Why are you standing on two legs?
by Andrew Shedden
If you had a few spare days in your busy schedule and spent this time looking at the promotional and business-generating methods used by 500 companies in your industry you would make a truly amazing discovery…nearly everyone within your industry is using exactly the same promotional tactics.
What if you were a little pressed for time and restricted your search activities to how the top ten businesses went about acquiring their customers? Same sameness, you would see that even the top ten players promote in virtually the same way.
Whenever we offer our marketing services to companies we always begin by asking questions. This is always the most effective way of selling the correct solution. There is, however, one glaring exception to this rule that makes a mockery of time spent asking probing questions.
Because we don't like to waste time there's not much sense in us asking companies about their prospecting and promotional practices. In fact, nine times out of ten we already know the answer.
Here, for you, today only, is an example of the amazing psychic powers of the great, magnificent, mysterious, "Broadfield of Bridgenorth." Let's assume you are running a manufacturing business. Our fabulous psychic abilities tell us that your promotional activities are probably limited to the following:
You go to trade shows and hand out brochures
You may or may not follow up by phone the leads you have collected
You throw the odd institutional advertisement into a trade publication
You have a listing in a few of the trade directories
You periodically send out a company brochure
You lament the fact that your business growth is incremental, at best.
Not too bad a prediction, eh?
It can be argued that the reason that these methods are being used is because they work. If you are using "industry standard" prospecting techniques you can look forward to enjoying "industry standard" results. Is that what you really want for your business? It could also be argued that all you really need for word processing is a typewriter. True, but only partially true. A typewriter will turn out a perfectly good document, but after using Word or WordPerfect would you really go back to using a typewriter?
When prospects think of widgets your widgets must be at the top of their minds. The only way this will ever happen is if you have clearly differentiated your business. When you use the traditional and typical promotional methods of the "middling majority" you do nothing to differentiate your business from your competition in the minds of your prospects. You are greatly reducing your chances of increased success and are seriously limiting your growth.
Consider that there are many other productive methods being used in other industries that you can adopt and adapt for your own use. To use an overworked cliché, if they zig you zag. If your major competitors telemarket to find new prospects, then you should use sales letters. If they use sales letters consider using postcards. If your competitors are spending a fortune on useless (and expensive) image building advertising you can use the two-step approach with classified ads costing a tenth as much. While your competitors pride themselves on being "lone wolves" you can methodically create joint ventures.
Question:
Here is a small sampling of promotional activities being practiced in other industries. How many of the following business generation activities could you be practicing in your business?
Trade Shows
Telemarketing
Sales Letters
Post Cards
Free Reports
Newsletters
Two-step Advertising
Seminars and Workshops
Referral Programs
Joint Venture Programs
Risk Reversal
Cross Selling
Upselling
Internal Database Promotions
Internet Promotional Activities
Answer: All of them.
The fact is that if you aren't standing on at least five promotional "legs" you are standing on sand. You need to grow some new legs, fast. There is another major benefit to adopting several different strategies. If one area isn't yielding the type of results you are after you can lessen your reliance on it or eliminate it entirely. Just like old Colonel Sanders used to say, "The more legs the better."
There's an old saying that if you aren't testing you aren't marketing. Spend some time coming up with new promotional activities, test them for a month, record you results, change some aspects, try again, keep or discard as necessary. It really is so simple and so few people do it. Start adopting and adapting today. What are you waiting for?
