How To Eliminate Business Stress By Increasing Deal Flow

I am up early today. Why?

Because I am in the process of isolating the root caused of business related stress.

Recently, I spoke at a seminar and I discussed a generic simple business model.

• Traffic/Promotion Process
• Conversion Process
• Delivery Process
• Feedback / Feedforward Process
• Referral / Viral Process

All controlled by management and executive decision.

These are the basic parts of any business. And I can’t seem to find the “other” pieces that make it so complicated.

And since these are the only parts that I can find. I am now trying to figure out where business stresses are located. In this way, I can isolate and control and hopefully eliminate my personal business stress.

Deal Flow

The start of the process is Traffic and Promotion. No traffic, exposure or attention from the market means no deal flow. Deal flow is the most important part of any business. Either there is adequate deal flow or inadequate deal flow. There is nothing in between.

So how do you get deal flow?

Simple…

It is getting message exposure to the most appropriate target market. Sounds easy…And therein lies the rub. Finding the target market to listen to my message and pay attention to my offer may take more time than I have available.

Deal Flow => Message Exposure * Conversion Rate * Time Ratio = Sale.

The time ratio is what kills most businesses. Time is the one thing that no one is talking about. What do you do when it is taking too long in terms of time to close, time to sale, time to market.

The first reaction is to do more.

In terms of promotion that means to promote more, get more out there. My experience tells me to do the opposite. I promote less to more of the right people. This opposite of the “more exposure method.” This is well known and understood as target marketing. Ok. So this is already common knowledge. So then why are people still spending money on exposure that is not and will never result in a transaction.

Proper marketing is not just talking to the crowd. It is talking to that one indivdual in the crowd that can hear your message and is willing to act on the message that is heard. Ah… now that is a little deeper definition of marketing.

What pain, upset or situation must the person getting your message be in to act upon your message. Find the situation that would compel them to act and you find the market. Find that “must act situation” and you find your market.

The must is the compelling outside force that gently or overtly forces action. They not only want to, they have to.

It is a matter of finding out exactly who can and will pay you for your product or service and attempt to only contact those people. Who you think have the situation that your widget will handle.

I fully understood this idea yesterday as I was preparing for a presentation. I saw a picture of a valentine card and it lead me to think about targeting my messages more carefully.

What if I wrote a compelling (defined: requiring urgent attention) love letter to my loved one. Not to sound gushy.

But, I know:

• exactly who the letter is for
• I know what I want to say
• how I want to say it
• why am I writing it
• the response I am expecting to get
• the exact situation that the reader will be in or is in

I know and have thought of every angle of the letter, the purpose of the letter and most importantly – I know exactly who the letter is going to and I know the exact situation that calls for this action. Thus I really know the person getting this message.

I know:

• how, when and where they are going to get the message
• why they are going to get the message

In fact, I am going to orchestrate the entire situation around this simple little letter. Hmmmm…. do we take that much time, energy and thought as we prepare our marketing messages that will ultimately lead to deal flow?

I find that most marketing does not have a strong why attached to it. Nor does it speak to the situation that the reader is in.

Why should the reader even care about your message let alone your product or service?

This simple shift in thinking has allowed me to reposition my business, message and offer.

In fact, that simple shift in thinking has created a years worth of deal flow in one week.

Try repositioning your thinking about your widget to see if you are talking to the right folks. And is there another group of people who are willing to pay more for less of what you do because it has a bigger payoff and less risk for them to move with you. Maybe you are just talking to the wrong market and they are not in a “must move situation”.

Just my thoughts this morning.

— David Bullock