I want to share a valuable piece of advice with you, which I received from my mentor; the late, great Jim Rohn. Here’s what Jim used to say;
“Have something worth saying and say it well.
Jim would use that phrase when speaking about effective communication and I believe it’s also a very simple, powerful way to remind ourselves how to focus our marketing efforts. Let me explain what I mean, looking at both parts of that message, 1 part at a time.
Have something worth saying
Are your products or services worth talking about, or are they pretty similar to other people in your industry? You see, no matter how good someone’s marketing is, it will fail to generate sales or motivate people to buy from them, if its a great message, about an ‘average’ or slightly better than average service.
- People are bored by ‘average.’
- They see average everywhere.
- Average, is camouflage that stops you getting noticed.
- Average, is bland.
- Average, doesn’t compel people to do anything.
People need to ensure that their business, products and services are REALLY worth talking about. Not only is this required if you want to generate word of mouth publicity, it’s also required if you want your marketing to work.
…and say it well
Many people really struggle with effective communication, yet unless we know how to communicate effectively, we can never achieve anything worthwhile in business. This is why it’s so important that when we have something worth saying, we learn how to say it well.
No business wants to be “the best kept secret” in their industry. However, the majority of what we see and hear from small businesses is very poorly communicated. A business that cannot effectively communicate what it does and why people need to buy from them, is placing a VERY low ceiling on their potential. If such businesses are intent on handling all their own marketing, at the very least, they need to make a study of effective written and verbal communication.
Bottom line: By having a business, product or service that’s worth talking about, and learning how to effectively share this compelling news, marketing becomes a great deal easier.
What do you think?
Photo: Kalandrakas
Related posts:
I love this. Such a wonderful and simple way to divide into two parts:
1. Have something worthy saying
2. Say it well
I’m going away to work on both right now
Jim Rohn was a master at keeping things simple and an amazingly positive, powerful influence on me.
Thanks for the feedback Scott.
Me too! But I think in 2010, I will have help!
We all need help Julie. As they say; “no man (or woman) is an island.”
Nice one, Jim.
The other thing I would add from a ‘bankable results’ perspective is that average products and services command average prices. Conversely, remarkable products and services can command premium prices (apropos the $100 e-book discussion on this site previously).
Best, Robin
Hi Robin. Great feedback as always.
The pst you referred to is actually on this blog: http://www.theideasblog.com/2009/12/29/is-2010-the-year-of-the-100-ebook/ (For those who missed it.)
It’s turned into quite a debate.
Robin, true. I’m about to test that theory out next month!
Whoa Jim, as simple as it sounds – fulfulling these two points are not easy. Especially when you are under the pressure to publish content daily (or get dwarfed by competitors in search rankings).
But I must say, in this world of increasing clutter – introducing more clutter doesn’t help
Thanks for the comment Kian. I never said that doing any of this was easy – it’s not.
I’m also curious why you publish content daily so as not to be ‘dwarfed by competitors in search rankings.’ There’s some SEO benefit to daily content, but surely you should be writing for people, not SEO?
What do you think?
I cannot agree more!
Simple and effective way to keep yourself focused in the minefield of information out there….
Nicely put. But acting out of average is a hard task and most people would dare to do that. But on the other hand average people are everywhere so we should act like crazy to get attention.
I totally agree that both are equally important.
Last week I came across something that was called the ‘Sokal affair’. It was a test to see if a journal would publish an article that was made up with nonsense if it sounded good. He gave it a well sounding title and indeed it got published.
A well written article about absolutely nothing.
But on the other hand there are indeed those articles that contain a wealth of information, but the way they are written can, for whatever reason, not get the message across.
I absolutely love it when those two come together well.