Staying Focused

Good day to you. It's a sweltering 100 degrees in Tulsa
today, and I am hunkered down in my air conditioned office
packing the hours in to yet another day. No breakfast, no
lunch. You'd think I would lose weight, but I've learned
the hard way that not doing something does not mean you can
expect the opposite outcome. Not eating does not burn fat.
Not eating only makes you hungry.

It's the same in business. I watch companies trying to save
money by not investing in their marketing. Like not spending
money makes you money. Where did people ever get this idea
from in the first place? It amazes me. It's like business
owners have suddenly gotten "sales amnesia". Yeah, yeah,
that's the ticket. If I just stop spending money on
marketing, advertising and promotion, I'll save money and
actually make money. Yeah, yeah. Can I have a Jon Lovitz
amen, please?

What's your plan for improving your business? Make bigger,
better widgets? Ship'em faster than the competition? That
type of strategy may -- and that's a BIG may -- allow
business as usual for a while, but it sure does nothing for
growth.

Here's what I've been doing.

I made a client profile. I wrote down the common traits of
my best clients. That helped me see where I was wasting
time and money and effort with new prospects.

The perfect client for me is someone who has a vacuum in
marketing. There's no one really watching the marketing
bucket, there's no strategy or vision, no short or
long-term goals, no integrated sales-marketing effort, just
doin' the same old, same old and hopin' it don't break.

The perfect client is a visionary with a unique product or
service.

The perfect client is a brilliant engineer with the ability
to see a need and fill it.

But they don't know how to do what I know how to do. And
that's the difference.

What do your clients know how to do really well, and where
do they fall apart? That's where you need to focus your
time and sell your products or services or knowledge.

Yes, I meet many individuals and companies who need my
services, but not all of them can afford my services. I
need to focus my energy on those who have a need for my
services and are compelled to make the investment without
question. If someone has to think twice about paying my fee
then they are not a candidate, no matter how badly they need
me or want me or how much I like them or want to help them.

Do you have a client profile? When was the last time you
really thought about it and re-focused on the best
opportunities? When was the last time you surgically
dissected your client base and analyzed the commonalities
and areas where your products or services help most? It's a
good exercise, people. Try it.

And it doesn't matter if you are an author trying to sell
an ebook or a consultant servicing other companies. It
doesn't matter whether you are consumer based, commercial
focused, a self-employed individual or a full-time
corporate employee. The exercise is equally important
whether you sell a product or service or you sell yourself
internally to the corporate machine.

Now what distracts us from being focused and pushes us into
areas which result in lost time and money?

Well, oddly enough, the answer can be found in James
1:13-18: "shifting shadows".

Shifting shadows are things which tempt us from going in
the direction we know we should be going in. It can come in
the form of "low hanging fruit" opportunities which have
nothing to do with our core products, core services or
career or life goals.

Shifting shadows present opportunities where there are
truly none. They make us think -- "yeah, I could do that"
-- when the reality is you may be able to do it but should
you?

I know from past experience I have frequently gotten
involved in smaller projects because I thought I could help
someone only to discover that the person who came to me
really didn't want or need my help. They could probably
have solved their problem on their own over time. These
instances tend to distract me from larger opportunities
that are more in tune with the value I bring to the table.

So stay away from shifting shadows and stay focused.

OK, this week's tip for the week to get more traffic to
your web site is to write a press release and distribute it
online.

This is a simple task requiring no more than an hour to
write a good story and another hour to post it online. Or
you can use PRWeb.com to do it for $300.00.

Why use this approach?

Simple: back links and improved organic search engine
positioning.

Back links are other sites that link to yours. The more you
have, the higher in the search engines you go. The greater
your popularity, the higher your rank.

It's simple math.

Need a compelling press release? $150.00 gets it done plus
I will post it to a few sites for you at no extra cost. Or
you can submit it to PRWeb.com and see an increase in traffic
quickly.

One press release I recently did helped a young man gain
prominence with AOL Health and become a featured writer for
them.

Another press release sent over 800 unique visitors to a
valve manufacturer - talk about your niches - and the
release also got picked up by another national publication,
too.

It works and I'd love to help you. Only have time for
three. First come, first served. PayPal $150.00 to
info@schneiderman.net.

Watch out for shifting shadows and stay focused.

All my best,

Steven