The foxtrot count of "slow, slow, quick, quick," can be applied to marketing. Photo / 123RF
When I was in my early twenties I took some ballroom dancing lessons.
(I did this as a way to meet interesting ladies and on that basis my ballroom dancing lessons were a great success.)
One of the dances I learned was called the Foxtrot.
This is a dance where you take two steps forward and then one step sideways.
The count you use when you do the Foxtrot is "Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick."
And when I think about successful marketing this same principle of "Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick" also applies.
Here's why:
When I look at the various sales and marketing strategies that you can use in your business there are slow results strategies and quick results strategies.
Slow results strategies are things you do that produce good results in more than two months.
Quick results strategies are things you do that produce good results in less than two months.
Slow Results Strategies:
(These are things you do that produce good results in more than two months.)
Here's a good example: Business coach Rob Garibay is part of Action Coaching and is currently ranked in the top three business coaches in the United States and in the top 15 business coaches in the world.
Rob began his coaching business 10 years ago when he moved from Michigan to Oklahoma and at that point he didn't know a single person.
So he was starting his coaching business from zero with no clients.
One of the slow results strategies he used was to network and make a positive connection with the managing editor of the local newspaper. (This took Rob many months to do and was one of his most useful strategies to grow his business.)
After establishing credibility with the editor of the newspaper Rob proposed writing a short article each week on business success in the Sunday edition of the newspaper.
The editor published the first few articles by Rob and these articles received a lot of positive feedback from the readers. Rob went on to write over 72 weekly business success articles over the next 18 months.
This did two things for Rob.
First of all it gave him instant credibility with the people who read his newspaper articles.
Secondly it forced Rob to think deeply about what he was writing about.
Because he had to share something useful every week Rob actually got very good at the ideas and tips that he was writing about. (So it actually improved his business coaching skills in a big way.)
Rob then used another slow results strategy and turned his business articles into a business book called "Energize Your Profits: 14 Solid Concepts for Growing Your Bottom Line!"
Being the author of a published book established further credibility with potential clients and generated a ton of new business for Rob.
Both these strategies took well over two months to put into action.
And both strategies have worked amazingly well to grow his business.
Quick Results Marketing Strategies:
(These are things you do that produce good results in less than two months.)
Here's a good example: Around 30 years ago I wanted to get paid to speak on sales and marketing to sales teams. So I joined Toastmasters and got better at public speaking.
And after a lot of effort I managed to get a small number of paid speaking engagements to some sales teams. However I was not making much money doing this.
Fortunately I managed to get an appointment to have lunch with one of the most successful sales speakers in the country.
His name was Des and he suggested I do four simple things to improve the amount of money I was getting paid for speaking to sales groups.
1: I had to give each talk I gave an interesting title.
2: I had to double the price I was charging.
3: I had to give away some valuable hand out resources with each talk.
4: I had to speak for either 45 minutes or 75 minutes but never for one hour.
All four of these strategies took less than two weeks to put into action.
And in the first two months of using these strategies I made an extra $6,500 in paid speaking fees to sales groups.
In other words I got 'quick' results.
Which brings me to the 10-10 Foxtrot Marketing Challenge...
If you want to dramatically improve your sales and profits in the next six months I invite you to take the 10-10 Foxtrot Marketing Challenge.
Here it is...
1: Do 10 things that will give you good results in your sales in more than two months.
2: Plus do 10 things that will give you good results in your sales in under two months.
That's the 10-10 Foxtrot Marketing Challenge. Remember "Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick."
"Only those who have patience to do simple things perfectly ever acquire the skill to do difficult things easily." James J. Corbett
TAKE ACTION
1: Make a list of 10 Slow Results strategies and 10 Quick Results strategies that you could use in your business. (Then put these all these strategies into action.)
You'll be delighted at how well this works for you.
2: I'm working personally with a handful of selected clients starting in November to help them to get amazing results from the 10-10 Foxtrot Marketing Challenge. (If you would like an info pack on what I'm doing just contact me on the email address at the top of this column.)
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