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Leave Your Marketing Materials At Home

Written by: Will Turner

Article Overview: Marketing materials don't sell. People do.

Leave Your Marketing Materials At Home

I was speaking to a business owner this week and he said that he needed to be calling on prospects, but he was waiting to get his brochure done. It turns out that due to some unforeseen circumstances, he’s been waiting a couple of months already. Now, that just isn’t right.

After some probing, I found out that he was planning on using the brochure after the initial introduction in a meeting with a prospect to point out all the services he could provide. The reality is that no one has ever bought from a brochure. Every week he waits is another week of lost opportunities.

The lesson here is that brochures and marketing pieces, no matter how fancy, don’t sell you. If you rely on them, you’re missing a serious opportunity to connect with your prospect and find out what’s important to them. In the case of my business owner friend, he had about 30 services listed out in his brochure. Certainly, it would be rare that someone would want all of his services. Instead they might need one or two.

If he continued down the path he was headed, he may never find out which one or two services are important to his prospects and more importantly, why. That’s because if you focus your discussion around your brochure or around all the things that you can do, you’re not going to be focused on the right thing, your prospects and what they need.

A business card, a brochure, a marketing piece, and even a portfolio of work do not sell. They are marketing tools, but if you’re relying on them to sell for you, you’re not going to be as successful as you could be. I’m not inferring that these tools are not good to have, but you have to recognize them for what they are.

I have another client who is a graphic designer. She was like everyone else in her industry. She liked to go into a meeting with a prospect with her portfolio in hand. I suggested that she go to her first meeting without anything. At first, she objected and couldn’t conceive of not having her beautiful work to show off.

After we discussed it, she agreed to try it. The prospect, who was checking out several graphic designers, asked her why she didn’t bring her portfolio. To which she replied, “I assume that anyone that you’re talking to is going to have a wonderful portfolio. When you look at them, do any of them really stand out?” To which the prospect replied, “No, they’re all good. But now that you mention it, they are similar in many ways.” To which my client replied, “I’ll be happy to show you my portfolio at another time, but really what I’m interested in is finding out more about you and what you want.”

After that, she was off and running, engaging the prospect with good questions and attentive listening. The end of the story is that she got the client and never even had to show her portfolio.

Like my graphic designer client, your sales will grow when you really engage in a meaningful conversation with your prospects without relying on your visual aids. The time and place for those will come.

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