A couple of years have passed, but I clearly remember seeing the author and consultant David Maister at a small, private event he was speaking at. He was pacing, breathing hard with energy and commitment about his key lesson, which is burned into my mind:  “There are no secrets,” he said. “We all know what to do. We simply must do it.”

I see this statement play out daily with clients and people asking for my help: We know that marketing is the action of communicating our value to prospective customers. So why do we spend time doing product research (or LinkedIn research!) and call it marketing? We know that revenue is the only real measure of marketing success, yet we spend our days focusing on followers and digital friends, who generate no new business.

We know what to do: We must tell people how we can help them; how their peers — who deal with a similar set of issues — have benefited from doing business with us. We must pursue testimonials and referrals aggressively. And every day, we must tell more people about our value than knew about it yesterday. One action per person, per day, is enough. Fifteen minutes per day is enough to generate a significant revenue increase of 20 percent of more.

We know what to do. You know what to do. The question is, will you go do it?