Discussion between a marketing consultant and his client:
– Think about the following example: you just got to a new workplace, and for lunch, you must choose between two restaurants that have similar offers: one is full of people, and the other one is almost empty. Which one do you prefer?”
– The one is almost empty, obviously. Thus, I stand in line for a short while and have my lunch quietly.”
– Well, no. Most people would choose the entire restaurant. If it is complete, it means they are better served and can socialize!”
– Well, I am not like most people.”
– What do you mean?”
– I mean that your example is not good because I cannot be found in my target audience. I do not know how most people think, and I do not even care to know how they think. That’s why I’m paying you.
Whether they are investors, entrepreneurs, freelancers, or managers, business owners must pay proper attention to marketing and sales involvement. In a society where a current message seems to be:” better, faster, richer”, relevance in a niche can be hard to attain and hold. At the same time, too much self-confidence can be a dangerous trap even when justified by the superior quality of the products, services, or ideas we offer. Here are such harmful limiting beliefs that some more or less experienced business owners might have, making it hard for the marketing and sales specialists who do their best to support them. I will list them and then go into each.
1. I don’t care what my audience wants; this is what I have to offer! It’s my way or the highway!
2. I don’t need to waste my money on advertising! I want to make sales, not marketing! Public relations and advertising are for wussies!
3. I don’t have time to chit-chat with everyone to keep up these detailed business relationships with all those people!
4. I don’t have the patience to wait for results. I wanted everything yesterday! Are we there yet?
5. I want to make as much profit as possible from as many people as possible: if I can get it, I deserve it!
Let’s now go into each of them!
1. I don’t care what my audience wants; this is what I have to offer! It’s my way or the highway!
While visionary entrepreneurs might seem entitled to such a drastic and dangerous approach, it is worth considering that not everyone has the marketing resources to reach such a targeted audience. Although whatever quality product you have to offer might be cherished by specific audiences. Still, it’s not guaranteed that you won’t go bankrupt before those audiences discover you even exist.
Sony afforded to launch the Walkman. Apple afforded to launch the iPhone. You might not be afford to reinvent a particular wheel of your choice, even if this choice seems great for a limited period.
Every product that seems great at one moment will become outdated and outlived at a certain point. On a long enough timeline scale, any product’s survival rate drops to zero. Keep this in mind: it’s just a product, not a child (although some people would sell their children to keep up their product)!
The rejection of a particular product by a potential market might instead speak of:
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the product not being presented at the right moment (too early or too late);
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the product not being appropriately advertised;
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the rejection of the delivery method;
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mismatching between the target audience and the characteristics of the product;
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the habits of the consumers of getting their needs satisfied differently;
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the inappropriate placement of the product;
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the payment method raises skepticism;
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insufficient awareness of your company.
How do you figure out which is which?
Before establishing “your way”, you must be aware that it must integrate the answers to all such questions and then some!
Some customers might have other questions about why you chose to do things a certain way. Believe it or not, some might even want to come your way to make your job more manageable if you have the patience to explain why you think your way is not the highway!
After some research, you might convince yourself that you can offer whatever you want if you just pack it in a totally different way!
2. I don’t need to waste my money on advertising! I want to make sales, not marketing! Public relations and advertising are for wussies!
My, my, my! What a big mixup! While it is likely for me to hear about so many different fields tied together in one or two sentences, it still strikes me as an uneducated perspective. But, on the other hand, I do understand what the issue is: the cash is king, the brand is Cinderella, and the disposable dwarfs are in charge of promotion, right?
First, even if marketing, public relations, advertising, and sales have some common ground, it is essential to know what each action is attributed to and not mix everything together. For example, it is well known that half of the advertising budget goes down the drain, but you don’t know which half. But at least half of the budget brings (or should get) positive ROI, which is significantly increased compared to zero. If you use a specific promotion technique that can be measured, applying it in conjunction or in sequence with other means within a strategy mix is essential. Otherwise, it might be a lost opportunity. Simply stating “ads don’t work” doesn’t have any value if you don’t know WHY those you tried don’t work: which ads don’t work? When don’t they work? For who don’t they work? What can be changed and tested so that they work?
I do recognize that marketing and sales are two different big jobs, but they don’t have to be in competition. Actually, they must work together. Therefore, it is only natural that part of the revenues from sales must go to the budget for marketing, but marketing doesn’t (always) offer guarantees. Although the sales field seems to be more concrete, never underestimate marketing! You must invest in advertising during specific periods, even if it might not bring you immediate clients.
Public relations are easy to do when you are a professional salesperson, and they aren’t expensive if you know how to integrate them with marketing visionarily.
Of course, you must have the theoretical framework for all of these before deciding what works and doesn’t work for you.
3. I don’t have time to chit-chat with everyone to keep up these detailed business relationships with all those people.
Entertaining business relationships can sometimes be overwhelming, especially if you don’t have some policy or system set up that works for you.
There is no substitute for keeping in touch with people, but you may at least change how you think about it. I recommend changing the way you think about it and taking it as a possibility to contribute to as many clients as possible. Your networking might become a line of hope for those people to have the benefits you offer them through services, products, or ideas.
It is challenging to consider relationships more urgent than the to-do list when you are task-focused, but they are more important IF you know how to choose the right people to network with. Suppose you stop considering it a chore or a to-do bullet point. In that case, you might enjoy it as a lifestyle, provided that you use your personal brand as an authentic instrument of communication.
Putting up a mask while relating to others takes up most of the energy from building successful business relationships, but bringing on your personality might make a more impactful, nice contribution for all those involved.
Therefore, there is no need to demean others. If you don’t like talking to many people, just choose a small circle of wealthy people who can be your clients so that you won’t have to attend to so many, and that will do it.
4. I don’t have the patience to wait for results. I wanted everything yesterday! Are we there yet?
I hope you are aware that this attitude is likely to get you the f-word from many people. From the standpoint of transactional analysis, it is also a rebel child position and, from the perspective of schema-focused therapy, the spoiled child perspective.
All this being mentioned, things can move faster, provided that you have the resources and wisdom to choose the right professionals. Faster doesn’t mean now, but as long as it allows for better results than the established competition, I’d say it’s fast enough. It is not unreasonable to pay around 1500-2000 euros for strategy services and wait at least two months from implementation before seeing any results… if you want to build a brand. If you just wish to inconstant sales, techniques may be applied, but any expert will tell you that you need to set up and keep up with a system. When you build a system from the ground up, getting involved with making the decisions is essential if you want to speed up the process.
This is why some people, aware of the enormous effort and patience required to set up a strategy and a system based on that strategy, don’t actually do it. These days you have to choose between long-term results and short-term results. If you want results now, just keep doing what you’ve been doing up until now: trying various approaches that don’t satisfy you. If you want something different, try a strategy for a change!
(keep reading ↓)
5. I want to make as much profit as possible from as many people as possible: if I can get it, I deserve it!
Some people buy once and then don’t buy again because they feel cheated somehow. Price is a psychological thing. Especially with services, there is this truth in an evergrowing international worldwide market. No matter how cheap and expensive you price your product, you CAN find people to sell it to at that price (providing you do good marketing). Therefore, it is up to you if you want a smaller piece of a bigger pie (affordable prices for many people to make serial sales) or a more significant piece of a smaller pie (working for a few clients who pay most of your bills). You choose your lifestyle or, let’s say, your business style. Either way, seeing money as a personal means of validation for the significance you didn’t get in childhood sets you up to fail. This syndrome is pronounced for the young graduates who hallucinate astounding revenues for the first positions and the professionals who invest lots of money and time into their formation (such as medics or psychologists). This road doesn’t lead to the bank; it leads to the hospital. Why?
Getting a price at a particular moment by a certain prospect doesn’t mean everything. However, it is an accurate measure of success if that customer buys again or gets you and other clients. Increasing a price without correlating it with growing buying power, results, automation, or experience is a sign of vanity, especially if you’ve started low and the initial target market isn’t aware of your value. What might seem obvious to you might not be evident to those who choose to buy from you.
So, there you have it. Remember that the most critical limits you need to break through are those in your mind! If you’ve liked this article, I’ll publish a follow-up in two weeks, especially for product owners. Business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketing professionals might be interested, too!
If you liked this article, I also invite you to read:
Get Over Entitlement in Marketing, Management, and Business
Copyright © Marcus Victor Grant 2017-present Series started in 2017 and was updated for publishing in 2020. Copyright © Marcus Victor Grant, all rights reserved.
The materials on this blog are subject to this disclaimer.
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