Christopher Doran - www.christopherdoran.co.uk

It’s funny isn’t it but the difference between success and failure is a very thin line? Sometimes it is incredibly thin indeed. In business this can be of immensely important. It can be the difference between being in and continuing to trade, or being wiped out and closed down. The most important thing in business is most often misunderstood completely.

Many say it is the customer. Others will say the staff are the most important. For others it is the quality of the product. The fact is all these things a ‘given’. They are assumed to be in place even before the doors of business open. So what if the staff are great? So what if the product has won numerous awards for quality? Big deal if the company has been going for three generations. Who cares? Frankly, no one save the owner.

The indisputable most important part of any organisation where profit is the motive is this: Marketing and the process of creating sales is all important.

Without excellent marketing any enterprise is destined to get only meagre profits. Worse it could be on the road to insolvency or even bankruptcy. It is the message carried out into the marketplace that is the most vital component part of a business. Everything else is a side show. Without superior marketing any business wilts eventually or stagger on way below its’ full potential.

So what can be done and what is this thin line? It’s very important. You only need to make very small changes in your marketing processes to make significant differences in performance. Any top athlete will attest to this. Olympic athletes run and workout on the track and measure their performance don’t they? Don’t they particularly do this at the margin? Yes of course they do because that is where it counts.

They know they can only incrementally change their peak performance. They don’t make leaps and bounds - unless they’re on steroids or similar. They keep on pushing their own boundary until those very small changes add up and give them a winning edge over the competition. When they win their race they do that with a very small margin over the runner up. They don’t win by seconds, they win by split seconds.

This is where the margin is. It is right there where the winner gets the gold medal by the smallest of measures. It is the same in business. Each very small step puts you ahead of the competition. Each step you take in the marketing of your service or products will help put your business just that very small edge ahead of others in your marketplace. That is where you must get to. It is just a thin line in front.

It makes all the difference. It can make big differences to your bottom line profits every year.
What the exact step is in each business is different. The interesting thing is it may not cost the business a penny to implement. It could be as simple as changing one word in an advert or even just one letter. The key is to quickly find out where the edge or margin is and adjust it until sales increase dramatically.

Then you cross that thin line into another higher plane of profit and increased wealth in your business.

Christopher

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