Using Positive Persistence As A Selling Tool
Using Positive Persistence As A Selling Tool
That Walt Disney was fired by a boss who said that he "lacked imagination"? That Michael Jordan was cut from his high-school varsity basketball team in his sophomore year? That Dr. Seuss was rejected 27 times by publishing houses?
So why am I telling you this? Because persistence, the ability to hold your course in the face of rejection is perhaps one of the most important elements for successfully marketing your services. And quite frankly, most people give up way to easily and early.
If the promotional letter doesn't immediately bring new customers calling, the tendency is to say, "Marketing won't work for me." If there are more than one or two steps to the system for bringing in new clients, the process is rejected as being "Too complicated". Which is kind of a good news/bad news situation.
The good news is that now that the economy is headed south a lot of your competitors will simply dry up and vanish. Since beginning my business career in 1977 I've seen how the dot.com boom, the real estate bubbles and blind over-optimism makes even poor business people successful. The proverbial "high tides raise all boats." And then comes the inevitable "bust".
No longer is business just coming in over the transom. People get scared. They start to cut back on unnecessary expenses. Which raises the question, is spending money on marketing, on promoting your business, discretionary? I think you know what I'm going to say.
Marketing is perhaps most important during these tough times. Ask anyone whose been around for a while. Look at the super successful people in your field. What you'll observe is that their marketing investment actually went UP during tough times. But the key is that you have to use smart marketing.
What that means is that you no longer can afford to just throw stuff against a wall and hope some of it sticks. No, you've got to be smart about it. Your promotional material has to make an offer that your prospects haven't heard a gazillion times before. You can't run "me too" campaigns.
What this means is that you'll probably have to look outside your industry for some good ideas. I believe that the failure to consider anything that hasn't already been done within your industry is one of the primary reasons why so much marketing sounds exactly alike and fails to attract attention.
You need a process. You need a system so that every dollar you spend on marketing is trackable. So you know what is working. In other words, you need to approach marketing as an investment, not as an expense. But in order to do that you're gong to need to have a plan. So what's yours?
Are you just going to hide under a rock and hope the bad times go away? Or, are you going to act like a true business owner and face the tough times with the resolve to actually capitalize on the fearfulness of others and improve your market share? Unfortunately, most will hide under the rock.
But then again, most business owners don't really think like owners, they think like technicians. By this I mean most owners just want to do the "thing-they-do." Consult. Train. Drill teeth. Argue cases. You get the idea.
So the decision is yours. You can be like the person who said that, "They were not going to do any marketing until business got better." The natural question is how will your business get better if you don't get the word out to those who are most likely to hire you about what you do?
Do you expect that people will just "hear about you?" Or will you wait until the next good-times-bubble emerges (probably in 2-3 years) and then you can go back to your proven marketing strategy of "Aggressively answering the phone?" Which is why Michael Gerber's often quoted (and substantiated) statistics that 80% of new businesses fold within the first 5 years is so true.
So what's the other option? Find a system or a process that has been successful for others and adapt it to your particular business. But remember that the key point is that you need to do something. Simply sticking your head in the sand is not an option if you are going to still be in business two years from now. Your really smart (and successful) competitors know this. I hope you do too.
Using Positive Persistence As A Selling Tool - To learn more about this author, visit Mark Satterfield's Website.
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You've probably heard the story that it took Thomas Edison 1,000 tires before he invented the light bulb. But did you know that, 12 publishers rejected J.K Rowling's first Harry Potter book before an obscure publishing house finally picked it up? That Decca Records turned down the Beatles?
That Walt Disney was fired by a boss who said that he "lacked imagination"? That Michael Jordan was cut from his high-school varsity basketball team in his sophomore year? That Dr. Seuss was rejected 27 times by publishing houses?
So why am I telling you this? Because persistence, the ability to hold your course in the face of rejection is perhaps one of the most important elements for successfully marketing your services. And quite frankly, most people give up way to easily and early.
If the promotional letter doesn't immediately bring new customers calling, the tendency is to say, "Marketing won't work for me." If there are more than one or two steps to the system for bringing in new clients, the process is rejected as being "Too complicated". Which is kind of a good news/bad news situation.
The good news is that now that the economy is headed south a lot of your competitors will simply dry up and vanish. Since beginning my business career in 1977 I've seen how the dot.com boom, the real estate bubbles and blind over-optimism makes even poor business people successful. The proverbial "high tides raise all boats." And then comes the inevitable "bust".
No longer is business just coming in over the transom. People get scared. They start to cut back on unnecessary expenses. Which raises the question, is spending money on marketing, on promoting your business, discretionary? I think you know what I'm going to say.
Marketing is perhaps most important during these tough times. Ask anyone whose been around for a while. Look at the super successful people in your field. What you'll observe is that their marketing investment actually went UP during tough times. But the key is that you have to use smart marketing.
What that means is that you no longer can afford to just throw stuff against a wall and hope some of it sticks. No, you've got to be smart about it. Your promotional material has to make an offer that your prospects haven't heard a gazillion times before. You can't run "me too" campaigns.
What this means is that you'll probably have to look outside your industry for some good ideas. I believe that the failure to consider anything that hasn't already been done within your industry is one of the primary reasons why so much marketing sounds exactly alike and fails to attract attention.
You need a process. You need a system so that every dollar you spend on marketing is trackable. So you know what is working. In other words, you need to approach marketing as an investment, not as an expense. But in order to do that you're gong to need to have a plan. So what's yours?
Are you just going to hide under a rock and hope the bad times go away? Or, are you going to act like a true business owner and face the tough times with the resolve to actually capitalize on the fearfulness of others and improve your market share? Unfortunately, most will hide under the rock.
But then again, most business owners don't really think like owners, they think like technicians. By this I mean most owners just want to do the "thing-they-do." Consult. Train. Drill teeth. Argue cases. You get the idea.
So the decision is yours. You can be like the person who said that, "They were not going to do any marketing until business got better." The natural question is how will your business get better if you don't get the word out to those who are most likely to hire you about what you do?
Do you expect that people will just "hear about you?" Or will you wait until the next good-times-bubble emerges (probably in 2-3 years) and then you can go back to your proven marketing strategy of "Aggressively answering the phone?" Which is why Michael Gerber's often quoted (and substantiated) statistics that 80% of new businesses fold within the first 5 years is so true.
So what's the other option? Find a system or a process that has been successful for others and adapt it to your particular business. But remember that the key point is that you need to do something. Simply sticking your head in the sand is not an option if you are going to still be in business two years from now. Your really smart (and successful) competitors know this. I hope you do too.
Using Positive Persistence As A Selling Tool - To learn more about this author, visit Mark Satterfield's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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