Trust sells. It's as simple as that. When prospects are considering which business to buy from, the biggest risk they're weighing up is, "What if I make the wrong decision?" Making a mistake can be costly - whether that cost is actual dollars or time wasted or a missed opportunity with a better option. Prospects are always looking for proof that they'll get what they pay for - they want be assured that the business they choose is trustworthy. And that's exactly what awards do. Imagine this: your computer system has crashed and you might lose everything: all your ...

What’s your plan for dealing with leads who don’t convert immediately – or at least, say, within three months? As a business coach, the answer I often hear from business owners is, “I don’t need one – they’re probably tyre kickers, anyway.” And that may well be true. For a portion of them, anyway. You could certainly be forgiven for believing it is better not to invest too much of your marketing spend on bad leads, preferring to focus more on filling your sales funnel. You might be surprised to learn, however, that the numbers tell a very different story. ...

For marketers, 2019 may retrospectively become known as The Year of the Personal Brand. While it is not a new idea, attaching a brand to a person and making them the face of their business is a branding strategy that has gained some real traction over the past 12 months. As a business coach, I can certainly see the value of business owners embracing this trend; by showing up in your branding, it helps customers connect with your business on a personal level – and, as we know, people buy people. But I do have questions. Does this strategy suit ...

In my time as a business coach, I’ve observed (and weighed in on) many a debate around whether business owners should focus more on customer retention or customer acquisition as the best way to achieve business growth. Fact is, both of these marketing activities are extremely important. It’s not hard to understand that it is just as vital to keep customers coming back to you as it is to bring new traffic in the door. However, as a business mentor, I do feel that the pendulum has swung too far in the wrong direction; many experts seem to focus most ...

Confession time: even as an experienced business coach, I used to find blogging quite challenging. I spent way too many writing sessions having a ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ style stand-off with my enemies - the blinking cursor and the blank page. In some ways that’s a good thing – especially for my coaching clients. Now, when I’m offering business advice about blogging, I’ve got a suite of hacks, tips and templates to save them time and effort (and from making the usual blogging blunders). Having made the case for starting a business blog, this second instalment of ...

“Ugh.” That’s the actual noise many business owners make when I bring up blogging. And I get it. Committing to a content strategy can seem like a very unappealing task if you feel like you’ve already got enough items weighing down your to-do list. And if writing just isn’t your bag, you’re probably even less excited by the prospect. But as a business coach, I’ve got to bust through those objections, because I’ve seen the benefits of consistent blogging play out again and again for my clients. By regularly showing up online, this one relatively low-cost marketing activity can have ...