There are countless times I’ve sat in an executive or owners meeting where the team says they know their customers and what they want. Really? How do you know?
No matter what size your business is part of what you do involves hiring outside marketing services. You can’t put everyone on staff; it isn’t feasible on so many levels. There are certain jobs that you don’t need full time, but you do need their expertise. You want vendors who you can trust to take the load off, which means if their a nightmare to manage you chose wrong. Don’t make that mistake again.
There was a time when marketers had a bad reputation. They were seen as slimy, manipulative agents who tricked consumers into buying something the either didn’t want or that didn’t even come close to delivering what was advertised. That is changing. Why? Because your audience can sniff out your BS. And not only that, they will actively, aggressively and immediately jump on their technology to tell everyone else you are a swindler. Scared? You should be.
Your business isn’t run in a silo. In fact, your business lives within an ocean of possibilities–alongside of dangerous currents, sharks, El Nino, and so on. You wouldn’t believe what a simple lesson in surfing can teach you about how to ride a wave to a life of margaritas on the shore. This begins with a single statement from my surf coach Crash. Don’t let the name fool you.
Even though there are hundreds of thousands of ways to market your business, it doesn’t mean they are all right for you. Thank goodness, right? Because your marketing budget is not endless, and there isn’t enough time in the day for you, or your team, to do it all. The trick is figuring out how to make what you need to happen, happen.
Time goes screaming by faster and faster. What’s worse is there are more and more things piling up threatening to drown us. Sounds like a losing battle. Which it will be if we let it. We have to recognize the value of managing our day instead of just letting it steamroll us. Not taking the proverbial bull by the horns stripes away your ability to succeed.
Negative Side-effects of Poor Time Management leave you:
Shot from the hip marketing only gets you so far. Yes, you need to be nimble in order to take advantage of the wide range of marketing opportunities available to you today. However, you will always feel like you are running in circles if you do not have a marketing plan serving as your foundation to basic day to day marketing activities. Not only is this approach ineffective, it is also completely exhausting. Greatness rarely falls in one’s lap. The best of the best start with a plan.
Being a business leader is a full time job. In a small business or start up, you have some level of understanding in every discipline it takes to run that business: accounting,administration, human resources, sales, marketing, and so on. What most “manage” to do is focus on the most immediate need first or what one enjoys most, while the rest of what needs to get done suffers. If growing your business is a priority, you can not do this with sales or marketing.
Your business is clicking along. You have enough business that you are not in excruciating pain, but you aren’t living on easy street either. When you are in this place you are working extremely hard. You’ve set a good pace with a lingering concern about how long you can maintain it. This is wear I typically ask you, “Do you know where your sweet spot is for business growth?”
Being halfway through the year is just a fact of life, but how much closer are you to achieving your end of year goals? Do you even know?
If you are still sitting there trying to address these questions then chances are your current position over all is confusing. This is mostly because the goals you set at the beginning of the year had one or more of the following issues:
