Who Else Is Finding the Decision To Be an Entrepreneur Difficult?

Is your decision to be an entrepreneur what you will settle for, like Janis said? Or are you just having trouble finding the decision?

You are what you settle for.

–Janis Joplin

Think of a business idea … one you keep coming back to. One that you can never seem to get off the ground. Or, maybe you’re struggling with the final considerations for going into business for yourself. You find yourself in limbo.

To get unstuck and finally make a firm decision, consider these six areas that play into the decision to settle as an entrepreneur:

Evaluate Market Opportunities

Selecting a market segment and how you can discriminate your business are the most important decisions you must make before deciding to open a business.

If there are too many competitors (some irrational or inexperienced), even if you’re the best, it’s a lot harder to be a success.

If you don’t have discrimination, don’t plan on competing. The very best decision you could make under these circumstances.

Marketing and Branding

Act weak when strong, act strong when weak. Know when you should not be bluffing (mostly all the time).

Don’t let your ego destroy your talent. Learn to be humble.

Your “brand” is important. What characteristics of your personality do you wish to reflect? Brands definitely need a personality. If you have limited personality, you will be behind the eight ball at the start.

Help shape the stories that people are telling about you. Stories are the best way to connect emotionally to your customers. And the best way to market your products and services.

Trust that you know what to do

If you’re doing endless research to find the “right” choice, give it a rest. When making more complex choices, we do better when we go with gut instincts, rather than weighing all the variables. Your intuition unconsciously takes into account all the information available to you, including your values and goals, and is likely to guide you to the best choice.

If you’ve lost touch with your intuition, give yourself space to find it. Take a walk, get a spa treatment, or play basketball with your friends — whatever you find relaxing and enjoyable. Be patient. You will reconnect eventually.

Business Model

Always be prepared for the worst case scenarios and put some of your capital aside for one or two. Go for positive expected value, not what’s least risky. Make sure your cash is large enough to meet a conservative business plan.

Do not risk investments that you cannot afford to lose. Remember it’s a long term game. You will win or lose individual components of your business in the short run, but it’s what happens in the long term that matters. Be persistent and patient.

Business Tactics

Don’t use business tactics that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other businesses making money from them. Make sure you understand the business model and rules before you start.

Stick to your principles, but be prepared to adjust your business style as the dynamics of the market change. Be flexible and don’t fear change.

Be patient and think long term. The businesses with the most stamina and focus usually win, so stay focused on your goals.

Remember hope is not a good plan.

Continual Learning

Educate yourself. Read books and learn from others who have done it before. Find a good mentor who knows the ropes.

Learn by doing and always experiment with small tests. Rarely if ever bet large amounts without small testing first. Theory is nice, but nothing replaces actual experience.

Learn by surrounding yourself with talented employees, start slowly with hires and don’t be afraid to let bad hires go quickly.

Never be afraid to ask for advice from your mentors and others in your network. Continuous learning is the key to long term success.

Establish a Company Culture

Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.

Be nice and make friends … become a key part of your community. It’s not a large community. Share what you’ve learned with others … play it forward.

Look for opportunities beyond just the market you entered. You never know who you’re going to meet, including new friends for life or new business contacts. Learn wherever and from whomever you can.

You’ve must love what you are doing. To become really good, you need to live it and sleep it. Have fun. Your business is a lot more enjoyable when you’re trying to do more than just make money.

Are you devoting enough time and energy to your decision to be an entrepreneur? Considered each of these decision factors?

Do you have a story about your career decision making you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Weird but Effective Solutions for Banking Industry Digital Disruption

Are you familiar with the concept of digital disruption? How about the ability to overcome digital disruption? These are scary times for many banking industry veterans. At least the ones in the know. This is especially true because of the banking industry digital disruption.

Make no mistake, if you don’t discover, you won’t invent, and if you don’t invent you will be disrupted. It’s just a matter of time. However, you can’t just show up one day and decide you want to work with the world’s greatest minds. Even Google, with all its resources and acumen, has had to work really hard at it.

It’s made these investments in time, focus and resources because it understands that the search business, as great as it is, won’t deliver outsized profits forever. Today, we no longer have the luxury to manage for stability, but must prepare for disruption.

banking industry — **Banking industry: Are the crack visible?**

Check out our thoughts on building innovation.

It is pardonable to be defeated, but never be surprised.

– Frederick the Great

Check this: Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision

The industry is going through “disruptive” change, a phenomenon that has transformed industries such as retailing, computing, airlines and automobiles. The bad news is that when the dust of digital disruption settles, historically even the best-run companies typically end up in the loser’s column.

Here is a story you will like. In 1960 two men made a bet. There was only $50 on the line, but millions of people would feel the impact of this little wager.

The first man, Bennett Cerf, was the founder of the publishing firm, Random House. The second man was named Theo Geisel, but you probably know him as Dr. Seuss. Cerf proposed the bet and challenged that Dr. Seuss would not be able to write an entertaining children’s book using only 50 different words.

Dr. Seuss took the bet and won. The result was a little book called Green Eggs and Ham. Since publication, Green Eggs and Ham has sold more than 200 million copies, making it the most popular of Seuss’s works and one of the best-selling children’s books in history.

At first glance, you might think this was a lucky fluke. A talented author plays a fun game with 50 words and ends up producing a hit. But there is actually more to this story and the lessons in it can help us become more creative and stick to better habits over the long-run.

In the computing industry, for example, Digital Equipment Corporation missed the personal computer (P.C.) in the early 1980s, started to fall apart in the early 1990s, and got acquired by Compaq in 1998.

We live in the age of digital disruption – a time when organizations are challenged to transform . . . or die. That’s not an overstatement in an era where household brands are both materializing and disappearing on a near-daily basis.

Technology is advancing at a mind-boggling pace, and innovative businesses are launching all the time, each raising the bar on consumer expectations just a tad higher.

The average business is massively challenged by the demand for near-constant transformation.

The forces of digital disruption are radically altering how we all access and consume information, communicate and socialize, shop and purchase.

Ubiquitously connected devices, social networks, cloud services – these and other innovations have already essentially inverted the relationship between sellers and buyers, between brands and customers.

Consumers are empowered by information and shared opinions, and they are emboldened by choice. They have developed an appetite for rich and rewarding interactions, and they rarely hesitate to seek alternatives when disappointed.

Increasingly, companies will succeed and fail according to the quality of the digital experiences that they offer.

We are indeed witnessing what can be best described as the end of business as usual. With the closure or dwindling performance of businesses once regarded as too big to fail or with the rise of every new Occupy-like movement around the world, we are reminded of the grand chasm that exists between consumer values and the values of today’s businesses.

What is becoming painfully obvious is that people everywhere are calling for change and they’re taking to the streets and also their smartphones, tablets, and popular social networks to demand attention.

The reality is that people are much more connected than ever before and their mission is to not only mind the gap but narrow it.

Technology is a game-changer and through the devices and networks that connect consumers, it is also the critical path for businesses to earn and re-earn relevance and trust.

Without evaluation or introspection, businesses, however, may well face digital Darwinism, the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than the ability to adapt.

Back in 1993, a man named Gordy Thompson worked for the Times. His job title was “internet services manager,” and I’m sure the big bosses at his company had no idea who he was, or what that really meant.

What did he try (and fail) to tell them?

“When a 14-year-old kid can blow up your business in his spare time, not because he hates you but because he loves you, then you got a problem.”

Understand, Thompson was in the habit of hanging out on internet message boards.

And he had noticed that fans of the Miami Herald’s popular humor columnist Dave Barry were re-posting Barry’s columns online, so people who couldn’t read the Herald could enjoy them.

In other words, the greatest competitive threat for newspapers was… the popularity of their own content! People wanted more of it, and they wanted it instantly.

It’s the same thing that happened to the book industry with Amazon.com and now e-books on demand.

It’s the same thing that happened to the financial industry when consumers started trading stocks online instead of using traditional stockbrokers.

And to the record companies that once ruled the music industry with an iron fist.

The list goes on and on.

There is at least a little good news for the banking industry: lessons learned from past failures can help to ensure success in instilling needed change.

Even better, banks have real assets to bring to this fight, and a number of experiments with new products and business models could point the way towards future positive change.

This blog describes reasons why banking leaders can stumble in the face of disruption and describes a few recommendations to help them avoid those pitfalls.

Success won’t come easily, but by following these recommendations, banks have a chance to successfully navigate through increasingly turbulent times.

Three barriers typically make it difficult for banking leaders (just as in future industries) to get disruption right:

Fail to spot the disruptive change early enough

Disruptive change tends to start innocently at a market’s fringes. Market leaders tend to dismiss early disruptive developments because they just don’t affect their core business.

Fail to allocate sufficient resources towards disruptive offerings

Disruptive innovations often have lower performance and lower prices than established offerings.

Companies find it hard to prioritize spending time and money on disruption when they have seemingly attractive opportunities in their core business.

Force the disruptive initiative into the existing business model and product concept

Eastman Kodak Company spotted digital imaging in the 1970s. It invested billions of dollars to create its first commercial camera, a $30,000 camera targeting the professional market.

Only recently has it embraced simplicity and begun to experiment with new business models. Had Kodak made different choices and realized the potential to create new business models sooner, it could have owned digital imaging instead of being one of many players in space.

The challenges faced by the banks

The innovation challenge facing the banks is tough as they have inherited obsolete legacy systems and mindsets. Consider when 40-year old legacy banking systems meet the new iPhone 6 … the results aren’t pretty.

As one might expect, non-banks are moving in to meet the need. This includes IT giants like Google, Apple and PayPal, and traditional retailers like Wal-Mart.

Our study of the banking industry suggests that the second and third problems are more pressing. Most banks still focus a disproportionate share of time and attention on their traditional products.

While not ignoring those products, allocating more resources towards new products and business processes is essential. It seems clear to us that banking companies must reimagine their content and business models if they hope to succeed in the medium to long-term.

To maximize their chances of successfully prospering in the next generation, banking companies should remember the following principles:

Assume a market-first perspective

One of the core principles of succeeding with disruptive innovation relates to how to connect with customers. The concept is elegantly simple: people don’t buy products, they hire them to get jobs done in their lives.

When people encounter a problem, they look around for the solution that allows them to solve the problem.

Too often, companies define markets through their own internal lenses, missing great opportunities staring them in the face. Opportunities offered by their own customers.

To succeed, then, answer these questions: what are the tasks customers are seeking to get done in their lives? How could you improve your current products so they get the task done better than by using any other competitor?

The banking industry’s business model has stayed broadly consistent for years and its profit margins are a testament to its power.

Succeeding with disruption requires embracing new models. A difficult job compounded by the disasters over the last decade.

Here are some adaptive ideas banking companies should consider for new products and business models in the future:

Design all services online from mobile phones

For example, your phone will be learning of investment opportunities on an instantaneous and ongoing basis and present them to you.

Build services to revolve around customers’ choices

For instance, as you develop and start saving money, you will have the instant and personal choice to delegate your money management to a number of providers, or you can manage it yourself.

You will be able to set criteria that will update your portfolio with your preferences, for example, investing only in environmentally sustainable businesses.

Build super security into all products and service

This will be a difficult, expensive, and continuous process and probably never be done. It may require creating consortiums of banking partners to accomplish. But it is the foundation of the bank of the future.

Banks of the future will require less office infrastructure

As an example, consider Ally Bank. It operates two offices in the United States, one in Utah and one in Pennsylvania, and has 616 employees as of June 2009.

The bank has no branches and customers handle their banking affairs entirely online. Sets the correct example, considering the cost savings, doesn’t it?

Banks will be replaced by platforms

Some of these banks are already at work of this, such as Ally Bank discussed above.

These platforms are run almost entirely by algorithms and robots – they will essentially become technology companies that mediate information and analysis about customers, products, and markets.

Bottom line takeaways

What will be the outcome of this frenzy of innovation activity in the banking sector? Only time will tell. In any sector, market-creating innovation is a difficult business, with many failures for every success.

It is a safe prediction that some banks won’t make the transition to the emerging customer-oriented digital world.

A key determinant of success will be changing management mindsets.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to continually improving your business learning?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

Hyken Customer Service Performance Suggestions for Marketing

Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it. Are you a consumer interested in receiving great customer service performance? If so check out these Hyken customer service performance suggestions.

Remember Customer Service Tips … How to Take Charge with Basics

Or an online retailer wants to present consumers the same?

Either way, Hyken says you will be interested in STELLAService. Have you ever heard of them? With STELLAService, metrics, and customer care, you will be well on your way.

STELLAService twitter profile does a great job of describing who they are and what they do:

STELLAService is dedicated to a world with better customer service – helping consumers find it, and helping retailers achieve it.

Background

STELLAService was founded in 2009 with the dual goal of helping online shoppers make more informed purchasing decisions, while also helping online retailers grow their businesses through customer service data and marketing services.

The company boasts many known e-retailers in its customer portfolio, including e-commerce companies like Diapers.com, Zappos.com, and 1-800-Flowers.com.

There’s a big trend toward price transparency on the internet, with one company matching another one’s price more easily than in the past because of information availability. Eventually, there will be complete ubiquity in product assortment and price among competitors.

Why buy it from one over the other? Service, except you, don’t have any benchmark for determining what company has better service than another.

And that’s where StellaService comes in.

StellaService’s website offers a public database of e-tailers its guerilla force has tested, offering its summary of the service experience, service contact information, and basic shipping information. It also lists retailers with the top customer service in some categories.

Hyken customer service performance … operations

The company aims to test every angle of an online retailer’s customer service, using roughly 300 different metrics on things like shipping time periods, speediness at answering customer questions, product knowledge, and much more.

STELLAService pays for all products it purchases and relies on its staff of trained customer experience analysts to thoroughly test the (thousands of) companies it evaluates.

It operates through a legion of two dozen mystery shoppers, to test online storefronts using StellaService’s methodology. This process includes doing things like sending e-mails in Spanish, and calling morning, noon, and night, to ask questions on the products, delivery methods, return processes, and beyond.

It relies on this consistent, ground-up approach to rate businesses, beyond the polls and user-submitted reviews that sites like BizRate use to grade online stores.

These mystery shoppers test out the customer service practices of online retailers big and small on a daily basis. These employees/shoppers perform tasks such as buying products, returning them, emailing and calling with questions to put together a comprehensive rating of customer service. Stress testing the marketplace.

Hyken customer service performance … seal of approval

StellaService has developed a testing method and sells the data that testing produced. And, to touch back on that transparency theme, online stores that passed the customer service test could display a seal from StellaService—named for the Italian word for “star”—signifying they had been vetted by a third party and were considered tops in customer service.

The startup, based in NYC’s Flatiron district, set out to get 10 to 15 of top 150 retailers it evaluated to display the StellaService seal last year. The company also tested the impact of the mark had on consumers who visited the sites displaying them and found that the seal influenced buyer behavior.

That experience suggests the seals help build credibility in the eyes of the uninitiated, but also with folks who have even more fundamental reservations. There is a significant percentage of the population that is still not 100% comfortable with shopping online. By letting them know the customer service is strong, it’s an additive measure to put the customer at ease.

Why Digital PR is an Essential Investment for Startups?

Hyken customer service performance … monthly service ratings

Each month, STELLAService sheds light on the service performance of online retailers within their respective retail categories.

The companies are measured across four service areas: phone, email, shipping, and returns. STELLAService monthly benchmarks are designed to provide consumers with guidance for smarter shopping and retailers an independent, reliable benchmark for measuring and improving their customer service.

STELLA Monthly Benchmarks includes companies covered by STELLAService with at least $100 million in revenue, as well as the five largest retailers in each of the 11 most popular customer categories:

Current coverage (May 2013) includes 100 of the largest online retailers in the US, as well as the five largest online retailers in each of the 11 retail categories above, according to the 2012 Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.

Retailers are measured and ranked in four specific service areas in the STELLA Monthly Benchmarks:

Phone support – includes 12 distinct metrics such as Speed of Answer, Product Knowledge, and Professionalism

Email support – includes 15 metrics such as Response Time, Grammar and Spelling and First Email Resolution

Shipping performance – includes seven metrics such as Delivery Time, Package Fit and Product Accuracy

Returns and refund performance – includes nine metrics such as Return Notification Time, Refund Processing Time and Email Communication

STELLA Monthly Benchmarks displays the top five performing online retailers in each service area for each of 11 retail categories. Rankings are calculated based on the objective performance measurements taken by STELLAService analysts.

Hyken customer service performance … business model

While there’s a host of ways StellaService could bring in cash—from affiliate marketing, selling the customer service data, and allowing highly rated businesses to use the seal in display advertising, the business model is still evolving. Selling the data to online retailers is the current mainstay. But the business model is expanding.

STELLAService updated its website last week, with added features for both shoppers and businesses. Consumers can submit great customer service experiences they’ve had online, and StellaService will display it on the company’s profile on its site.

Because the StellaService is focused on its consistent, objective, a methodology for testing sites, these reviews won’t influence StellaService ratings for a merchant, though.

Businesses that have scored high on the StellaService system can request code to update their websites with the seal. And those who haven’t been rated yet can nominate themselves to go through the rating process and attract the support of customers who want them to get tested. (There are roughly 70 companies on the wait list at this point.)

*Hyken customer service performance … partnerships underway***

Hyken notes StellaService has also been inking partnerships with comparison-shopping sites, like TheFind.com.

The whole rationale for e-commerce today is that prices are converging. The only thing now that companies can use to differentiate is customer service.

And a recently announced deal with Google is sure to get more attention.

Under the agreement with Google, STELLAService ratings will appear in online shopping search results and ads alongside retailers that carry the product consumers are trying to track down.

This is the latest sign of increased focus on e-commerce and the importance of customer service. More shoppers are starting online shopping searches on Amazon.com, the world’s largest Internet retailer, putting pressure on Google to respond.

So, why not give it a try as a consumer or an online retailer. If you do, please share a comment on your experience.

Need some help in building better customer insights from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer base?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job of growing customer insights and pay for results.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new insights that you have learned.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.

Check out these additional articles on customer service insights from our library:

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of a small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.

Business Pitch: 18 Secret Tips for Presenting a Proposal to a Client

Coming up with creative ideas is easy; a business pitch proposal to a potential client is hard. And while the pitch is not traditional marketing, it is definitely NOT selling, is it?

All too often, most business people go to great lengths to show how their new creative ideas are practical. They are often rejected by corporate decision makers who don’t seem to understand the real value of the concepts. Why does this happen?

More to explore: Network Connection … 23 Actionable Tips for Relationships

It turns out that the problem has as much to do with the seller’s traits as with an idea’s inherent quality. The person on the receiving end tends to gauge the pitcher’s creativity as well as the proposal itself.

And judgments about the pitcher’s ability to come up with workable ideas can quickly and permanently overshadow perceptions of the idea’s worth.

Before we continue, let me ask you a question.

What works best for proposal pitch designs in your business? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? It would be greatly appreciated by us and our readers.

The ultimate goal of all the points I list below is this: eliminate the fluff from your marketing strategy and focus only on the things that work.

We all like to think that people judge us carefully and objectively on our merits. But the fact is, they rush to place us into neat little categories—they stereotype us. So the first thing to realize when you’re preparing to make a pitch to strangers is that your audience is going to put you into a box.

And they’re going to do it really fast. Research suggests that humans can categorize others in less than 150 milliseconds. Within 30 minutes, they’ve made lasting judgments about your character.

One thing I have learned over the last few decades of listening to businesses pitch their ideas is this: it takes me less than three minutes to either tune out or want to know much more. In general, if you can’t win over a potential client in those critical three minutes, you will need to keep trying with someone else.

The hypothetical pitch proposal is a three-minute; a three-slide presentation that focuses the team on its main opportunity and helps convey what makes the business idea better than the other ones competing for the same potential clients.

You have no way of knowing what other ideas the client is considering, but this pitch proposal should do the best possible job of covering three topics:

Business pitch … the opportunity

The pitch should explain the opportunity you have identified, why you care about it and how you will overcome a customer’s reluctance to buy from you. To achieve these goals, the first slide of your pitch should answer these questions:

What problem or opportunity have you identified?

What is your solution to this problem or how do you plan to capture the opportunity?

Which customer pain will you alleviate?

What is your vision of the business and why do you care?

The market

If you can persuade the potential client that you have a real opportunity, the next challenge is to make a compelling case that the opportunity is worth their support. To that end, your second slide should answer these questions:

Which group of customers will you target?

How big is the potential market and how fast is it growing?

Who is your competition and why will your start-up prevail?

The business model

Finally, your pitch needs to explain how you can achieve success. The pitch will probably not answer all the potential client questions about your proposal but if you do it right, the client will want to spend much more time with you to get those answers.

To be sure, there are many factors that determine the success or failure of your pitch with specific clients. Among those are the fit between your industry expertise and that of the client as well as whether the client has confidence in you.

Here are the factors you should use to prepare your pitch. Let’s discuss each in some detail:

Prepare yourself, not just your idea

Clients consider first in the business they are dealing with and not in the business plan. It’s important that the chemistry between you and the client will be solid. The client will want to see that you are fast, thoughtful and efficient, and can sustain the idea through its conception and growth.

Business pitch example … capture the essentials

Clients care more about the presentation than the business plan. Can you, in less than five minutes, explain the ideas, the payoffs, and the strategy?

Business pitch presentation … do your client research

You should find out as much as you can about your client. Who have they used in the past? Have they been successful? How well do they know your industry?

How much time can they devote to you and your idea?

Pitch a proposal … short and direct

You need to capture clients as quickly as possible. How about the first 7 sentences? Don’t beat around the bush – introduce yourself, show the client what you can offer, and ask if them if you are on the right track.

Be like a breath of fresh air among the other pitches they could have received.

Being direct saves everyone time. You don’t have to spend hours and hours and hours writing a pitch and clients don’t have to spend the same amount of time reading it. That is a clear win-win.

Know proper tone

Because the client usually has done his homework, he knew a lot about us and our business. We’re conversational. We’re casual. We try to be fun (or at least funny). We’re definitely not a buttoned-up jargon factory.

So learn the same about your client and mirror their tone. There’s no fluff. No pitch red flags like “original content.” Nada. Just a normal, conversational tone that makes us know that there’s a real human behind the other end of the screen — not some robot.

Know client peers

I’m a big fan of many of my competitors. Many of them teach me much more than I ever teach them. So don’t be timid about mentioning their work. It will always catch the eye of the best clients.

Employ an elevator pitch

This is the 30-60 second business description of what you do and why someone should work with you.

It’s called an “Elevator Pitch” because it describes the challenge: “How would you explain your business and make a sale if fate placed you in an elevator with your dream prospect and you only had the time it takes to get from the top of the building to the bottom?”

Don’t be a stranger

Sure, we had never met the client before, but he wasn’t a stranger. We know clients in lots of ways without ever meeting them. So do your homework and learn about them from wherever you can.

And by the way, many clients will be doing the same research on you.

Pitch a proposal … Know client needs

If you poke around the internet, you’ll notice many things about the client. You’ll learn their strengths and weaknesses.

Find out as much as you can about their needs before your pitch and make use of the most strategic facts.

Focus on one point at a time

There is the rationale behind every step of a review process, and more importantly, there are specific goals to reach for each step.

When you start thinking too far ahead and try to win the business in the first meeting, you lose focus and often fail to move forward. Don’t lose your way mentally.

The No. 1 goal of any pitch meeting is to get invited to return.

Go the extra mile

It’s most often evident to clients how much work you put into the pitch. Let me give you an example: Create a custom, minute-long sample for us of the type of video you would create.

That’s not easy — it’s not like whipping up 500 words on a topic. You’ve got to write the script, shoot the video, edit it, and upload it. That’s a lot of effort for potentially zero payoffs.

But because the topic was spot on and the video was very, very well put together, the client was sold.

You want to go beyond an extra mile — maybe as far as an extra 5K – but it can pay off big time.

Courage to risk failure

In terms of new business, you must have innovative thinking, and you need to be willing to take intelligent risks to demonstrate creative ideas that are more than just messages.

Ensure you realize that not all clients may agree with your perspective, but there may be a compromise position that will lead to the best solution.

You need to know exactly what makes for a successful relationship because the best clients certainly do.

Timing can be everything

Being in the right place at the right time isn’t something that you can control — sometimes it’s just luck. Luck more often than not favors those who have gone overboard in preparation.

Sometimes when pitching others, you won’t be quite as lucky. So if it’s not a great time at the exact moment you connect with the client, but you have the rest of these elements down-pat, chances are the person you’re pitching will ask you to follow up with them in the future.

The total approach to performance

In pitching, you need a total approach to your brand issues. Think in terms of a holistic business solution, taking into account how the creative idea will work across disciplines including direct, digital, content marketing, public relations, and more.

More to learn: Business Blog … Learning from the Best Examples

Practice and more practice

A final piece of advice is to practice your pitch at least five times in front of different friends or acquaintances that have experience receiving business proposals.

Each time, you practice make sure you make revisions to respond to their questions and concerns.

The bottom line

It takes lots of practice to deliver a successful pitch. But, if you know how to avoid the pitfalls, and what leads to success, your presentations will be great.

Time spent on careful planning always pays dividends. Check the venue out, and familiarize yourself with equipment in advance to avoid possible problems.

Remember, a well-crafted pitch is a performance. Practice speaking clearly with a slower pace than your normal speech to avoid “rapid-fire” delivery.

Need some help in finding ways to grow your customers? Such as creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers? Or perhaps finding ways to work with other businesses?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your business learning?

Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

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Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.