Member Article

Opportunity Will Knock

How are you doing with your New Years Resolution?

Research tells us that most people break their resolution early in the New Year some by the 3rd January. As we have now passed the “most depressing day of the year” – 3rd Monday of January- it’s a fair bet that another tranche of people have give up on theirs.

Who knows you might just be one of them. As well as any personal resolution many people have already lost the enthusiasm they had for the new business calendar year. Many of us end the year full of optimism; “Oh I can’t wait to get back and stuck into next year, it’s going to be our best yet! You just wait!”
Still waiting?

The trouble is we forget about that optimism and enthusiasm because we get straight back into doing our day job. The constant daily grind, the cash flow issues, the tax return needs to be in, the VAT man won’t wait for his money!

Those sales haven’t come in as your customers or sales team promised because customers gave your salespeople false hope. They too were caught up in Christmas euphoria and your sales effort for December well there wasn’t one really because what’s the point in December, it’s Christmas time!

The media is full of: The economy is terrible, Unemployment is reaching a 20 year high, will someone just switch the light off and curl back up under the duvet there seriously is no point! Well I have news for you!

Opportunity will knock and if you’re not careful there may be no one home to answer the door!

In the last 6 months businesses that I am involved with either in a mentoring or investment capacity have been knocking on those doors and guess what?

They have been getting answered! So much so that in one of those companies we dealt with over 30 enquiries from overseas between Christmas and New Year. As a result we have a multi million pound opportunity including a potentially huge negotiation with a government. I have clients who most would call start ups, getting stuck in and as a result are now talking to some major companies and taking business from their larger more established competitors.

The question is are you as hungry as they are? Are you going to “endure” or “enjoy” 2012? The choice is not the governments, the global economies or even your customers! The choice is undoubtedly yours!

How quickly you make things happen is down to you when you finish reading this article.
The first thing I would encourage you to do is have a good look at your sales message and method. Are you talking your customer’s language? Are you communicating the benefits of your product or service? Or are you merely sounding and looking like all of your competitors? Take a serious look at your marketplace.

Is the market you were selling into last year right for your business this year?
We often beat ourselves up or worse still console ourselves that “business isn’t very good because the industry in general is quiet” If that’s the case you need to be looking at repackaging what you do or look at a different target market. Yes the economy is going to produce a variety of challenges but mark these words: Only those who can stand up to the challenges they face with the right message, will survive and indeed thrive.

Opportunity will knock; will you be the one doing the answering?

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Robson .