“What do I do now?”

Is that a question you’ve asked yourself recently about your small business marketing plan?

For most entrepreneurs and small business owners, the past 18 months have been tough. It doesn’t matter how smart you are or how great your products and services are, in the midst of a recession it can be easy to get bogged down and watch while your profits plummet.

Most summers for the last 50 plus years, I’ve spent a week or more on the coast of Maine. And much of that time has been spent in boats: rowboats, canoes, kayaks, sailboats and small motorboats.

When the sun shines and the sky is blue, it’s easy to go for a picnic or motor across to the nearest store to pick up groceries. But when the Maine fog rolls in and blankets the bay, it’s easy to get disoriented and lost.

The current recession is just like a big, damp, cold fog bank for most small business marketing plans. It’s disorienting and many people are panicking and losing sales and money.

What can you do?

Discover what works even in a recession

Years ago, I discovered that with a few simple skills I could navigate through the thickest fog and magically get where I wanted to go, most of the time, much to the surprise of my friends. Now with a GPS it’s so easy anyone can do it.

The same is true with your small business marketing plan. Once you know how to stay focused and navigate through this recession you’ll amaze yourself as you see profits pouring in.

Use the following five steps:

1.  Begin with an urgent and compelling goal.
Pick a goal that’s vital to the success of your small business marketing plan. It could be lead generation, referrals, increasing repeat sales, customer retention, etc.  But whatever you pick, it should be so important that it motivates you to follow through.

2.  Pick something you can accomplish within a few weeks, a month at most.
If your goal is to write a book, identify a short-term sub goal, such as completing the first chapter.

Or if you want to get referrals, you could start by writing the sequence of questions you’d use to get existing clients to tell you how much they love your products or services and than to get them to give you 1-2 names of people they’ll help you contact.

3.  Pick something you can measure.
Improving customer service is a nice idea, but you need a specific sub goal you can measure. Increasing repeat sales this month would be a good measureable goal.

4.  Make sure the larger goal and the sub-goal you have picked is one that everyone on your team can commit to.
If half your team doesn’t agree that it’s urgent, it won’t happen.

If everyone can agree, for example, that they’ll focus on adding one more sales partner each month, it’s more likely to happen.

5.  Pick a goal you can accomplish with the people and resources you have.
That way you’re not dependent on additional funds or new resources.

That’s it. Now get started.

Pick an urgent small business marketing goal, stay focused and you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. Anyone with motivation and determination can bring in more sales this way.

– Charlie

P.S. Remember, that to change the behavior of your prospects, to get more people buying, you first need to change your own behavior.

P.P.S. Ready to stop struggling and start profiting from your small business marketing plan in this recession?

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