“You’re hiding your light under a bushel”. It was the comment from one Masterminder to another at a recent session.
The recipient of this particular piece of feedback had just been explaining how a new customer had recently come in and explained that, whilst she had lived less than 400 yards from this particular business for the last 5 years, she had no idea it was there.
This, of course, is a positive piece of news in so far as it means that there are likely to be other, similarly ignorant people in the neighbourhood who, with the right amount of marketing, could be made aware and, hey presto, the business grows as a result.
But it’s also a stark warning.
You see, we all live in our own little worlds.
We mix and mingle, online and offline, with the same group of people, week in, week out.
For some of us this group is quite large, for others it’s a little smaller but, in all cases, it’s inadequate if we’re to achieve the goals for our business. We need to amplify our presence. To expand our circles. In short, more people need to know about us.
Now, of course, I’m aware here that I’m stating the bleeding obvious, but that doesn’t make it any less right. The truth is that every member of the Entrepreneur’s Circle has ideal, perfect customers who are ready to rock and roll and would spend money with us … if only they knew we existed.
Those existing circles that we operate in, that we meet with and talk to at our networking events, that we see repeatedly interacting with us on Facebook, you see, they’re not enough. Our circle needs to be growing.
This is even more pertinent and relevant if you’re one of the popular guys or gals. If you’re one of those who are often at the centre of the conversation or interaction. If you’ve got a big personality… Because we all get comfortable with the familiarity.
We forget that the most useful thing we could do today is forge a relationship with a dozen new people who’d never heard of us when they got out of bed this morning.
The truth is that too many businesses, my own included, are a well kept secret from a significant chunk of our ideal target markets. And it’s our job to fix that.
For many of us, the reason people haven’t bought from us isn’t because they’ve considered us and looked at us and decided we’re not for them. It’s because they have no idea that we even exist.
Of course, fixing this really is all about the marketing. Working out how we get out there and connect with the right people (key word that, “right”) isn’t easy – but it is doable. We can crack it.
It might take more heads than our own to work out the solution – it’s one of the main benefits of Mastermind, but the pursuit of the answer is surely the elixir and holy grail that all of us should have at the forefront of our mind every morning – especially when we start our 90 minutes.
There are several articles in this month’s edition that may help you in this regard. In particular, I commend to you my little piece on Why Google Adwords is so Important … It’s Not What You Think.
Your BGAs can help and, indeed, the May sessions on effective use of PR have, I know, been very well received – and acted on – by many members, which is hugely relevant in this regard. But ultimately, responsibility sits with you – to either fix and solve this yourself or go out there and get the appropriate help.
If there’s more that I can do, please let me know.
