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Marketing of the Self-Absorbed
He told me you had to be there to fully appreciate it. There he was in front of a prospect who had two marketing proposals on the desk in front of her. One was his humble proposal, the other was from a huge “marketing” firm we’ll call “Kong Advertising.”
For sake preserving reputations, we’ll call my colleague “David” and his prospective client “Fay.”
Now Kong Advertising was a small business’ worst nightmare to compete against: they were bigger, made more money, had a larger staff – you get the picture.
Their presentation had my friend David scrabbling for his goatskin slingshot.
On the one hand Fay has this glossy, embossed proposal from Kong Advertising – 25 pages thick. Twenty-five pages of chest-thumping about the number of years Kong had been in business — their great quality service, high profile clientele, and how great the company is on the whole.
And on the other hand, David’s marketing proposal was three pages long. On more . . . inexpensive stock. Much more inexpensive stock.
Are you surprised that his little $1M company won the bid from his larger competitor? Probably. Many people are . . . and that surprises me.
Why? Because most companies market the way our fictitious Kong Advertising does – a lot of noise and chest-beating about them, while failing to give compelling reasons to pick their company over the herd of others.
My colleague’s winning proposal was three pages long, and all it talked about were the benefits Fay and her company would receive by doing business with him. His proposal focused on how his strategies and techniques would help her company grow, and defined the process of developing a strategic marketing position to set her company apart from the competition, and creating prospects hungry to buy.
Additionally, he guaranteed her satisfaction, and educated her on the costly marketing mistakes to avoid when putting together a campaign.
And that my friends is great marketing, and why he won the bid.
Is your business like a huge dinosaur shot through the head – already dead, but the signals haven’t yet reached the rest of the body?
If your marketing hinges on telling people about how great your company is, then your message is simply not compelling enough and that is hurting your sales.
Now maybe you’ve noticed, and maybe you haven’t. Maybe you’re succeeding in spite of your marketing. If that’s the case, then it’s simply a matter of time now before the rest of the dinosaur registers that the brain is no longer working.
So, while I may have painted a pretty bleak picture here, I would never illustrate a problem without giving you some great solutions, because the lights just went on for more than a few of you out there caught in the death throes of your prehistoric beast.
Here’s what you do — take the following three steps and you will hit the ground running and eat your competition for lunch.
- 1. Like it was yesterday – determine and address your clients’ needs. What? You don’t know them?! Then find out.
- Right now – take your clients’ needs and develop a compelling, cliché-free set of reasons why people should do business with you. Create a message sparking an emotional response that captures and leads their imagination. If you get stuck, ask people why they do business with you.
- Immediately – integrate your compelling message into all your marketing. All of it. It’s the integral backbone of your website, ads, letters, signs and what you and your staff say to everyone you meet.
If you do all of this immediately, you could find the “I’m alive!” signal beating the signal to your dinosaur’s tail.
Get it? Got it? Good!
By Walter |
Topics: Client Top Secret, From The Trenches |