This is an e-mail I received a while back from an MSP owner who had just enrolled in our program, name withheld. When I got it, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Here it is…
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. Besides that, Mrs. Lincoln, what did you think about the play?
I give the guy credit because he’s aware of and willing to admit he needs help with the head trash holding him back—and hating sales and marketing IS head trash if you’re an entrepreneur attempting to grow a business.
I know there are a LOT of business owners 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 (a few dummies actually brag about not doing marketing, like it’s a badge of honor).
The problem isn’t that he hates marketing. The REAL problem is what he thinks good marketing is.
I don’t like some of these things either. I personally HATE the robocalls I get from marketing companies, the unsolicited text messages, and SPAM e-mails that flood my inbox. But that’s not great marketing.
Any marketing tool, media, or tactic used improperly can have adverse effects.
Give a paintbrush and easel to two guys. One paints a magnificent lifelike picture that’s worth hanging in a museum; the other a stick figure. Is it the paint and easel’s fault? Of course not. The same goes with marketing. Intrusive, unwelcome, scammy marketing or high-pressure, brute-force selling is rarely effective and definitely NOT smart if you’re attempting to build trust.
That is NOT what I tell clients to do.
At its core, marketing has three key ingredients you have to get right:
Have something GOOD to say. What problem can you fix faster, better, cheaper, and more elegantly than your competition? How is your approach, product, or service superior to what your prospect is doing now? What’s unique and exciting about what you do? What’s the VALUE? If you’re pushing mediocre commodity services, don’t fill up my inbox, social media feed, or voicemail.
Say it WELL. Once you have something of value to offer, you have to be able to present it in a way that will instantly convey who this is for and why they will want it. In seminars, I used to hold up a $1 bill and a $100 bill and ask the audience why the $100 bill is worth 100 times more than the dollar. It’s the same paper, same size, same ink, same issuer. The answer? The message written on the paper. A website can either convert a prospect to an interested buyer, or cause someone to bounce in seconds. An e-mail sent can get a 2% click-through rate or a 20% click-through rate. An SDR calling with a terrible script may get zero appointments or a dozen based on what he says (message and offer).
Say it OFTEN. It’s no surprise that you need repetition of your messaging, if for no other reason than the moving parade of interest and need in a target market. The random, frantic campaign cobbled together and spammed out when you desperately need money is a horrible idea.
My definition of selling is to help a prospect make a buying decision that’s good for them—even if it’s not from you. Marketing should also EDUCATE a prospect to a greater good or enlighten them about a better way… or even alert them to a danger they weren’t aware of. If you’re using your marketing in that way, and to spread an INTERESTING message about something that will TRULY help your prospect, you’ll see marketing in an entirely different light.
Who knows? You might even start to like it.
