Showing posts with label grow-your-business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grow-your-business. Show all posts

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Do you have a MUSTA marketing team?

MUSTA. Fancy acronym? 

Maybe the hot new thing? 

Not quite. It’s actually the opposite of that. 


When an Entrepreneur hires my team to help them scale their marketing and sales, the first thing we do is ask a lot of in depth questions about the product or service, the target avatar, current clients, and which marketing initiatives have worked for the company thus far. 

Sometimes clients actually know and can point us to data and dashboards to prove it.


A lot of times, though, the Entrepreneur says “My team said this worked well!” 

Then my team looks at the data.

Turns out, what they thought worked well, didn’t work at all. 


A MUSTA marketing team is a team that assumes when the sales were higher, the marketing MUSTA worked…

MUSTA marketing can create some short-term success, but ultimately they’re throwing marketing mud at the wall, hoping something (anything) sticks. Here’s where the challenge lies…


It’s not long-term or sustainable.

At some point, sales will reach a threshold, and the efforts on the marketing side won’t be able to sustain because you really do not know what worked.  

An invisible ceiling surfaces, and people scramble. Chaos begins, and sales and marketing teams point fingers at each other. Previous plans are questioned. Future plans are undoubtedly questioned. A few key people start looking for opportunities elsewhere.

This is the long-term side effect of MUSTA marketing. It just doesn’t work beyond a few good quarters and it certainly is not duplicable. 


Fun Fact: Did you know that human beings have created 90% of the world’s data in just the last decade? We’re almost making up new words now to describe how much data is stored on the planet. 

Data is everywhere. Some call it “the new oil” for its economic impact.


It is consistently surprising to me and my team, though, that a lot of mid-stage marketing teams and Entrepreneurs claim to embrace data, but don’t really review it or follow through. 

All the best processes now in sales and marketing start with data. Data is the core of everything: past client behavior, trends, actions, clicks, engagement with an email, etc. 


DATA DRIVES DECISIONS 

Or at least it should. 

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Data can subsequently drive automated processes like…

  • Lead capture
  • Lead nurturing 
  • Lead scoring
  • Lead management
  • Drips
  • Workflows

The goal of an effective automated sales and marketing process is to read clients’ online body language, and figure out who should be contacted immediately, who should be phoned, who should be accelerated within automations, etc. 


Think of this like lead scoring with a heat index.

If you set up your lead scoring properly (more on that in a second), you achieve two main goals:

  1. You do MORE with less, and frankly you create a lot of sales and marketing productivity without even thinking about it.

2. You have Higher-Qualified Leads, leading to more conversions (and quicker sales)


Years ago, I met a guy at an event who sold online widgets. Pens. Cupholders. Mouse Pads. That type of stuff. He was making $2M/quarter. It was just him and his wife. I asked him how he did it, and he showed me a completely intricate web of marketing automation. If someone clicked this, they got this email. If they clicked that instead, they got a different email. 

It was visually overwhelming to look at, but it was working, and the company is still growing to this day. 

A lot of marketing teams don’t know how to set something like this up. It’s too complicated. It takes too much time. Other fires to put out take priority. Other meetings take precedence.

When you ignore the power of data and automation, you leave growth and revenue on the table. Automation done right also saves you money, but most importantly it saves your people time – they can be freed up to build relationships, and research the people they need to be in front of, while the processes hum along behind them.

As you know, an Entrepreneur’s biggest challenge AND biggest asset is TIME. If you can maximize time, you can maximize business returns. 


Some of us get in the weeds on projects, meetings, product design, launch, events, etc. 

All those things matter, for sure. But if you want be successful, you need to find time in other places – so that you can give time to new areas. 

The easiest way to find the time you need, and not get burnt out or completely inundated with tasks. Embrace thought out and proven sales and marketing automation.

Think of it as a well-oiled machine. The machine works along in the background, with periodic tweaks.

The machine delivers you the right, highly-qualified leads. 


Your team can really focus on relationship-building because they’ve had time to learn about these leads. As they start talking with the leads, more leads are coming through the pipeline. 


The “machine” continues to do what it’s supposed to do. 


This is a huge part of what my team does.

We help businesses attract more qualified leads, nurture them, then integrate proven and effective methods and systems to help convert these leads into paying clients.

That’s the biggest long-term advantage there is in business: Qualified leads, delivered consistently, with time freed up to focus on other areas that need focus. 

Time Savior + Revenue Generator

Automation done right has really helped so many Entrepreneurs over the years. 

I realize that sometimes automation gets a bum rap, and people will say to me, “Tech still comes off as a robot. It turns prospects OFF”.

Another one I hear, “It bombards my prospects with emails and push notifications, and they get annoyed. I’ll pass.”


That’s because they’ve experienced sales and marketing automation done wrong.


Everything is rooted in data and behavior patterns, and it flows from there. Every moving part of automation needs to be precisely set up and monitored. Testing is key. Continually improving is key. Evaluating every moving part will maximize efforts and optimize results. 


Turn your MUSTA marketing team into a high-performing team that gets you the results you know are attainable using data the right way.

We can help you get there if you want to dominate your industry. Simply reply back to this newsletter and we’ll set up a time to chat. 


To your success, 

David 

P.S. Recruitment and Hiring is the #1 Entrepreneurial Blind Spot which is why most avoid it like the plague… 

Let’s face it, the entire process can be utterly frustrating & time consuming, AND often results in attracting and hiring the WRONG talent for your team and/or business. 

But what if ALL the heavy-lifting was done for you, and you were only handed the highest qualified candidates that checked every box you were looking for? 

Head to this link to see if Nitrogen Hiring Network™ could be your talent recruitment solution. 

P.P.S. Not sure how to find and attract more of your ideal clients? If you have a proven high ticket offer, we know EXACTLY how to fill your pipeline with a constant stream of qualified and highly-motivated leads through our exclusive Leads on Demand™ program.

Simply click this link for more details.

Business Nitrogen

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

The Mind Reading Myth

One of the greatest challenges that we struggle with as Entrepreneurs (and something I’ve had to learn a few hard lessons from over the decades) is how to effectively transfer ideas over to my team. 

All too often we have these amazing ideas that we want to execute… 

Oftentimes these amazing ideas have absolutely nothing to do with the long-term goal and strategy…They are often short-sighted and simply satisfy a need in the short-term. 

We’re running a million miles a minute, juggling multiple priorities, and most times we simply throw out our ideas with the least amount of explanation or detail and assume our team has exactly what they need to execute what we envision in our mind.   

We also assume they know where it fits into the overall picture. 

They put all their effort into giving us exactly what we communicated that we wanted. 

And then we see it. 

Our reaction of “This is not what I asked for” immediately produces a look of bewilderment and disappointment upon their faces because the LAST thing they want to do is let us down… 

Them: They just poured their heart and soul into exactly what we communicated we wanted. 

You: You become frustrated, and end up doing it yourself or starting all over again.

Time and energy is wasted. 

Disappointment is felt by everyone. 

Projects aren’t completed on time.

Eventually, you find yourself with a revolving door of team members coming and going because they simply just stop engaging. 

Why? Because they start to feel an overwhelming frustration and sense of failure. 

Then comes utter defeat and they either leave or you let them go.

Here’s one of the biggest lessons I had to learn the hard way…

Your team does NOT know exactly what you are thinking unless you clearly communicate it.  

They are not psychics. 

They are not mind-readers. 

If you find yourself in this situation more than you care to admit, it's time to start looking at how YOU communicate. 

If you find yourself continuously disappointed in what’s being produced for you, or you find yourself constantly micro-managing, or you start taking responsibility away from your team (no longer empowering them, but criticizing and devaluing them) …                         

Take a moment to really think about how you can start communicating better about what you're thinking, needing, and wanting so your team isn’t trying to fill in the blanks with what they perceive you want.  

Earlier this week I was talking with a good friend of mine (who also happens to be a fellow Entrepreneur). He wanted a “retro” video created to attract a certain target audience. The goal was to elicit a feeling of nostalgia and trigger an emotion in their heart when they saw this “old school” video. 

He explained how he really wanted something different– Something that really resonated with the target audience on an emotional level. Something that would stand apart from what everyone else out there was doing. 

After sharing his idea with his team, they said, 

“This is incredible! We got this!”

So they went on to create exactly what he asked for. It was different, it was retro, it was moving. It encompassed every element he had asked for and then some (as he sent it to me to watch)

He then told me he told his team he was disappointed because it wasn’t at all what he asked for. His next remark was, “They missed the mark 100%”. 

From where I was standing, I told him I thought it was absolutely amazing, and I couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t completely floored by it! 

If anyone else heard the instructions he gave, and anyone else saw the results, they would have agreed it was a complete understanding of what was communicated. 

He responded with, “I’ve got to get this done in the next few days. I'm just going to have to do it myself, it wasn't what I wanted”.

The following week (days past the deadline)… 

He ended up filming his own video. A video that looked exactly like what everyone else was putting out there. 

Again…Time and energy wasted, all involved are disappointed, the project wasn’t completed on time, 

PLUS, the second video (at best) was mediocre (in my opinion). 


If this sounds all too familiar, here are a few things I’ve found that really help me (and my team):  

  1. Slow down to speed up. 

After sharing ideas my team, I set time aside to brainstorm and collaborate with them. This not only results in additional clarity, it always seems to produce even better ideas, and options that I would never have thought of alone. 

2. Give examples. 

I give the team examples of what I like and what I don’t like when it comes to particular projects. Most Entrepreneurs are “visual” learners, so use this communication strategy as an opportunity to help convey what you’re thinking, and what you have in mind.  

3. Practice reflective listening.

At the bare minimum, make this a requirement. Reflective listening is when the person who is listening has the opportunity to to reiterate what they heard to ensure it’s what you meant to say. 

After you communicate your idea, ask your team to take a moment to analyze what you just conveyed. Then ask them to reflect the message back to you. Confirm that they either properly understood or not. If not, give them more explanation. 

When you exercise these effective communication tactics, I’m think you’ll find the new found confidence in all the talented people on your team.  Plus, they will feel empowered again and that’s when amazing things will happen within your team structure and within your business overall. 


To your success,

David

funnel marketing expert