How to explode your marketing and selling productivity

Sometimes the hardest part of marketing and selling is, well, getting out there and doing some marketing and selling! The emphasis here is on action.

As a business owner or executive it seems like you’ve got a million things to do everyday, not the least of which is operating your company. On any given day it’s the same -- company meetings, interruptions, emails and phone calls, the printer stops working, and a mountain of paperwork on your desk.

Your attention is constantly pulled in all directions, making it difficult to focus on marketing and selling.

It’s enough to make you scream! I’ve been there and know what you’re going through.

Marketing and selling is the lifeblood of your business. It keeps the doors open and prevents your blood pressure from rising. Yet, I’ll bet you'd be surprised how little time is actually devoted to marketing and selling each week.

It’s no wonder why revenue growth isn’t going the way you hoped.

Stop getting sidetracked and engage more prospects and customers by taking control of the time beast. Yes, I know, that’s easier said than done. There are certain things that must get done and can’t wait. And sometimes true emergencies occur causing your to drop everything.

But, generating revenue is just too important and you must focus on marketing and selling every day. Here are three tips on how to do it and stay stress-free.

Use time as a tool, not as a crutch. At first glance there seems to be a conflict. There are only so many hours in a day and with that you not only have to engage your market, there’s other important things to do that ultimately help you sell -- planning, administrative duties, review meetings, training, and the list goes on. Here’s a way to explode your marketing and selling productivity: focus on your non-revenue generating activities three times a day for no more than 45 minutes each. Set a timer if you must. That’ll leave you six hours a day or more to market and sell.

Check the checklist. Now that you have all that time on your hands, let’s talk about exactly what you’ll do with it. Start by defining the specific results you want to attain and when, then develop a marketing action scorecard. Lay out the key action items that must happen to support that. For instance, if your goal is to increase revenue by 30% and generate 100 qualified leads per week, list what must happen over the next three months to make that a reality. This is your guiding light for everything you and your team do. Create a checklist with who, what, when, and how built around the results you want. Focus only on the activities on the list. Score yourself regularly.

Turbo boost your processes, shorten the buying cycle. What if you had all 24 hours in a day to market and sell? You can, by taking advantage of online tools that will organize and automate your activities for both marketing and selling. To reduce the hours needed to achieve your revenue goals use social media tools such as Hootsuite and Crowdbooster to effectively manage and automate postings. Streamline prospecting and customer contact with email marketing and customer relationship management using platforms such as MailChimp, CapsuleCRM, and Hubspot. You’ll save valuable time and close more deals faster. It’ll be like doubling your marketing and sales team.

It’s easy to be distracted by all the “must do” tasks that pop up every day in your business. But you can’t let that pull you off course because your number one priority is driving revenue. Take control!

Systematize, simplify, and automate.

Ron Stein is President of FastPath Marketing (www.marketing-strategies-guide.com). He works with small business owners, helping them to energize their marketing and sell more of their products and services. Ron has developed his own highly successful 7-step approach to winning new customers as a result of his experience as a small business owner, corporate CEO, marketing and business development executive, salesman, and mentor at two nationally recognized business accelerators. Ron offers one-on-one and small group mentoring, conducts seminars, and consults. He can be reached at 727-398-1855 or Ron@FastPathMarketing.com.