I’ve worked with enough entrepreneurs over the years to know that the difference between the most successful business owners and the broke ones always boils down to one thing.

Successful business owners have a consistent, proactive sales and marketing strategy, while the struggling entrepreneurs are more reactive in their client acquisition efforts.

In other words, the latter only get clients whenever their prospects decide to show up.

Here are some common characteristics among the two types of business owners.

Reactive Marketers:

• Tend to wait for things to improve. They think that a better day is just around the corner, and they’ll take action then. Of course, that day very well may never come if all they’re doing is waiting for it to arrive.
• Believe that they can’t afford to invest in business-building products and services until there is more revenue.
• Wait for clients to call, instead of taking the necessary actions to garner them and have the business they want.
• Don’t have the confidence to take risks. Deep down, they aren’t really sure it’s worth it when failure is a possibility.

Proactive Marketers:

• Make things happen. They take consistent action on a daily basis and do what’s needed in order to make sales.
• Know that investing in themselves and their business is the surest way to make things better. The old adage is true: you have to spend money to make money. In order to make the money promised in this saying, however, you have to believe that you’re worth investing in. Remember candy sales in elementary school? If you order a bunch of candy and then just let it sit there because you don’t believe there’s any possibility of winning, you’re the one who’s actually doomed yourself to failure.
• Call prospects. Many self-help programs talk about the thousand- pound phone. Even if calling someone is what can help you find your way out of a desperate situation, people hesitate to actually make the call over and over again because they don’t want to deal with what they might encounter on the other end. As we become even more isolated in the world of cyberspace and texting evolves into our primary form of communication, sometimes nothing gets someone’s attention like simply making a phone call.
• Follow up. Successful business owners utilize email marketing, newsletters, and incentives to stay in contact with their prospects until they become their clients.
• Have systems. Many adages apply here. Plan your work and work your plan. Dream your life and live your dream. This can involve education, training and seminars. The notion of believing you’re worth investing in can be vital to staying motivated throughout this process.
• Are comfortable faking it until they make it. They KNOW they’re going to succeed, and failure is NOT an option.

The only difference between these two types of marketers is that that the proactive entrepreneurs have made a DECISION. A true decision doesn’t change from day to day. When you choose success, failures aren’t permanent, they’re just part of the adventure on the way to success.