I receive lots of Emails, LinkedIn messages and Telephone calls to my business with offers of Marketing, Lead Generation and Client Attraction services...
Every day I have the opportunity to learn "cutting edge" (whatever that means..) techniques to transform my business and have prospects fighting to get at me, my team and the services we offer...
So today I thought I'd share an idea; an idea that is so contrary to contemporary thinking that it will shake the Marketing Guru's to their core...
So today I thought I'd share an idea; an idea that is so contrary to contemporary thinking that it will shake the Marketing Guru's to their core...
Stop Marketing...!
It is expensive, it rarely works and the only people who make any money are those selling Marketing services...
There - said it - I feel much better now..
Imagine of you couldn't advertise on Social Media, send Emails, Direct Mail, Lumpy Mail or In Mail.
If you couldn't do any Networking, Advertising or have a Web Page; in fact you couldn't even have a sign above your door, or a business card to your name...
What would you do...?
Most people would run, get a job or simply panic - new prospects are the lifeblood of a business, how can you build a business if you can't do any marketing...?
It's impossible, you can't do it everyone says so - there are lots of books that say...
Actually not...
There is simple Marketing Strategy that is the most powerful one known to humanity, it is not the easiest nor is it the quickest, but it is FREE and it works for ever, like a perpetual motion machine...
What is it...?
It's called...
Being Amazing...
If you had to be so good at what you do, so unique and special that no one else could replicate it; and the service and value you deliver was of the highest order...
You would become a "scarce resource" in your sector...
Being truly scarce has a number of benefits...
- The value of scarce resources goes up - people want what they can't have and therefore demand outstrips supply and your prices and margins increase accordingly.
- Zero Marketing - people will hunt you down and seek you out. You will be so amazing that you'll have to ration what you do rather than sell it.
- Reputation - will spread. Others will do the marketing for you, word of moth, referrals and introductions will flow toward you.
- Focus - your focus can be 100% service, value and quality; the more you do and the better you get, the mores scarce you'll become and the more interest you'll generate.
Being good at Marketing covers over the cracks of a=n average product or service; if you get plenty of leads, you don't need to be World Class because if the client leaves, you'll get another one to arrive soon anyway...
Marketing makes people lazy and complacent; it doesn't encourage excellence, it encourages Gloss and Spin, it encourages transient customers and relationships and like any drug; once you get hooked it's tough to stop..
Marketing makes people lazy and complacent; it doesn't encourage excellence, it encourages Gloss and Spin, it encourages transient customers and relationships and like any drug; once you get hooked it's tough to stop..
But there is a way...
First, if you are marketing right now don't stop...
Second - define how great your product or service would have to be so that you would be forced to ration it because it was in demand..
Think of Morgan Cars, Lancome's Dream Tone Serum and In-n-Out Burger...
The Ivy Restaurant in London famously has a waiting list of up to 6 months; unless your Johnny Depp or Angelina Jolie of course...
Make your service so amazing that people will write to thank you, they will bring their first sons to work with you and line up outside in the hope they may be fortunate enough to buy from you...
Be so amazing that messages about you go viral, you are spoken about in hushed voices in coffee shops and restaurants; be so attractive that even without any marketing, people will spend time doing research to track you down...
Be the company that everyone has heard of, but only a few have experienced...
This is how your Marketing is Killing your business - it's making you and your team complacent; you know that being mediocre is OK because you can always find another sucker to come and buy from you...
But what if you couldn't - then you'd have no choice but to be truly amazing...
Now- it is somewhat paradoxical that I am writing a Blog on a social media page about not writing content on social media pages; the irony is not lost on me...
However, by way of making up...
You cannot speak with me until September, I don't have the space for any extra clients now...
There are no contact details at the base of this post, if you want to get in touch or come to one of our events, you'll have to track me down..
There are no contact details at the base of this post, if you want to get in touch or come to one of our events, you'll have to track me down..
You probably can't afford it and wouldn't qualify anyway...
If you insist on speaking with me - you'll have to make a £250.00 donation to a charity of my choice, meet me at a location of my choosing, and your buying the drinks...
And - no I don't give any Guarantees either...
And - no I don't give any Guarantees either...
Great post, Dave and timely. This is why, after a years of examining it thoroughly, I think Multi Level Marketing is such a beautiful model. Whoa, hold on, pull back on that initial scepticism... At least just for a moment (and yes, I readily accept that some companies do it far better than others.) But what you're talking about Dave, is the exact definition of network marketing, and what a shame it is that it is a simple concept so very badly misunderstood, knowingly discredited, and in some cases, calculatingly vilified.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm not promoting any one company here, nor is this an uninvited 'plug' for any particular organisation. But as you say in your article, any right-minded business owner should reap the benefit of personal recommendations about their product or service from genuinely satisfied customers who then pass on their great experience to others. And it makes so much plain, honest sense in this 'new' social-centric and evermore connected world that we live in, it now threatens the fabric of the world the big commercial giants have been allowed to dictate to and control.
The people of the revolution would seem to be mustering outside the gates of the Multi National Corporations... Multi Level Marketing as a sector annually outsells the gaming industry, the movie industry and the music industry combined (just reflect on that a moment) and it continues to grow exponential year-on-year. And so it continues to increasingly encroach and irritate, like a thorn in the side of confounded and frustrated 'big, traditional business', that millions of ordinary people are moving away from the emotional manipulation of clever marketing agencies, sustained by massive advertising budgets, (that the consumers themselves end up paying for), and instead judge for themselves, and trust their own experience and the recommendations of people they know, like and trust.
It's a heady, honest approach. Which is why, I suspect, it is so vigorously rubbished by those who you would otherwise think had better commercial sense.
Welcome to the gentle, but powerful, revolution.