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Sometimes, there is just not enough money to do EVERYTHING you would like to do.

Recently, I had the privilege of talking to a prospect who wanted to enlist me to her team and support her event. We talked about her needs, her long-term vision, short-term goals and the project on deck.

I asked for $57,500. She said, "you are ON, but, you' ve got to make do with $20K. That's all we can invest in this project at this time. What can we do?"

Responses like this place me in an awkward position. As the process engineer, I now have to decide which battles are worth fighting, and what MUST get accomplished between this moment and March, when the event is to occur. I need to figure out a way to make-do and remove certain marketing assets so as to not compromise the event’s marketing needs. 

No one likes to lose money. Yet, we ALL lose money every day. I recently discovered there are at least 171 ways to lose a million dollars, believe it or don’t. We count money we make, we count money we spend, we count money we owe, we count money owed to us, we count money which we pay taxes on, we count money we save... but we fail to count money that we do not make.

The whole concept of "fortune not made" can be devastating to a small business that happens to be struggling to merely survive. It can most certainly slow down the growth of a thriving business as well. There is no accounting system for lost data, lost money and "fortune not made".

So the problem is real. Some call it unconverted leads or lost opportunities problem. Clinicians call it unscheduled treatment plans. At eLaunchers.com we call this problem diamonds in your database.

This problem is amplified in the life of physicians, cosmetic dentists, orthodontists, cosmetic surgeons, attorneys and any business who sells a high value product or service.

Thanksgiving holiday weekend is an excellent time to review 2018 business plan and begin preparation of a game plan for 2019.

Back in 2014 Dipa and I went to Infusionsoft headquarters to participate in Infusionsoft Elite Forum and created our first ever Everest diagram.

Bringing home the Elite framework was one of the best business decission we have ever made. In this blog I am going to share the annual planning, quarterly review and monthly progress monitring process. We have modified what we learned from Elite Forum to suite our needs and adopted tools that are appropriate for our size business.Today, I am going to share my planning process. I hope this helps my business owner friends.

In order to capture and convert a steady stream of leads, manage the journey of a prospect before their first transaction, and to build out of a life long relationship, you need a system. A system that is made up of rituals, rhythm, and technology that manages your ritual and rhythm.

Litening to Rusty Shelton from Advantage was enlightening. While most of things he discussed in authority marketing and content marketing is considered common sense to savvy digital marketers and hubspot users, his take on exactly how to develop your content strategy and the mechanics of messaging was very interesting. 

In order to grow your business, you are going to need three things. These three things can only be successful when applied together. You cannot have one on its own and expect to grow and be successful. If anything, you are losing money, time, and effort to get that one part up without the others. After you have these three things, you will acquire growth that is triggered by your efforts and managed by your diligence. You do not need anything else other than all three. Here are the three things:

We believe that marketing is made up of five core elements. Arts, Language, Time, Data and Money. 

While you need an artistic brain and an understanding of buying psychology to be creative on arts and language front, deals are made of time, data and money. Every marketer, regardless of their background and their current role in marketing must understand the basic marketing math.

Have you ever wondered which of your marketing strategies are working? You might have Facebook ads, Google, websites, and landing pages running your marketing strategies. How do you know which one is actually successfully generating you leads, and which one is just wasting your time and money? For all you know you might be getting all of your leads from Facebook ads and the rest are just taking your money or the other way around.

In his book NO B.S. Direct Response Marketing, Dan Kennedy, a most successful and influential marketer, explained all the rules in marketing. Rule number four from this book says, “There will be tracking, measurement and accountability” (page 37).

I was invited to be a guest of Dr. Greg Wych at a dental event where Dan Kennedy was speaking. Dan spoke for about 4 hours, break and another 2 hours. These are my notes from the event. I also re-examined the handout packet and resynthesized my notes to make sure I did not miss anything. There are two parts to this map. On the right you will find assets on the subject of: FOUND MONEY!: How to plug holes in the money bucket with internal marketing. On the left you will find assets on the subject of PATIENT MULTIFICATION: How to grow the practice and meet new patient needs from within, with internal marketing.

This mindmap has my notes from June 2018, Cleveland, Dan Kennedy private event called 'Marketing to Affluent'. A bonus event on 'Price stratgy 2.0' was on Day 3. I have notes on Price Strategy on this map also. Click here to view the Mind Map.