Biggest Mistake Most Business Owners Make
Business owners, when wanting to make more sales and more money, always decide that they need to call the Yellow Pages sales rep, or the Radio sales rep, or a web designer. They assume that they just need to advertise and the world will beat a path to their door. The problem is, the sales reps and the web designers know nothing of marketing. They have their ideas of what you need and it is the same thing they are giving everybody else. The trouble is, it’s a waste of money.
Don’t let salespeople run your business, destroy your brand and waste your money! Salespeople are not marketers and they are not qualified to act as one.
Ask any Yellow Pages sales rep what makes one ad better than the next and they will tell you:
- 4 color processing
- Being the first ad in the category.
You may be thinking, “That’s it?!?!”
YES! That’s all they got. Some of what they say is true, but the only reason it works is because people call the first ad in the phonebook 95% of the time and the second 87% of the time.
The Yellow Page companies order the ads based on your contract sign date. That’s why all the advertisers are clamoring to purchase their 2 page ads (double-trucks) for next year as soon as possible after this years’ book comes out.
Radio reps, and outdoor advertising reps are essentially the same. If you have cash to waste, they have a place to spend it. All sales reps that sell marketing tactics like the above are just giving you what everyone else has. If you don’t believe me, just pick any category and look through the phone book at all the ads. I’ll bet you $100 they all look the same and say essentially the same thing.
Website designers are not marketers either
Web designers may talk about search engines and pay-per-click but the sad truth is, these are just marketing tactics as well. Unless they are utilized properly, all tactics are just money pits.
Just like the Yellow Pages rep, the Radio rep and the Outdoor advertising rep, web designers are selling you what they think you need based upon looking at everyone else’s advertising.
If you advertise like everyone else does, how will you stand apart from the crowd? If your business looks like everyone else’s, why would a customer choose you?
Leaders take over their markets, followers fight for scraps
Did you go into business to have something to do? Or did you go into business to make money? If you want to make money, you need an advantage. You need to know who your customers are, where they hang out and what to say to them to get them to buy from you. You need to know how your business is different than your competition and it must be obvious to the marketplace. If you can do this, then everyone in your market who has a need for your product or service will choose you over your competition the vast majority of the time regardless of price.
