Okay, so you don’t have the money to hire a marketing specialist. What business expenses do you have money for? As a business owner/manager, you have the daily challenge of setting financial priorities.

Your business needs customers in order to survive, and if you don’t find them you won’t last. You don’t  need me to tell you this, but unless you have a free and consistent referral system already in place, you need to do effective marketing. Notice, I didn’t say “you need to do marketing” – I said you need to do effective marketing.

Zillions of dollars are wasted spent each year on marketing initiatives that produce little or no results. There are good and not so good marketing strategies and venues. Making the distinction between the two can be difficult. Which initiative? When? Where? How often? For how long?

If these questions baffle you, what are your options?

Today I offer one solution to this dilemma.

If you are short on cash for marketing or believe you have the ability to “Do-it-Yourself” (DIY), I am not going to try to convince you that a marketing specialist is what you need. But I am going to suggest that you do the next best thing – hire a Marketing Coach.

Yeah, you guessed it. I offer that service. Sure, you can pay me to help you, but no matter how you do it, I want you to funnel your marketing funds into resources that are most likely to have an impact.

Many small business owners do not have a particular rhyme or reason for how they spend their marketing dollars. They hear about something; it sounds like a good idea; it’s not too expensive; they shell out the money. They are not sure if it worked or not. Then another marketing avenue presents itself – again, not too costly and sounds reasonable to them. They shell out more money. After a few years these small investments add up to a good chunk of change and no significant results. Sound familiar?

What if you received expert guidance for these decisions or had a big picture, long-term marketing plan?

Nothing’s a sure thing, but…

• A well thought-out marketing plan with sequential step-by-step strategies, with both paid and free initiatives can only help your company
• Feedback and expert suggestions on your web content can only improve your Conversion Rate (number of web visitors who become customers)
• Guidance for marketing decisions can only educate you
• Expert advice can only increase your confidence
• Great marketing ideas that you can implement yourself can pay for the cost of coaching in an instant

Great marketing ideas? Yes. That’s what I get paid for, and coaching is the most cost-effective way for you to tap my brilliant creative mind. No, you won’t likely think of these things yourself. You are not wired or trained to do so. Or if you do, it will be two years from now, and too late for the maximum impact. You can argue with me on this, but I’ve seen your websites – hundreds of them…and if the majority of DIY business owners could think of these ideas, they would have already and would be implementing them on their sites. Some of you are – great work! Most of you aren’t – keep reading.

I see your websites everyday, and my heart aches when I see the missed opportunities of an ineffective site. It stirs my passion to remake your site. I love this stuff – I wish I didn’t have a mortgage to pay and could do your site makeover for free.

The saddest part is that most of you don’t know who you are. You don’t know how much more effective your websites could be. They look fine to you. Just like a lousy horse looks fine to me.

I can’t tell the difference between an everyday well groomed horse and one that can win the Derby. Sure I can probably recognize a sloped sway back (I even had to look that up), out of shape horse, but I have not been trained to assess the quality of a horse for racing or even everyday riding. I haven’t got a clue. And I wouldn’t consider making a horse-buying decision on my own. I might talk to friends or read up on the subject, but to be honest, my time is precious and I don’t have much to spare for “Horses 101.”

I imagine the same is true for you with marketing. Staying abreast of social media trends and protocol alone, is enough to keep you up way past your bedtime. What I am saying is that if I wanted to buy a horse, I would want an ideal horse that would meet my specific needs. I would want the best value in a horse and wouldn’t want to risk getting the wrong one. Therefore, I would hire a horse-buying expert to handle it for me. I would, of course make the final decision. But I would pay the horse specialist to do all the research and auditioning, then brief me on the top candidates and make recommendations. He or she would be paid for their knowledge and experience and I would gallop off into the sunset with the perfect horse for me.

Enough said – you get the analogy. A Marketing Coach is a cost-effective alternative to doing it on your own, hoping you hit the mark.

Ready to saddle up?

As explained in my last post, Yes/No Decision Making is often the norm in businesses and organizations. Here’s that process in a nutshell: when an interesting idea is presented by either an organizational insider or outsider, there is a tendency for the group to respond using the Yes/No decision making process. The consideration discussion may be brief or in-depth, but the process solely considers the adoption or rejection of the idea.

This article offers a more expansive, and perhaps even best practice approach, that I call the True Choice Decision Making Process.

Generating ideas and potential solutions is a creative process that should be encouraged in any business or organization. The following procedure facilitates a conscious and comprehensive assessment of all ideas presented beyond the “thinking out loud” stage.

Applying this procedure guides and informs “True Choice” that transcends the simple “Yes/No” process. Funneling ideas through these six steps helps manage an organization’s decisions by creating an efficient flow of direction and continuity.

Step One: IDENTIFY THE NEED

• What need will be fulfilled by the adoption of this idea? (i.e. what problem will it solve?)
• Clearly identify the need and put it into a succinct written statement.

Step Two: BRAINSTORM

• What other options or ideas could also satisfy the identified need?
• Create a list of as many options or avenues as possible.

Step Three: CONTINUITY

• Will adopting this idea contradict any previous decisions?
• Will adopting this idea fit within the current direction of the specific project and overall mission of the organization?
• If the answer to question #2 is no, don’t dismiss the idea too quickly. If it involves a change in direction, consider it within that context. A separate meeting may be necessary for its consideration.
• Are there any other continuity issues to consider while assessing this idea?

Step Four: PRE-DECISION

• With the information gathered in Steps 1 through 3, is there enough information and clarity to continue consideration of this idea?

Step Five: TENTATIVE ADOPTION

• If the previous four steps have been followed and the decision-makers feel the idea is indeed the best solution to the identified need or problem, the decision can be adopted tentatively.

Step Six: DISCERNMENT PROCESS/ FINAL DECISION

• In this final stage of deciding to adopt the original idea, the decision-makers can participate in whatever research or discussions they feel necessary to make an informed, conscious decision.
• Simplifying aspects or adding addendums and other fine-tuning can produce the final optimal decision. The True Choice decision.

At any phase in this process it may become clear that the original idea is not the best way to address the identified need and that while the idea sounds appealing, it may be a distraction or diversion from the forward movement of the project or organization.

What decisions are facing you today, that can be funneled through this process?

Do you have a conscious, intentional procedure for making decisions? Or do you respond to issues as they get in your face?

How do you make decisions about the day-to-day issues that confront your business? How do you tackle large decisions that your company faces as part of the big picture?

Do you clearly identify your problems or challenges and then systematically proceed through a pre-determined process that leads you to the optimal solution?

Most of us haven’t “learned” a specific effective decision-making process. A common practice that I often see in companies, organizations and my individual coaching clients, is the use of what I call the “Yes/No Decision Process.”

This process may be born out of an identified need, but more often it is presented by an organizational insider or outsider who has a “great idea” for the organization or an individual. With the “Yes/No” decision model, an idea is presented, given consideration by one or more people, and then is either adopted or rejected. Make sense? It certainly sounds like a solid model that involves in-depth review of an idea before any decision is made.

You might make perfectly fine decisions using this procedure. But are you making your best decisions?

With the Yes/No Model you are following a dualistic paradigm where you are limited to two choices: saying yes to an idea or saying no to an idea. If you are an analytical thinker you might even tweak the original idea to improve it before you adopt it. Kudos to you for refining the idea to better solve your problem.

But let’s take a closer look at this process. One of the biggest downfalls is that you can easily be swayed if the idea is pitched by a passionate, articulate person who is invested in you adopting their idea. And indeed the idea may be a great one, but it’s easy to have a blind spot without a more comprehensive process. You might end up choosing a new health plan provider, a procedure, a job candidate, a marketing consultant, a change of direction for your business, etc….that is not your best choice. And unfortunately you may never know it or may not find out till it’s too late to change course.

I have seen this happen time and time again. An idea is skillfully pitched by a charismatic “believer” who may be an associate, a stranger, a website or even yourself! What happens is that on the receiving end of the presentation, you get convinced of the merits and benefits of the idea. You will likely even weigh the pros and cons and therefore feel you’ve made a wise decision. You get excited about it. You buy in and become invested in adopting it.

There’s only one problem. We often get emotionally caught up in the romance of what the idea promises (just as we can in a new intimate relationship). This emotional attachment can cloud your vision. And, unless you fully revisit the original problem this idea proposes to solve and look through a wider lens, you will never know if you could have met the challenge more efficiently, effectively or at a lower cost for equivalent value.

In other words if you did not consider a wider range of options, there was no True Choice.

My next post will explain the concept of True Choice in detail and describe the step-by-step process that assures it.

(Here’s my pitch – but it’s for sure your best idea!)…
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In the meantime, pay attention to how you make your small and large business decisions. I’d love to hear the specifics of your current process. Leave a comment below to share your process.

Thanks!