I am certainly no Albert-Einstein-level genius, though I once managed to put the laundry through an extra spin cycle without my wife’s help, so I must be close. But I have to agree with Mr Einstein. Everything we do should be geared towards trying to make our business lives simpler, not more complicated.
I like to spend Monday mornings reviewing and tweaking my sales hacking strategy for the coming week. Unfortunately, in the ubiquitous MBA and corporate culture era, it is easy to feel that we need to make our strategy plan overly complicated rather than oversimplified. I have often fallen into this trap, and at times have felt paralysed in the swamp of too much detail.
One of the reasons I become a sales hacker coach, specifically for solopreneurs, was because I got fed up with so called ‘gurus’ out there trying to puff up their own importance by making sales and marketing so complex that a small business owner needs an MBA simply to follow, never mind implementing the advice. “Quantum Bants” and “UGC SERPS” may be ok for the professional marketer at “Corporate X Limited”, but none too useful for us solopreneurs just wanting to make more sales. Forget the “Ultimate 21 step sales funnel”, each step with its own acronym and dotted line to another eight sub-steps or the “36 page SWOT analysis” that will take you six months to fill in. Instead, put some genius to work in trying to breaking down your strategy as simply as if you were explaining it to your grandmother, unless, of course, she is a professional marketeer working at “Corporate X Limited”.
So how does one break down a solopreneur strategy for getting more sales? There are many ways of breaking this down, but to keep it simple, I like to look at it like this:
- Market – This is everyone you are trying to sell to – for example, women over 50 who want to lose weight.
- Audience – Those in your market that follow you. – for example, those women mentioned above who have liked your Facebook page, follow you on Instagram or have given you their email address.
- Lead – Those in your audience who have taken further action to show an interest. – for example, those women above who have signed up for a webinar, signed up for a free course, or have expressed an interest in a free strategy phone call.
- Sale – All those who actually buy your product or service.
Add how much it typically costs and how long it typically takes to take one of those example women over 50, from each stage to the next, and you have the start of a simple but handy plan. The ‘sales hacking’ part is working on where and how to make that process more efficient. That’s as complex as it needs to be. Now you know exactly where things need to be improved and where you need to focus your limited time and efforts for the most.
There are always nuances to every plan, and one can reintroduce complexity if need be, but for a rainy Monday morning here in Spain, I am keeping my strategy simple. This means that for today, I don’t need to worry about all the thirteen thousand things I need to achieve by 2025 to fulfil my business plan; I just need to work on my audience part of the plan. Let’s see if I can move two of you from Audience to Lead. That seems simpler and imminently achievable than it could be.
If you feel stuck, or would like some help simplifying/building a strategy for your business, get in touch by replying to this email or reaching out on Facebook, maybe I can help. But genius that I am, my aim will be to make things simpler for you, not more complex.