Psssst! Here's a secret: sometimes you will try things that do not work.
If that seems obvious, why do we find it so painful when things don't work out, when marketing activities do not produce the expected results?
Instead of taking the time to learn from our less successful efforts, we notice the failure and then try to get as far away from it as quickly as possible. Far from gawking at a bad accident, we avert our eyes before we can take away any lessons.
We know that the only way never to fail is never to try. That is, we know it intellectually.
Emotionally, we're pretty squeamish! Many of us who run our own consulting businesses have trouble staying in the room with our failures long enough to turn them to our benefit.
Review Failures for New Behaviors
When you look back at, say, the last year's efforts to grow your business, look for areas where results were disappointing. And then, instead of looking for "what went wrong," look for additives and tweaks. That is, ask yourself what additional behaviors might have changed the results.
"Trying harder" or "being more disciplined" are not behaviors, really, they are intentions, and pretty vague ones at that. Responding to referrals within a week, distributing your newsletter monthly, those are more behavioral goals. But you need to dig a little deeper and figure out if a small change could produce a big shift in results, or even just a much better chance for your marketing strategy to work.
Think of behaviors like putting your list of possible newsletter topics on the very top of your desk (or your desktop, on your computer) every Tuesday and Friday. Perhaps you make a rule for yourself that every time a current client gives you a referral, you explicitly promise to tell them how it pans out within seven days. That will make sure that on the sixth day, you'll make that call!
Don't think in terms of changing yourself, think in terms of engineering your environment to give your strategies a chance.
Take Some Chances
When you look at the year to come, be careful that you do not restrict yourself only to strategies that you are almost certain will work for you.
In the first place, some of those "sure things" are going to turn into ugly surprises.
In the second, as long as you limit the damage (mostly time, with some money) caused by failures, it can be well worth it to attempt a new, less guaranteed strategy, and then tweak it to success.
And third, facing the possibility of failure up front, on a regular basis, might make you a little less squeamish when things don't work out. And that may be the biggest benefit: growing the emotional strength to face, and learn from, your own failures.
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