Business Growth Blueprint with Mark Fitzgerald

How Deadlines Accelerate Business Growth

• Mark Fitzgerald • Episode 5

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Ever wonder why most football transfer deals happen in the final 48 hours of deadline day despite clubs having an entire month to act? It's the same reason half of all sales typically occur in the last day of a promotion. Deadlines don't just influence behavior—they transform it.

In this eye-opening episode, I explore how the psychology of deadlines can be your secret weapon for business growth and personal productivity. As someone who has battled procrastination throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I've discovered that properly structured deadlines with genuine consequences create the accountability needed to drive action.

The pattern is remarkably consistent across industries: approximately one-third of sales happen immediately after launch, about 10% trickle in during the middle period, and a whopping 50% come rushing in just before the deadline expires. This isn't coincidence—it's human nature at work. By understanding and leveraging this predictable behavior, you can dramatically increase conversions in your business while simultaneously improving your own productivity.

I share practical strategies for implementing effective deadlines in your marketing efforts and internal operations. You'll learn why vague timelines fail while deadlines with "skin in the game" succeed, how to create urgency that motivates rather than manipulates, and the dramatic results my coaching clients have achieved by mastering this approach. Whether you're looking to boost sales, complete projects faster, or finally overcome your tendency to put things off, this episode provides the blueprint for making deadlines work for you.

Ready to harness the power of deadlines in your business? Visit markfitzgerald.com for free tools and resources mentioned in this episode, or book a Zoom coffee chat to discuss how we can help you grow and scale your business through strategic deadline implementation.

For more help and FREE tools and resources please visit..

www.markfitzgerald.com

or reach out to me on...

Email me at: mark@markfitzgerald.com


Speaker 1:

Are you setting deadlines? Because deadlines get things done. Welcome to the Business Growth Blueprint Podcast. If you're an entrepreneur looking to elevate your business, you're in the right place. In today's fast-paced world, growing your business is more than just numbers. It's about making great marketing decisions to build meaningful connections, increase your revenue and keep your customers not just satisfied but truly happy, so you can live your life on your terms. Let's get started. Hello and welcome to the Business Growth Blueprint with me, your host, mark Fitzgerald.

Speaker 1:

So we've got a quick podcast episode for you today and this was actually pointed out to me in great terms quite recently actually and it is all about deadlines because, realistically, if you're anything like me and potentially you're not, and that's a good thing I'm very good at procrastinating, I'm very good at putting things off, and I've had to work very hard on myself to overcome that, to remove those barriers, to remove those blockers and to stop procrastinating and get out there and get things done. And, like the title of this episode, deadlines work. But you have to set strong deadlines. You have to have something that maybe you don't want to have happen happen. If you don't hit those deadlines, there's got to be, as they like to say, some skin in the game when it comes to deadlines. Otherwise you will just make them drift as normal. So you could make it so that you have to spend some money on something or lose some money to a friend, or you can set up all of these different things to make life difficult for yourself.

Speaker 1:

But I like to look at outside influences in my businesses as well. I like sports, I like different sports, so I'm a big Formula One fan, I like football, I like rugby, I like the darts, you know, I like all of those sorts of different things and I enjoy participating in some of them. I'm getting a bit long in the tooth now, but I enjoy watching a lot of them as well. But one of the things that it dawned on me and a friend of mine pointed this out was we're going to talk about football and deadlines when it comes to the transfer market. Now, don't worry if you're not a football fan, because we're not going to be going in depth about that at all.

Speaker 1:

My knowledge on all of this isn't that great, but I do know the fundamentals, because what you will know is two months of the year, which is August and January, professional football clubs in and around Europe can transfer players. Okay, this is the only time of the year that the clubs can do this. They can buy and sell different players into their teams and for the rest of the year they're stuck. They're stuck with the players that they've got. So what you will see is a mad flurry. Sometimes there used to be more. Before COVID, actually, there used to be more of a mad flurry, but since then it doesn't seem to be, or it doesn't feel to me that it's like it used to be. Now what happens? Even though there's a full month to get all the deals done bringing in the players that you want to be bringing in and building your teams up most of the deals are always done, or at least half of the deals are done, in the last 48 hours of the month.

Speaker 1:

Whether it's human nature or something more sophisticated, the reality is, in all walks of life, deadlines get things done. They have a set deadline. They have to make sure that they get these players transferred in this time or they have to stick with what they've got. So deadlines do matter, and they can matter for you in your business as well, in what you're trying to achieve. The reality is after 11 o'clock on transfer deadline day, football clubs cannot sign any more players. What happens in business is that so many business owners forget this kind of universal truth of human nature and you are almost certainly not making enough use of the deadlines with your market. Now, I do recognize that it's not always easy to create a deadline. Sometimes it needs quite a bit of thought. But I do know that if you come up with an offer and you create a deadline, then more often than not you will start to see those results. So not only will it work for you in your business to make sure that things are happening, it can also work for your customers, your clients, as well. Usually in the first 24 hours you'll make about a third of your overall sales when you put an offer out there. Then in the next however long it depends, obviously it could be 10 days, two weeks, sometimes three weeks you'll make about 10% of your overall sales and then usually about half of your sales come in the last 24 or 36 hours.

Speaker 1:

It can be quite frustrating as a marketer in any sort of business. It's the same with football. I mean there's an entire football channel given up its coverage on transfer deadline day and has 27 reporters out and around the country feeding on what is happening. It's a massive thing because deadlines get things done, and so it does in any business as well. Because you've got deadlines and you've given people a reason to take action, more of them will start to do so. So what could you do in your business to start making people take action? Could there be an offer? Could there be some sort of benefit of getting stuck in now and using your services or buying your products? And that's the truth of it. Realistically, when you just put an offer out there with no deadline, with no reason to take action, then most people won't take action and that means your sales are down, your profits are down and everything is slowing down, diminishing. So make sure that you're using deadlines and try and incorporate that in everything that you can do. Deadlines aligned with a great offer or a great reason or a great project are amazing, absolutely amazing, and you will notice a humongous, humongous difference in your business. When I started to incorporate deadlines into my businesses and I helped my clients my coaching clients incorporating into theirs, it has made substantial differences to their businesses. So have a little think yourself and see where you can use deadlines and how you can get the best out of those deadlines in your business right now.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for joining me. I hope you've enjoyed this episode and I look forward to you joining me in the next episode very soon. Take care and bye for now. I hope you've enjoyed this episode today and if you are enjoying these and you need more help and assistance, then why not head over to my website, markfitchgeraldcom? I have a lot of free tools and resources there that you've learned about and heard about in these podcast episodes, and I would also love, if you need further help, to book some time together and have a Zoom coffee and a chat to see if we can help you grow and scale your business. I look forward to seeing you soon. You take care and bye for now.