5 min read
Here is a tool that will help you understand what your priorities should be and how to stay focused on them, in order to generate more leads and grow your business in 2019.
If you're a business owner, marketing manager or a marketing director, we know that you want to generate more leads. We know that you want to win more customers, engage with those customers better, and have a competitive advantage. The problem is that there are just too many places to start- hundreds of tools, tactics, software, strategies, and all kinds of things out there. The reality is that many of them are actually going to pull you away from what you need to do to grow your company.
A Simple Tool To Help You Grow
Here is a tool that is going to help you understand what your priorities should be and how to stay focused on them. At StructureM, we work with hundreds of companies, and we get it. We know how frustrating it is to waste time and money and not get the results that you need to get. And so here is the tool, it's a thinking tool, I've actually adapted it from Dan Sullivan, he wrote a book called "The Dan Sullivan Question". He runs Strategic Coach up in Toronto, and I highly recommend the book. We've adapted this question for marketing, and I really believe that if you ask yourself this question, or sit down with somebody and have them literally ask this question to you, you are going to understand what you need to do to grow your company in 2019 and stay focused all throughout the year on the projects that are actually going to really help you grow.
And so, here it is. I'll put a link at the bottom of this video so you can download or access the written version of this. But pay attention to this question, it's simple, it's unique, it's powerful. And so here we go:
“If we were having this conversation a year from now, and you were looking back over these past 12 months, what has to have happened with your marketing for you to feel happy with your progress? Specifically, what dangers do you have now that need to be eliminated, what opportunities need to be captured, and what strengths need to be maximized?”
-Dan Sullivan
Now that's it. Pretty straightforward question (actually, it's several questions bundled together), but what I would like for you to do is actually sit down, go somewhere for 30, 45 minutes, or an hour. If you answer these questions from this perspective, using this unique format, you're going to uncover what you know you really need to do.
Too Many Experts
There are lots of gurus, there are lots of experts, there are lots of tools out there, but I really believe that as a business owner, marketing manager, or a marketing director, you intuitively know what needs to be done. The problem is, again, we are bombarded, there are so many things to do, so many opportunities, just to do, just stuff that we have a hard time uncovering what has to happen, or bringing it to the front, and then keeping it in the front.
So what I want you to do is think about these questions and go through them one by one.
So the first one, it's really a sub-question regarding the dangers. What existing dangers do you need to eliminate in order for you to feel happy about your progress over the next 12 months? List out those three things. The next thing you do with that just simply prioritizes them. What's priority number one? What's danger number two? And what's danger number three?
When you think about dangers as far as marketing is concerned, and marketing dangers that you might be facing. This could be something like your main lead sources declining. Or a competitor is taking more of your market share. Or you don’t have enough insight into what is actually working in your marketing.
And then you ask the next question, regarding opportunities. What are the biggest opportunities for gaining something new and important that needs to be captured? So thinking about your marketing, what are the opportunities you know? List those three things. After you've listed them out, take a minute and prioritize them one, two, three.
When it comes to marketing opportunities, it might be something like referrals. You could be getting more referrals than you currently are. It could be that you are getting lots of good website traffic and you could be converting more of that traffic. Another opportunity is something unique and loved about your business but hardly anyone knows about it.
And then the last part of it is regarding the strengths. So what are the three most important capabilities or resources that you know need to be maximized for you to feel happy about your progress over the next 12 months? List those three things out, and then put them in order, one, two, three.
When it comes to strengths, marketing strengths, in particular, one could be that you have a great online reputation and have tons of reviews. Another strength is that you are highly visible in search engines and you are getting lots of organic traffic. Or another one could be that you have a really great network or book of business that you can lean on.
Your One Page Guide to Growth
When you do this, you have probably on one page, a guiding document. And this is so powerful because this is going to center on two reasons. One, it is going to keep you focused on what really matters. And it's going to protect you from all of the other distractions and things that are going to come your way. So in the following video, I'm going to walk through how you can execute on this, and actually make progress in each one of these areas, but it's going to feel really good knowing what you need to do. Not just what some guru says, but intuitively what you know needs to happen for you to make 2019 your best year of growth ever.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
