New Year, new you right? For us inspired entrepreneurs our new year means a new set of business goals and some great opportunities to learn more about ourselves as we focus on achieving our goals.
Whether we like to admit it or not the first few weeks of the year cause us to reflect on the year gone by. For some of us that might mean we haven’t come bounding into the year feeling uplifted and certain about where our business is heading.
Perhaps you’re feeling lost and unsure about whether this year will bring success … and you’re just not sure about what you need to do to turn things around.
Breathe that pent-up breath out right now! You are not alone! Not even by a long shot…
The fact is our underlying fears can hold us back. As I often say – this ride we are on in business is as much about what is going on between our ears (our beliefs) as what we put out into the world.
So if your business is not where you want it to be there may be one of five things that are holding you back. Each one has the power to stop you from achieving your deepest desires for your business.
What I’ve found if I’m sensing that things don’t “feel right” I stop to take a minute to identify what the issue is and then work through it. To help you with this please take a look at the 5 questions below and see how they resonate with you! They may be your first step to success and making 2017 your most profitable yet:
1. How Are You Feeling About Selling and Self-promotion?
Many of us struggle with selling and it’s one of the main reasons for slow business growth. The word “selling” itself has so many bad connotations that it can cause us to crumple into a heap. I read the other day about a seasoned sales person literally ‘paralyzed’ by their fears and unable to pick up the phone.
So what if there was another way?
How would you feel if you shifted your whole mindset around selling? What if you focused on serving your customers? As a heart-inspired entrepreneur, I’m pretty sure that this is the direction you are coming from anyway. This simple, yet powerful, mindset shift could help you start enjoying the process of serving your customers through your offer and turn your 2017 into a triumph. If you feel you need more help to work through this download our free workbook called Step Into Your Yes: 5 Steps To Help You Step into Your Power. Overcome Your Fear of Selling, Build Your List and Grow A Business You Love here.
2. Are you Crystal Clear on Your Offer?
Not being able to explain exactly how you help your customers and what it is you do for your customers is a huge setback when it comes to selling and promoting yourself. Research shows we only have 8 seconds to grab someone’s attention and engage him or her.
If you were at a party would you feel completely relaxed and confidently and succinctly explain what you do … and keep them engaged so they want to know more?
Or if being asked what you do sends your heart racing and your mind blank, then it’s time to look more closely at this issue. Without an articulate response to this question you limit your chances of being viewed as confident, credible and professional.
3. Who is the Hero of Your Marketing Material?
Traditional marketing techniques have led many entrepreneurs to make the mistake of believing that the biggest and best advocate for their brand is themselves rather than their customers. So their website focuses on the experience and credibility of the business and the owners rather than the customers.
The truth is – this approach is wrong… on so many levels.
It’s hugely limiting as it stops you from connecting with your audience by placing yourself in their shoes. And it provides no place for our customers to see themselves.
Our customers look for language and stories that feature them, not us. Being able to understand how your customers think and what they are looking for is critical to your success. Making your customer the hero will help you to tap into their needs and evolve your services and products to give them what they want. Once you have tapped into this slipstream of listening and customer focus you’ll be on the path to serving your customers and creating a deeply meaningful and successful business for yourself.
4. Is Your Call to Action Loud, Clear and in Alignment?
Are you happy with the content you create and believe in your offer – but your profit still is not where you think it should be? Or maybe you receive a great number of inquiries yet your sales figures do not line up?
If this is the case you might be lacking a clear and compelling call to action. It’s highly likely that your potential customers are interested in your offer if they are watching your videos or reading your blogs – but they might be unsure of what the next step is to working with you or buying from you.
Your call to action also needs to be congruent with the offer you are making and the sequence of your sales process. A colleague of mine ran a five-day challenge last year that had a lot of subscribers and very lively engagement. When it came to making the sale at the end of the challenge it fell flat. Later when she raised the problem with me we talked about the offer that she made in her closing webinar. It turns out that the offer wasn’t in complete alignment with her challenge event and it didn’t solve the next logical problem. This lack of alignment cost her sales.
5. Can Anyone Hear You Out There?
Many heart-centered entrepreneurs create businesses that they love with offers they truly believe in, yet they still struggle with visibility and launching their offer. If this sounds like you then there is no need to worry, you are not alone.
Remember when I was talking about underlying fears earlier?
This issue often goes hand in hand with a deep-seated fear of rejection or feelings of self-doubt. If these fears are in play it makes it impossible to obtain a high level of visibility because we just won’t put ourselves out there … to the point where we might not even launch our offer in the first place.
How frustrating … to stop yourself from achieving the success you know you are capable of.
What if there was another way? What if you could let go of the fear energetically? What if you could make a pledge for yourself to move forward in a different way? And then create a plan to take small steps forward toward the future you know you are so keen to manifest?
To help you with this, and all of the five potential barriers to success you might be experiencing please download my free workbook here “Step Into Your Yes:5 Steps To Help You Step into Your Power. Overcome Your Fear of Selling, Build Your List and Grow A Business You Love here.
Please download it and have fun with it and let me know how you go with it!
Lots of love
Jenxxx
P.S. Remember time is a construct we put on ourselves – the sooner we relax about that and focus on healing what’s holding us back we’ll move forward in an instant!
The good news is – that there is still plenty of time left – in 2017 and beyond. I guarantee that if you download our workbook here to help you address any of the issues I’ve covered here you will have infinitely more success in your business!