Fear-Based Decisions Are Bad for Business

At one point, every business owner will find him or herself in a troubling situation. Revenue is down. New clients are scarce. Profits are falling, and a peek at the financials is enough to bring on a full-fledged anxiety attack.   

Unless you’re Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates, chances are you’ve experienced that sinking feeling of a business that’s trending downward, too. But how you handle it can mean the difference between continued success and business-killing burnout.

Here’s where a lot of business owners start to self-sabotage. They start to worry about money, and that worry leads to poor decisions that ultimately have a negative impact not just on finances, but—maybe more importantly—on morale, too. Or feeling surrounded by competition and giving up the ghost.   Maybe you know what I’m talking about.

Wasting hours of your life enduring Business Networking meetings and coming away with nothing to show for it.  Or fruitless meeting after meeting and you dreading coming home for you partner to ask how it went…

You Take On the Wrong Calibre Of Client

Let’s be honest here – we might hate to admit it, but we all know there IS a difference between low-end clients and high-end clients. In my experience, the customers who plead poverty and haggle prices with you cause you the most grief and are the most demanding.  The clients who didn’t even ask about price are prompt, do their homework and are delightful.  [Makes you wonder what kind of customer YOU are…]

Now when money is tight, it can be tough to keep your ideal client avatar in mind. Instead, you jump at the chance to work with anyone who comes along. The trouble with this scenario is you are so desperate that you pounce at the slightest whiff of a sale.  There’s an old saying that “Bad salesmen have skinny kids” because the client can smell your desperation.  That also makes you feel awkward and sleazy in case you’re coming across like a predatory double glazing salesman from the 70’s.  Then you can find yourself with a roster full of clients who:

·       Aren’t willing or able to do the work you ask them to

·       Spend all their time telling you why your ideas and advice won’t work, or finding fault with every detail

·       Drain your energy and make you dread your office, or cringe when their name appears on your phone.

True story - When I wrote my first book “Ignite & Unshackle” in 2006 I had this one chap who hounded me to get one of the first copies.  I mean he emailed me daily, phoned every other day, chasing chasing chasing… for 3 weeks.  As soon as the box arrived I carefully packaged the book up in its cellophane wrapper, inserted a thank you letter and the 3 free CD’s that went with it into a padded jiffy bag and took it to the post office, paid extra to send it recorded delivery and emailed him to say it was on its way. 

Three days later I got the book back in the mail, still in its cellophane, with a post it note saying “I changed my mind.”  But he kept the free cd’s!  Jeez man if you just wanted the cd’s you could have asked for them!

You Stop Creating

And who can blame you? With profits down, you have to pull back. You can’t afford to spend time and money creating new programmes or offers, so you recycle the ones you’ve already produced.

Now, this would be ideal if you were repurposing with a positive intent. Turning your e-book into a group coaching course? Perfect! But that’s not what your fearful brain is telling you.

Your fearful self is saying, “Just re-release this same product again, so I don’t have to have new sales copy written or record new videos.”   And while this might help bring in a bit of cash short-term, it won’t do anything for your reputation or your self-esteem.

Errr… no. That’s no way to operate a business, but that’s just what a fear-based mind-set can do to you. Better (much better) to make a MINDSHIFT and hold out for that perfect client. And while you’re waiting, take what you’ve learned from your drop in sales and create the killer product your audience is clamouring for!

That’s what I’ve done – I’ve used the last few weeks to put together a FREE Cheatsheet and video called “Why They Buy – How To Attract More Paying Customers” which goes into the psychology of what makes people buy stuff and gives you the exact criteria you need to pull in more eager clients who are ready to buy from you.  Email me at admin@instantedge.co.uk if you’d like a copy because it absolutely can transform your customer base if you let it. 

No more wasting time on low probability prospects who just use up your time or suck you dry.  These 7 factors will get you more yes’s, make selling feel more like helping  and fill you with confidence knowing you’re helping your ideal clients solve problems which they gladly pay you for.