Which Marketing Plans Are a Waste?

No matter what stage you are in with your business, you’ll need marketing to sustain and grow.  If you’re thinking about throwing some money into your efforts, you’ll need to figure out how to avoid sinkholes of cash and time.  Everyone is trying to sell you something, but is it worth buying?

Remember: Salespeople Are There to Sell You Stuff

When you get that (often) unsolicited call from someone trying to sell you a way to market your business, remember they are trying to sell you something.  They might have fancy titles with words like “consultant” or “engineer”, but they work for the company they represent, not you.

They’ll tell you how they’re there to grow businesses and help you make money, but that’s just the alleged benefit to what they’re selling.  They aren’t being deceitful as they do want to help your business, but that help is limited to the menu of products their employer offers.  As I often tell clients, “Don’t expect a Chevy dealer to tell you the best car for you is a Ford.”

Some companies represent such a diverse array of products you might think the representatives are there to help you.  They aren’t.  They are there to represent the company.  Whatever statistics, surveys, or “unbiased” reports they may show you, remember they are trying to prove a point.  Otherwise, why would you be getting a copy of it?

So when you evaluate anything a salesperson has to sell, remember the bias is to make money for them, not for you.  You making money is just a byproduct of their efforts.

Is It Too Simple, Or Too Lucrative?

Making money isn’t easy.  If it were easy, everyone would have it.  If everyone had it, then the currency loses its value!  Lots of companies marketing to computer repair businesses and managed services providers have one of these types of “clickbait” style programs like “follow my program and make millions in 3 easy steps” or “double, triple, quadruple your income in 30 days.”  When I’m snarky I’ll ask them “Why stop at a million?” or “Thirty days?  Why not 29.”  They don’t know how to respond to that because it’s a logical question.

These tactics annoy me because they deny the fact that growing your business requires effort, skill and occasionally a little bit of luck. Are all of us that don’t do it in 30 days or 3 steps chumps? If it were that amazing of a program, word would get out quickly and everyone would join it.  The program would be “leaked”, copied, and distributed to everyone.  We’d all be making those millions overnight and in just 30 days.

Best of all, if it was truly so amazing, your competitors would join the system and then you’d be going head to head for clients.  The only person who would come out ahead in that was the consultant who sold both of you the same program!

Exclusivity and Scarcity

The marketing consultants will challenge that last point I made.  They’ll say things in the presentations like “we’ve only got three slots open for the next 7 days” or “join now to lock your competitors out.”  The one I hate the most is “the next four people to join get our platinum package worth ten times the price you’re paying.”  Yawn.

Even though you think you might not fall for these tactics, think again.  I’ve seen it in action.  They’ll draw you in with a story about how, until they found the program, they were a failure.  Then they came up with this idea in some personal or religious epiphany and now they feel like they have to share it with you.  For a price.

Pressure and Manipulation

Just like tech support scammers, marketing people know the tricks of the trade.  The more they get you to stop thinking logically, the more they’ll hook you.  These systems don’t want you to use logic, they want you to use emotion.  The most powerful tools rely on our human nature to be polite and not to miss out.

At a sales seminar, the speaker will ask you to do things like raise your hand, stand up, or say yes.  The entire group is doing it, why don’t you want to join along.  Phrases like “who wants to grow their business?” and “who likes making money?”  The more they get you to agree with them on the small stuff, the easier they can move you into agreeing to buy the product or service.

Deception

Some sales calls or seminars aren’t even labeled as such. A company might invite you to a free marketing seminar or to discuss a report about your business.  Once you’ve agreed to the invitation, you’re agreeing to be sold to.

You’ll also hear testimonials of successful people.  Often times people will be planted in the audience to create small talk with you and convince you of such a great deal.  I remember in a recent seminar I started checking Facebook and realized the person next to me works for the speaker.  I congratulated him on his sales strategy and continued tuning out.

Once all these tactics are combined, you’ve moved from mere interest in the product to a compelling demand to act now.  It’s hard to resist.  You went in thinking this was a conference on word of mouth marketing and now you’re signing a three-year advertising deal.  Stop.

Beware Games and Tactics

Although the person “planted” in the audience was pretty tricky, true testimonials aren’t a bad thing.  However, the more games they use to sell the product, the more you should be skeptical of the claims.

None of these tactics are wrong on their own.  Any of them can be helpful when used in moderation. We’ve even suggested some in this marketing guide.  Also just because they engage in all of these tactics doesn’t mean you should reject them. The product may be awesome and just represented by a bad sales approach.  The key is to recognize you are being manipulated and to adjust your response based on it.

How to Evaluate If It’s Right For You

After you realize the bias and games of the salesperson, you might still be interested in the product or idea.  Many businesses advertise and salespeople say their product is best, but how do you know?

Step 1:  Were Your Already Interested In This?

If you hadn’t been solicited, would you have eventually contacted the company?  A good salesperson creates a need or taps into a universal one (making money, increasing sales) and then fulfills that need.  Was that need a priority before?  Were you actively searching? That active search might have initiated a sales call.

However if you aren’t interested, just table the the search.  Ignore the tactic of limited time offers.  The product will always be there.  Even if it’s on sale, it’s better to make an informed decision and pay more than waste money.  Most likely another similar offer will be available when you’re ready.  If not, they probably have competitors that will match the offer.

Step 2:  Have you evaluated competitors?

No matter what the product or service is (and despite what salespeople say), there is always a competitor.  It might not be direct head on competitor like Dell or HP, but close enough you can evaluate the goals.

Once you decide that you want to sign up for a program, critically evaluate it compared to the competition.  Most companies will have a checklist saying why they are better than everyone else, often doing a head-on comparison.  That’s an easy way to see who they’re competing against.  Don’t use the provided checklist from a vendor because it will always be skewed to show them being best.  Instead create your own list.

Step 3:  Ask Around

Most companies will use success stories to show why they are the best and some will even provide you references.  Use that information and contact the customer listed in the testimonial.  If they’re truly happy, they’d be delighted to tell others.  Obviously if a testimonial by the vendor doesn’t match your research, that’s a huge red flag.  Ask the customer if they are still happy with the service along with their experience with other companies in the field.

Don’t forget the Technibble Forums!  Always search to see if the question has been asked before.  If it has, you can post a follow up question or contact members directly.

Grow Your Business on Your Own Terms

Ultimately your success and how you define that success  is dependent on you.  Nobody cares more about your business than you.  Similarly, marketing companies have their best interest in mind.

They focus on their success while you should be focused on yours. Don’t let them set your agenda and goals. First determine what you want and then find vendors to fit that need, not the other way around.

Written by Dave Greenbaum