Innovation is about telling a new story

Lots of people get confused over the concept of innovation. Many think its all  about new product development, patenting stuff,  Intellectual property. That is just a part of it and, to be honest a very small part.  The big and most significant impact is more commonly  in the small stuff that sometimes just sneaks up on you.

To give you an example  I was doing one of my a Free of Friday workshop sessions last week for a group of  craft artists who are looking at setting up a cooperative to share marketing expenses and sanity. An interesting concept in itself but that wasn’t what we were really talking about that day. 

All of them wanted to give up their day jobs but they couldn’t afford to make that final jump. It’s the commonest problem my new start clients have;  Working evenings, weekends and nights to build their passion into a viable business and their parachute. But, as they say, why would you jump out of a perfectly good plane? 

Here's a possible scenario:

Let’s say you currently you have 10 clients who pay you an average of £100 each/month = £120K total income per year. To get to those figures you did certain marketing activities and got a total of 20 sales meetings, of which 

you converted 50% of them into paying clients. (although it’s probably more like  a quarter.)

So we asked the beautiful question (s) What would happen if you changed the story, just a little?

What would  happen if ....by improving your marketing activities you now are able toget 25 sales meetings? That's a 25% increase.  So before you start anything you get at least one extra sale  a month.  That’s doable, right?

What would happen if.... you had an even better selling process  so that you are now able to convert 50% of those meetings into orders? That's a 100% increase, and to be honest is again pretty straightforward, especially if your marketing is now attracting better prospects. 

and Finally, what would happen if ... you increased your order per client to £120 per month, using the ‘would you like fries with that approach? You get a 20% increase in sales value for the same sales process.

So, what happens is this ... if you add all this up, you now have 17 to 19 new clients a year paying you a total of over £200K per year.  You work out the maths if you don’t believe me.

This is an approach that really works, and that, my friends, is real down and dirty innovation. Little bits here and there that make a massive difference to your profits and your life balance.

So, here’s a thing....

I challenge you you to look at your current marketing activities, your selling process and the financial results from last year, and set a goal to double your income in the coming year with this strategy. 

For those very serious about doubling your business this year, I invite you to pop into one of our to the Free on Friday workshops where I work with you hand-in-hand to learn the skills and implement the steps that will produce the results.  Or subscribe to the big idea newsletter. up there on the right of this page.

Or, if you would a like a copy of ‘What are the most five important things that can double your income and what to do about them?’ drop me a line and I’ll happily send it on to you.  You can reach me here. barryrainmaker@mac.com