Have you ever noticed that it’s easier to attract new clients or customers when business is already going well, and that it’s harder to attract them when your business is struggling. One of the primary reasons this happens, is that business owners tend to act, communicate and make decisions very differently, when times are good than when times are tough.
Marketing in good times: Typically, business owners act with confidence when times are good. They speak in positive terms about their business, their marketplace and their future. They make decisions based on what they want to achieve.
Marketing in tough times: Typically, business owners act with trepidation when times are tough. They speak in neutral or negative terms about their business, their marketplace and their future. They make decisions based on what they fear.
Marketing and confidence
Confidence plays a massive part in the success of any business, for example:
- We buy from people, who we feel confident about.
- We recommend people, who we feel confident can deliver.
- We follow people, who we feel confident can lead.
- We buy products that we are confident we can trust.
When we listen to people who speak with confidence, we tend to believe in them. However, when we listen to those who lack confidence, we don’t. In both cases, the speaker transfers either their confidence or their lack of confidence to us, depending on their disposition. This is why leaders in every area of life, are those who can inspire confidence in their message; be that in a boardroom or sports arena. By the way, I wrote about another aspect of marketing with confidence here.
The great news, is that confidence starts from within. WE get to decide whether we project confidence or concern.
Marketing tip: Take a look at the information you currently feed into your marketplace. This includes your interactions on social media sites, as well as marketing-specific messages and business conversations. Now, check them to see how likely they are, to inspire confidence in you or your services. If you think there’s room for improvement, seek to inject a more positive, confidence inspiring message from here on!
What makes you feel more confident about a potential provider? What can providers do, to help you feel more confident about them and their business? Share your thoughts!
Confidence and Authority … Always keys to success. No doubt about that.
Vincent Roman´s last blog ..Simplicity – What to Kill and What Not To Kill
Absolutely Vincent. It’s very hard for someone to project the image of authority, if they lack confidence.
Jim, whenever I’m feeling a lack of confidence, I employ what I call my “inner marketing parent” – a voice inside me that helps me focus on previous success, minimize catastophy thinking and pump myself up about the present and future.
John Haydon´s last blog ..What is your blogging narrative voice?
I like the idea of your “inner marketing parent”, John.
Thanks for sharing sir!!
One of the phrases that you taught me, Jim, is Confidence and Competence! I know that in my own calls with prospective clients that phrase reverberates in my head as I explain how my services work. But I also know that it echoes in my mind as I work with those people who have become my clients and as I coach them on their job search and career marketing strategies.
Whether a business owner or job seeker, if you know (and you should know) that you are competent in your area of expertise or even better a subject matter expert, you need to feel confident that you are the solution to either the client’s needs or the business’s problems.
The light that comes on in my client’s eyes at that point when they digest the confidence and accept it, is amazing. You can feel it!
Yes, you are right, it is easier when things are going well but you should do it even in the bad times, because those will ebb and flow throughout your life with the good times.
Julie Walraven | Resume Services´s last blog ..Not a Magician!
As you say Julie – It’s hard to convince others we are competent, if we fail to demonstrate confidence. I even see this with marketing providers; people who really should know better.
Thanks as always for the feedback.
Yep, confidence is the key.
In fact in Gerry Spence’s great book
“How to argue and win everytime” he talks about how telling the truth, from the heart and revealing your flaws builds confidence both in yourself and others.
Sandy Barris
P.S. Jim, i just ran into your blog, google alerts, and love it, lot of great ideas. Thanks.
When my confidence is at a low. I go back to my reasons for actually doing what I’m doing. This is a powerful technique for me. It reinstalls my faith in the present.
Great blog by the way.
I can relate this to the seo and web design business. There have been times when desperate clients have come to me asking for freebies or cheapies and I had to turn them away because it wasn’t something I wanted to be branded with. Even in bad times, it is important to make business decisions based on your worth and be confident with your decision. That client will be back in the future to pay industry standards because they know now that you are quality rather than a hustler.
Brandon Connell´s last blog ..Shh! My secret marketing strategy…
Absolutely agree, and the role of confidence in success is something that’s very close to my heart.
I describe confidence as being able to make a decision with implicit trust in that decision – which allows you to go where you need to go based on what matters to you. It’s not about having all the answers or knowing what will happen, it’s just trusting yourself to make a choice, then make another, then another, then another.
The ease and simplicity that confidence brings really speaks volumes when it comes to marketing and branding.
Steve Errey´s last blog ..How to be Luckier Than Everyone Else