Episode 9: Going through a quiet patch? This is what you need to do...
Hello, James here and welcome to this week's podcast.
In this week's main event, I'm going to be talking about quiet patches.
Whether you've had a quiet patch, or you're going through one right now.
They can be really unsettling.
Especially when your outgoings are going to be more than what you've got coming in.
And that's why I'm going to talk you through what you can do to prevent them from happening in the first place, as well as what you can do to get some new clients fast.
And in this week's though of the week, I'm going to talk to you how terrible people are at delegating and why I think its the ultimate business flex.
So let's jump straight in.
Transcription below:
This week's main event:
If you've had a quiet patch in the past, or are going through one right now then you need to listen to this.
A couple of consultancy owners have approached me recently saying that they're going through a bit of a quiet patch and they're worried.
They've recently taken on more staff because they had a couple of big projects running.
These projects are now coming to an end.
New work hasn't come in.
They've got increased overheads and they're worried about cash flow.
And these seems to be a pattern that they've got themselves stuck in.
I hear this story quite a lot.
For me, this re-emphasis two things.
The first is that you should always try and have enough recurring revenue in the business to pay for all of your overheads and make profit.
This is key to running a scalable and stress-free consultancy.
And the second, is that you should always be marketing your consultancy, or doing some sort of lead generation.
Even when things are going great and you're super busy.
Because you simply can't rely on word-of-mouth or referrals to keep you going.
That's really risky business.
So, that's what you should be doing to avoid quiet patches and cash flow issues in the future.
But what could you do if you're going through a quiet patch right now and need some new clients fast?
I think you should try doing a multi-touch point campaign.
A multi-touch point campaign is a marketing campaign that involves multiple touch points.
And for you guys, there are only really 4 touch points to play around with.
The first is direct mail - so post.
The second are emails.
The third are socials.
And then the fourth is the good old fashioned telephone.
So the whole point of a multi-touch point is that you go hard and fast within a short time period to maximise results.
If I do a multi-touch point campaign, I typically do it over a week or two.
So on Monday let's say, I'll try and make sure my letter lands.
On wednesday I'd do send a follow up email.
On Friday I'd send a DM on Linkedin.
On Monday the following week I'd give them a quick call.
And while all of this was happening, I'd be posting across socials toos.
Multi touchpoint campaigns are really powerful. Let me explain why...
So when people do marketing, they do something that I call one-step marketing.
That’s when you try and get someone’s attention and you sell to them straight away.
But we need to remember some marketing truths.
You need to be in the right place at the right time
People only buy when they’re ready to buy
You need 28 to 62 touch points before someone buys from you.
So taking this into consideration, your single solitary email is probably a waste of time if it’s never followed up with further communication.
That’s why, if you’re looking to gain new clients, you need to think about a multi-touchpoint approach.
I’d like to share my personal experience of how a multi-touch point campaign has helped me with my own business growth.
When I first started my business a good 3/4 years ago now, I created a free book called "Firing people doesn't grow your HR Consultancy.
I then scraped Google (yes, that's the official term) for every HR consultant in the UK and got someone to go through all of their data and find your contact details to create my cold list.
Once I had my cold list, I then decided to send some emails to you guys, offering you a free copy of my book.
That worked very fairly well. I got around a 30% sign up rate from my cold list, which is fabulous.
But then I hit a ceiling with those cold emails.
Then, using the same list, I started targeting people who hadn't responded to the emails on LinkedIn.
This worked well too - another 20% or so requested their free copy of my book.
But then I hit another ceiling.
So I started sending letters out to people and that brought me a few more people and then my next step was to call them.
And again, that got a really great response.
What I'm trying to demonstrate here is that email alone only got me so far...
LinkedIn alone only got me so far...
Post only got me so far...
And telephoning people only got me so far....
But combined I got a much greater result than what I would do if I just did one thing.
Quite simply, when you do a multi touchpoint campaign, you maximise results.
So that's why, if you need to get some new clients fast, a multi-touch point campaign is a great way for you to do it because you are really giving it your best shot.
So what makes a great multi-touch point campaign?
First, you need a great angle.
And what I mean by this is your reason for getting in touch with them.
Sending a campaign out and saying "Hey, do you have any HR issues that you need help with" is a really wishy washy angle.
Instead, you need to find a compelling reason to get in touch with them.
So here in the UK, the new Labour Government are introducing a whole new wave of employment laws that are very employee centric.
This is an awesome reason to get in touch with business owners.
It's law related, so they need to do it. And it's time sensitive, so they need to take action within a certain time frame.
The second thing that makes a great campaign is a great call to action.
So whatever you're talking about, you need to offer business owners a very clear call to action that's inviting enough for them to take it.
Maybe it's simply a confidential call over Zoom, or maybe you're giving away a free resource etc.
So if you want to get new clients fast and you want to give a multi-touch point campaign a try, you first need to create a really strong angle and call to action.
Once you've decided this, you'll need to write your campaign.
It's really important to keep anything you do short and sweet.
Make it punchy. Get straight to the point, explain why it's important and create urgency for them to get in contact with you.
Once you've created all of your campaign materials, you'll then need to create your target list.
What your list looks like will completely depends on who you're targeting.
You could decide to find 50 local businesses that you want to work with.
Or, if you're targeting a particular industry then you may want to target these people too.
I think my advice on this is to keep your list a manageable size, because it's important to do all steps if they haven't taken action.
And if you're targeting 50 clients, then it's not a huge job for you to go and find their data and create a nice tidy spreadsheet with their email, postal address etc.
Remember you can find most of the information you're looking for on their website, LinkedIn and on companies house.
Once you have your list, you can then send the letter to them.
You can either print them off and post them yourself, or use an online service like docmail which I've used loads before and love.
If you're using a service like docmail, top tip is to send a letter to yourself too so you know when they land.
Once the letter lands, it's important to follow that up with an email within 1 or 2 days.
Don't leave it any longer because people will forget.
If you're targeting a list of 50 then these emails can be easily sent from your own email and you don't need to worry about setting Mailchimp up and providing opt outs etc.
Nice and easy again.
Then you'll need to send them a DM.
Make sure you personalise the message some how so it doesn't look like a copy and paste job.
And if you're feeling really brave, you could follow this up with a quick courtesy call.
Telephone follow up actually has really high conversion rates, so I would encourage you to give it a try as it's a great way to build relationships.
And of course, if the business owner takes action then you stop the campaign for them, wherever they may be.
If they don't take action, then you carry the campaign on until it ends.
And that's it guys!
I LOVE multi-touch point campaigns.
Do them all the time.
And get some great results from them.
So if you're going through a bit of quiet patch right now, or you simply want to get some new clients in then why not give a multi-touch point campaign a try and let me know how you get on.
In today's thought of the week, I want to ask you how good are you at delegating?
Because I've recently realised that people are actually terrible at it and it's stopping them from fulfilling their full potential.
So let me tell you a story about my dating life...
I went on a date the other day with a luxury property developer and interior designer.
We met at the gym, started having nice chats and said that we should go for dinner.
Super nice guy, but sadly not for me in a romantic way so we're just going to be friends.
And that's the end of the story.
Only joking... there is a point to this.
So while I was at dinner I was asking him about his work and he sounded broken.
When I say luxury interior designer, you should see some of the houses he's done.
Like architectual digest stunning.
Obviously incredibly talented.
Wonderfully creative.
And is doing really well for himself.
But he said he was close to a breakdown and you could really see it in him.
I obviously went into consulting mode with him and was trying to figure out why.
And it turned out that he was doing absolutely everything in his business.
He was doing his book keeping.
VAT returns.
With his job there's lots of sample ordering and returns.
Organising all of the developments he's doing is a logistical nightmare.
And I was astounded at the amount of work he was doing.
I said to him in amazement "Why haven't you hired a Virtual Assistant" and he looked at me gone out.
He knew what one was and understood the concept.
But for what ever reason was so reluctant to delegate anything from his own work load.
Almost as if this was a strength of his.
And for me, I felt like it was a huge weakness.
He was doing all of the amazing things.
Creating all of these amazing spaces.
Yet, he was kind of killing himself with the administrative burden of running his business.
He was getting so bogged down in work that he really shouldn't be doing.
In my head I was thinking why.
Does he actually know how to delegate?
Is it a control thing?
Is he nervous about trusting someone?
Does he know how to hire a Virtual Assistant?
Does he know what he is looking for?
Is he able to objectively look at his workload and see what could be delegated out and what can't?
I mean, there were so many questions flying about in my head.
It wasn't like he couldn't afford one.
Or couldn't afford a team.
He's earning a stack.
But it was dinner, I was trying to be all cool and didn't want to berate him too much.
So I empathised with his situation.
I said to him that I understand how tough it is running a business.
But that I think he could really do with getting some support to which he agreed.
I then said he should keep a note of all of the jobs he does each day.
And then at the end of the week he should review the list and put the jobs into two categories.
Stuff that he absolutley needs to do - like the creative side of the business.
And then stuff that could easily be delegated to someone else - like his book keeping and ordering samples and stuff.
We're both business owners and It was nice to have those sort of conversations anyway because we both get what's going on.
Anyway, I saw him in the gym the other day and asked if he had made any progress and he laughed and said no.
And I kind of rolled my eyes and skipped away thinking he was a muppet.
I get it though and I do know lots of people that struggle to delegate/
I think it is seen as some sort of weakness.
But for me, it is 100% an absolute flex.
There is no way on this planet that you can do everything in your business.
On top of your own busy personal lives.
I know consultants that are running hugely successful businesses on top of looking after their children, looking after their husbands, and then having to look after their old parents too.
Honestly, I don't know how they do it.
I really think they're super human.
I can just about keep myself above water on a daily basis, so hats off to anyone that is doing all of that and growing a thriving business.
You deserve a medal.
So let's go back to my original question.
How good are you at delegating?
In your personal and business life, are you doing tasks that someone else could easily be doing for you?
Are you doing tasks that are sucking up all of your time and energy?
And are you doing tasks that are stopping you from doing what you do best?
And the stuff that you really should be focusing on?
Like being the face of the business.
Driving it forward.
Getting new clients.
Making more money.
And actually giving yourself the time and energy to enjoy your success?
You can probably tell that I'm really passionate about this.
My mission statement that underpins everything I do is "Helping you get new clients and create a life you love"
It's the end part for me that's the most important and when I sit there listening to how hard you guys are working, I want to do everything I can to make things easier for you.
So he's my challenge to you.
Make a list of all the things you do every single day.
At the end of the week or month, I want you to review the list.
Look at the stuff that you absoltely need to do and look at the stuff that can easily be delegated to someone else.
If you can afford to hire a VA, or someone else than do it.
If you can't right now, then make this one of the goals that you work towards.
And make sure that you're putting your time and energy into stuff that will make the biggest impact for you and your business.
