Ideal Marketing Company Blog

Claim your FREE place at a new marketing seminar to run at Hothorpe Hall near Market Harborough this March.

The Ideal Marketing Company is delighted to present a free marketing seminar to be held at Hothorpe Hall. This early evening seminar takes place on March 18th from 6pm and is free to any business owners or people with a marketing function within a company employing less than 300 staff.

Date: March 18th

Time: 6 for 6.30pm till 8.30pm

Location: Hothorpe Hall in Leicestershire

Cost: FREE

Title: ‘The 17 Marketing Cogs Seminar’

Discover the 17 essential marketing areas you need to be engaged in to win more new business and keep your existing customers for longer.

To claim a free place (and bring up to 3 friends with you) please call 01858 44 55 43 e-mail seminar@idealmarketingcompany.com or visit

http://www.idealmarketingcompany.co.uk/seminars.html

Don’t be in the business of selling ‘once’

The hardest way to make money in business is to have a product or service that you only sell once. Your aim should always be to create a range of items that you can sell, update, expand and improve for an existing customer base. I mention this idea first because the hardest sale you will ever make is the first time you sell to a person or company. Providing you sold them a good product, it is then easier to sell them something else.

Look at the way Gillette are always expanding their range and revising their product: even their central product needs to be replaced regularly. No wonder Warren Buffet (the world’s most successful investor) is such a fan of the company.

The same is true by the way for Coca Cola. They never settle for what they have they have a thirst for new markets, new variations with a product that creates it own repeat demand.

 The Ideal Marketing Company supports Leicestershire and Northamptonshire companies as well as companies from across the UK with marketing, PR and direct mail. The Ideal Marketing Company helps support companies with marketing consultancy in order to generate new business wins as well as making the most of existing customers.

Marketing Seminars

Thanks to all the delegates who attended my marketing seminar on Friday. There was a great cross section of business owners in the room with a wide range of experiences. I’m pleased to say that the feedback was very positive. Brian Haworth from www.bfas.org comments were typical – “Helpful friendly advice and discussions which will benefit our business.”

At each seminar there usually emerges a theme which people take away with them. I’m not if that was the case of Friday, but if I was to choose 2 areas I would say ‘testimonials’ and ‘re-examining product ranges’ were the key areas that emerged from Friday.  In yesterday’s marketing blog I added some useful information about how top get more testimonials. Today’s marketing blog contains one of the sections from the seminar notes on how to widen the range of services that you offer.

Extend your range

Armed with what your customers like and don’t like, you can begin to extend the service you offer them. When Direct Line started, it offered only car insurance; now twenty years later, it is a business with more than 10,000 employees offering a range of personal finance products to more than 10 million customers across the UK and Europe.

They were the first company in the UK to offer quotes over the phone and use the phone as the main channel of communication. They offered cheaper insurance (price) and saved time (convenience) for car owners. Their original advertising used the distinctive red telephone which is still used today.

During the first three months of operation, Direct Line gave 9,000 car insurance quotes over the phone. It now sells a policy across Europe every 10 seconds and is the UK’s largest direct car insurer, receiving 22 million telephone calls daily. Direct Line was able to do this because it spotted a gap in the market (the hassle of getting car insurance) but operated in a marketplace where repeat business was the norm.

After becoming very good at what it did, the company was then able to ‘up sell’ to its existing customer base, offering discounts for more than one insurance policy taken out by customers. Its current service includes critical illness cover, breakdown cover, mortgages, loans, home insurance, savings, tracker ISAs, travel insurance, cash mini ISAs and pet insurance.

Don’t lose track of what you REALLY offer your customers. Railways offered transportation and could have viewed air travel as an opportunity rather than a threat. My nephew and niece have recently decided to start selling fresh farm eggs as a way of making more pocket money. This will also give them an opportunity to sell other products related to eggs which will probably give them far more profit than the eggs themselves.

Think about what your customers REALLY want and see if there are ways of delivering this.

The Ideal Marketing Company supports Leicestershire and Northamptonshire companies as well as companies from across the UK with marketing, PR and direct mail. The Ideal Marketing Company helps support companies with marketing consultancy in order to generate new business wins as well as making the most of existing customers.

Testimonials are a key way to win the confidence of prospects.  I’m pleased to say that I have over 400 testimonials from seminar delegates that I have collected over the years – just by asking.  How many of your customers do you ask for a testimonial? This article has some great ideas for obtaining articles.

Whatever business you are in, one of the best assets you can build is a databank of testimonials from satisfied clients and customers. But exactly how do you get those rave reviews that you can use to attract more clients? Here are my 6 top tips for collecting and using effective testimonials.

1. Deliver a great product or service

I know it’s stating the obvious, but the first step in getting testimonials is to have satisfied customers and clients. That means you need to make sure you have delivered on your promises and at least met, if not exceeded, your customers’ expectations. Don’t try to collect any testimonials until you have met this criteria!

2. Ask!

The big secret of getting testimonials is no big secret at all. You’ve simply got to ask. If you’ve been in business for any length of time at all, you probably already have satisfied customers who would be more than willing to give you an endorsement, if only you ASK them. I understand that you might be self-conscious about asking, so why not send a note or email along these lines.

‘Can I ask a quick favour? I’m in the process of updating my marketing materials and want to include examples of people I have worked with and how I’ve helped them. I would love to include you. Would you be willing to jot a couple of lines about how my (service/product) helped you? I’m planning to get this completed in the next two weeks, so if you could reply by (deadline) it would really help. Thanks in anticipation!’

There, now that wasn’t so difficult was it? Try it. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the responses you get!

3. Use full contact details

Have you ever seen those testimonials that are signed by someone like ‘J.V, Leicester’. Do you believe them? I don’t. They scream ‘made up!’ Testimonials simply aren’t worthwhile unless accompanied by full contact details: name, company, location, age, profession. Include as much relevant info as you need to prove that the testimonial was provided by a real person.

4. Use examples of your target audience

If you’re targeting single 20 somethings, then it doesn’t make sense to include a testimonial from a 50 year old married woman. The unspoken question many of your prospects have in their head is ‘Will this work for me?’, so they want to see case studies and examples from people who started out in a similar situation. Adapt your testimonials to make them relevant to your target audience e.g. if you are targeting working mothers include information like, ‘Sarah Smith, mother of 3′.

5. Make your testimonials more believable with photos, voice and/or video We’ve all seen the ‘testimonials’ on TV that are actually paid actors, so it’s not surprising that many of your prospects are jaded and skeptical. You can make your testimonials more believable by using proof in the shape of photos, actual voice recordings of the testimonials and even video testimonials if you can get them. Audio Generator includes a feature for easily collecting voice testimonials from your customers. They provide you with a phone number, the client calls to record their message, then you get a simple code for uploading the audio to your website.

6. Have a system for soliciting testimonials

I know you’ve already got too much on your ‘to do’ list, and the last thing I want to do is create more work for you. The key to getting anything done in marketing is to put a system in place that automates the process. For example, send a form letter or email a specific number of days after the service, treatment or goods have been received verifying that your client is happy and asking them to provide you with their comments.

Some of the best testimonials I got for my first e-book came from a standard email I sent to every customer 14 days after they ordered the product. I just set the email up on my auto-responder so I didn’t have to think about it. It generated a steady stream of testimonials with no further action required on my part.

The bottom line is that adding testimonials is one of the most effective changes you can make to your marketing materials, so make sure you start collecting and using testimonials, starting today!

Would you like to use this article on your website or in your e-zine? Reprints are welcome so long as article and by-line are published intact and all links made live.

About The Author:

Bernadette Doyle publishes her weekly Client Magnets newsletter for trainers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, then get your free tips now at http://www.clientmagnets.com.

 The Ideal Marketing Company supports Leicestershire and Northamptonshire companies as well as companies from across the UK with marketing, PR and direct mail. The Ideal Marketing Company helps support companies with marketing consultancy in order to generate new business wins as well as making the most of existing customers.

My ‘Marketing Mentor’ Earl Nightingale  

Long before I set up my own company or began running marketing seminars, I heard an audio programme called Acres of Diamonds by Earl Nightingale. For me it was life changing and one of my favorite parts was called ‘Acres of Diamonds’.  The book is now out of copyright, so I have included a link to a free copy of it at the end of this summary.  if you have never heard of it’s message or author Russell Conwell, I suggest you follow the link and download your own free copy. Anyway – this is Earl Nightingales version of the story.  May it inspire you are much as it did me…

One of the most interesting Americans who lived in the 19th century was a man by the name of Russell Herman Conwell. He was born in 1843 and lived until 1925. He was a lawyer for about fifteen years until he became a clergyman.

One day, a young man went to him and told him he wanted a college education but couldn’t swing it financially. Dr. Conwell decided, at that moment, what his aim in life was, besides being a man of cloth – that is. He decided to build a university for unfortunate, but deserving, students. He did have a challenge, however. He would need a few million dollars to build the university. For Dr. Conwell, and anyone with real purpose in life, nothing could stand in the way of his goal.

Several years before this incident, Dr. Conwell was tremendously intrigued by a true story – with its ageless moral. The story was about a farmer who lived in Africa and through a visitor became tremendously excited about looking for diamonds. Diamonds were already discovered in abundance on the African continent and this farmer got so excited about the idea of millions of dollars worth of diamonds that he sold his farm to head out to the diamond line. He wandered all over the continent, as the years slipped by, constantly searching for diamonds, wealth, which he never found. Eventually he went completely broke and threw himself into a river and drowned.

Meanwhile, the new owner of his farm picked up an unusual looking rock about the size of a country egg and put it on his mantle as a sort of curiosity. A visitor stopped by and in viewing the rock practically went into terminal convulsions. He told the new owner of the farm that the funny looking rock on his mantle was about the biggest diamond that had ever been found. The new owner of the farm said, “Heck, the whole farm is covered with them” – and sure enough it was.

The farm turned out to be the Kimberly Diamond Mine…the richest the world has ever known. The original farmer was literally standing on “Acres of Diamonds” until he sold his farm. Dr. Conwell learned from the story of the farmer and continued to teach it’s moral. Each of us is right in the middle of our own “Acre of Diamonds”, if only we would realize it and develop the ground we are standing on before charging off in search of greener pastures. Dr. Conwell told this story many times and attracted enormous audiences. He told the story long enough to have raised the money to start the college for underprivileged deserving students. In fact, he raised nearly six million dollars and the university he founded, Temple University in Philadelphia, has at least ten degree-granting colleges and six other schools.

When Doctor Russell H. Conwell talked about each of us being right on our own “Acre of Diamonds”, he meant it. This story does not get old…it will be true forever…

Opportunity does not just come along – it is there all the time – we just have to see it.

When I first heard these words by Earl Nightingale I was about to leave my ‘dead end job’ marketing for a small company.  Instead I decided to stay and look for the ‘Acres of Diamonds’ that it could contain.  Within a year I had doubled my salary and been awarded ‘Marketing Company of the Year’ for the work I had done there – no really it’s true!  I would reccomend you but a copy of Lead the Field by Earl Nightingale and see what it does for you. In the meantime have a look at the origional book ‘Acres of Diamonds for yourself by following this link

http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0304spiritpsych/030414.Conwell.Acres.of.Diamonds.pdf

The Ideal Marketing Company supports Leicestershire and Northamptonshire companies as well as companies from across the UK with marketing, PR and direct mail. The Ideal Marketing Company helps support companies with marketing consultancy in order to generate new business wins as well as making the most of existing customers.

Marketing Mentor seminar presented by Alastair Campbell  

Marketing seminars often start with a clear explanation between a feature and a benefit. I vowed that mine wouldn’t until it became clear that many people still don’t know the difference.

Put simply a feature is a fact, but a benefit is how that fact can be used by you. For example a handle is a feature of a teacup. The benefit of the handle is it stops you burning your finger.

Today’s marketing blog entry will help you to turn you company’s feature into benefits. Almost any feature that your product has can be turned into a benefit. The first stage is to look at your product or service a fresh and note down everything about it. What colour is it? Is it heavy? If it is a service, how much time does it take and so on. Make a list about it’s history, where it is made, the way it is made it’s price etc etc.

Marketing Mentor

Once you’ve done this and come up with as many facts about the product or service, it’s time to turn the features into benefits. If it’s painted bright yellow why is this a good thing for you client? (it’s easy to see, difficult to mis-lay, because it won’t get lost or trodden on so it’s unlikely to need replacing therefore it can save you money etc) If it’s £4 more expensive an advantage? (Perhaps it’s because it’s made from better ingredients or better quality steel and will therefore last 2 times as long.)

Whatever the features of your product examine each of them carefully and work out what the benefit of each of them is for your customer.

Better marketing seminars

Once you have gone through this process – you may even want to get some of your customers involved in a meeting so they can tell you what they like about your offering – then you need to work out some kind of pecking order. You may also find that several of you advantages can fall into broader categories such as ‘value for money’ or ‘safety’ or ‘comfort’. This is fine, you just need to decide which of the categories you want to concentrate on and hammer home what makes you different from the competition – and you want to make this as clear as possible.

A good example of creating a benefit for ‘customers’ is with political parties. They like to make it clear that they as the party of the ordinary man or the party of the hard working family. That they are the ones who will cut taxes, improve public services, improve the environment. They create a simple slogan on which to base their campaign and base their campaign around a single idea. They each have their own colour, logo etc and do everything they can to differentiate themselves and their benefits from the competition. Some would say that the actual policies for most of the major parties have very little of substance that separates one for the other, it is actually in the presentation of the policies that makes the difference.

When you work out what your features, then what your benefits are remember the next stage is to find out what is most important to your customers. The best benefit in the world is of no use if it’s not a benefit to your customers or prospects!

The Ideal Marketing Company supports Leicestershire and Northamptonshire companies as well as companies from across the UK with marketing, PR and direct mail. The Ideal Marketing Company helps support companies with marketing consultancy in order to generate new business wins as well as making the most of existing customers.

Redpoint is an Austrian based ski company that I’m pleased to say we have been working with for almost 3 years.  As well as offering the normal range of skiing, they also offer women only ski breaks and packages for people new to skiing.  Dispite their wonderful reputation amongst their clients and within the industry, it is never easy to get a small travel company mentioned in the press.  But for Redpoint, persistance has paid of and in the past 2 weeks we have managed to get them mentions in the Sainsbury’s Magazine, The Travel Magazine and the Daily Mail Ski section. 

What is particulalry impressive about Redpoint www.redpoint.co.uk is that they have an incredible loyalty amongst their customers.  Research that they have carried out shows that their average customer returns 8 times.  That means that they aren’t always on the look out for new customers, but when sombody tries them out they are VERY likely to stay keep coming back – and tell their friends too. If you have ever met Nina and Greg who run the company you’d know why.  They are warm, friendly and absolutly passionate about their customers and skiing – and it shows.

This is a copy of our latiest news release for them about adaptive skiing (skiing for the disabled) which is one of theiur many speciality areas that they offer at the Austrain ski base.  If you have ever fancied trying skiing but don’t know where to start, I would reccomend that you speak to Redpoint and they’ll have you hooked…

News Release 18.01.08  Opportunities for adaptive skiing on the increase in Europe

Europe’s ski resorts are increasing the opportunities they provide for disabled skiers with a British ski company leading the way in providing adaptive ski instruction. The company have extended their adaptive ski packages to include all of March and April due to overwhelming demand.

Using purposely modified equipment, and tailored tuition, independent ski and activity specialists Redpoint Holidays (www.redpoint.co.uk) based in Austria, are confident that just about anybody with a disability can learn to ski or improve on their technique.

“Ski equipment can be adapted to compensate for a disability and over the years the six disciplines of adaptive skiing; mono-skiing, bi-skiing, 3-track, 4-track, visual impairment and developmental and cognitive disabilities have developed,” explains Nina Hasinski of Redpoint. “As well as using modified equipment, those with visual impairment are able to learn to ski in the same way as anyone else, but simply need one to one tuition from a trained guide.” Redpoint offer a ‘Buddy Course’ to train family members or friends in the specific techniques needed to help the person with a disability to ski independently without relying on the availability of an instructor.

“Adaptive skiing has been given a boost with the profile of events such as the Paralympics,” explains Nina, Co-owner of Redpoint. “It’s great to have the example of all these superb athletes who prove that having a disability doesn’t prevent you from pursuing the sort of active sports that many people enjoy. We believe that everybody should have the chance to try skiing if they want to, but there’s still a long way to go. At present, the United States offers adaptive provisions at each of its ski schools; unfortunately, this idea has been slower to catch on here in Europe.”

Charities such as The British Ski Club for the Disabled and Disability Snowsport UK have successfully organised group holidays for years, providing disabled people with opportunities develop their ski skills. “These trips are great fun and are a wonderful way to learn to ski whilst having the opportunity of meeting new people,” comments Nina. “However, not everyone wants to go skiing on a group trip; some people simply want the opportunity to book a regular ski holiday with their family or friends, knowing that there will be adaptive facilities available for them, and this is what we aim to provide.”

For more information, go to www.redpoint.co.uk/disabled-holidays.shtml or call Pauline 0845 680 1214.

The Ideal Marketing Company supports Leicestershire and Northamptonshire companies as well as companies from across the UK with marketing, PR and direct mail. The Ideal Marketing Company helps support companies with marketing consultancy in order to generate new business wins as well as making the most of existing customers.

I had the great pleasure of spending a day with Sir John Harvey Jones 3 years ago. I was a big fan of him from the days of ‘Trouble Shooter’ and was very nervous about meeting him.. He turned out to be a lovely man. Happy to speak to the reporters and journalists that we had lined up for him. He gave me some wonderful advice on running a business and I will always remember this day. He even sighed my battered copy of his biography ‘To Alastair with admiration’. He siad his one regret was that – unlike me – he has never set up his own company.

By the time I met him he had suffered a stroke but was still full of energy and passion for helping business owners. During his time as chairman of ICI from 1982 to 1987, he transformed the company from a loss-making outfit to one making a profit of more than £1 billion. When he left the company, he built a whole new career communicating his ideas about business to a television audience of millions. Whilst we are quite used to TV business shows now such as The Apprentice, this was very rare in the early 90′s.

Born in Hackney in 1924, John Harvey-Jones spent his early years in India, where his father, an Army officer, was guardian and tutor to a boy Maharajah. After getting used to a life of luxury, he was given a rude shock when, at the age of seven, he was sent to a prep school in Kent. Here, by his own account, he suffered bullying and was desperately unhappy.

However, the school’s draconian discipline stood him in good stead when he joined the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, and he went to sea as a midshipman in 1940 at the age of 16. He was torpedoed twice in the following two years. In the later years of the war, he served in submarines, and carried out secret missions in the Baltic Sea. Once the war was over, the navy sent him to Cambridge University to learn Russian and German for use in naval intelligence.

After leaving the Royal Navy as a lieutenant-commander in 1956 to spend more time with his wife and their daughter, who had contracted polio, he joined ICI on Teesside as a junior manager. By 1973 he was on the main board, eventually becoming chairman in 1982 when the company was struggling to emerge from a recession.

Five years later when he stepped down, profits had trebled, even though he later wrote that he had not made much difference and that he wished he had left the company earlier to start his own business. In fact, Sir John had stripped away many of the company’s peripheral businesses and concentrated on its core strengths. He also reformed its lumbering bureaucracy.

Following his knighthood in 1985 for services to industry, he became increasingly well known after delivering his Dimbleby lecture in 1986. He also appeared often on the BBC’s Question Time programme. But it was the BBC’s Troubleshooter series, first broadcast in 1990, that made him, according to one newspaper, the most famous industrialist since Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It also won him a Bafta award.

The series would see him visiting ailing companies, observing their practices, looking at their books and interrogating their directors. Sir John would then outline proposals, often drastic in nature, that they needed to take in order to turn their businesses around. Sir John was Chancellor of Bradford University, chairman of The Economist and on the board of Grand Metropolitan, among many other interests. He also worked for several charities.

Throughout his career, he was always keen to blow industry’s trumpet. He believed it was demanding, and did not like the way some graduates looked down their noses at it. He also favoured wider share ownership. In his autobiography, Getting It Together, published in April 1991, Sir John described his inner motivation and an ongoing emotional struggle.

Find out more about the Trouble-shooter programme including a where are the now update on the companies featured:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7182857.stm

The Ideal Marketing Company supports Leicestershire and Northamptonshire companies as well as companies from across the UK with marketing, PR and direct mail. The Ideal Marketing Company helps support companies with marketing consultancy in order to generate new business wins as well as making the most of existing customers.

Do you want happy customers? Create real benifits for them! 

Remember that people buy benefits not features – develop a USB

This is a very basic bit of marketing advice but people forget it all the time. Develop a USB (Unique Selling Benefit) for your product or your company. I’m not a big one for marketing jargon and try to avoid it whenever I can but this is one bit of marketing speak I can’y avoid.

USP – Unique Selling Point is a better known phrase which means a simple points about what you are selling that is different from your competition. That could mean that you have a blue bag of salt inside you bag a crisps. That is something that is different about your crisps – different from other people’s crisps. It could mean that your shoes only come in black. It could be that your tea comes ready sweetened. This is all well and good but none of these ‘points’ are really of any interest to you customer because unless they were seeking out crisps with a blue bag of salt for their own reasons, why should this point of difference excite them?

Better to create a USB –Unique selling Benefit. That means that what you are offering that is different also has something about it that is beneficial to the customer.

In the case of the bag of salt it allows the customer to control their salt intake. It could be the fun that they will have adding the salt to the crisps. It could be that your shoes only come in black because you spend all your time making the shoes comfortable and stylish, that you haven’t got time to spend on choosing colours. It could be that because your tea comes ready sweetened that you save people time when making a cup. So the BENEFIT of these 3 products are really – better health, fun, comfort and time savings. But please spell out what you are different and how the customer can benefit!

It is always worth uncovering the hidden benefits of any product that you want to sell, because that’s what people really want to buy.

The Ideal Marketing Company supports Leicestershire and Northamptonshire companies as well as companies from across the UK with marketing, PR and direct mail. The Ideal Marketing Company helps support companies with marketing consultancy in order to generate new business wins as well as making the most of existing customers.

This article is especially for listeners of Sally Pepper’s Saturday Morning show on BBC Radio Derby.  Thanks for having me on Sally – lovely to talk to you as always.  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/derby/local_radio/

With New Years day well and truly behind us most people have long forgotten their about any New Year Resolutions they may have made. By now, most people’s resolutions will have already run out of steam. In fact 1 in 10 have all ready given up on those good intentions.

How well 2007 went for you will probably determine how much of a change you want to make for 2008. If it went well, you might want to make sure it stays on track in 2008. If it went badly, perhaps some serious reflection and re-evaluation is in order.

The best way to think about goal setting is to imagine boat. A boat goes from harbour to harbour all its life. When the boat’s captain sets out on a journey, he or she knows exactly where the boat is heading and, unless there is a terrible disaster, it will arrive at its planned destination. The boat may not travel in a straight line; it will have to adjust its course many times during the journey, but after a few hours, days or weeks, it will arrive at its destination.

Imagine what would happen to the boat if the captain didn’t decide where he was going and just set off to see if he could stumble across a suitable place to dock. For every warm, secure harbour to aim for there are a hundred miles of rugged coastline or sandy beach. And what would happen if the captain decided to play it safe and just stay where he was? A ship that’s left in harbour will turn to rot and rust.

What would you describe as the main areas of your life? You may wish to consider these 7 categories:

Health, Family, Career, Education, Wealth (savings and investments), Home and Fun.

Out of 10, how would you rate yourself in 2006 for each activity? Nobody would be expected to have a 10 in each area, but could you do with a higher score in one or more areas? Have you been so busy achieving a 10 in one area that you have neglected the other 6? Perhaps all 7 could do with a general improvement?

You may have your own categories and if so that’s great. But we should all be able to measure what we’re proud of and what we could do with more help in. Now that you’ve looked back and have decided that, let’s say, your earnings are not what you would like them to be, it’s up to you to decide what you would like them to rise to by the end of the year. First of all, realise that this is possible and secondly, understand that if you want to increase by more than the norm, then you will have to put extra effort and energy into this area. So if you want to double your earnings, then you will have to be prepared to double your effort. You will have to be worth more to your employer, or if you work for yourself, you will have to be worth more to your customers or increase the number of people you serve. If you are willing to take the time and effort to do this, then there is little that will stop you.

In short, you need to have a goal for what you want to achieve, a plan for how to get to that destination and then do something to get you there every day.

If you are still struggling with what you actually want to do differently in the New Year, here is a thought for you. The best way to find the answer is to ask the question. By asking ourselves questions we can usually find the truth. Some people can go their whole life without ever considering what they really want out of life, and then wonder why things don’t work out the way that they wanted. It’s like climbing a ladder only to find out that it was leaning against the wrong building.

So, to get you going, here are a few questions you might want to think about when you are planning what to do in 2007. What would you like to achieve? What would you like to earn? Where would you like to visit? Who would you like to meet? What would you like to read? What is your favourite thing? What car would you like to drive? What would you like to learn? What would you like to weigh? How far would you like to run? What could you do better? What would you like to do differently? What is holding you back? What would you like to do less of? What would you like to remember as your high spot? What friends would you like to spend time with? Who would you like to visit? How would you like to be remembered?

Spend a quiet hour or two and think through what goals you would like to set for yourself. Start with the 7 categories first (or as many categories as you feel fit your life) and then start asking yourself questions. The ones that I have listed are just the start.

Write them all down on a sheet of paper. Write down anything that comes into your head. Some of it may be fanciful, some of it ridiculous. At this stage it doesn’t matter, just write all your goals down. Now make a selection of all the things you have written down, I’d suggest a maximum of about 10, but it’s really up to you.

When you have written them all down, see if there are any obvious conflicts (it would be difficult to become the world’s pork pie eating champion and lose 3 stones in weight).

If two goals do conflict, decide which one is most important to you. This is also a good time to see if your goals are well balanced. If your goals are all to do with money and you have none connected to your family or your health, then in a few years time the chances are you will end up rich, divorced and ill.

Once you’re happy with your goals and their balance, put an ETA (Estimated Time of Achievement) on them. Some you will be able to achieve by the end of February, some may take months or years. Put an estimated date on each so that you have something specific to aim for.

Then write down each one and phrase it in a way similar to this: ‘by February 28th I will have visited the gym 25 times.’

Say what the specific action is and identify when you are going to do it by. Most important of all, write it down, keep it with you and look at it every day. The best time is first thing in the morning and last thing before you go to bed – the list will help to keep you on track. Once you have accomplished one of your goals, put a tick beside it and have a celebration. The bigger the goal reached, the bigger the celebration. Then decide on a new goal in its place and repeat the process.

I recently looked back at some of the goals I had when I set up The Ideal Marketing Company. What seemed like an ambitious dream a few years ago is now part of my day to day reality.

If you do this, you will look back on 2008 as the year that you accomplished a whole series of things that in 2007 seemed difficult – if not impossible. This process, or similar ones have worked for the most successful men and women in history, from Henry Ford to John F. Kennedy from Mother Teresa to Richard Branson. It’s used by great athletes and scientists, business owners and authors. Most people who achieve extraordinary things are not extraordinary people. They are just ordinary people with goals that give them extraordinary enthusiasm and drive. Now their secret is yours to use for the rest of 2008.

The Ideal Marketing Company supports Leicestershire and Northamptonshire companies as well as companies from across the UK with marketing, PR and direct mail. The Ideal Marketing Company helps support companies with marketing consultancy in order to generate new business wins as well as making the most of existing customers.