Marketing Plans That Come From Forrest Gump…

In 1974, Forrest Gump purchased a shrimping boat in the town of Bayou La Batre, Alabama.

Gump then asked his former platoon-mate, Lieutenant Dan Taylor to start shrimping with him.

Lieutenant Dan lost his legs in the Vietnam war.

They struggled to catch shrimp.

In August of that year Hurricane Carmen emerged from Africa and travelled westward through the Caribbean Sea, then on to the Yucatán Peninsula.

When the hurricane hit the Gulf of Mexico, it turned towards the USA and hit Alabama and Florida, where Forrest and Dan’s shrimping boat was located.

Out of all the boats in the area, their boat miraculously was the only boat that survived Hurricane Carmen.

Because they were the last left standing (pun intended), the shrimp market was theirs for the taking and they capitalised on it.

It resulted in them setting up the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company by investing profits into Apple computer, Inc and being quite successful.

Just like their business, businesses have ups and downs.

Economies have up and downs.

Life has ups and downs.

Most things are cyclical!

When things are down, there is always a good chance of them going back up again.

And when things are up, there is always a good chance of them going back down again.

And although a fictional story, Forrest Gump, highlights an important lesson:

If you can weather a storm (again, pun intended) and come out the other side alive, you are in a great position for capitalising on the upside when things return to normal — as long as you have a life buoy to keep you afloat and stop drowning.

Life buoys come in all forms…

Hibernation is an option — the Australian Prime Minister alluded to this on 27 March 2020.

Maintain trading is an option — many who have, can and will transition to online delivery can do this.

The risk of the first option is from competitors who are still operating — they may take market share.

If you can stay operating, even at reduced revenue, you have a chance of keeping customer and staying top-of-mind.

Revenue is the life raft to weather this current “hurricane”.

And you can continue to generate it from customers, or from government handouts.

If you have been watching the developments, handouts may not come in time, if at all, depending on your business type.

Problems always create opportunity.

Opportunity, being a choice.

A choice to act or not act.

The opportunity is, millions of people are spending more time at home and by virtue of that, online.

These people are both your customers, but also your competition.

The choice is are you going to take advantage of this opportunity?

There is a ton of attention online right now, and people looking for hope, help or hobbies.

And attention through traditional channels has been trending downwards for some time, and social distancing and self-isolation could the final nail-in-the-coffin for offline attention.

Yes, people are still spending — this east week has probably been my biggest revenue week for the entire last 12 months.

The issue is people are just being more critical of what they are spending their money on — times are uncertain.

Again, people are looking for looking for hope, help or hobbies.

I am going to throw you a lifesaver in the form of helping you generate leads and customers online…

I don’t have the capacity timewise to do-it-for-you (unless you want to pay me), but I can upskill you to do-it-yourself via a 1-hour online group workshop where I’ll give you a crash course on how to get started prospecting and selling online now that the majority of us are in lock down.

We’ll go over topics on:

1. Who your ideal customer is;

2. Where your ideal customer is found;

3. What that ideal customer wants;

4. How to add value to that ideal customer; and

5. How make that ideal customer a customer.

And this will help you leave the workshop with a framework to start generating more leads and customers on your own, right away.

It will be held at 12 noon (UTC/GMT +9:30 hours) Adelaide time on Thursday 9 April 2020.

It’s $25 for the first 10 people who register in the next 48 hours and after that the price will go up.

Register here: http://rebrand.ly/5b353

Or if you have any questions, ask below and I’ll answer them.