A few years back, I was doing business with someone who was paying a boatload of money on a monthly retainer. There was nothing like cashing that check every single month.
Until that sneaky little gut feeling hit me.
I had no evidence that he was doing anything wrong. At the time, he wasn't. Just a bad, bad feeling.
So I terminated the contract.
Two years later, the guy is in some MASSIVE trouble with the law and burned a whole lot of people.
The lesson? Trust your gut.
Know When To Say No
In the state of Connecticut alone, there are more than 750,000 businesses. Now multiply that across every state and every country. And that's just for B2B businesses. Now think about the sheer volume of clients if you're B2C.
So why do we sell our soul?
It doesn't have to just be a sale of your soul when it comes to ethics.
Do you take on clients that are going to be a huge headache just to get the cash? What about clients that you know you'll never see eye to eye with?
Or here's one for you - how about clients that you know won't be able to get out of their own way... or those that fail to recognize that they have competition?
Real Life Rejection
A couple of months ago, we met with the owners of a soon-to-open coffee shop. They're single-source origin and have some grandiose plans for expansion, including franchising and a 501C3 that they support. They were ready to sign a check and get the marketing party started.
The challenge? They have a Starbucks and a Dunkin Donuts a half block away - and they don't consider this to be competition.
We thanked them and moved on.
How about a spa we worked with? HUGE destination location ... struggling to be relevant in 2014. They insisted that social media should be used to SELL, SELL, SELL. We disagreed. They also thought it was ok to swear at customers.
We thanked them and moved on.
How To Market Your Business
What do you need to be able to succeed in marketing? We insist that our clients be able to answer these questions.
1. Who are you and what is your unique selling proposition?
2. Why would someone use you over your competition?
3. Who is your competition and why are you better than them?
Once these questions are answered, we can move on to begin developing and executing a marketing strategy for the businesses we work with. Until they can answer them... there's only so much we can do to help.
What about you? Can you answer these three questions - and do you have what it takes to be a part of the 10% that crush it with your marketing?
Comments(14)