Information overload has become a chronic problem, so if you want to reach your target you must cut through the clutter. Something has to really grab me and be super easy or I’ll just delete it. And that seems to be true for many people I speak with. So how do you move beyond information overload to reach those who will want to respond to your outreach?

Here are some strategies to consider.

Create a Compelling Message

What are the most urgent issues your ideal customer is facing? You can ask when someone signs up for your mailing list, downloads an online item or purchases something from you. Don’t just get their name and e-mail address, send an autoresponder asking them to send you a reply. Keep it simple and as easy as possible.

Ask people you meet at networking and events what are their urgent issues. Create products and services that address the most common ones. Then create your message using keywords that have surfaced during your research.

Make It Super Easy

The other day I wanted to sign up for an event and when I looked for the time and how to sign up I couldn’t find it right away. Within 20 seconds I was gone. I just wouldn’t take the time to wade through the content to find it…and neither will your prospects.

I offer the One Page Marketing Plan, which makes it super easy to create your marketing plan. It’s a step by step do-it-yourself system with everything you need to not only create your plan, but use it as well. Simple, step by step is what you want.

Offer to Do It For Them

But some people would rather have me do it for them. Obviously I will need information from them, but once I have that I can apply my own techniques to create their plan. It costs more, of course, but for those who want a strategic plan to follow, my consulting services are perfect for them.

People want results, but they often don’t want to or don’t have time to do the work to get them. If you can do it for them or at least partially do it for them, you’ve got a strong selling point.

Make More Direct Connections

I have found that I’m much more successful when I reach out directly, one-to-one to people who are in my network. These are people who have purchased something from me in the past, have participated in an event I hosted, or are a prospect I’ve had a meaningful dialogue with.

The telephone is still a wonderful business tool. What I’ve learned works best when you’re reaching out to someone you haven’t communicated with recently is to make a phone call telling the person you’re sending them an e-mail. On the call or in the voicemail tell them what it’s about briefly, making it as compelling as possible so they will read the e-mail. Otherwise it may just get deleted without being opened.

Leverage Social Media

Business is still built on relationships. It’s just that the way in which those relationships are managed has morphed somewhat with the advent of information overload. The social media offers great tools, but be careful, because they can add to the sense of overload. Be selective and consistent and people will begin to know, like and trust you. I’m much more likely to respond to something from someone I know rather than someone I don’t know.

Newsletters (like this one) are still a viable option for staying in touch, but the open rate has dropped. So I need to apply the other options as well.

Apply as many of these strategies as you can and you’ll be ahead of your competition.

**************************************************************************************************************

Want to work together with other entrepreneurs on things like this? Join  my new CEO Roundtable, a one-hour small group tele-session (4 maximum). Bring your issues and your concerns to the group and together we’ll offer you the benefit of my coaching and the group’s knowledge and experience. Next group starts Tuesday, May 25^th at 1 p.m. RSVP to marian@primestrategies.com to discuss and see if it’s a good fit for you. Coaching at a fraction of the cost of individual sessions.

My definition is a bit simpler, and hopefully, easier to understand. I consider developing a strategy as the “thinking” part of the process. It’s where you gather all the pertinent information, analyze it, and then make “informed” decisions based on what you learned. A strategy is an informed decision that provides a framework for actions.

From “How to Create a Marketing Strategy That Delivers”.

Want to create a strong brand, add to the sustainability of your business, increase your confidence and really enjoy being an entrepreneur? Just add the secret ingredient. Billion dollar businesses have been built on the secret ingredient.

In your business the secret ingredient is “YOU” and your personal assets. It’s up to you to know who you are: your strengths, your motivators, your values, and to apply those liberally to how you conduct and present your business. A good part of what attracts customers and clients is you.

Early in life you may have been discouraged from using your personal assets by well-meaning family, friends, teachers and others. It is, however, these qualities that have the strongest potential to attract what will make you successful and happy in your business and your life.

Marcus Buckingham, noted author and speaker on the subject has shown that “people will be dramatically more effective, successful and fulfilled when they play to their strongest skills rather than attempting to improve their weaknesses”.

Think back to when you were a child. I’ll bet there are things you can remember having fun doing or that were important to you then that somehow got lost in the growing up process. Chances are they’re still there, but have been forced underground because you wanted to “fit in” and be accepted as one of the group – or there was no obvious way to use them at the time.

The wonderful thing is you have choices all the time. With every choice comes the resulting impact on your universe. Each option will bring a different set of results. If you are conscious of who you are – your strengths, passions, talents, etc., you can make choices that will allow you to benefit from these assets.

I believe we use only a small part of our brain power to a large extent because we are out of alignment with our innate nature and strengths. It’s an exercise in basic physics. We’re designed to receive our awareness energy from many sources. If our basic receptors are out of alignment, some of that energy will be deflected as it enters our multiple consciousness levels, thereby substantially reducing the energy we can use.

By realigning ourselves with our core strengths we receive the full force of that energy. This means we gain maximum awareness from our environment.  We become stronger, more intuitive and express ourselves with more passion and confidence.

So how do we realign ourselves to benefit most from who we are?

It’s an exploratory process that can be accelerated through the use of an outside person; a friend, a family member or a coach – someone who can help sort out the truth from the fiction we’ve created about ourselves.

When I work with a new client, the first assignment focuses on identifying personal assets.  This brings to the surface many personal facets that had previously been forgotten. A focused review of their lives gives major clues about their strengths, values, skills, passions and talents.

A rediscovered musical talent, a love of animals, the ability to create solitude and peace in a hectic environment are all part of the individual truths that have been used to redefine and redirect several of my clients’ lives and businesses.

Once you acknowledge and claim who you really are, you have the foundation upon which to build your relationships, your business and your personal satisfaction. You will more easily be able to attract what you need to realize the dreams you may have long ago forgotten.

When your  own image is clearly implanted in your mind it becomes your personal brand and your secret ingredient for business success.

What’s your secret ingredient?

If you’d like to work on defining and refining your own secret ingredient, go to the Contact page and send me a note. We’ll schedule a time to talk.

Now is the time to be proactive — with a plan. The challenge is finding the right opportunity for your business.

Come spend an hour with me and some of your peers to:

-      discuss market trends,

-      learn steps to gain market advantage,

-      brainstorm new ideas,

-      share knowledge and experience

all for the purpose of helping you make 2010 a year of opportunity.

Join us for this F*R*E*E brainstorming tele-session on Monday, December 14, 1 – 2 p.m. EST.

It’s my gift to you.

Register now!

A recording will be available to everyone who registers, including those who register but do not attend the live event.

- You have specific goals for next year that you’ve defined, quantified and are prepared to carry out a written plan of action.

- You have mental goals that you think are going to take you in the direction you want to go, but you have not been taking consistent action toward.

- You know you should set goals and be working toward them, but you’re not really clear about what you want to accomplish or even what’s realistic.

If either of the last two describes you, I predict you could be in for disappointment come the end of next year. What I’ve learned in coaching business owners is that goal achievement is something everyone knows about and wants, but frequently are at a loss about how to attain. Goal setting and achievement is a process with a beginning and end point with specific interim steps in between.

The game of football offers a good analogy; always seeking the end goal, but setting and achieving short term yardage goals that eventually add up to a touchdown.

Start with the most abstract aspect — the Vision you hold for your business. If you were to close your eyes and envision what your business would look like when it’s mature, what would you see? If you haven’t done this in a while, go ahead, close your eyes and take a look. Consider the scope of your business, what products or services would be included? Who would be your target market? What would your surroundings look like? Where might you be located? What revenues and profits would you be generating? What benchmarks would you consider appropriate to acknowledge you’d realized your Vision? These become your ultimate Long Term Goals.

Make as many observations as possible about what your mature business might look like. If you can’t get the picture to come into clear focus, this is the time to call upon your coach to help you clarify it. The clearer you can get, the easier it will be to stay focused on it once you have a plan of action.

The Vision for your business is the basis for everything else you do. Think about why your business exists – beyond providing you a job and an income. Whom does it serve? How is it different from competitors? How are customers or clients better for having or using what you sell? Your answer becomes your Mission.

Greg Kurzynski’s, mission for Air Messenger in Denver is to provide prompt, cost effective transport of people and time-sensitive products across the deserts and mountains of the Southwest. “When I get caught up in the daily grind of running my business, it helps to remember why I’m doing this”, he says.

Think about how long it might realistically take to realize your vision. Three years, five, eight, ten? With a ten year timeframe use your total revenue as a guide for milestones along the way. A $15 million business in ten years means you’ll need to be well along the way at five years, maybe $6 or 7 million. So what will it take to reach that in five years? And what about three years from now and then one year?

Mark Dimitri’s company provides professional video editing services and equipment. He serves a varied media base. After 13 years in business he has a Vision of financial freedom that will allow him to devote time to other business ventures, hobbies and community service. In 5 years Mark would like to be debt free and have a net worth of $5 million. He believes $5 million net worth will be adequate to provide him the level of financial freedom he “envisions”. So these can be called his Long Term Goals.

It’s best to quantify a goal whenever possible. Short Term Goals are really benchmarks designed to show where you are on the continuum toward your long term goal and offer a valuable opportunity to make adjustments based on results.

Mark’s assessment revealed he currently owes $120,000 and is worth about $500,000. The starting point and end point are the gap that must be filled over the allocated time (5 years). He believes he can reduce his debt to $60,000 in one year and can add another $500,000 to his net worth. In two years he believes he can be debt free and see his net worth at $2,000,000. He’s projecting interim targets of $3,000,000 and $4,000,000.

If we plotted this on an annual basis it would look like the following:

Current Debt                           $ 120,000

Current Net Worth                      500,000

One Year Debt                             60,000 (Short Term Goal)

One Year Net Worth                1,000.000 (Short Term Goal)

Two Year Debt                                     0 (Interim Goal)

Two Year Net Worth                2,000,000 (Interim Goal)

Three Year Net Worth            3,000,000 (Interim Goal)

Four Year Net Worth              4,000,000 (Interim Goal)

Five Year Net Worth             $ 5,000,000 (Long Term Goal)

Just as in football, the most active strategy and planning takes place in the immediate timeframe. Long Term Goals are achieved by meeting a series of Short Term Goals.

One to two years is a reasonable timeframe to consider total revenue, total profit, market share, market position, current challenges that need to be addressed, new products/services, location and facility. This is considered short term goal setting and planning.

Danielle McGivern, owner of Cream Puff Bakeries in San Diego, says, “This year’s goal is to become more financially educated in my business operations, which will enable me to make proactive, instead of reactive, business decisions. I’d like to reach a million in sales within the next 2 years and be able to afford better incentives, such as health benefits, for my employees.”

To accomplish this she’s delegating some of her work so she’ll have more time to spend on the financial aspect of the business. And she’s using her business coach to help her understand and use her financial information and stay focused on her goals.

An easy way to approach getting from goal setting to action is to break short term (annual) goals down into quarterly goals. Set your plans to achieve this quarter’s goals, take the actions planned and monitor results monthly. Adjust as needed to stay on course toward your quarterly goals.

Determine tasks that will lead to your goals. Transfer these tasks to your weekly and then daily planner. Most Important – Allocate time on your calendar to carry out these key tasks. Give them priority. Remember, these are the activities leading toward your goals – and eventually your Vision.

To the extent that you can achieve your Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly and Annual Goals, you’ll be able to realize your Vision. I’ve created a specific tool to help you stay on track toward your goals on a weekly basis. It’s called the Goal Tracking Worksheet, and you can download it now with complete instructions on how to use it. It’s a steal at $37, but use code GTW10 and it’s yours for $27 till the end of the month. My clients swear by it.

If you’re not happy with what you’re achieving, this can be a small investment with a huge ROI. Download it now.

Read the story of one man’s innovative, viral project that took YouTube by storm. Mary Hulihan, Staff Reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, captures Grammy-winning producer, Mark Johnson’s story and shares a couple of his viral videos, http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/music/1855881,SHO-Sunday-playing01.article. Mark toured the world capturing street musicians performing the same songs and edited each song into one video.

An amazing technical feat, a musical feat, and an ode to the unifying effect of music. Beautifully produced, innovative, viral and inspiring.  Listen to the music while you’re reading the story.

I’m one of the 16 small business experts and I’ll be speaking on the topic, “The Leader Mindset: What is it and How do I get it?”. Some of the other topics are:

Build a Successful Referral Engine

Eight Insider Marketing Secrets

Client Retention Strategies

Top Selling Tips for a Challenging Economy

Organize With Confidence

Getting Started With Social Media

and much, much more.

You can access all 16 presentations during the week of Nov. 2 – 6 without charge. Click here to register.

It’s a virtual event, conducted over the web.  (no makeup, no shoes required) and it runs from Nov. 2 – 6th. My topic is “The Leader Mindset: What it is and How to Get it”, which will be aired on Monday, Nov. 2nd from 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. Once you register you’ll have access to the entire series. Click here for the full line-up and to register.

And, the best part…  there’s no cost to attend!

Although the content is directed to business women, they tell me no one will be checking ID’s at the (virtual) door, so the men out there can listen in on the strategies that will be shared.

If you have all the business you want, no need for you to register.  If you don’t, you’ll want to register to find better ways to market, sell and propel your business to where you’d like to be.

By attending this virtual tele-summit, you’ll get loads of innovative ideas and strategies for generating new business – all from the comfort of your home or office.

Check it out for yourself.  I know you’ll agree with me.

This is a not-to-miss event!

Register now!

See you there.

Being curious, I decided to do some research myself. There seem to be varying definitions of entrepreneuritis. Robert Sher in his blog article, The Path between Entrepreneuritis and Myopia. says “Entrepreneuritis is where you can’t stop yourself from jumping on every new business idea that pops into your head. Having a clear definition of your business will aid you in steering the course between entrepreneuritis and myopia”. He also warns, “avoid being too rigid in your niche. If you’re not growing your business in some way you’re in trouble”.

The Blue Jeans Virtual Assistant in her blog article, Do You Have Entrepreneuritis? says, “As a small business owner I must learn how to do everything myself (spending countless hours learning it sometimes) and must grab on to each new idea that comes my way or through my inbox, learn it and move on to the next thing. As a result most likely I have a list of unfinished projects on paper, in an idea journal or on the computer.”

Donna Maria calls it Entrepreneur’s ADD and defines it as 1) too many ideas at one time, no execution of any; 2) can’t think what to do with an idea. In her article, 3-Step Cure for Entrepreneur’s ADD, she actually offers some tactics she used to cure herself.

I think all entrepreneurs occasionally have bouts with entrepreneuritis, even if they didn’t know what to call it. Of course, when it becomes chronic, it can become a problem and really hold back your business. Part of the argument I often hear is “I can’t afford to hire someone to do other tasks”. They don’t have the money to pay someone else now, so they just keep doing it themselves. Bottom line: you can’t grow your business until you can begin to hand off tasks. It’s like the chicken and the egg.

I remember the first time I hired someone to help with my e-mail communications. I didn’t really have the money to pay her, but I decided to make the investment in my business. I quickly learned how valuable it was to be able to hand off tasks that had taken me hours to do. Now I had more time to spend on what only I could do in the business.

For some alternatives to doing it all yourself, read my article, Delegation and Teamwork, for some ideas and examples of how to start letting go a little bit and giving yourself the solid support you need to grow. If you’re really serious about getting your business to the next level, don’t let entrepreneuritis keep you down.

===

One of the great ways you can hand off tasks is by finding others with whom you can create a mutually beneficial alliance, joint venture or partnership. Learn how to put this to work in your business in the forthcoming Successful Partnership Workshop, which starts October 14th. In 4 weeks you will incorporate the principles of successful partnerships and have your growth-oriented partnership plan working.

The response to this call was amazing, so I know using partnerships for growth is a topic many people want to learn more about.

If you were interested but couldn’t be on the call, not to worry. Click here to listen to the tele-class. 

At the end of the call I made a Special Offer to everyone on the call. I’m leading a brand new rich-in-content 4-week tele-series, “Six Strategies to Turn Your Business Into a Fast-Track Growth Machine!” starting in October to reinforce what you learned in the tele-class, go into more depth, AND to provide you the tools and guidance to help you structure a growth-oriented partnership.

The Special Offer for the 4-week tele-series is a Savings of $50 if you sign up by midnight, Wednesday, September 30th. Use discount code BIZPC50 to capture the savings when you register. After September 30th, it’s goes back to the regular fee of $197.

With the response I’ve received so far, I expect to fill this program very quickly. I don’t want you to miss out, so I invite you to take advantage of this limited time Special Offer now.

Follow this link for details and to sign-up.

I hope you’ll be joining me for the tele-series starting on October 14th.