Publicity Headlines and Results are Two Different Things
Publicity Headlines and Results are Two Different Things
On Sunday when daylight savings time sprung ahead, there was an article in the local paper about an entrepreneur in Indiana. He was offering to change all of the clocks in a home for ten dollars. He would change wall clocks, VCR clocks, microwave clocks, and presumably even the clock in your car for a grand total of ten dollars. I read the article and nodded my head in recognition of his pluck.
Two days later while listening to a Seattle talk radio program, the host announced that his next interview was the Indiana entrepreneur. I thought to myself, "How interesting." The interview went well for the first few minutes and then the talk show host asked many customers the man had. He answer was, "Four." The talk show host was incredulous. I laughed.
Here this guy was with tons of publicity and he only had four customers. Of course his services were only good locally in Fort Wayne, but still . . . Both the talk show host and I were ready for some successful sounding figures, but four customers? What a joke. Later as my wife and I were driving across town, I told her about the conversation. She had read the same article, but we had never discussed it. We tried to come up with a moral for the story. We finally decided on: Customers must see a perceived value. Turning your clocks ahead just didn't seem to offer any value . . . even with VCRs constantly blinking.
Last year I read an article in USA Today about a new website that was offering downloadable videos on a wide variety of subjects. Since this was closely related to my business training products website I visited the site. The website didn't offer downloadable videos. They had links and buttons that said they did, but they didn't. They were looking for videos to offer as downloadable videos. After repeated visits I saw no headway in actual selections. In fact, they took weeks to answer a query from me on email.
Here were two different services being offered. Both caught the eye of the media and received free coverage. Neither were successful. One had no perceived value and one had no product. Free publicity is hard to come by, if you get it and the public responds, you have to be prepared to deliver.
When opportunity knocks you need to answer the door and welcome it in with open arms . . . and you need to have an actual product or service that has value.
Publicity Headlines and Results are Two Different Things - To learn more about this author, visit Don Doman's Website.
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Some people are publicity hogs. They submit press releases looking to grab some headlines. They just know that if the word gets out about them, their services, or their company, then they will magically have more sales than they can handle. It doesn't always work that way.
On Sunday when daylight savings time sprung ahead, there was an article in the local paper about an entrepreneur in Indiana. He was offering to change all of the clocks in a home for ten dollars. He would change wall clocks, VCR clocks, microwave clocks, and presumably even the clock in your car for a grand total of ten dollars. I read the article and nodded my head in recognition of his pluck.
Two days later while listening to a Seattle talk radio program, the host announced that his next interview was the Indiana entrepreneur. I thought to myself, "How interesting." The interview went well for the first few minutes and then the talk show host asked many customers the man had. He answer was, "Four." The talk show host was incredulous. I laughed.
Here this guy was with tons of publicity and he only had four customers. Of course his services were only good locally in Fort Wayne, but still . . . Both the talk show host and I were ready for some successful sounding figures, but four customers? What a joke. Later as my wife and I were driving across town, I told her about the conversation. She had read the same article, but we had never discussed it. We tried to come up with a moral for the story. We finally decided on: Customers must see a perceived value. Turning your clocks ahead just didn't seem to offer any value . . . even with VCRs constantly blinking.
Last year I read an article in USA Today about a new website that was offering downloadable videos on a wide variety of subjects. Since this was closely related to my business training products website I visited the site. The website didn't offer downloadable videos. They had links and buttons that said they did, but they didn't. They were looking for videos to offer as downloadable videos. After repeated visits I saw no headway in actual selections. In fact, they took weeks to answer a query from me on email.
Here were two different services being offered. Both caught the eye of the media and received free coverage. Neither were successful. One had no perceived value and one had no product. Free publicity is hard to come by, if you get it and the public responds, you have to be prepared to deliver.
When opportunity knocks you need to answer the door and welcome it in with open arms . . . and you need to have an actual product or service that has value.
Publicity Headlines and Results are Two Different Things - To learn more about this author, visit Don Doman's Website.
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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