Category: Sales / Affiliates

Keep your business running with the right marketing strategies.

Marketing strategies help a business achieve sales goals and branding initiatives.and when you’re looking to start your own business, it surely pays to know the variety of tactics that work in attracting the right customers. While most business owners sit it down and find the time to write a marketing plan that makes sense for their business and brand, It is a struggle that not all are equipped to face.

To market a business means making your brand or service visible at all times, on every form of media, until your target demographic and the possible outcomes are achieved. It is a daunting task, but also a worthwhile endeavor when done the right way. Maintaining visibility and name recall are only a few of the marketing challenges a business owner is up against. In an ever changing world powered by fast paced technology, great ideas today may be considered obsolete tomorrow.

What does it take for a business to be constant in growth and attuned with the marketing trends of the present times? The best lessons we learn are the lessons learned through history. That said, let us embark on a journey to know more about what “marketing” truly is for the entrepreneur. Let us begin!

The Marketing Mix

The term “marketing mix” is a foundation model for businesses, historically centered around the four P’s; Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Over the years the marketing mix has been defined as the “set of marketing tools that a business enterprise uses to pursue its marketing objectives in the target market”. In a nutshell, the four P’s are essential factors involved in marketing goods or service to the public.

The concept of the four Ps has been around since the 1950s; as the marketing industry has evolved, the concepts of people, process, and physical evidence have become important components of marketing a product, too.
In our pursuit of understanding what our business desperately needs to become resilient during these ultra-challenging times, let us backtrack and see what the “marketing mix” has to offer and how it has stayed relevant to all forms of businesses, regardless of scale and size.

The First P: Product
Product refers to a good or service that a company offers to customers. Ideally, a product should fulfill an existing consumer demand. A product may be so compelling that consumers believe they need to have it and thus, it can constantly create a new demand. Successful marketers need to understand the life cycle of a product, and business executives need to have a plan for dealing with products at every stage of their life cycle. The type of product also partially dictates how much businesses can charge for it, where they should place it, and how they should promote it in the marketplace.

A perfect example of a product that continues to create demand throughout the years is the Iphone. Apple was the first to create a touchscreen smartphone that could play music, browse the Internet, and make phone calls. The Iphone was the most wanted breakthrough product in 2007, and in November 2014, seven years after its first release, Apple revealed that it had sold its one billionth iOS device. To date, the Iphone remains the most popular choice in mobile devices in spite of rising competition.

The Second P: Price
Price is the cost consumers pay for a product. Business owners must link the price to the product’s real and perceived value, but they also must consider supply costs, seasonal discounts, and competitors’ prices. In some cases, business executives may raise the price to give the product the appearance of being a luxury. Alternatively, they may lower the price so more consumers can try the product. As a business owner, you would also need to determine when and if discounting is appropriate. A discount can sometimes draw in more customers, but it can also give the impression that the product is less exclusive or less of a luxury compared to when it was priced higher.

When determining a pricing strategy, it is important to consider the business’s position in the current marketplace. There is truth in advertising and your business or product should be advertised as it is rightfully priced.

The Third P: Place
Place refers to where the product/service of the business is seen, made, sold, or distributed. In essence, place decisions or product positioning are associated with distribution channels and ways of getting the product to targeted key customers. It is always an important part of a business marketing strategy to consider how accessible the product or service is and ensure that customers can easily find you. The product or service must be available to customers at the right time, at the right place, and in the right quantity. A business would ideally “position” and provide their products over an e-commerce site, at a retail store, or through a third-party distributor.

When a business owner, or an entrepreneur makes decisions regarding product placement, deploying a marketing strategy that determines where they should sell a product and how to deliver the product to the market is an advantage. The primary goal of a business is always to get products and services in front of the consumers that are the most likely to buy them.

In some cases, this may refer to placing a product in certain stores, but it also refers to the product’s placement on a specific store’s display. In some cases, placement may refer to the act of including a product on television shows, in films, or on web pages in order to garner attention for the product.

The Fourth P: Promotion
Promotion refers to the activities that make the business more known to consumers. It includes items such as sponsorships, advertising, and public relations activities. In this digital age, the “place” and “promotion” factors are as much online as they are offline. Specifically, where a product appears on a company’s web page or social media, as well as which types of search functions trigger corresponding, targeted ads for the product. However, promotion costs can be substantial, thus it is essential to conduct a break-even analysis when making promotion decisions.

Promotion includes everything from advertising, public relations, to active promotional strategy. The goal of promoting a product is to reveal to consumers why they need it and why they should pay a certain price for it. A proven strategy is to tie promotion and placement elements together so they can reach their core audiences but it is equally important to understand the value of a customer and whether it is worth conducting promotions to acquire them.
When it comes to creating a solid and strategic marketing mix, it’s important to understand how the 4Ps of marketing fit into the whole picture. The 4 P’s of Marketing are key marketing elements used to position a business strategically and are variables that managers and owners control to satisfy customers in their target market, add value to their business, and help differentiate their business from competitors.

At Tize, we integrate the 4 P’s of marketing and make it work for your business. We go with your business, hand in hand, to develop and create niches specifically for your type of business for maximum gain and less risk.

Join us at Tize, and together we’ll never bow down to any business challenge we face.

These are the sales skills every salesperson should possess.

Are you the salesperson stereotype? Pushy, aggressive, idealistic, and always ever-annoying?
If you have been working in sales for over a year, chances are you fit this description. If you’re reading through this opening paragraph, eyes peeled for what comes next, then you’re in the thick of denial.

You are in fact, a salesperson cliché in every sense.

Admittedly, the description is a bit harsh and has probably never been particularly true for a few good salespeople. But we’ve all met that stereotype one too many times on occasion, luckily at least a few and far between the great ones. The one-dimensional method man that often costs the sale, even when the product is an easy sell.

As sure as the sun rises in the east, the world will continue to turn and fundamentally bring on change. Talking a lot, flexing the truth, and killing for a sale regardless of the prospect’s needs and requirements, simply isn’t how the sales game is played.

Not anymore and never again.

Welcome to the modern world of sales and marketing. Powered by cutting-edge technology, seeded by top-notch software and user-friendly programming, we are now living in the future.

Whacking your customers and clients in the head won’t make the cut, much less, the sale.

Today, information is readily available and customers are more demanding than ever.

Always a cutthroat industry, being in sales only means arming yourself with the most important sales skills to stay ahead of the competition. Whether you are a sales manager or a sales team member, you need to prioritize adopting important sales skills as part of regular training.

Since customer demands and the market are ever-evolving, having the best practices and key messages reinforced to your team, including your experienced salespeople, is crucial in ensuring that they are well-rounded all throughout the sales process.

There is a new information dynamic that demands much more specific sales skills, and a new type of sales personality: The salesperson who can draw on their complex knowledge to help solve a prospect’s specific issue is who the market requires, not just someone who’s simply an expert at selling.

Keep yourself attuned and in check with these key salesperson skill set essentials.

Strong At The Core: Mastering The Basics

The core strategy of targeted marketing relies on the strength of the skill set that most salespeople possess. The ability to adapt to effective sales readiness is a strategy that is essential to success. With training and coaching to support the development of critical sales skills, organizations can equip even the inexperienced salesperson to close more and bigger deals.

Effective Communication Skills
Strong communication skills are the foundation of building meaningful relationships with clients, setting expectations, and discussing a buyer’s pain points. Effective communication, both written and verbal, is a fundamental skill that salespeople need to persuade prospects or potential customers into buying a product or service. It is important to remember how communication is about much more than just speaking clearly and concisely. Salespeople also need to understand that tone and manner of delivery also matter.

Storytelling is a means of effective communication. Telling a story that empathically connects you to a client or a prospect allows the salesperson to tap into a persona that allows selling to be engaging and authentic. By presenting a product or a service into a story arc that will address the relevant pain points and needs of the customer, the salesperson opens a gateway of possibilities that may often lead to closing a deal or even better, building better relationships.

Keeping your writing and presentation abilities sharpened will be a big plus when interacting over email, social media, video conference, or in-person. Collaboration plays a major role in sales and marketing and to be able to communicate effectively throughout the sales cycle, from cold outreach and follow-up, to recognizing an opportunity is an essential skill that needs mastery.

Sales is an agile industry where you can further hone your communication skills efficiently and reinforce these concepts through training, peer learning, and team discussions. These are the avenues to exercise communication skills and collaboration.

Relationship Building Skills
Salespeople need good listening skills to connect with clients, yet in today’s fast-paced business world, the temptation to formulate an instant response or follow-up question is too strong. The pitfall of not being able to listen to your customer or clients’ needs is deep and wide. It is a point of no return. Right before you lose the opportunity, always be reminded that active listening is all about staying in the moment and a key factor in relationship building.

Relationship building is when a salesperson finds mutual, non-business-related interests with a customer to build rapport instead of immediately talking their ears off about the product or service details. The 2017 State of Sales Survey by LinkedIn states that trust in the salesperson is the number.1 contributing factor in a purchase decision of a buyer. This only proves that when the buyer clearly understands what the seller is saying a sales milestone is actually met.

The goal of relationship-building is simply to build trust with your customer. When successfully built, having a strong relationship with their customer also means that they will come to them for advice about specific pain points, as opposed to consulting with a competitor. This will make the relationship more genuine and help the salesperson establish credibility.

Talking to customers about non-work-related topics may seem like a meaningless exercise but knowing what’s important to the customer on a practical and emotional level has its rewards. Positioning yourself as a consultative salesperson requires a connection on a human level. This helps to grow rapport and foster trust and eventually, in time, these conversations will elevate into a business relationship.

Adaptability Skills
Modern sales skills require the salesperson to adapt to the current needs of the market and enable themselves to be “future-proofed”. Knowing your prospects’ pain points as well as know the product or service you are selling entails proper training. It is not easy to tailor sales skills unique to every client, but with technology and a genuine interest in developing the knowledge, you are well on your way to mastering the skill set essentials you need.

Present-day sales skills demand spending more time researching prospects and learning about the market than other traditional sales techniques. This can shape every interaction you have with a prospect from the first contact and nurturing, to your sales pitch and closing the deal.

CRM software allows you to gather insights on sales prospects you never would have had access to in the past. By taking advantage of these new tools, small businesses can understand and therefore sell to customers better with a more tailored and personal approach.

Learning how to take advantage of various sales tools, whether it’s conventional marketing, mastering the use of your CRM, or a sales readiness platform, using new technologies has quickly become a standard for salespeople, and the trend isn’t going away anytime soon.

Excellence is not a skill, but an attitude.
The past year has spelled out a recent economic crisis that has changed the way customers spend money and what has been bought or sold in a highly volatile marketplace. Be that as it may, salespersons need not focus on threats because, with the latest technology trends, the landscape of sales and marketing is always evergreen.

Excellence is never far behind. All you need to do is master the essentials, the Tize way.

Dare To Become A Sales Manager!

Embrace challenges that make your sales team better and stronger

Sales managers face modern-day hurdles in the tech-driven realm of sales and marketing. Within fractions of a second, modern-day commerce demands mastery of the digital realm applied with the intentionality of conversion in every single mouse click.

The sales manager possesses the power of conversion. More than just hitting monthly sales targets and giving out analytical reports, as a sales manager you are tasked to deliver conversions that matter. You are the spearhead to a well-trained sales team assigned to meet the needs of every prospect.

It is a fast-paced era where we live. The availability of information can be accessed anytime and literally everywhere. The irony is the faster we travel eons into the future today, it still is a challenge for salespeople to embrace forward thinking. More of our kind have become social dinosaurs so to speak.‍

This is not the way.

Beyond busy schedules and countless other things that make it difficult for your sales team to adapt in sales and marketing, it is of utmost importance to keep track of the reasons to improve our game. How?

Polish up your strategies. It’s part of our mission as sales managers to formulate ways to make sure our team is up to speed, well-geared, and fired up.

Fret not ‘cause we’re with you on that.

Weaving Your Strategy

How your team moves in a sales campaign matters. From prospecting to conversion, strategies come into play and that’s exactly where the skills and training you have imparted as the sales manager become significant. Proficiency in dealing with the modern day client requires mastery of the craft and cutting edge knowledge of the playing field. Without further ado, here are some hurdles that obscure the way to sales domination and how we can overcome them!

Joining Forces With Recruitment

How your team moves in a sales campaign matters. From prospecting to conversion, strategies come into play and that’s exactly where the skills and training you have imparted as the sales manager become significant. Proficiency in dealing with the modern day client requires mastery of the craft and cutting edge knowledge of the playing field. Without further ado, here are some hurdles that obscure the way to sales domination and how we can overcome them!

Finding people fit for a job is always a challenge. The profile of the person you are looking for is almost always a needle in a haystack. But we can’t be too choosy for our comfort, that’s why teaming up with HR in finding the best people to form your sales team is a must!

It won’t be a breeze, and it will never be easy, but hiring skilled and dedicated people with the assistance of HR will help weed out the candidates worthy of becoming part of your top-notch salespersons.

Remember this:
Hiring does not solely depend on the recruiting team. As the sales manager, you face challenges and work through solutions with your team daily. You are responsible for making the persons within this team work towards a worthy goal. Leaders are great followers and motivators.

Synergy Is Key

There are people skilled in selling out there that may be a dime a dozen but knowing who to work with and form part of your team falls on your choice. In running the course of finding the right “fit”, there will be parameters that need to be set. These parameters will determine the character of the potential sales people you will have as members of your team and eventually develop toward a better synergy.

Refining the hiring process and going through the ebb and flow of interviews and candidate selections can be tedious at the outset, but with sheer will and an open eye for pure talent that matters often uncover diamonds in the rough. Be clear on who you want, what you want them to bring to the table and lastly, team spirit always counts.

Gear UP!

There is no truth to soft selling. Chances are, your clients have tired of hearing the same sales pitch from the competition. That, and the fact that every piece of information is within but a click of a mouse. Accessibility is all over the internet and brand awareness keeps your leads, prospects, and clients keen on their ready objections. Of course, the usual apprehensions of our clients and consumers is set on default.

There is no other way to face this challenge but to take it head on. Gear up and get your lines ready, have those options and offers handy whenever possible, and stay on top of your game. You’re the sales manager, and you do not cower in the face of possible rejection. Instead, you maneuver through the challenge with proper motivation and a killer business acumen.

This Is Not A Drill

Sales skills training should never be routine. Honing your collective skill as a sales team with you in the lead requires fine tuning your moves to the latest strategies for better outcomes. Effective implementation of what you have learned as a sales manager should trickle down to each and every member of your team. Mapping out a sales plan can only be accomplished with the right attitude toward skills training.

Once you feel that training is disrupting your daily function, you’re on the right track. This is the type and kind of disruption that can only bring forth better results. Training is essential in becoming a formidable sales manager, and equally efficient when absorbed by your team.

In providing adequate training, you help your sales representatives get comfortable in handling prospects’ resistance or uncertainties, giving them the full gear to march with you towards your sales goals.

Execution of strategies depend largely on how much you and your team have learned in training. Preparation is vital and results essential. As a sales manager, your mindset affects the outcomes of your sales team. Before you set them up to face their challenges, be sure that they are capable of carrying out the drill.

Crafting Synergy

As with anyone who’s part of a team, sales managers should never work solo. As a sales manager, you must align with other departments of the company, especially with marketing. The power to provide a smooth transition is in your hands, but you cannot simply hog the limelight. Since it’s the marketing team that does lead generation, you need to work hand in hand to ensure a solid pipeline.

Working Large With Big Teams

Remember that proper coordination can impact customer acquisition and even retention. The success of a sales manager’s performance relies on how well they’ve built synergy among different teams and how efficiently they execute the process. Your role as a sales manager revolves around a greater circle. When you properly coordinate outside your department and heartily maintain these relationships, you can all work together to achieve goals and milestones that greatly contribute to the company’s success.

Keep your aim straight for the bag of gold by keeping your customers content and satisfied and boosting customer loyalty. That retention rate will stabilize when you love your job the right way. It’s not always a walk in the park, but hey, it’s a whole lot better than strolling in the sewers.

Augmenting Potentials Through Coaching

Being in the higher rank grants you the opportunity to bring people to a better position. They might not feel empowered to do their daily routine and that’s where you use your energy to make the difference. From reaching out to different people to expounding the minute details of products, it becomes taxing for salespeople to turn their humdrum daily tasks into something exciting. These are the situations where you as the sales manager employ your coaching skills.

Leveraging The Power Of Technology

Everyone loves technology. It has become a part of your life, almost impossible to ignore.

The proper use of technology can save us time and money, beneficial in getting results efficiently. In these challenging times when everyone has adapted to the new normal, video conferencing has been life changing. Leveraging the power of tech to maximize sales and close deals is power within the scroll and click of a mouse.

Take the case of companies that typically use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. It manages internal and external processes and is a foundational program in sales to boost profitability..

Your role is to encourage the use of the available technology for maximum cost efficiency. Arming your people with the apt technology and right frame of mind can address crucial concerns in gathering and converting data for sales productivity. Leveraging the power of technology means that as sales managers, whipping up sales representatives to focus on selling and producing better deliverables can mean utilizing what your company and your employees already have.

Fortify Morale

Coaching puts heart in the daily routine salespeople do. Technical training strengthens their capabilities to show product expertise and mastery. Sprinkle product mastery with effective coaching and it ushers people to intentionality, leading them to maximize their potential.

By boosting their morale, they become self-aware problem solvers and growth seekers that are all beneficial for your team and your company.

Passion makes a huge difference. Coaching your team brings your people to be the best at what they do and even stand out among competitors.

Would You Dare To Become A Sales Manager?

Now that you’ve mastered these tasks, it’s time to focus on putting intentionality in everything you do. Use these challenges for a better purpose. Remember, evolving as a company intertwines everyone to reach greater heights.

Despite the hurdles, a thriving business is the ultimate purpose why you continue to conquer the challenges. Become a sales manager and rally your team towards conversions and positive outcomes.

Onward to battle, we CHARGE!

Are You A Deal Maker Or Deal Breaker?

How strategy and skills training for salespeople help seal the deal.

Entrepreneurs today stop at nothing to remain competitive, be on top of their niche, and always ahead of the game. For most enterprises that’s how you run a business in a typically dog-eat-dog world and if you happen to lose your footing or are caught unaware, you risk running your business to the ground.

At the backbone of every enterprise, retail or otherwise, are the salespeople. The team responsible for the growth and nurturing of clients and accounts. These are the people who create value for the business enterprise and the customer alike. The salesperson is a deal maker but sometimes without the proper training and information, they can easily turn into the deal breaker.

Salespeople are the front-liners of any business enterprise. They are key sales personnel and are delegated to bring new customers and clients. As such, the average salesperson can be expected to face all sorts of problems from a sales standpoint on a daily basis. Problems and concerns that can be addressed with proper training, a clear strategy, and killer salesperson skills.

Prospects often have different perspectives toward what your salespeople have been trained to sell. Some are simply skeptical at the onset, while most are ready to buy into wherever it is you’re selling, until they become actual customers or clients and give you more pain than you’ve ever imagined. True story.

Customers, clients, or prospects don’t come in the same shape and size. The problems and concerns a salesperson will deal with are of the same nature. Thus, adopting proven strategies in sales and marketing can strengthen the principles we have learned, giving us the boost we need to establish positive rapport, credibility, and trust. Training your salespeople on how to handle pain points of every kind can build skills to provide practical real-time solutions for real time problems. Growing a business is easy if you have grit. Remember, it’s a dog eat dog world in the realm of commerce and enterprise, without grit, you stand on very loose ground.

There are no shortcuts to excellence. Developing real expertise, figuring out really hard problems, it all takes time―longer than most people imagine. As a salesperson, you’ve got to apply these skills and produce services that are valuable to your customers. Grit is about working on something you care about so much that you’re willing to stay loyal to it. It’s doing what you love, but not just simply falling in love― it’s staying in love.

Let’s walk through the types of prospects and problems every salesperson faces and find the best ways to face each one!

The Prospect: A Profile For Every Persona

Ah, the prospect. The soon to be customer, the most valued client. Sure as they are what every salesperson needs to make a sale and keep the business running, not all prospects are what they seem to be. Sometimes, when our eyes get too fixed on making the sale, we get lost in the deal. Unbeknownst to you, the prospect has led you into a maze, chasing rainbows at every end.

Here are a few prospect personas you need to get to know better, before you even set your phasers to stun.

The Prospect Who Promises But Never Purchases

It’s the classic cat and mouse scenario with this prospect persona. Evidently, this type of prospect is as fixed on the promise of purchase given as you are fixed on trailing wherever they lead you on to. Wake up and smell the coffee.

Remember the following:

• A salesperson always leads the prospect, and not the other way around. 
• The promises a salesperson makes are always kept, with the solid backup of a company that builds trust.
• If a promise to purchase has been brokered, show your prospect an active timeline and the benefits that come with the period covered in closing the deal. Turn the tables around and be in control. Always.
•  Before you lose yourself in making the deal, know where your limits are in pushing for a sale. When and where promises are made, there are tell-tale signs that show sincerity, or the lack of it. 
• Not all prospects are worth the wait. Time is of the essence, and yes, you can always find a better opportunity every time.

It’s pretty evident that most salespeople often forget this. Salespeople are not aware of this sign. They may find themselves putting much time and effort into prospects that it’s a colossal waste of valuable sales-closing time.

The Price Anxious Prospect

Salespeople beware! In the course of closing a deal, the prospect that stands before you may morph into another persona. This happens when the cost is mentioned, or the price is laid on the table. They turn into the Price Anxious Prospect!

When everything begins to move in the opposite direction of a clear sale and your prospect shows unwavering concern about the price, what do you do?  How do you handle the situation

When price anxiety becomes a top concern, here’s what you can do;

• Assure the prospect with the value of your product.
• Present data from real clients, show and tell real results and statistics.
• Address the needs and goals of your prospect by contrasting the cost with value added service.
• Make your prospect understand that they own the advantage being offered. No matter what the cost, whatever the price tag, it’s theirs for the taking.

Constants And Variables

There are 2 sides to a coin and both sides make for legal tender. The salesperson stands as a constant on one side of the sales equation with the prospect as the lead variable on the equal opposite side. Both sides are essential to our story, both personas a problem and a solution within themselves.

Sales training can only help your sales team get better. Weekly meetings to assess and reassess prospects and leads will help sharpen those skills in no time and eventually, help your team become sales specialists.

Remember that prospects and leads are potential clients and as salespeople, we are adept with the expertise to fulfill our mission of giving out the best client experience. We are deal makers and we possess the resilience to face every single problem, no matter how large or small in scale.

Stay hungry, stay focused, and keep your eyes on the prize, That’s the Tize way.

If you would like to learn more about how Tize can help grow your business, please email support@tize.com or call 727-842-9999 to setup a free consultation today!

How to pick the right customers?

Is Choosing The Right Client More Important Than Delivering Results?

An alternative is presented here that you might find interesting.

Consider the following questions;

• What does it mean to choose the right client?
•  and what does it mean to deliver results? 

Modern businesses are tasked with objectives that can seemingly be contradictory. 

On the one hand, a business must garner an audience, build and demonstrate credibility and authority. On the other hand, a business must be conscientious about costs—one of the more elusive concepts in business and economics. Costs come in all shapes and sizes. The most insidious of which might be opportunity costs or the costs of expanding finite resources where they may have better utilized them. 

Of course, this is very tricky for a new business because opportunities may appear to be limited, and as a matter of fact, also highly limiting. Perhaps due to a lack of demonstrated performance, a lack of reputation, or the lack of cash flows that make the individual organization desperate to get anybody in the door. Much like that schoolmate going through the most awkward physical phase searching for a prom date, Shrek would seem like a great choice when the alternative appears to be nothing. 

That said, the costs of saying “No” are often miscalculated. Because the actual costs have not been conceived, results can not be perceived in any given customer encounter. An example would be taking on a bad client at the expense of a future good one.  (Zero-sum equation) Sometimes one in hand costs you ten in the bush. What’s worse is you don’t realize it.  

For a new business, in particular, this poses a bit of a catch 22.  It won’t appear to be as easy as “pick a better client.” It reminds me of the tired employee interview move where you find yourself auditioning for them in a Bugs Bunny-style game of reverse psychology. Sorry, chump – my money, my rules. The market value of brazen basic-bitch solopreneurs is ever decreasing. 

Whereas the market for those who can speak the truth with humility is a rarity of the utmost value — know your lane. Perhaps there is a better way to position the questions previously asked, as such;  

• Can these two seemingly contradictory options (bad customers VS good customers) be reconciled in some way? 
• If by considering the context of what it means to have a client, customer, or prospect, could we deliver desired results to each and all equitably? 

‍Good questions answer themselves, and sometimes the best answers to questions divorced from context are often better questions.

‍Does someone consuming evergreen content fall into the category of “client”?

When I think of a client, I think of someone who is paying me in some way. They are expending resources, and I benefit from that expense (Hopefully in a mutually beneficial way). Is it wrong to think of them as a client? I think it’s safe to say, at the very least, they are consumers of services. But what are the costs? The cool thing about products of this sort is that they are seemingly roughly the same irrespective of the size of the audience.

Problem Solved, Right? Wrong.

More often than not, all of a thought leader’s content tells people that success is so easy that a monkey can do it. Therefore, should the thought leader be surprised when the monkeys are insulted by your refusal to court them more substantively?  After all, their investment in terms of time, energy, and pain are far beyond yours.

This is where thought leadership fails. 

When it divorces itself from the truth and the prospective client, in a sort of conspiratorial way, starts to believe the world is devoid of sharp edges.  “Buyer beware – this content is not for you,” says no content, no software, no certification course ever.

Therein Lies The Rub.

Good copy, content, certs, whatever has two jobs to do (not just one). It must repel, as well or better than it attracts, especially if you’re the poor bastard at the bottom of the funnel. By the time it gets to you, it’s likely too late. Your time is finite, your opportunity costs are real, and most importantly, your reputation is vulnerable.  

Vulnerable to the bruised egos of foolhardy investors. Those who bought into the idea that they had a shot at the big leagues. They should be happy in the swamp with Shrek and the rest of the undesirables.

It’s Not Their Fault – It’s Ours.

Everyone loves a Cinderella story. Rudy is one of my favorite movies.  Forrest Gump artistically isolates the purity of spirit and conviction like no other.  The thing that makes those stories (yes, they do happen in the real world) so compelling is that they’re extremely rare. Though in no way to run a sports team, business, or platoon. 

The hard and fast principle is that there are winners and losers in life – and the prevailing tendency is that winners win and losers lose.  I could tell you that you need to bring in better clients or hire better people, but it’s most likely that your destiny is already hard-wired.  

You see, Pareto distributions don’t just apply to your customers and employees; they apply to you as well.  We are all subject to inequitable cosmic forces, and projecting them onto others makes you less vulnerable to those standards. 

Therefore my recommendation is that not only should entrepreneurs seek better clients and fire the bad ones.  But most of them should fire themselves in advance to spare us the time and energy to tell them something they should have heard at the beginning of the funnel. 

In closing, allow me to steal that famous motivational Charles S. Dutton line from Rudy;

“You’re 5 foot nothin’, 100 and nothin’, and you have barely a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in there with the best college football players in the land for 2 years. And you’re gonna walk outta here with a degree from the University of Notre Dame. In this life, you don’t have to prove nothin’ to nobody but yourself. And after what you’ve gone through, if you haven’t done that by now, it ain’t gonna never happen“.

‍Will that be Visa, MasterCard, or American Express?