One of the first steps in growing your business is confronting the brutal facts:

• What are we doing right?
• What are we doing wrong?
• Are we being honest, or are we fooling ourselves?

When you take a long, hard look at your situations, the truth should become self-evident.

To help you discover the real truth about your business, ask open and honest questions, such as “Is this strategy working?” and “What can we do better?”

Talk to your clients, employees, and suppliers—in fact, everyone whose opinion you value—and ask, “What is the one thing that we could be doing better?”

Also ask, “What went wrong?” “What went right?” “Why do we get the business that we do?” and “What keeps us from getting the business that we don’t get?”

“Self-reflection is the school of wisdom.”
-Baltasar Gracian

Getting answers to these tough questions through open dialogue with your clients, employees, and suppliers will help to provide you with information that you can use to solve most problems.

More importantly, having a framework of questions like this helps you to confront issues that shouldn’t be ignored.

The “Stockdale Paradox”, a concept named for Admiral James Stockdale, a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for over seven years.
I feel that his paradox sums up this reflection secret.
In Jim Collins’ book From Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t (Harper Collins, 2001), he states, “Every good-to-great company embraced what we came to call the Stockdale Paradox.
You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of difficulties, AND at the same time, have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

How often do you confront your current reality?

“Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.”
-Anonymous

If YES, then keep reading. These seven plus secret questions must be answered before you create your next marketing campaign.

If you would like a fresh set of eyes to take a look at your past, present or future marketing efforts, call me at 248-335-8080 or go to www.SMART-Marketing-Review.com and sign up to avoid the 7 fatal mistakes that WILL kill your marketing.

A Few More Tips, Tricks, Techniques,
Tidbit And Marketing Secrets That
Promise To Save You Time And Money
The following secrets are not in any order.
Each is valuable on it own or combined with other secrets.
I highly recommend that you combine these ideas in different ways.
Why? Because when combined you multiply their strength.

• Provide high level proof that what you are promising will be delivered. Credible third-party testimony that you deliver on your promises. Free trails, free samples are other forms of proof.
• Ask your future clients for a “Yes” or “No” answer. Either is OK. There is nothing worse then a TIO (Think it over), because you are the only one thinking about it. Your future client has moved on.
• Actions, not just words determine success.
• Admit your shortcomings. Everyone knows that nothing is or can be perfect. You product and services have flaws. you know what they are. If you don’t, ask you customers what they are. Being 100% honest about your defects builds credibility and can also separate you from the competition (I promise your competitors would be to embarrassed to admit they are not perfect).
• Keep learning
• Start each day with the 5 most important marketing things that will help you reach your goals. An do them no matter what.
• Money comes to those who move fast.

Now, which of these secrets ideas rang the bell for you.
Which ones did you write notes “To Do?
Add them to your “Do Next” list.
And do them.
Using these secrets will separate the sheep from the goats.

Now, promise yourself that you will use these marketing secrets.

Scout’s Honor!

Because, you know that if you keep marketing the way you always marketed, you’ll keep getting the results you’ve always gotten.

To Your Success
Sandy Barris
President – Business Marketing Services
248-335-8080 Read the rest of this entry »