How to Make the Best Selections
Here are the questions you should consider to make the best possible choices from the Main Course menu:
Where are you stuck or in need of more work? You already know which stage of the Universal Marketing Cycle you need to focus on, so choose only Main Course items that pertain to that stage. If you don’t see seven or eight actions that seem right to you on the list for your stage, it’s fine to take one or two actions from the stage just before or after yours. However, don’t pick actions from several different stages. This will dilute your marketing efforts and sabotage the Persistence Effect.
Which marketing strategies will you be using? The icons shown in front of each action indicate what marketing strategy or strategies they relate to. Look for the actions that match up with the strategies you chose in Chapter 2. In each marketing cycle stage, you’ll find that a majority of the Main Course actions support the strategies of direct contact and follow-up, and networking and referral building, because this is where the Persistence Effect has the most impact. For some of the other strategies, fewer choices are available.
How can you [stage] using [strategy]? To include more actions to support your strategies, feel free to make up some of your own. Ask yourself how you could address your chosen stage (e.g., having sales conversations) using one of your strategies (e.g., writing and publicity). As an example, you could send a copy of your white paper to three hot prospects each week. Just be sure you are designing an action you can perform daily or weekly, rather than a one-time project. Projects to create missing tools or improve needed skills are Success Ingredients, not Daily Actions.
What will you actually do? If you are paralyzed by cold calling or public speaking, there is no point in including these actions in your program, because you will simply avoid doing them. You might choose a Success Ingredient to help you improve your future skills in these areas, but your Daily Actions need to be activities you are willing to do this month. Instead of choosing actions you could find immobilizing, ask yourself …
What are you naturally drawn to? If you are typically outgoing and enjoy talking to people, choose actions that will get you to networking events and give you plenty of time on the phone. But if talking to strangers makes you so uncomfortable that you will do anything to avoid it, select actions that will allow you to concentrate on building referrals with people you already know or writing articles for publication. If you choose activities you like, or are at least willing to try, you will do them.
How much available time do you have? If you are full time in your business but have few or no clients, you may have quite a bit of time available for marketing. You may be able to spend as much time marketing as you would on working for your clients. But if you have another job or are busy with client work, you will have to fit your marketing activities into what may be an already full week. Time constraints may require you to conduct more of your marketing by phone or online than in person, or during evenings and weekends. Make sure your choices reflect the reality of your situation.
How soon do you need to produce results? The sooner you need to find more clients, the more aggressive your marketing action plan should be. If your situation—financial or emotional—is becoming desperate, choose actions that are ambitious enough to accelerate your progress.
To make your selections, look at the section of the Main Course menu that corresponds to your stage of the marketing cycle. Place a check mark next to each Daily Action that seems to fit your situation. It’s all right to pick some actions that are easy for you or that you are already doing consistently, but you should also choose some that will stretch and challenge you.
One note about filling the pipeline: If you are working on this stage, you may wonder why there are fewer actions listed under direct contact and follow-up than there are under networking and referral building. After all, isn’t direct contact supposed to be the most effective strategy? While this is certainly true overall, keep in mind that your objective in filling the pipeline is to locate qualified prospects with whom you can quickly close sales. Making a completely cold approach by researching, calling, and mailing people you do not know is much less effective than being connected to them via introduction, referral, speaking, and so on. So when filling the pipeline, a better approach is to couple direct contact activities with networking and other strategies to warm up your approaches.
After checking off the Action Plan Menu items that seem to be the best fit, you end up with too many activities, ask yourself which ones would make the most efficient use of your time. What do you think will bring you the most return with the least effort? And remember: It doesn’t matter so much what you choose as it does that you choose. Everything on the menu works.
When you have selected your seven or eight Main Course actions for a total of ten Daily Actions overall, adjust the quantity and frequency of each one to suit you. Then write them on your Action Worksheet as in Figure 5-2.