Why You’re Terrible At Marketing
The Good News: It’s Not Your Fault
The Bad News: It’s Imperative That You Overcome This Weakness
In my experience, there are SIX major business functions that must be mastered within a company in order for it to THRIVE instead of just survive:
1. Sales Ability: All business is hyper-competitive; you’d better be able to outsell the rest.
2. Sales Management: Managing the sales team is a distinct skill from just knowing how to sell.
3. Operations: Somebody’s got to know how to manage the business. Hiring, firing, paying bills, ordering.
4. Finances: More than one company has bit the dust due to poor handling of finances.
5. Marketing: Making sure your sales force has qualified, eager prospects to sell to.
Guess which of the five sub-specialty backgrounds most company owners hail from?
That’s right: Sales. There’s nothing wrong with this—it’s just a statement of fact and observation.
Sales-guys-turned-owners usually go out and find somebody who’s “good with details” to manage the business (operations, finance, etc.).
But almost nobody ever figures out the marketing side of things. Most company owners I talk to either handle the marketing themselves and/or have a “marketing person” that is essentially a glorified traffic control cop (coordinates mailings, places ads, contracts with website companies, etc.).
Almost NEVER is there a bona fide marketing expert involved in the mix. There’s nobody who really understands how to write ads that sell. Or create web copy that converts browsers into prospect and prospects into customers. It seems like everyone in the industry learned their marketing from “the company they used to work for” from “looking around and doing what everyone else is doing or worst of all, they have a marketing degree.”
This is how we get THOUSANDS of websites that all pretty much look the same and say the same thing. How many home websites start out by saying, “Welcome to XYZ. We’re a business that has proudly been serving the industrysince 1978.” When your marketing looks, smells, feels, and sounds like everyone else’s, nobody stands out, and everybody suffers. Then one of our clients swoop in and devour all the market share. All of it.
Your Business Is On Trial… And You Need A Capable Attorney
Think of your business as if it was on trial—and it was a life or death sentence at stake (because it is!). Would you want to be your own attorney and defend yourself? Or maybe you would hope that the court-appointed lawyer with his online law degree would get the job done. Remember, if you don’t gather all the evidence you need and present it to the jury (prospects, in your case) in a bold, compelling, and passionate way, you’re dead meat.
So here’s the good news: It’s not your fault that your marketing stinks. Your background probably hasn’t built marketing into one of your strengths. And realistically, I DO NOT encourage you to try to make marketing one of your strengths. I’m a big believer in focusing on what you’re really good at, and surrounding yourself with experts in the areas where you’re weak.
So just like you wouldn’t attempt to represent yourself in an important court case, I would encourage you to reach out for professional help with your marketing. Sure it costs more than doing it yourself—up front—but paying a little more now beats the heck out of getting clobbered and losing long term.
If that sounds like a commercial for our services… well, maybe it is. If you know any other marketing experts who have taken the time and effort to post HUNDREDS of marketing articles online to educate and prove expertise, then by all means call them instead. But trust me: not calling SOMEBODY who is qualified is costing you money. Every. Single. Day.
And that, my friends, is a price you shouldn’t have to pay.
To find out more, get a MARKETING EVALUATION