In business, the root of success and failure can often be very complex. However, when you break down marketing successes and failures, there are only 2 reasons a service-based business is not having desired success.
1) You have the wrong people implementing the strategy
2) You just have the wrong strategy
More often than not we are wasting time and resources fixing the wrong problems.
The wrong people implementing the strategy. Sometimes, you have to look toward your team to determine why your strategy is ineffective. Where are the holes in your process? Do you have a system in place for carrying out the various elements of your strategy? I received a call from a financial advisor last month with a “strategy” issue about the public workshops he was hosting. He had people attending his workshop, he received high evaluations on the presentation, and 75% said they would like more information or a meeting. However, very few ever turned into an appointment or sale. He was convinced that the wrong people were attending, and considering discontinuing the seminars. Crazy enough, after talking with his staff, the real problem was right in front of him. His 2 staff people responsible for scheduling appointments were swamped with their day-to-day work and didn’t begin calling to schedule appointments until almost 1 week after the event. By that time there is no doubt the interest had waned. Conclusion: People problem. We don’t have the results in yet, but he mandated before his workshop last week that his staff schedule appointments at the event or the day after at the latest. He now has a full schedule of appointments for this week and next – already a big improvement!
The wrong strategy. Sometimes, no matter how many times you tweak your strategy, it is the strategy itself that is not working. It’s time to simply try something new. We often spend countless hours modifying something that will never work properly. In another case an advisor was sending out a regularly scheduled email newsletter. The content was well written, but he felt like nothing was happening since he started sending out the email newsletter 6 months earlier – no comments, calls, appointments, etc. After he took a look at the analytics on who was opening his email newsletter, it became clear that very few people were even opening his newsletter called “Retirement Talk.” Turns out, a majority of his email list was comprised of business owners and executives. They obviously weren’t seeing themselves in retirement just yet, and so weren’t even opening his email. He then selected a different email newsletter from his provider that he called “Financial Smarts… for Entrepreneurs and Professionals” and his open rate doubled and continues to go up. Conclusions: Strategy problem.
You may be thinking that these issues are obvious to pinpoint. And they are. But they happen ALL THE TIME! So, try taking a look at your marketing problems in a simpler way. The answer is often right in front of you.
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