7 Small Business Marketing Tips

Here are 7 low-cost but highly effective marketing tips to help any small business find customers and generate sales quickly.

1. Don’t Advertise Like a Big Business

Big businesses advertise to create name recognition and future sales. A small business can’t afford to do that. Instead, design your advertising to produce sales …now. One way to accomplish this is to always include an offer in your advertising - and an easy way for prospective customers to respond to it.

2. Offer a Cheaper Version

Some prospective customers are not willing to pay the asking price for your product or service. Others are more interested in paying a low price than in getting the best quality. You can avoid losing sales to many of these customers by offering a smaller or stripped down version of your product or service at a lower price.

3. Offer a Premium Version

Not all customers are looking for a cheap price. Many are willing to pay a higher price to get a premium product or service. You can boost your average size sale and your total revenue by offering a more comprehensive product or service …or by combining several products or services in a special premium package offer for a higher price.

4. Try Some Unusual Marketing Methods

Look for some unconventional marketing methods your competitors are overlooking. You may discover some highly profitable ways to generate sales and avoid competition. For example, print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your website or generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.

5. Trim Your Ads

Reduce the size of your ads so you can run more ads for the same cost. You may even be surprised to find that some of your short ads generate a better response than their longer versions.

6. Set up Joint Promotions with Other Small Businesses

Contact some non-competing small businesses serving customers in your market. Offer to publicize their products or services to your customers in exchange for their publicizing your services to their customers. This usually produces a large number of sales for a very low cost.

7. Take Advantage of Your Customers

Your customers already know and trust you. It’s easier to get more business from them than to get any business from somebody who never bought from you. Take advantage of this by creating some special deals just for your existing customers …and announce new products and services to them before you announce them to the general market.

Also, convert your customers into publicity agents for your business. Develop an incentive for them to tell associates and friends about the value of your products or services. An endorsement from them is more effective than any amount of advertising - and it is much cheaper.

Each of these 7 marketing tips provides a simple, low-cost way for any small business to find customers and generate sales quickly.

Get Affordable–Even Free–Targeted Advertising In Magazines

By now most of us have tried just about every advertising method available. From ads on Google to website banners. And even though you may have found an advertising method that works, you’re probably still looking for more.

I’m often surprised by how many home-based business owners and opportunity seekers have never thought of advertising in magazines. Magazines are the original targeted media. While TV shows and newspapers may try to appeal to a very wide audience featuring many different kinds of people, magazines have always focused their efforts on a tightly defined audience.

For example, look through the magazine rack the next time you’re at the grocery store and you will see dozens of different magazines focusing on everything from cars, fishing, crafts, home decorating, relationships, and business. All these magazines cater to a different audience with different tastes and buying habits.

By choosing magazines that focus on your best potential customers, you almost guarantee your ads will be successful. It’s an old rule in marketing that getting your ad in a magazine that intensely appeals to your best customers will get you ten times the results than advertising in a famous mass appeal publication like Business Week, Time, or Newsweek.

That’s right, advertising your home-based business in Home Business Magazine will most likely get you far more response than getting your name in Newsweek.

And this is REALLY good news for those of us working from home. Smaller, more tightly-focused magazines almost always offer very affordable ads, usually in the back of the magazine. While full and half-page ads can cost hundreds or thousands, you can advertise in the back for about the same cost as putting a classified ad in your local paper. Then, as very few people know, there are also ways to get FREE ads in big magazines. Either way, it’s cheap, targeted, and it could be your best path to new profits.

And don’t let that “back of the magazine” position discourage you. More than half of people read magazines from back to front. Businesses advertising in the back actually have the most visible spot in the magazine.

The weeks ahead are traditionally a time when magazines drop their advertising rates. Place your ads NOW to take advantage of low rates early in the year which, incidentally, is the time of year when the most people are interested in joining a business opportunity.

3 Reasons You Should Attend Seminars

If you have never gone to an online marketing seminar, you’re missing out.

I know what you’re thinking…

“Seminars are expensive.”

That’s true. They are. Some of ‘em cost over $5,000. Even the lower-priced parties are around $2,000.

“It’s a pain in the butt to attend.”

Again, that’s fair. In order to go, you have to get on a plane and fly somewhere. And you have to take time from your work and family to do it.

But, there are at least 3 reasons that attending seminars should be on your priority list (even if you DON’T plan to do a major product launch).

1. You Are Surrounded By Like-minded People.

Scoff if you want. But, I’m telling you, there’s huge POWER in being around folks who are driven to the same goal as you are.

To this day, my friends and family don’t really get what I do. They nod their heads and smile, but I can tell their eyes are glazing over.

Well, picture being at a party with a few hundred people who not only know what you do… they do it, too! You’ll be amazed at how inspiring that can be.

2. You Meet People Who Inspire And Drive You.

I know it sounds flighty. But, when you’re downing drinks with someone and sharing strategies back and forth about what’s working, your mind ignites.

You find yourself wishing you’d brought your laptop so you can start taking action that moment!

And here’s something better… you exchange phone numbers (yep, remember that thing you used to use before becoming a recluse?) and follow up with each other.

That’s accountability, baby and it can drive you to major success.

3. You Remove Yourself From The Daily Routine.

Ever wake up and have trouble getting your engine started? (I’m not talking about your car here.) And if you ever DO get the thing to turn over, you can’t seem to get any speed?

It happens to me all the time. I’ll wake up and the day will pass without my having done one truly productive thing! It stinks.

I’ll tell you why it happens to me…

I get bored of my routine! Now, don’t get me wrong. Routines are good. In fact, they’re CRITICAL to your success. Humans need routine.

But, it’s JUST as important to get OUT of your routine. And going to a seminar does that for you. It makes you leave your boring daily routine behind.

Going to a seminar can give your brain (and motivation) the jump-start it needs.

Last Thoughts

I’m not trying to sell you on a seminar here. I’m only trying to get you to think about going to one.

There are a lot of benefits to going. Benefits that aren’t always clear until you’re there, in the hallways, in the bars, at lunch… talking with folks who are doing EXACTLY what you are doing.

It’s empowering. It’s inspiring. And chances are, one you attend a seminar, you’ll be excited to go to another.

No Dollar, No Client?

You are now a business owner, congratulations! You have everything you need right down to the business plan but one thing is missing. Customers. As you sit in the darkness of your living room at night, you wonder how you can afford to advertise and where.

The next morning you drag out the Yellow Pages looking for a company that specializes in marketing or advertising, make the call and to your dismay the person that you speak to informs you of the prices for their services. They tell you that it will cost from several hundred dollars to as much as 15% of your total business. You have a little bit of money left from the loan that you obtained to get the business up and running, so you agree and set an appointment to meet later in the week.

What is wrong with this scenario? Nothing if you have a lot of money to spend. The problem is that most small business owners have limited budgets to work with and expensive advertising campaigns are simply out of the question. So what is the alternative?

Business-to-Business networking affords the small business owner an opportunity to reach hundreds if not thousands of prospects for very little cost. In fact, the small business owner who finds it easy to talk to others can benefit in a big way from simply getting together with other business people and talking about their business.

Does this sound to good to be true? It is true. This phenomenon called Business Networking has spawned hundreds of networking organizations around the world. Each day, more and more business owners are finding clients and prospects at networking meetings or Chamber of Commerce meetings and spending very little needed cash to do so.

Business networking is easier than cold calling, cheaper than advertising and is the fastest method available to build your business. If you are considering spending money on advertising, consider networking instead, or in conjunction with your advertising campaign. This will give you an opportunity to build the crucial relationships with prospects, converting them into customers that will refer their friends and business associates to you.

How To Know If Your Business Card Stinks

If your business card isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do &ndash helping the receiver remember you in a desirable way, leaving behind a strong, positive impression of you, your company and your product or service &ndash then it’s a failure. It stinks.

And if you’re reading this article, it probably does. Stink, that is.

Wonder how can I make that prediction, without ever having seen your business card?

Two reasons.

First reason. People keep business cards that have value &ndash business cards that, in their minds, have information on a person or product or service that they find interesting or that they think they’ll need. It only makes sense, right?

In my opinion, such a business card may be ugly &ndash or cheap &ndash or ordinary &ndash but if someone chooses to keep it (for legitimate business reasons, not for scratch paper), it doesn’t “stink”.

However, the vast majority of business cards are thrown away almost immediately. According to research I’ve seen, more than 90% of business cards are thrown away the same day they’re received. Less than 1% of business cards are kept more than thirty days.

True, some people throw business cards away because they save the information on them in an alternate format (such as an electronic business card scanner), but most are pitched because they’re of no value to the recipient.

In other words, they stink. They’re crappy. They’re literally worthless.

Reason two to believe your business card stinks.

I have no statistical data to back this up, but I’ve often noticed that many business people seem to be nervous or embarrassed when they’re actually at the point of handing someone their business card.

Maybe Ms. Business is having a great conversation with a potential customer. She’s really excited and enthused about the newest Wonder Widget her company manufactures, and her prospect is smiling and looking interested. But something happens when it’s time for her to hand over the company business card.

She grimaces. She hesitates. Her tone of voice changes. She makes some sort of offhand remark like “Well, here’s my business card.” Instead of eagerly, confidently giving someone this outstanding example of their company’s professionalism and credentials, this awesome, amazing business card &ndash her whole posture and demeanor conveys a sense of embarrassment.

Or maybe you’ve felt it yourself &ndash a mental twinge, or an inner voice that says “Maybe he won’t be impressed” or “My card isn’t as good as my competitor’s” &ndash when the time comes for you to give someone your business card. Instead of giving someone your company card with poise and assurance, you feel reluctant to actually let someone else see it… and judge it.

After all, that card is your baby. Maybe you were instrumental in the creation of the card. Maybe you’ve had the business card so long that you’ve become attached to it. Either way, if someone throws that business card away, or casually stuffs it into their pants pocket without even looking at it, it feels like rejection. If they don’t appreciate the card, they don’t appreciate YOU.

So… if you’re worried that your business card stinks, so worried that you cannot hand it out without fearing that it will be found wanting, and if you haven’t had enough positive reactions to reassure you that your fears are groundless… it probably does.

Of course, there are objective criteria to use when evaluating a business cards’… er, “stink factor”. And varying degrees of “stinkiness.”

For example, business cards that are overcrowded, stink. Business cards that give you no idea what product or service you offer, stink. Business cards that waste the space on the back side of the card may not stink, but they’re certainly being underutilized.

And business cards that aren’t kept, remembered, and used by your customers or prospects, stink.

The 7 Steps To Successfully Responding To Product Knockoffs

It’s every small business owners nightmare: you find and market the perfect product or service only to wake up one morning and find that someone else is producing cheap knock offs of the same thing.

So how do you deal with it? By following our seven steps…

1. Offer a better product

It sounds simple, but offering a better product is both the easiest and most effective way to respond to product knock offs. There is always a market for products which improve on the ones that have come before them: make sure you’re consistently looking for ways to improve your product, and you’ll remain one step ahead of the knock off sellers.

2. Create a marketing edge

A great deal of good business comes down to great marketing. This is another area in which it’s easy to gain an advantage over product knock offs. The people who sell knock offs aren’t interested in building a brand, creating a buzz or researching their market. In fact, they want to spend as little time and money as they possibly can on selling more units of their product knock off. By investing in your marketing, you can gain an important edge.

3. Make quality a priority

You’ll never be able to stop knock offs completely. What you must remember, however, is that knock offs have one big disadvantage over your product: their quality.

Most knock offs are cheap, mass-produced copies of quality goods. That’s why they’re sold for so little. By offering a product which is truly high quality, you’ll appeal to those buyers who aspire to owning the real thing, and make it much more difficult for anyone to copy you.

4. Getting a patent does not prevent competition

A patent will help you deal with knock offs to a certain extent. What it won’t do is eliminate the competition. You’ll never completely eliminate the competition. All you can do is rise above them by making sure your product, service and marketing is the best it can possibly be.

5. Target smaller or niche markets where you can have the edge

While you may want to conquer the world with your business, it’s often far more effective to conquer a small part of it by targeting a niche which you can excel in. By concentrating on a niche market you can get to know your clients and their needs inside out, and make sure your product or service is tailor made to fit that niche. Leave the rest of the world to the knock off sellers.

6. Adapt to market changes and trends

In business, you have to adapt or die. By allowing your business to trudge along, doing the same thing in the same way you leave yourself wide open to competitors who are willing to be innovative and to move with the times.

7. Provide exceptional customer service

Businesses which produce knock off products often aren’t interested in customer service. People like to do business with other people they can trust: that may not apply to sellers of knock-off products, but it should apply to you. If it does, you have nothing to fear from product knock offs.

Summary

While it’s impossible to completely eliminate product knock offs completely, it is possible to respond to them in such a way that your own sales don’t suffer. This article provides seven steps to help you make sure that your products and service are able to stand up to the competition.

Avoiding Marketing Money Pits

Is your business bombarded by sales and other marketing professionals telling you that the products or services they are offering are in the best interest of effective and cost reducing methods to market your organization? Finding your way through the maze of offers, opportunities and avoiding potential money pits highlights the importance for all businesses regardless of size to have a strategic marketing plan that is implemented and followed.

It is a tough market place for any small business and information is the key to making wise marketing decisions and for the survival of any business or organization. The relevance of a strategic marketing plan can not be under stated. It is unfortunate but all to common that people under the disguise of professionals in marketing and sales will boast their products and services as the most effective and cost reducing methods to market your business. Additionally, by writing articles or giving lectures for example, they attempt to give their claims a form of legitimacy. Beware of people making extraordinary claims, a true professional wants to sell you their product or service but also retains the integrity to learn your business and knows when the product or service is not a good fit. The benefit for this type of sales or marketing professional is your loyalty and trust in future business transactions.

A strategic marketing plan helps a business to avoid potential money pits that waste valuable marketing dollars in expenditures that may appear to cost less but have minimal or no measurable results. Simply because something may cost less and other businesses are participating does not make it a solid marketing decision for your organization and certainly does not guarantee successful results. Regardless of the ticket price if it does not produce measurable results and drive business to your establishment it is a money pit.

There are many good examples on the internet of people under the disguise of professionals boasting their products or services as sound marketing advice. One of these claims is that a business could inexpensively build brand recognition through the purchase of low cost promotional items with the organizations name or logo embossed on them; items such as pens, tablets, calendars, magnets, and much more. The problem is that this technique offers minimal to no measurable success in brand building, but more importantly does nothing to draw new customers into the business.

In terms of simple math, if an advertising business were to spend the same money that would be spent on embossed promotional items in traditional media channels such as print, radio, or television for example with an expected 2% rate of return and a minimal exposure of 12,000 individuals gives the advertising business the opportunity for 240 customers for that expenditure. If only 30% of the 2% actually make a purchase that provides the business with 72 new transactions. A business can multiply its average transaction price by 72 to see the real potential income from this one marketing expenditure. Another benefit is brand awareness that would be gained through the advertisement and the opportunity to build customers for life. Furthermore, to entice repeat business and brand loyalty the organization can offer its customers coupons. This method promotes customer appreciation and can be a low cost marketing method.

Moreover, with any marketing expenditure a business should always perform a cost benefit analysis in correlation with its strategic marketing plan. Simply, if it does not offer measurable results, drive new business, and build brand awareness it is a money pit.

The World’s Most Important Marketing Concept

Wow, pretty grandiose title. But this is one area where understatement just won’t do. If more companies understood this one concept, their marketing would actually stand a chance of doing its job.

Before we get to this big idea, though, let me define what the job of marketing actually is. Ultimately, it should be designed to convince people to do business with you. That’s it. Every thing else related to marketing should all be done with that end result in mind, because that’s where it should all lead. Product, pricing, placement, promotion, and people need to all point in this direction. Every campaign aimed at increasing mindshare, raising product recognition level, penetrating new markets, or any other specific short-term goal is designed to convince people to do business with the marketer. Or at least it should be.

So how do you do that? I’m not going to talk specific tactics in this article, but rather about the common unifying concept, which if understood, will direct a marketing campaign to success. The idea is actually so simple that you might be disappointed. But it’s so powerful that it will determine the outcome of your marketing.

Here it is: everything you do in marketing should clearly and explicitly tell the consumer how you will make his or her life quickly and dramatically better. If you can communicate that concept in a way that the consumer believes, and more effectively than your competition, you’ll never lack for business.

The problem that the overwhelming majority of businesses I work with have is that they are approaching their marketing from the wrong end. They’re focused on their company and their product rather than their customers. The ask questions like “How can we show people how great our product is?” rather than “How can we show people how much we can improve their lives?” I often get initial disagreement from company owners and managers when I first propose this. To most of them it’s a completely new concept. They have, since the beginning of their business life, been trying to figure out how to outshout the competition. The problem is, they’ve been shouting the wrong thing.

For those who disagree on this point, let me make this statement: the consumer doesn’t care a bit about your product or service. They really don’t. They care about what your product or service does for them. Or in other words, how it makes their life better. The product or service is just a means to an end. Most marketers have gotten comfortable with the idea of selling benefits rather than features. But let me take that one step further by introducing a concept I call the Ultimate Life Benefit (ULB). The ULB goes beyond selling benefits. It shows the consumer how his or her life will be quickly and appreciably improved. And most products have many ULB’s.

To get to this way of thinking, list the benefits of your product or service and then ask yourself “And then what happens?” For example:

Feature: SPF 90

Benefit: Protection from sunburn

ULB: Your kids don’t suffer pain or skin damage. They are happy and healthy.

See what I’m getting at here? If you just go as far as selling the benefit, you haven’t communicated to the consumer how his or her life will clearly be better. The benefit is “Protection from sunburn.” Go ahead and tell the consumer that they’ll be protected from sunburn. Repeat it as many times as you like. Shout it loudly. You’ll get some results, but not great results. Shift your message to showing the results of the benefit, and the mental connection is made quickly and completely in the mind of the viewer. Show them exactly how your product delivers the benefit and produces the ULB and you’ve got them.

The trick here is to show exactly how your product or service leads to the ULB. Don’t just say or imply that it does, but rather demonstrate it explicitly. Don’t assume that the consumer will make the mental connection. I don’t know about you, but most people are too busy to figure out what advertisers are trying to say. Next time you’re watching television, pay attention to what advertisers are showing you. Most national advertisers are showing ULB’s. One of the most frequent and most obvious is commercials that show how using their product will make you more attractive to the opposite sex. Use this razor and get the girl. Use this mouthwash and get the girl. Drive this car and get the girl. Wear these clothes and get the girl. You get the point. The successful ads are the ones that make the connection clear. Car commercials are another good example. They don’t just say that the car is fast. They show you how you can enjoy unlimited freedom with that kind of horsepower. Jewelry advertisers don’t just talk about the total carat weight of their diamond jewelry. They show you the reactions of your friends when they see your new necklace.

A lot of advertisements miss completely, though. The advertiser is trying hard to get us to associate their product with something. But they fail to communicate it in a way that causes the viewer to make the mental connection. The commercial makes no point and is quickly forgotten.

Even the most mundane product can benefit by incorporating a persuasive ULB. Whatever you sell, there are benefits to it. Take copier paper for instance. Your paper may cost less, or cause less jamming, or maybe it’s brighter and sturdier. Whatever it is, it has a benefit. So then what happens? If it jams less, then you can concentrate on the important things, instead of continually fixing the copier. You get more work done, you make more money or get a promotion or whatever you choose to show. The benefit is that it jams less. But the ultimate benefit goes beyond that.

Every product has at least one ULB, most have quite a few. Find them and communicate them to the consumer, and they’ll have no reason to resist. They’ll see that it’s in their best interest to do business with you. And once that happens, just make sure you’re stocked up.

NOTE: You’re welcome to “reprint” this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end). Please send notification of publishing to derekfderekfisch.com.

8 Dynamic Marketing Tips

Here are 8 dynamic marketing tips to help you increase your sales and profits fast.

1. Don’t Just Sell Benefits

Don’t just tell prospects what they gain when they buy your product or service. Tell them what they lose if they do not buy it. Most people fear loss more than they desire gain. Customers want your product or service to enjoy the benefits it provides. They will want it even more when you remind them of what they lose by not buying it.

2. Use Pleasant Surprises to Close Sales

An unpleasant surprise can kill a sale. But a pleasant surprise can help close a sale. For example, adding an unexpected bonus immediately before your prospect takes the last action to complete a sale will eliminate any last minute hesitation.

3. Provide Fast Delivery - Even When You Can’t

The faster you can deliver your product or service the more sales you will get. If you cannot deliver all or part of your product immediately, add something to the purchase that you CAN deliver immediately. It could be as simple as a series of helpful tips related to your product posted on your web site …available only to new customers.

4. Make Buying Easier

Every non-essential action in the buying process is an opportunity for customers to reverse their decision to buy. Look for ways you can make your buying procedure easier and faster. For example, many marketers use a multi-step shopping cart to get online orders when a simple online order form would do the job with just 1 or 2 quick clicks.

5. Improve Your Offers without Lowering Your Price

You don’t have to reduce your price to improve your offer. Instead, simply load it up with bonuses. Make sure your bonuses have a high perceived value to your customers …even if they cost you little or nothing.

6. Keep Your Advertising Up to Date

If you never make any changes in your advertising, your sales will eventually decline. Don’t abandon advertising that’s working - but do keep trying to improve it. And regularly test new advertising to see how it works for you.

7. Outsmart Your Competitors with Alternative Marketing

Look for some alternative marketing methods your competitors are overlooking. That’s how one internet marketer discovered direct mail postcards. They proved to be a highly effective and very low-cost way to generate traffic to her web site …while concealing her marketing activity from competitors.

8. Neutralize Customer Complaints Quickly

Handle customer complaints quickly and with a positive attitude. Strive to preserve your relationship with the customer instead of your immediate profit from them. They will reward you with repeat sales and referrals instead of punishing you by telling everybody they know about their unhappy experience …causing you to lose future customers.

Each of these 8 marketing tips reveals a proven low-cost marketing tactic many other small businesses have used to boost their sales and profits. Integrate them into your marketing program now and you’ll quickly start enjoying the same results too.

Helpful Questions and Tips on Niche Marketing

My clients and students are surprised and delighted to discover that a refined niche marketing strategy not only attracts significantly more business but also provides richer opportunities for self expression. To help you discern your own market niche, try using “where” and “who” questions like the following:

“Where” Questions

Where do you consistently find kindred spirits?

Where are you most credible?

Where is there the greatest need coupled with the greatest appreciation for your work?

Where do the people who need your work most often have breakdowns that would cause them to hire you?

“Who” Questions

Who is naturally drawn to you and to your work?

To whom are the things that seem obvious to you a revelation?

Who is traveling a path that you have successfully walked yourself?

Whose language do you speak?

Whose concerns can you reliably anticipate and address?

Whom is it easy for you to serve?

Knowing and working from your strengths are essential parts of developing your niche marketing strategy

There are probably several ways in which your strengths can add value in the marketplace. Therefore, developing a niche is a process of exploring several possibilities and gradually refining them.

You might think about developing a market niche as akin to planting a garden. You start by planting lots of seeds rather close together. As these germinate, you keep the strongest sprouts and remove the others. As your garden grows, you will continue to thin and prune until only the strongest and healthiest plants remain. Along the way you give away or compost the seedlings and trimmings; nothing is lost.

As you refine your niche marketing strategy, you’ll grow in integrity and confidence. With time, you’ll know with certainty which customers are right for you, and you’ll attract more of them.

Are You Afraid of Using Niche Marketing Because it May Turn Away Business?

As you refine your market niche, you may experience some anxiety that focusing on your niche will deprive you of needed business. What do you do if someone outside of your niche wants to hire you?

Talk to them. See how well you fit. There is nothing about a focused niche that says you cannot work with a variety of clients. The point of a niche is not to confine you, but to create the healthiest ecosystem for your business. Focusing your market niche is like focusing a great searchlight that can be seen for miles around. Your searchlight may attract people from beyond your niche precisely because you have defined that niche.

While you always have the option of working with anyone who is attracted by your focused niche, do beware of trying to be all things to all people. Not only are you likely to fail at this, but you run an increased risk of coming across as inauthentic and insincere. The cost of not applying a niche marketing strategy is not being recognized for the offer that you are and not having a fulcrum from which to leverage that offer for increased effectiveness, service, and prosperity. The longer you persist in marketing to everyone and anyone who could conceivably hire you, the more certain it is that you will burn out, leaving yourself and your clients or customers dissatisfied. In order to make a compelling declaration of what you are up to, you must be willing to say “no” to those clients, projects, and possibilities that are not well within the scope of your passion and your expertise.

It is important to look to the market to see what your prospective customers and clients want. But look with a keen eye for how the needs and desires of the market match your strengths, talents, and passions. Say “no” to the opportunities that are a poor match, so that your vision and resources can be focused on the projects and relationships that are most likely to succeed.