It's true:

Vital business and marketing decisions are all too often driven by HiPPOs...

No, not slow-moving mammals of dubious personal hygiene.

I'm talking about the Highest Paid Person's Opinion (HiPPO)...

'Opinion' being the key word. See...

It doesn't matter if YOU love your website, email campaigns, sales letters...

...or hate 'em, frankly.

Because your market is totally impervious to your opinion.

The people who make up your market do not respond to what YOU like.

They respond to what THEY like! And...

We are often very poor judges of what they will like.

Sometimes this is because we have 'the curse of expertise...'

In other words, because we know what is important about our specialist topic, we expect our market to understand that too...

But of course this is wrong-headed. After all...

If they knew your topic as well as you...

...they wouldn't NEED you in the first place, would they?

The fundamental difference in perspective between you (the expert) and your prospect (the non-expert) means you ...

Ever feel you've done the 'hard work' of getting in front of a potential client...

...only for things to fall apart when it comes to discussion of price?

This should help you...

One of my clients - let's call him John - had struggled with the price objection.

So I asked John what went through his mind when he heard the price objection.

He told me honestly, ‘panic!’

So I asked him: ‘what do you fear they’re saying to you when you hear the price objection, John?’

What John said next was very interesting...

...see if you recognise this, OK?

He said ‘well, if I’m honest, I suppose I think:

• They don’t think I’m worth it
• They think I’m overpriced
• They must think I’m greedy
• And therefore, the only solution is to drop my price!’

I said, ‘I understand that. But actually you’re mind-reading.’

‘The thing about price objections like "the price is too high" is you will hear them for any number of reasons...

...which can include all the following and more:

• I think the price is just fine… but I alwa
...

Ever spent days, weeks, months setting up a complex ‘sales funnel...’

...that flopped, but you aren't quite sure why?

The answer may lie in the story of the ‘cargo cults…’

After the second world war, Melanesian islanders formed what became known as ‘cargo cults’ near abandoned US military airstrips.

The islanders thought if they only copied the same ‘rituals’ they’d seen American troops performing on these airstrips, valuable planes and cargo must arrive.

So they’d march up and down, dressed in improvised uniforms.

Holding wooden rifles. Performing parade ground drills.

Of course, despite going through the motions, nothing happened.

No planes. No cargo.

Kinda like what can happen with 'funnels...'

If you just copy what a high-profile marketer does, you will often wind up disappointed.

It's not because you didn't go through the right 'motions.' 

It's because you don’t have the same assets as them:

• the skill, experience and resources to execute and optimise product creation and marketing automation...

The secret behind Guns 'N' Roses’ success?

Great music? Controversy? A palpable frisson of danger?

Nah. List building...

As bassist Duff McKagan reveals:

"As soon as Guns began to play regularly in LA, we started up a phone and mailing list.

We obsessively made sure people who came to shows signed up – well, actually, what we did was send stripper friends out into the audience and have them convince people to sign up.

Obviously we had to write good songs and play well live to get a bigger audience… but the mailing list really worked for us – within six months we had a thousand names with contact info for each.

Other bands had mailing lists, but one of the secrets to GNR’s success was how much time and effort we spent building and maintaining ours…

We were relentless about calling the names on our list.

At first we had to hustle really hard… but we grew our fan base faster as a result; as our mailing list expanded, it was easier and easier to sell tickets to our shows…"

GNR’s smart strategy of bu...

UPDATE: I recently moved to Kajabi podcasts - please click here to listen to this episode

Like death and taxes, a stone cold certainty as a business owner is that some day, you'll leave your business... and you can't always know when.

If you don't plan your exit, bad things happen: for you, for your family, for your clients, for your employees, for your suppliers. For society, in fact...

Luckily, in the the new episode of the Growth Moves podcast, Christine Nicholson is on hand to explain her 3 Steps To Make Your Business Worth More - And Have Complete Peace Of Mind.

Christine is an author, speaker and award-winning Professional Business Mentor who works with business owners in technology, engineering or product or services businesses turning over £1m or more. She was UK Business Mentor of the Year 2020 and a Global Top 50 Woman in Accounting and you may have seen her on the BBC talking about business...

Listen in now, and also finally get an answer to that other question keeping...

UPDATE: I recently moved to Kajabi podcasts - please click here to listen to this episode

Like it or not, almost all of us are doing more webinars, online meetings, calls, and events than we did a year ago - but the problem is, most online events are really BAD... boring, unengaging, uninspiring and rarely delivering from a business perspective, either.

Luckily, online events expert Judy Rees is here in the newest Growth Moves podcast to show you how to do online events that don't just work - but actually work BETTER than your offline events!

Sounds impossible? Listen in and with Judy's innovative approach you'll see it's not... 

Named a ‘Top 100 influencer in Remote Working’ by Onalytica, Judy was an early adopter of remote facilitation as she trained international groups on high-level communication skills for leaders. She designs and facilitates online events that engage and connect people, building and maintaining professional relationships even when people can't get together ph...

UPDATE: I recently moved to Kajabi podcasts - please click here to listen to this episode

If you've ever told yourself you 'hate marketing' or felt uneasy with some of the tactics you see used online, Sarah Santacroce is right up your strasse...

Fed up with hard-selling, 'value-stacking' marketing tactics that felt  grubby to her, Sarah decided it was time the current marketing paradigm changed.

She's all about marketing effectively, but bringing much-needed empathy and kindness to the whole process… she calls it The Gentle Business Revolution and is author of the new book The Gentle Marketing Revolution: Grow your business your way, with integrity and kindness.

Listen in to the brand new Growth Moves podcast to hear how you can join the Gentle Marketing Revolution, discover Sarah's 7 Ps of marketing with integrity and kindness, and much more...

If you thought 2020 'a bit strange...'

...we just seem to be getting crazier still, and - leaving aside the rights and wrongs...

...or how you may feel about the man himself...

...amidst it all, there was a BIG marketing lesson last week, and we're ALL at risk if we don't grasp it.

Take 4 minutes to understand what it was, and what you must do now to protect yourself, in my brand new Growth Moves podcast...

Cliff Farrah is President, CEO and Chairman of The Beacon Group and a pioneer in the field of growth strategy consulting.

In this episode of the Growth Moves podcast Cliff talks to Rob about the four key questions to growing the top line that his firm uses as the first step in over 1500 client engagements over 20 years, with some of the world’s most successful companies.

The promise of technology for most consultants, coaches and services businesses rarely pays off, in large part because they lack the kind of intelligent strategy my guest Gareth Everson shares in this show...

Gareth explains why, unless you have one of three outcomes at the end of every client engagement, you've got a problem.

Gareth founded software company Connectably to help business owners who aren't naturally "software people" to systemise processes, understand marketing technologies, improve client experiences, get paid their true worth and increase their business' value.

We talk hot tubs, party-loving alcoholics (are there any other kind?)... and the Yes/No Game makes its debut!

Listen in to understand the strategy then get Gareth's one-pager here.