| Right now on the Serengeti there is a gazelle running like the wind. Her blood is pumping in her veins. Her lungs are nearly exploding. She runs harder and faster with fear in her heart.
Why does she run?
She is being chased. The queen of the beasts is at her heels… a bloodthirsty lioness. She escapes as the lion takes down a different, less agile gazelle. She will live another day.
A few hours later, the gazelle finds herself grazing on the same plain not fifty feet from the very same lion and her entire pride. The lions lick their chops. They are stuffed and tired from the hunt. The gazelles are no longer afraid because the lion is no longer acting hungry.
I have found that most customers feel like that gazelle. They feel like they are being hunted, stalked, and eventually taken down. I guess that’s because sales people are taught to act hungry. Even marketing material: ads, brochures, mailers, web sites and the like are focused on “hunting” for easy prey.
Traditional selling and marketing is a manipulative process that is designed to get someone to buy regardless of whether or not they need to buy. Make no mistake, traditional marketing is about the pursuit – the hunter and the hunted. It’s about overcoming obstacles, circumventing roadblocks, and tricking or trapping your enemy.
What if you were able to break out of this traditional marketing trap? What if you were able to present your products and services in such a way that prospects and customers sought you out, rather than you chasing after them? How valuable would it be to your business if you could ATTRACT your ideal prospect without spending a fortune on advertising?
All marketers like to believe they have a unique solution. They are confident that they are different from the competition. When you get right down to it, however, most marketing says the exact SAME thing. It talks about what the company, product, or service DOES. At best, it may promise some generic group of benefits in which buyers MAY be interested. Even the best marketing materials (web sites, brochure, flyers, ads, radio or TV spots, promotions, interactive CDs or videos) attempt to communicate to the customer why their product, service or company is better than the competition. Few focus on the problems that the customer is having. This is at the core of the attraction mindset.
My advice to you is this:
- STOP acting hungry. The more you chase, the more they will run.
- Let your marketing materials educate, inspire and influence your customers and prospects rather than SELL them.
- Take a big step back when you approach prospects. This goes for creating marketing materials as well.
- Focus on the customers problems in your conversation as well as in your marketing communication. When we understand the customer’s problems, we can build a viable solution that is probably very different from your hungry competitors.
Taking this approach will allow you to build stronger relationships with clients and establish a brand that will be viral worthy and create a buzz in your industry. In short, the best way to have “all you can eat” is simply to not act so damn hungry.
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Have a great week!
I hope that this “Business Update” has been helpful in assisting you to improve the performance of your organization. For more information on how the Small Business Advisory Network assists companies in improving their performance, please feel free to contact us at 310-320-8190 or email mark@markdeo.com
Mark Deo
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