Is your business underperforming and you don’t have a clue as to why? Imagine your business is a car. You want your car to run at maximum efficiency, but for some reason, you’re sputtering along down the road – your check engine light comes on, but you don’t know the problem and how to fix it.
Join Jay on his latest Black Entrepreneur Blueprint podcast episode # 426 as he gives you the three most common issues that underperforming and failing businesses have, and how to fix them.
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BLACK ENTREPRENEUR BLUEPRINT SHOW NOTES – EPISODE# 426
On today’s show, we are going to discuss and diagnose three of the most common problem areas that underperforming and failing businesses have. I want to focus on impactful topics to help you level up your business.
PROBLEM # 1 – Not Enough Qualified Leads To Sell To
- NO LEADS = NO SALES = NO BUSINESS, It’s as simple as that. If you don’t have enough qualified prospects to sell to you won’t make enough sales.
- This is the most important NECESSITY of any business; I don’t care what you sell. THIS IS THE BOTTOM LINE
- Do you have a lead generation system? If you say no, just get out of business because you’re not serious
Solution
Build a simple lead generation system by driving traffic to a landing page with a lead magnet and then cultivate that relationship.
Example: You own a solar panel installation company. You run traffic to a landing page that has a checklist (lead magnet) that discusses how to save 70% on your electric bill. Now you have a new prospect who you just put into your marketing system.
PROBLEM # 2 – Your Product or Service Is Not Profitable Enough
- Business owners don’t take into account the additional costs of selling that product or service. That’s why your lead generation system is so important – it can reduce acquisition costs.
- Find a product or service that is profitable enough to absorb advertising and marketing costs and still be profitable
Example: If you’re selling watches for $100, and your manufacturing cost is $50, and your shipping cost from your manufacturer is $10 per watch, and your average marketing cost to sell one watch is $20, and your shipping cost to your customer is $15 THEN you only really make $5 per watch ($100 – $50 – $10 – $20 – $15)
Solution
Product – Perception – Pricing – Profitability (all four of these components must be aligned to create a profitable product or service)
Product – Do people want or need your product? Is it desirable?
Perception – what is the perception of your product (high-end, mid-level, or economy)?
Pricing – Is your product or service price aligned with your product or service perception? You can increase your price by doing things such as – using exclusivity, using scarcity, bundling products together, changing your target customer
Profitability – Your profitability is determined by having all of these pieces aligned.
PROBLEM # 3 – Understanding Who Your Optimal Audience Is
Optimal definition – means best or most favorable; optimum.
- You want to speak to the Optimal audience, not just the right audience. Once you diagnose your optimal avatar, now you can dial in the language that they respond to, how they like to communicate, where you can find them, etc.
- The reason you don’t have this data is that you don’t have a database, you’re flying by the seat of your pants
Solution
You must understand the characteristics of who and what your best customers are (remember, the money is in the data)
Give your current customers a survey or a questionnaire to learn more about them
Research your customer list, and what they have in common (age, race, income, geography, etc.)
Example: listen to episode # 423 where I talk about the money is in the data. I use Amazon and Touch Of Modern as examples. Amazon will copy successful 3rd party sellers’ products because they have the data to sell to them at a lower price. Same thing with Touch Of Modern.
