Christopher Doran - www.christopherdoran.co.uk

If you read my Twitter post just now, I said I would post two of the most vital words you need to know about producing massive profits for your business.

As with most things in life, it isn’t the words themselves of course that make the difference. It is the understanding of them, then the interpretation in respect of your business, and lastly the implementation.

“So big deal what are these oh so special words?”

Before I give them to you let me frame them, because you won’t appreciate them out of context.

Just before Christmas I presented to a board of directors. It was a long brain storm session to get to the bottom of why they were in business and why their customer’s bought off them.

On the face of it that would appear obvious:

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We’ve all heard the phrase ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’ It is true in business as well. Often we think things are doing okay for a while and then all of a sudden we get a new inspiring thought. Be careful of this though because it may result in you wanting to change something working already very well for you.

It is very important to look at what is going on in the marketplace and adjust your offering to meet new demand. That is a good thing. However, if a marketing campaign is already working well that may not be such a good thing to change. If you do, you may just be killing off the goose that lays your golden egg.

How do we counter this? First check and see what is going on. What is really happening? Don’t just take it for granted it is a great idea to change something. It may appear old hat or boring. Boring can be very good news indeed. Profit making should be as boring (and predictable) as possible.

Just think of all the everyday items and goods sold are household names. Look at something like Marmite or Kellogg’s Corn flakes, Bic biros. These are just three lines that come quickly to mind. Why? They have kept their product and brand image the same. This is even down to the packaging. It has been the same for years and years.

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It’s interesting when someone close to you dies, it makes you take stock of your own life doesn’t it?

It happened to me last year when my father, thankfully very peacefully, slid off to another place.

Just today it happened again, sadly.

My best friend Tony (Big T) expired suddenly and quickly.

After the shock and the sense of loss and grief, you think of all the good things about the person concerned, and what they meant to you, when they were alive and kicking.

All those very personal thoughts and feelings come flooding back into your conscious mind. All the good times, and the not-so-good times, you shared together.

In Big T’s case, there were more than enough of both, but we laughed at all of it, with glasses held high.
Life, and particularly business, can be such a challenge at times. We work to give value enough to others, to hopefully pay the inevitable bills life throws at us.

We often lose sight of the fact it is the value we provide, that really only counts in the final analysis. It is through sharing ourselves, we generate the most value. In difficult times, it is easy to lose sight of this fact. If we shared more of value, we would reap a far greater harvest for ourselves.

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Okay let’s get clear, this is THE PATH, yes it is. For any business to succeed absolutely and positively this is the pathway to success.

Second, success when you do what I am just about to outline, will - when you look back on it - be as if it felt like it was instant. Hence why I put in the “almost” proviso here.

So what’s pythons got to do with it!

Good question. Let me explain. But first things first.

Firstly the business owners I meet with are pretty much doing a great job. If they weren’t then they wouldn’t be in business at all, hence why I wouldn’t be talking to them. “Great” here, is paying respect to the enormous effort - not to mention risk - the entrepreneur who created the business in the beginning.

Now this does not mean these businesses could not be doing better - in most cases a lot better. This is where some reappraisal and reorientation of where they are and what they are doing is essential.

The answers to this are coming right now:

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One very important aspect of marketing most often neglected or even ignored by businesses is what makes them stand out from the competition.

Businesses rarely stop and think on this most important aspect of conducting their marketing efforts. Why is this?

The most obvious reason is they are too busy working in their operation to sit up and take note of what is going on around them. They are making money, they are making sales and looking after their customers, but they sometimes don’t have a clue about how they are able to be in business over the fact that customers are buying things off them.

This is dangerous water to be in. If we look at any of the most successful big businesses in the marketplace, they all have one thing very much in common. They all have very definite messages they put out saying exactly what makes them better than the competition.

Take any slogan from the major retailers and you will notice they all have a short message they put out right after they give their business title out. In advertising, especially on television, you see this all the time.

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