Jim Connolly Marketing

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

How to lose sales and anger your marketplace

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No one likes being pestered. This is especially the case, when they are extremely busy.

I was thinking of this, whilst sitting in a friends restaurant. He received a telemarketing call from one of the many salespeople, who target his industry with cold calls. The call was made during lunchtime, on a Friday afternoon. This is a very busy time for city-based restaurants, as they deal with not only a large volume of diners, but diners, who need to get back to work quickly.

You would think that people selling to the industry would have the common sense to avoid making cold calls, during these super-busy times.

Not only are they seldom going to speak with the decision maker (he or she’s too busy) but the caller actually positions themselves to the person receiving their unwanted interruption, as a nuisance or pest.  That’s not a great way to start of a relationship or a sales negotiation.

So, why do these kind of poorly timed telemarketing calls get made?

In my experience, many telemarketing companies believe that although they will probably be seen as a pest to 99% of the people they call during that peek time, maybe 1% might speak with them.  That’s a limited and short-sighted mindset!  It’s a mindset that says it’s fine to be seen as a pest by 99% of your prospective marketplace.  This is a VERY short-term strategy and quickly sees those use operate from it, running out of people to call; as their reputation sinks lower and lower and their phone numbers get barred.

The thing with marketing is this: Just because you CAN do something, does not mean you SHOULD do something

Whether it’s cold calling people, when they clearly don’t want to be called or adding people to your newsletter list, when they never asked to subscribe (do you get that too?), it’s a bad idea to do anything that will almost certainly anger or alienate 99% of your prospective clients.  None of us need that kind of reputation.

I would be interested to know, which types of marketing “interruptions” you see as most annoying.  Share your experiences, below.

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Photo: Victor Castillo

Blowing the lid off your potential!

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What limitations have you attached to your business?

I often speak with business owners, who have restricted the growth of their business because of limitations they have placed on themselves, often without knowing.  Interestingly, in the majority of cases, these limitations are groundless.  In other words, a lot of business owners are missing out on countless opportunities, needlessly!

For example, I spoke with a business coach last week, who currently limits herself to working with businesses that are based within a hundred miles or so of her physical address; even though she delivers her services remotely, via email, the phone / Skype etc.  In other words, there’s no need for her to place that restriction on herself.  As a result of this pointless, self-imposed limitation, she has placed a very low ceiling on the growth potential of her business.

I’m not suggesting for one second that business owners should just randomly offer every service they can possibly think of to everyone.  I am simply saying that it’s crazy to ignore the benefits to your clients and yourself, of offering a more complete and valuable service, based on what makes good, commercial sense.

This reminds me of a software company I met a few years ago, which produced specialist software for the chemical industry.  They had introduced a training package, aimed at helping users of their software, who wanted to get the absolute maximum from it.  Within 18-months, they had created a new, six figure income stream for their business.  They spotted the need and decided to do something about it, rather than say; “we’re not a training company!”

I think it’s a good idea from time to time, to take a fresh look at our business and check that we are not offering a range of services today, based on the way things were 6-months, 12-months or even a few years ago.  Times change, and as they do, new opportunities and possibilities are unearthed.  However, unless me move our thinking forward, it’s way too easy to miss all that great potential.

By the way, there are 32 questions here, which are designed to stimulate your mind and help you spot new opportunities to develop your business – Check them out!

What’s your biggest marketing challenge?

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This blog contains thousands of free marketing ideas and marketing answers, to help you achieve your best sales results ever.  With new marketing material being added all the time, I hope to provide you with an increasingly valuable marketing resource.  However, in order for me to make this blog as valuable as possible to you, I need to know which marketing challenges or problems are most important to you.

For example; lead generation, email marketing, social media marketing, mail shots (direct mail), networking, retail marketing, referrals, joint ventures, etc.

So, I would really appreciate it, if you would take a moment to let me know what areas of marketing you would like me to focus on, by leaving a comment below.

Your feedback will directly influence what I write about and help me to focus on the areas of marketing, which are most relevant to you and your business.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Why copycat marketing can hurt your business!

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Following on from yesterdays marketing tip, a number of readers have asked me the same question:

“Why do so many people do the same type of marketing, if it doesn’t work?”

Here’s the answer.  Amateur marketers will copy what they see others doing, wrongly assuming that it must be working.  This then gets more and more people repeating the same ineffective marketing, which encourages even more people to do the same, etc.  In other words, they copy what they see the crowd doing.

Marketing copycats and the wisdom of the crowd

I remember speaking with the owner of a hotel, who advertised for a year, paid in advance, in a local newspaper.  I asked him why he did this, as it was perhaps the worst possible place for him to advertise.  He told me that the local newspaper called him to say his largest competitor was advertising there and that the paper wanted to “give him the chance” to advertise there as well. So he did.

Of course, his advertisement didn’t generate a single piece of business.  Apparently, the biggest hotel in the area got their advertisement for free from the newspaper.  The ad sales guy at the paper then used that hotel’s ad, as a way to pressure other hotels in the area to buy advertising. Eventually they got 8  hotels to advertise, when none of them should have even considered it!  That’s the danger of copycat marketing.

Is your marketing on course?

Here’s a useful question to ask yourself:

Who (or what) encouraged you to use the various types of marketing that you use today?

You see, if you are not getting the marketing results you want, it’s entirely possible it’s because you are doing the wrong marketing activities, for what you want to achieve .  Just like that guy, who rows his boat in the wrong direction, no matter how hard he rows, he will never get where he wants to be; because he will still be heading nowhere.  In fact, the harder he rows in the wrong direction, the further away he will be from his destination. This is why so many hard-working business owners earn so little.

The bottom line here is this: If your marketing direction is wrong, you need to change course NOW!

Marketing tip: Stop shouting for attention!

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Is your marketing shouting at people?

If you go into Starbucks today and start shouting at the people around you, you will definitely grab their attention.  However, it’s not the kind of attention you want to attract.  Many small businesses use a very similar approach with their marketing.  In an effort to capture attention, they act in a way that gets them noticed, but for all the wrong reasons.

They not only fail to generate new business; they can permanently damage the reputation of their business too.

Some examples of how companies shout at people with their sales and marketing:

  • Adding people to their newsletter list, without permission. It’s spam.
  • Spamming people on Twitter.
  • Meeting people at networking events and using that transparent crap; “tell me about your business and how I can help you.” Wake up, it’s not 1985 any more!
  • Asking people to join their Linkedin network, claiming they worked with them (when both parties know it’s a lie.)
  • Unwanted telemarketing calls to people’s homes at 8pm.  Just what you need when getting a young child to sleep or relaxing after a hard day.

In marketing, it’s easy to confuse movement with progress.  People see that they need to win more business and they know that they must do something – quickly!  So, they do what they hope will generate the new business they need.

The marketing challenge here, is that just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should.  Just because we can pay someone to spam 500,000 people with a marketing email from us, doesn’t mean it will generate anything positive.  Yes, you can waste half your life attending the same networking events, with the same people, all there to sell, none there to buy – but it’s massively ineffective.

Thankfully, we each have the freedom to make our own choices about the way we market our products and services.  If we use our freedom of choice wisely, our success is guaranteed.