If business is so bad, why aren’t you doing something about it?

I am sharing an excerpt of a BLOG that Melody Burns wrote on her Linked-In page and my reply.

By melodyburns

At least once a day someone will say how terrible business is, no one is calling them, stopping in, or ordering anything. I wait until they are done crying and ask, “What are you doing to bring business to you?” More often than not, I am told, “nothing.” Nothing? Really, no wonder your business is not growing. Now is the time to get out there, do something different, find a new market, become involved, And DO SOMETHING!! If you sit back and wait for business to come to you, you might as well shut your doors. It is not going to come. How about looking through all the business cards you collected last year and send out a few emails. Invite some “friends” out to coffee and find out what they have been doing. Ask them how you can help them. You would be surprised what may come back to you. If you invite five people out for coffee, discover what is going on with those five people, chances are those five people will want to know what is gong on with your business. After coffee, they’ll leave and think about your business and tell a few more people about you and then you quickly become the hot topic for the day. A few years ago everyone was using the term, “creating a buzz”. That’s what you want. You want all those bees that had coffee with you to go out and spread the honey about your business. Chances are they’ll learn something new about your business! How hard is it to look at the collection of cards you have in a box and pull out five every other week and ask them to coffee. Maybe coffee doesn’t work, so you do a phone conference just to catch up. If you spent the time networking to capture those cards - you should spend the time reaching out to follow though. How about contacting a local not-for-profit and letting them know you want to help. Maybe you can donate an item or your time. You would be surprised how quickly the word gets out that you did something. Granted, you may get a few more requests but you can always tell people that you only make one donation a quarter and will keep their contact information on file. Ask them to put your name on their newsletter list so you can stay informed about all the great work they do. You never know where your next customer/client may come from! If you run a retail store, why not find another owner in your neighborhood and ask if they will split the cost of advertising with you. Maybe you can host an event - it doesn’t have to be huge, just an opportunity to have a few people in to remind them what you have. Go to your local chamber and ask them if you can have a membership directory to find someone who you could partner with. If you are not a chamber member, join a chamber- you can always ask about payment plans for membership - you don’t know if you don’t ask! Look online for other groups, activities and community events in your neighborhood. Get involved. You can’t sit back and wait for business to come to you - you have to go to business. I call it “active marketing”. Need more suggestions, email me and I’ll see what I can generate for you. melody@melodyburns.com
This entry was posted on February 20, 2009 at 6:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “If business is so bad, why aren’t you doing something about it?”
Jim Ullery Says: March 23, 2009 at 12:52 pm

Melody you have triggered my thinking. As soon as you and I share ideas like this with associates they might walk away thinking well that may work for her or him BUT my customers are different. Folks the difference may well be you. I have had the realization that there is no way as a salesperson or as a trainer can not change anyone! That is a personal choice. Each person needs to look deep inside them to modify their own behaviors. We have the choice to be whatever or whoever we desire to be. Laugh if you wish at the ideas of visualization - I will share that they work and they have for decades. I see some very sad cases today of businesses and people falling that lost sight of their vision and the importance of having contingencies in the event of this kind of challenge. Just have faith in people. We will be back. Focus, listen and care it will make all of the difference. When you connect be real and do not just gather names. Look into the hearts and minds of the people you collect names and contacts of. I stopped going to a lot of networking events when I met so many people that were looking beyond me. You know in the middle of a meaningful dialogue they are looking over your shoulder at who else just came into the room that they should go collect. Be connected to those people that Melody suggests having coffee with.