SALES & MARKETING
You Aren’t Selling
Because You Aren’t
Marketing
BY: GRANT CARDONE
When things get slow, increase the
amount of time you spend on marketing
and prospecting for new business. If you
usually devote 10% of your time and
energy to marketing and prospecting
when things are fairly busy, you might
increase this to 50% when things are
slow. It’s easy to find yourself doing little
more than being worried, scared, and
unproductive when sales aren’t coming
in. When things tighten up you must be
more disciplined, structured, and
constructive with the time you have.
Here are two ways to start selling your
products again:
1. CREATE NEW PROBLEMS:
Attack every aspect of your marketing
platform with massive action and energy.
Massive is defined in the dictionary
as “large in comparison with what is
typical.” My own personal definition is,
“that amount of action that will create
new problems for yourself and your
company.”
Yes, you read that right. You want to
create new problems. Most people stop
short of this approach; in fact, they
usually try to avoid all problems, just to
end up with the same old boring
recurring situations that they have had
for years. They then end up with dull,
familiar problems instead of adventurous
and positive problems. Massive is critical
to making your marketing efforts
effective.
2. GET CREATIVE:
In addition to traditional approaches,
research and employ creative ways to
make your organization more widely
known. Don’t think of marketing in
terms of just costing money since a
lot of efforts can be made without any
budget just by utilizing your energy.
The types of marketing that work best
are a combination of results-oriented
direct marketing (direct-response print
ads, sales letters, self-mailers, special
offers) and low-cost or no-cost visibilityenhancing
publicity techniques (press
releases, articles, speeches, booklets,
seminars, newsletters, radio and TV
interviews).
Never try to replace the more laborintensive
marketing efforts with
traditional paid advertising. A lull in
business requires that you expend extra
effort to attract clients, follow up on
leads, and stay in contact with and
extend your power base.
While you can accomplish this through
traditional advertising, utilize activities
that don’t cost any money: phone calls,
personal visits, mail, e-mails, fliers,
social networking on the Internet, church
activities, newsletters, seminars,
briefings, “good news” newsletters,
instructional videos, community
involvement, magazine writing, taking
on a public office, speaking at Rotary
clubs, coaching your kid’s soccer
team — and so on. These methods build
goodwill, get you better known, and cost
nothing but your time and energy!
Whatever you do, be sure you stick with
it. Take action consistently and
aggressively during every day, week, and
month throughout the year. You must
commit to a marketing program
throughout the year — not just when you
need the business — in order for any one
of these initiatives to work. Whether it’s
a traditional advertisement or some of
the other marketing strategies already
mentioned, make sure you can stay with
it because all marketing takes some time
to get traction.
I look at how much it will cost to run that
program over the course of a year, not a
week or month. While this technique
ensures a steady stream of new business
contacts in the future, it isn’t guaranteed
to reap immediate results. The promotion
you conduct today sets in motion a
selling cycle that will result in new
business when you need it six months
into the future.
You have to aggressively and effectively
learn to market. It’s about investing
energy. Remember that no economy, no
matter how bad, can hold down a goal
that is followed by enough action.
Hope that helps,
Grant.
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