• How Long Till Marketing Works?

  • Whatever you do, don’t hold your breath while waiting for marketing to take affect. Instead, hold your horses because it’s not gonna happen instantly. How long does it take for a prospect to become a customer? Well, let’s first look into the chemistry of prospects. Prospects are like you except that they’re probably doing business with one of your competitors. Fortunately for you, that competitor most likely doesn’t know the full meaning of follow-up, with the result that most customers feel ignored after the sale.

    These are among your hottest prospects. They already do business with a company such as yours and may be disenchanted because they’ve been left alone after making their purchase. That’s why guerrillas identify their best prospects and then begin the courtship process. It is a courtship and it is a process. Armed with that insight, you can transform them into customers.

    Most business owners contact prospects once or twice, and if they don’t show an interest, the business owners move on to the non-existent Land of Instant Gratification. Guerrillas continue romancing those they are courting. Eventually, those prospects feel so cared for, so important, so attended to, that they switch over and begin to patronize the guerrilla who never stops courting.

    How long does it take until this happen? It could happen in a year, a month, even a week or less if the prospects are in the market right now and neglected by their former supplier. But it probably won’t happen soon and it most assuredly won’t happen if you ignore them after contacting them once or twice.

    Remember that prospects have minds that are more open than you think. Allegiances that are lost every day; allegiances gained every day. The guerrilla marketers don’t lose them because they recognize the slow motion process of gaining them. When they speak to prospects, whether in person or through one of the venues of marketing, they do not talk about their businesses or their industries. They talk about the prospects themselves – which is the topic most on the mind of prospects and one that ceaselessly interests them. When guerrillas can talk about the problems facing prospects, they gain even more attention.

    And when they talk about solutions to these problems, they still see things from the prospects’ points of view and talk from that mindset. As weeds are flowers whose beauty has not yet been discovered, prospects are customers who have not yet realized all that you can offer them.

    Give them time. Give them information. Give them attention. While you’re waiting, walk a mile in their shoes so you can be better prepared to talk to them about how their feet feel.

    Article by Jay Conrad Levinson. He is the author of one of the best-selling marketing series in history, Guerrilla Marketing.

    Marketing Tip of the Month
    Marketing is not a magic potion. It’s not something that can simply be poured and wonderful things happen. It is something that needs to be worked. It is something that needs to be pursued. It is something that needs to be scrutinized, reviewed, re-worked. It is analytical and can guarantee success only if pursued seriously.

    Marketing works because it is well thought out, tested and re-tested, tracked and evaluated. It is put together with a specific goal in mind, not a bunch of ad hoc tactics thrown at a wall in the hope that something will stick.

    Marketing IS NOT about spending tons of money. It is about spending the right amount of money on the right things. It is about building a plan and implementing campaigns that are right for the business. Very often, through the type of Guerilla tactics that Jay talks about, many of which are FREE.

    It’s about SMART MARKETING. Building a foundation of knowledge and information; layering SMART tactics one on top of the other, and ensuring that you invest the right amount of resources (time, energy, money etc.) into your marketing effort.

    Sometimes you may not have the right people that can help you build your marketing plan. In that situation – get help. Don’t do it “by the seat of your pants” – unless you plan it properly, AND execute efficiently, your odds of success are very low. Get a marketing coach if necessary. Some companies have embraced outsourcing as a solution. Others have employed internal marketers. For those that haven’t dealt satisfactorily with this challenge, they should be looking to hire a marketing coach that can help to educate, guide, and help to plan the companies marketing with owners/managers.

    What benefits does coaching bring to the business?

      • Prevents owners/managers from stumbling around in the dark.
      • Have someone to confide in, and someone that can help them to make more knowledgeable marketing and business decisions.
      • Use someone else’s experience to help speed up decisions and implementation
      • Have someone encourage you through the (unfamiliar) marketing process
      • Have someone help you stay focused on the important marketing tasks at hand. While this can keep your marketing activities moving, the coach can help you avoid the pitfalls as well

    So have an open mind to find the solution that works for you. Don’t let the status quo remain – if you do you could find everyone else passing you by.

    For further information you can contact me at 905-886-2235, or email: neville@mastermindsolutions.ca

    Click here to find out where to begin with your marketing

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