This is a discussion I had with a client, paraphrased, that I just had to share. It went something like this…
I’m signed up here but I have to tell ya, I really don’t like marketing and I have a lot of issues with it. I hate being “marketed” to.
I screen all telemarketing calls and never call them back. I filter all promotional e-mails into the trash bin, and I use a free, throwaway e-mail anytime I sign up for something.
I also hate using tacky gimmicks like charging $9.95. It’s TEN BUCKS!
Or using deadlines and testimonials and big promises. It all seems so hokey to me. BUT I desperately need to grow my business and generate more sales.
I’ve been doing this IT work for almost 30 years, I’ve never generated more than $300,000 in sales and I’m exhausted. If I don’t figure this out, it’s gonna kill me. I hope you can help.
Geez. Outside of that, Mrs. Lincoln, what didn’t you like about the play?
I give the guy credit because he’s aware and willing to admit he needs help with the head trash holding him back.
Further, I know there are a LOT of people who think and feel the way he does, but just won’t admit it OR they won’t allow themselves to see how it’s holding them back in business. Doing so would require them to change and actually DO marketing, which they simply cannot bring themselves to face…
Quite honestly, I don’t like a lot of these things either. I personally HATE the robocalls I get from marketing companies, the fake checks in the mail and the SPAM e-mails that flood my inbox. But that doesn’t mean I don’t use telemarketing, direct mail or e-mail marketing to get clients. Any tool used improperly can have adverse effects.
Give a paint brush and easel to two guys. One paints a magnificent picture, the other a stick figure. Is it the paint and easel’s fault? Of course not. Same goes with marketing. Intrusive, unwelcome, scammy marketing or high-pressure, brute-force selling is rarely effective OR smart. That is not what we’re doing around here, folks.
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Further, you have to take YOUR personal preferences and biases totally and completely out of the equation when marketing and selling. YOU are NOT your customer. Your customer thinks differently, behaves differently, values things differently than you do. You and your customer have totally, completely different backgrounds and knowledge of the services you are selling.
And finally, you have to focus on the results and what the numbers are telling you, NOT your personal beliefs, what you want to work, what you like and favor. Testing and measurement tells us marketers what “tactics” are working, and which ones aren’t.
I will warn you: you must run a REAL, unbiased test. If you “try” the strategy of offering a higher-priced, luxury-option managed services level in your next sales call, but you deliver it unenthusiastically and reek of uncertainty and fear, THAT “tactic” is going to appear not to work. Same with having an untrained, bored, unskilled person making telemarketing calls.
Their numbers may make it appear telemarketing doesn’t work for you, your clients, in your town. That’s why you have to also look at the results others have gotten, not just your own metrics, especially when forging new ground and implementing a tactic or a strategy for the first time.
One final piece of advice: changing your mindset, and how you feel and think about marketing, sales, wealth and growth, is essential to success; and one of the fastest and best ways to impact that positively is to hang around peers who think and act the way you are aspiring to.
Going to the five o’clock buffet with your friends is NOT going to help you lose weight. Going to the advanced class of fit, trim, healthy people and telling them your ambition and asking them for advice WILL. As a member here, you are in a NEW place. Most do not know what you now know, much less practice it.
