It's Not the Times, It's the Technique
By T. Harv Eker
By T. Harv Eker
Yeah, people are going to be more cautious about how they invest or spend their money in a tough economic downswing. But what's the main function of any kind of business at any time? Getting people to buy your product or service. Simple, yes or yes? But if a business today isn't good at attracting people to buy what it's offering, it will lose profitability and go down, but the economy gets blamed.
Here's the truth: Being a successful businessperson has nothing to do with the economy. If you know what you're doing, you're going to be successful in any economy. And one of the keys to the success of a business is Effective Marketing.
This is one of the most crucial functions of business, but quite frankly most people suck at it! That's why, statistically, most businesses fail, especially when exposed to an economy like the one we're in.
As a business owner, the main function of generating leads and getting as many of those people to buy your product as possible doesn't ever change no matter what's going on out there. An effective system of marketing will make or break if people will buy your product, and whether or not your business will be profitable.
Successful businesses have these four marketing techniques, no matter what the industry:
- You have to start with prospects—These are the people you're going to be "talking" to. You need a database of people who will raise their hands and say, "Hey, I'm interested. Tell me more."
- You have to have a message—Start with information: who you are, what you do, your credibility and expertise, and the benefits of whatever it is you're offering. The hook.
- You have to know how you're going to reach them— Newsletters, emails, network marketing, direct mail—a system of delivering the message.
- You need to have a back end—A method for closing the sale or following up later. Not everyone who raised his or her hand will say, "I want this now." Don't let potential customers fall through the cracks.
It doesn't matter what type of marketing you do—paper, electronic, or people to people—you've got to have a system that works, a checklist of things you'd do whether the economy is good or bad.
You need something that makes it easier for you to get people to buy your product and easier for them to want to buy it. With effective systems in place, it's a win-win, and you're giving yourself a greater chance that people spend their otherwise reluctant money on your product. Of course, don't forget to deliver on the promise.
Effective marketing makes the difference between a good business that prospers only when times are good and a great business that endures in any economy.
Take a Look at Your Intention
Nobody tells us when we're young that we have a purpose, partly because most people don't even believe it in the first place. And even if they do believe it, a lot of people just don't know how to live it and nurture it within themselves, let alone in their kids.
It's not necessarily something we learn in school, either. There's this vague notion of "doing something with ourselves," but not specifically being educated to live our individual mission.
We're too busy learning the same things everybody else in the class is learning, doing the same homework, and anxious about passing the same tests.
As with many things in life, it usually takes some kind of pain or unpleasantness to jar us into new perspectives, new thoughts, and new possibilities. Thank the universe for adversity! Sometimes—heck, maybe most of the time—that's what it takes to get us into action.
Only this time around, the action isn't just our automatic responses to the programming we acted out for so long. We're much keener to avoid that pain or unpleasantness, so we start asking new questions, different questions, and better-quality questions. In short, we start acting from a whole new set of intentions.
We come up with better reasons to spend our time and energy in pursuit of what we say we want. It's important to have goals, but you have to go further. The level of importance you place on your reasons is going to activate the power of intention. And intention is very, very powerful because it acts like a magnet.
When you have something out there that you want, it draws unto itself, so you need something that is really going to ignite you to fulfill you, to get your passion up, to get your energy up.
Whatever your reason is for wanting more money, make sure it's from a compelling inner truth. Even if it's something like, "I want to buy a nicer car so I can feel better about myself"; if that's true for you, then that's your truth! There's no one who can tell you you're right or wrong. It's yours!
People need more money to pay the bills, yes? Well, how motivating is that? "Boy, I really want go out there and work my butt off and have a new vision and do all this work and everything so I can pay the bills." I think not.
Know how I made an extra $150,000 in one month? I changed my priority of what the money was for. At first, I was looking for more money for more investments, but I already had some investments, and I did okay. And then I decided that I wanted to buy a condo.
And all of a sudden I noticed business miracles were starting to happen, money coming in from places we weren't even thinking it could come from. Can I explain it? No. Why? Because it's spiritually based. You can't explain those kinds of things.
Intention is focus internalized. Focus is the steering wheel; intention is the fuel that powers the vehicle. Don't go for the regular. Go for the super-grade, the one that's going to run your vehicle cleaner, stronger, and longer.
