5 psychology secrets of persuasive marketing success

If you’re aiming to build a successful business, the most important thing is not the quality of your products or services.

It’s not even the effectiveness of your plans for promoting them.

Your success will be determined by how well you develop the mindset of a successful business owner.

Many of us who set up businesses do so after successful careers as employees, managers or directors working for someone else.

But the truth is…

You need to think and act differently as an entrepreneur or independent professional than you do to build a high-flying career in other organizations.

This is a key reason why many people are not as successful with their own businesses as they expect. So getting some of it right early on can make success faster, easier and more comfortable.

It’s not about changing your personality or becoming someone you’re not. And it doesn’t mean you have to be a “born salesman” or a “natural entrepreneur”.

You just need to apply a few different principles to the way you think, how you work and the way you communicate with others.

Here are 5 important steps:

Step 1: Set a Clear Outcome
If you go on a journey, the first thing you need to know is where you are headed. Yet most businesses don’t have a clear idea of where they’re going, so it’s not surprising that so many fail.

Without clarity you lack direction; it becomes hard to make decisions, and your results end up being average at best.

On the other hand, clear objectives provide some certainty as a basis for good future decisions.

So setting a clear vision can be worth a fortune to your business.

Step 2: Take Action
While it’s important to aim high in setting your vision, it’s best to start with small steps. Too many people fail to get anywhere with their plans for growing their business because they fail to take the crucial first step.

This is where these three thieves of profit hit:

Procrastination: Putting off things you need to do.
Perfectionism: Waiting until it’s 100% right before taking action.
Undue Prudence: Being held back by overcaution and unwillingness to take any risks.

The secret is dream big, think small and act now!

Step 3: Encourage and Respond to Feedback
When you’ve taken that first step, you’re going to get the most useful thing of all – feedback from others. This is when you get the chance to establish what is working and what needs to be changed.

Thomas Edison regarded every one of his thousands of ‘failed’ attempts to make the light bulb viable as being successful – because each one helped him move closer to his goal in some way.

Without taking that first step, you will never get the feedback you need in order to be successful.

Step 4: Stay Focused on Your Goal
As you start moving towards your goal, things will happen that might tempt you to drift off course and keep you from achieving your objective.

If you are strategic, you know exactly where your business is going and you’re able to stay on course.
Opportunists change direction because the latest new idea seems more exciting than the last one.

Psychological studies suggest that your mind works on bringing into reality whatever you are focused on. That’s why it’s important to get clear about exactly what you are aiming for. But you need to stay focused on what you want, rather than worrying about what you don’t want.

Step 5: Take Responsibility for Your Results
Whenever you set out to do something, you will always end up with one of two things:

The result you wanted.
An excuse for why you haven’t got it.

People who come up with reasons or excuses for something not happening usually see themselves as not having any control over the outcome: the weather was bad; the client was having a bad day; my product is too expensive …

Successful people on the other hand accept responsibility for whatever situation they are in and seek to change it.

Do you want to be one of the people who gets results or one who has many excuses for not getting them?

The good news is that whichever one you choose, you will be right – as you will always get what you want.

Over the next few days, in this series on the power of persuasive marketing, I’ll touch on other aspects of the success mindset in business. Next we’ll look at the importance of having the right proposition.

You can download a report here on all 7 keys to Persuasive Marketing Power

You’ll also find more tips on developing the right attitude at Success Mindset Power