And it’s over. I am so happy about that fact. No more election ads, no more election mailers, and no more standing at a voting precinct place trying to decide on the endless King County Charter Amendments. It was a referendum on Republicans this year for sure. I’m not afraid to say it. This country has had it with lukewarm fiscal conservatism as displayed by current President Bush and our ridiculous GOP members in Congress. We are coming for YOU, Mitch McConnell. Tell me again why you were reelected? What have you done for me lately?
Time to fight and look toward 2010. If the Dems can’t get things to work (and this economic climate is not going to make it any easier), the tide will turn back and we must work HARD to prepare 455 good conservative economic GOP candidates for the House and 55 for the Senate, countless conservative economists for 2010 gubernatorial races, etc. Now is the time to work.
Anyway, time to move on and I thought it apropos that we talk about marketing again. Especially for small businesses who may face tax hikes that will be very hard to take. It’s time to market, people (and I’m talking about me too).
As I wrote for another blog this week, it’s all about attitude. Say, you’re afraid your sales are slumping. Well, first thing is not to sit there and just look at the slumping numbers. You’ve got to change your attitude right away. Get proactive. If you get moving and start contacting clients and get them into a sales funnel starting today, you won’t have to worry about a sales slump. So what is a sales funnel and how do you get one?
1. I promise to cover business plans next week. Once you get a plan in place, a sales funnel process is much more clear. But for starters, a sales funnel is a process by which you gain customers. The first step is finding out the people you are selling to, then finding the decision makers, and then approaching those decision makers with your pitch (by phone, in person, or via direct mail), and once you’ve contacted them, then you’ll work to follow up and get them into the next step, an in-person meeting, a presentation of some sorts, and then you start bidding work.
2. The first step in a sales funnel is the hardest. Attempting to find your clients in a very oversaturated market can be tough, but it just takes perseverance and a very thick skin. You build a list, buy a list, or compile a list, any way you possibly can. I use purchased lists now, but I will always supplement with built lists (current client lists or current contacts) and with compiled lists (after doing research online). Once you have a list, it’s a matter of building a marketing campaign to contact that list at least seven times in a sixteen-month period. Sounds daunting, yes? It’s really not. Once you start contacting people, it becomes rote and much easier. And once you realize that the most successful campaigns usually average a 1% to 2% success rate, you’ll realize that this is not a time to take things personal, this is just part of business.
3. So you get that marketing campaign up and running, contact your list once or twice and start getting people asking questions about your business. This is good. Move them into the presentation stage–give them info about you, answer their questions as well as you can, and if you can’t answer their questions, FIND OUT the answer quickly and become their expert. That’s your job, remember?
4. Once you start bidding work (and landing projects), then it becomes more difficult to keep prospects moving through the sales funnel. Now you have to do the sales funnel, the marketing campaign, and actually do quality work that will keep your clients coming back. This is when a moonlighting entrepreneur can overextend themselves very quickly and possibly even lose their mind. Trust me, I know.
5. Back to business plans again. A clear-cut plan on how you want your company to grow, how quickly it will grow, and how much you want it to grow is imperative, especially right now. Don’t be in business to make a quick buck, it doesn’t work that way. Make a concentrated effort to build a business the right way and you’ll be much more prepared to handle the hard times.
And for small business owners, be aware: President-elect Obama has no qualms about raising taxes on small businesses. His threshold has shrunk from 250,000 profit (not gross, net profits, at least I think, not 100% sure) to 200,000 profit down to 180,000 profit (people have said they heard 150,000 profit mentioned at least once) and this does not bode well. We must pay close attention to what comes in 2009 concerning our small business taxes. We must make our voices heard. That is also part of the American system of democracy.
And if you’re despairing today, please don’t. It’s okay. It’s good. We’re still here. Take it one day at a time.
I’ll be here through it all and I’ll keep posting what I know and any advice I can give. And, I’ll be doing the same thing I tell folks to do on this blog. Because, we’re all in this together. 
Let’s “share the wealth” of knowledge and freedom and keep everyone in business.
Have a great day.
Tomorrow, an update on my Nano word count. I’m writing like crazy, so prepare for my current numbers to change dramatically.
