill street and turn right at the intersection onto the main road. Under the rail bridge, back into NSW and up ahead- there’s that 30 metre section of road with no verge.

Brakes on, my bike rattles to a standstill…

I hop off as I come to the grass…

I walk along the shoulder, the yellowing grass crunching beneath my Nikes as I carefully wheel the tyres of my bike along the white outside line of the road. Cars or trucks passing may have to slow down and hug the centre line. People could beep and yell at me to move off the road- I don’t care. They can wait…

I make it past the grass shoulder and onto the bridge. I stop and carefully examine both my tyres. In the front, there’s a single thorn…but it’s only surface level deep. I pick it out, no trouble. The soles of my shoes, though? They’re dotted with thorns, lodged deep in the rubber. I use the bottle opener from my Wallet Ninja to scrape them all off- making sure to do so behind my bike. I then look down the hill, past the bridge and back to that same patch of grass that ruined my day, 6 months earlier.

But not this time.

I hop back in the saddle, pedal away and click up through the gears. I feel more elated than I expected to. Sailing along (on fully-inflated tyres), I think of this scene from the Disney classic Toy Story. Skip to the 50-second mark:

We’re Flying!

Reaching that 30 metre strip of grass was like “The part where we blow up”…

Clearing it- and seeing my tyres unscathed, felt like my “Not today!” moment.

And I’m not going to lie- as I rode along that country road at top speed, I even had the triumphant musical score playing in my head!

The thing I love about Toy Story, as an adult, is that it’s really a story about learning to accept change, accept who you are, recognise your purpose and become the best version of yourself that’s possible. Buzz Lightyear touches down as the new toy on the block and truly believes he is a space ranger, sent to protect the galaxy. He’s convinced his lasers work and that he can fly. Then (through a series of misadventures) he finds himself with Woody, trapped in the house of the neighbourhood bully. While hiding from the bully’s ferocious dog, Buzz inadvertently stumbles into a darkened room, where a blaring TV ad shatters Buzz’s illusion- it’s an ad for Buzz Lightyear action figures and it reveals the harsh truths:

1. Buzz is not a space ranger. He is an action figure
2. Buzz is “Not a flying toy”
3. Buzz is not one of a kind- the local toy outlet literally has an entire wall stocked with Buzz Lightyear action figures, just like him

What happens next is actually quite sombre: Buzz throws himself off a stair railing, aiming to fly out of a window and prove to himself that he can fly- but instead, he falls and clatters down the stairs into the landing, losing an arm in the process. Just then, the bully’s younger sister finds him and when we next see Buzz, she’s got him sat around a table in a floral hat with a frilly apron on, having a tea party with her dolls. When Woody finds Buzz, he’s shattered. As Woody drags him out of the room, Buzz’s mannerisms and speech resemble a drunkard. He’s just like the people you see in bars, drinking away their sorrows as they lament what could’ve been-

He could’ve represented Australia- but then came the injury…

They could’ve been the perfect couple- but then she discovered he was cheating…

Like Buzz, these people invested their entire identity in something that fell apart- and now alcohol is how they take solace, despondent with the world.

Buzz gives up on wanting to escape and find Andy (their owner) because he doesn’t see the point? In the eyes of Buzz, “he’s just a stupid, insignificant toy”. But then Woody points out that:

“Over in (Andy’s house) is a kid who thinks you are the greatest- and it’s not because you’re a space ranger, pal. It’s because…you are HIS toy…Why wouldn’t Andy want you? Look at you! You glow in the dark- you talk! Your helmet does that…that…woosh thing- any other toy would give up his moving parts just to be you! You are one cool toy.”

Woody’s words sink in for Buzz, and together they manage to escape being blown up by the neighbourhood bully and fly (sorry, fall with style) right back into Andy’s clutches. This couldn’t have happened without Buzz accepting his true self- and using it to full advantage. If that didn’t happen, they wouldn’t have been reunited with Andy at all…

For my 30th birthday, I actually got a Buzz action figure to stand in one of my display cabinets- complete with space wings and a helmet that does the whoosh thing. He’s a cool, futuristic-looking character- but also a reminder to live my purpose, be the best ‘me’ I can strive for- and aim to infinity- and beyond.

All this, because of a couple of punctured tyres 6 months ago!

Now- notice how I started out, by sharing the story of an afternoons’ bike ride that turned to disaster?

That’s Part 1- the story.

Then, I mentioned how the second attempt- where I took care on the hazardous section and rode away unscathed- made me think of a particular scene from Toy Story– and then expanded on why I think Toy Story is a great movie and why Buzz is my favourite character from it.

That’s Part 2- the segue. I shared a story and then tied in a certain aspect of it (be that something it reminds you of, a lesson or a realisation) and turned that into me talking about something else.

Now Part 3-

This is where you share your offer and persuade your readers to take action.

In this case?

If you’d love to have someone else taking care of your online marketing, helping you pull in new leads and sales on autopilot (even writing engaging, industry-targeted posts for your business just like this one)? Then get in touch with me for your complimentary, 30-minute consultation-

The possibilities are endless, but spots are limited- so lock it in today:

Contact Me