Happy holidays! I hope you’re taking some time away from business to be with family, friends, nature, a good book, etc.
But this is also a good time to make some adjustments while you may have a moment.
Here are a few things you can do…
Distill Your Positioning
Your positioning is the foundation for your business, and if you don’t build on a solid foundation, well, you know…
- If you need to really dig into your positioning, check out this free training. (You can watch it over the holidays, but if you need to do big updates, you’ll need to talk to people.)
- Make sure your positioning includes at least one good “secret“. (Check out the Sales for Nerds episode on “the secret of secrets”.)
- If you’re positioning is in pretty good shape, make sure it’s present and consistent on your site, LinkedIn, in your email signature, in your brief description of yourself you give while networking (both orally and in the Zoom chat log).
- Empower your virtual sales team– your top referral partners– with your messaging.
- Consider your pricing. Can you raise prices (perhaps just for new clients)? Can you create a new offers? What about less expensive offers that increase your profits by cutting out work that some clients don’t value?
Process and Data Housecleaning
- Update the contacts in your CRM. Make sure you have tagged them appropriately, with next conversation dates updated (or erased, for people you actually don’t want to talk to again). If you’re using Mimiran, check how many conversations you need to have with each tag category each week– is this realistic? If not, reclassify contacts, move some tags to less frequent conversation intervals, and/or devote more time to these conversations. (Don’t have or use a CRM? Maybe it’s time to start a free trial of Mimiran?)
- Speaking of time– check your calendar. Do you have recurring blocks of time for client work? Conversations with clients, partners, and prospects? Exercise? Anything else that needs to happen on a regular basis? Put this stuff in your calendar. Sure, sometimes life happens and you get interrupted instead of following up with prospects, but if you can follow up with prospects by default, that’s so much better than needing a rare planetary alignment to make that happen. The fortune is in the follow-up, which takes time. You’re in the relationship business, which means you’re in the conversation business. Just shooting off emails is not going to cut it.
- If you have a calendar app that allows others to book appointments on your calendar, do you have the appropriate times blocked off so you can focus on your work? Also, consider making meetings 20 minutes and 50 minutes instead of 30 and 60, to give yourself a bit of breathing room (and/or bathroom break time).
- Make sure you have at least one compelling lead magnet that helps your ideal client solve the big problem you help them solve. If not, here’s some free lead magnet training to help you create one. If you’re struggling with this, consider using recorded material from a Zoom session or other webinar you might have led recently.
- Make sure you have a proposal template that you’re happy and ready to use, ideally with embedded video of you. Then, when you need to create a proposal, it’s easy and stress-free (and compelling for the prospect).
- Update (or create) your not-to-do list? What activities are no longer serving you? Can you stop doing them? Delegate? Automate them?
Remember Your Why?
Sometimes running your own business seems overwhelming. So many hats to wear. So many hustle-culture-ish “simple end-of-year to-do lists” with easy tasks like “actually fix your positioning.” They call it a consulting/coaching “practice” for a reason. It’s never going to be done, so we have to learn to enjoy the journey. And sometimes we get so tossed by the waves that we forget why we set sail. So take a few moments (as many as needed) to remember that, and the amazing clients and partners that you’ve met on the way. (Make sure you call them in the new year…)
Your “why?” usually involves your superhero origin story– make sure you can tell that story– in person, over Zoom, on your “About” page, etc. This isn’t a list of your credentials, it’s a view into your mission, that makes the rest of your superhero journey make sense.
(My VP of HR helps keep me grounded…)
