Risk & Business Magazine Cain Insurance Fall 2019 | Page 13

SELLING/MARKETING
"THE TYPES OF MARKETING THAT WORK BEST
ARE A COMBINATION OF RESULTS-ORIENTED
DIRECT MARKETING AND LOW-COST OR NO-COST
VISIBILITY-ENHANCING PUBLICITY TECHNIQUES."
W
hen things get slow,
increase the amount
of time you spend
on marketing and
prospecting for new
business. If you usually devote 10 percent
of your time and energy to marketing
and prospecting when things are fairly
busy, you might increase this to 50
percent 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 visibility-enhancing
publicity techniques (press releases,
articles, speeches, booklets, seminars,
newsletters, radio and TV interviews).
Never try to replace the more labour-
intensive 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 — a nd 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 +
Best-selling Author, TV and Radio
personality and Self made Entrepreneur
and American Patriot Warrior for the
Middle Class, Grant Cardone works with
Fortune 100 companies customizing
sales processes and improving customer
experiences. His clients include Google,
Morgan Stanley, Ford, Chrysler, Aflac,
Sprint, WellsFargo, Allstate, StateFarm
and more.
GrantCardone.com
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