FOCUS ON 3 KEY ACTIVITIES TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS!
When you boil it right down, there are really only three things that you need to do exceedingly well to market your business effectively - 1) Obtain an Opportunity to Sell - Lead generation, driving traffic to your store or web site or call centre, gaining appointments, etc.; 2) Close the Sale - The sales presentation, sales letter, retail sales opportunity, online sales copy and order page etc.; and 3) Follow-up on Your Maybes with a call, opt-in email, offline newsletter, mailing list etc.
Mastering all three of these activities are critically important to your success.
Apples and Airplanes!
Think of your business market as an orchard, with some ripe and ready to pick red delicious apples, and many more green ones, not quite ready for picking. Pick the ripe ones yes, but be sure to irrigate and fertilize the soil, prune and bug spray the trees with care, and nurture the green fruit along.
OK - now back to business - when you’re starting a new venture, which one do you master first? The overwhelming tendency is to start at the beginning. That is, spending maximum time and effort attracting traffic. Unfortunately, this all to common approach often results in failure. Often, those that go this route never really get off the ground, because they can’t turn a profit. They invariably discover, after spending a ton of cash, that some of the estimates they made in their business plan were off the mark.
Speaking of getting off the ground, let’s look to the story of Orville and Wilbur Wright to illustrate this point. As you know, the Wright Brothers went down in history as the first human beings to really fly. But how many people remember Dr. Samuel Pierpont Langley?
In 1896 the Wright Brothers, and Langley were engaged in a fierce competition. Who would be first to conquer the skies? Langley, a distinguished scholar and secretary of the Smithsonian institute was the clear favorite. He had already achieved impressive unmanned flight over the Potomac River with his steam powered Aerodrome No. 6. Based on this success, Langley was able to raise $100,000 in funding, and set out to develop an extraordinary radial-cylinder internal combustion engine that would produce an astonishing 52 horsepower. In his estimation, capable of powering an aerodrome large enough for manned flight.
The Wright Brothers, by contrast were convinced that the secret to success lay in their ability to control the aircraft, once in flight. They therefore spent their time experimenting with gliders over the forgiving sands of Kitty Hawk. For several seasons they worked on manipulating the wings, nose, and tail of the aircraft, so as to allow the operator to actively control it. Wilbur, who most often piloted, suffered a multitude of minor cuts and bruises. But on each successive trial, much was learned.
On October 7, 1903, it looked like the Wright’s had lost, as Langley made ready his first manned launch. Langley’s plane would go from a dead stop to the 60 m.p.h. flying speed in only 70 feet. But the stress of the catapult launch proved greater than the flimsy wood-and-fabric airplane could stand, and the front wing was badly damaged on take off. The nose heavy Aerodrome ‘A’ then plunged into the Potomac. A reporter who witnessed the event claimed it flew ‘like a handful of mortar’. Things went even worse during the second launch of December 9, 1903, where the rear wing and tail completely collapsed during launch. Langley had succeeded in burning through almost all of his $100,000 in capital.
Just 8 days after Langley’s spectacular failure, a sturdy, well designed craft, powered by a tiny 8 horse power engine, costing about $1,000, struggled into the air at Kitty Hawk, defining for all time the moment when humankind, mastered the skies.
Langley died in 1906 after a series of strokes, a broken and disappointed man. So what in the world does airplanes have to do with marketing your business? The moral of the story is this.
Test, test, and retest your prime value proposition to be sure it converts customers, BEFORE committing yourself to major capital outlays, and the start of your campaign. Will your site, or sales presentation, or direct mail piece convert a high enough percentage of prospects into customers to make it profitable? Like the Wright brothers, who focused on control, versus brute force, you will dramatically improve your chances of success, if you make the development of a persuasive, and compelling closing pitch, your number 1 priority.
Don’t even consider launching your production campaigns until you have developed and tested your closing pitch. Then, and only then are you ready to BRING ON THE TRAFFIC! It’s all about your ability to control, influence and motivate the minds of your prospects, once you’ve attracted them to your place of business. Just the way the Wright brothers were able to manipulate the wings, rudder, and nose of the aircraft.
DAILY PRAYER
Lord, help us to focus on the basics, and to learn from seemingly distant and unrelated examples, when marketing our business. May we be ever alert to the people, resources and living examples you bring across our path. In Jesus name, Amen.
Master the fundamentals and then test your solutions - before you expend massive time and money. This will save you much blood, sweat and tears - and perhaps even save your business!