Small Business Marketing Success: It’s All About Your Attitude

Small business marketing success can only be achieved when you are mentally prepared to be persistent and tenacious. Having a winning marketing attitude is the first step in creating a business that dominates your market and defeats all of your competitors.

What's your marketing attitude? Do you see yourself as confident winner or a cynical loser?

Most small businesses fail because of lack of sales brought on by a neglect of marketing. Typically, the business owner is wearing so many hats and battling endless problems that they push marketing aside until it is too late and they are hemorrhaging money. Marketing usually takes a back seat to employee problems, meeting payroll, dealing with vendors, satisfying customers, and fighting off competitors.

Unsuccessful business owners perceive marketing as an obstacle to be avoided rather the engine that drives the cash producing machine. Conversely, businesses that thrive for many years understand that marketing is the key to their success and that nothing else they do is more important. It's all about marketing attitude.

Here are six marketing attitudes that generate sales and lead to success:

1. A Belief in the Power of Marketing: Nothing else you will do in your daily activities will create sales and profits more than your marketing activities. Marketing is an investment that generates positive results, everything else creates costs.
2. Persistence and Tenacity: You must never give up and constantly market your business no matter what the market conditions or who the competition. Most small businesses owners quit because of a few of their marketing plays fail to produce. A never-give-up marketing attitude is a must.
3. A Systematic Approach: Successful marketing is a methodical process that requires strategic planning with defined goals and consistent execution with results that can be measured. Most businesses plan by tossing a coin to decide where and execute a single, one time marketing play. This approach never works.
4. Resiliency and Immunity to Failure: When you play the marketing game you will face failure. Not every sales letter, advertisement, or post card you send will get people to act in your favor. You must accept the failures and use them to adjust your approach until you win. Your favorite marketing phrase should always be - 'What's next?'
5. Relationships Matter: Successful small business marketing is the result of creating relationships with clients and customers built on trust. When they know you and like you they will buy from you without hesitation and not consider your competitor's offer.
6. A Winner's Mindset: Marketing is a game that is played on a tough battlefield with many worthy adversaries. Being shy and timid about letting your prospects know how you can solve their problems and improve their lives can be disastrous. A confident message with an aggressive approach is the only way to take on your competition and come out victorious with the sale.

Having the right attitude toward your small business marketing is the surest way to achieve the level of success you desire. It can mean the difference between you enjoying the thrill of victory or the bitter taste of defeat.

To learn more on how to create a winning marketing program with the right attitude, download a complimentary report "Six Fundamentals For Winning the Marketing Game." You can claim your free copy at www.TD-Marketing-System.com

To all your marketing victories,

Coach Ron

Do You Have What It Takes to Become a Champion Marketer?

The most successful businesses are typically the champion marketers in their industry. They’re the ones whose image and message that you just can’t escape. Everywhere you turn you are exposed to their marketing. They have mastered the marketing game so well that you could recite their jingle or tagline on the spot. Because of their mastery of the game, they are the most formidable competitors who intimidate others into doing nothing because of their shear presence in the marketplace. Yes, these companies have the knowledge, skill and techniques to play the marketing game.

The good news is that you always have the opportunity, and ability, to get in the game, dominate your competition and become a champion marketer! You can take on the “intimidator” in your market and defeat him on his turf.

All that is required of you is the dedication, the knowledge and courage to get in the marketing and compete at a high level. Most companies are always on the defensive because they stand on the sidelines and let the "intimidator" dictate the terms of the game.

As we discussed in my previous post, you must focus on the fundamentals to compete at a high level. It starts with having the capability and confidence to dominate your competition. No matter what stage of your company’s development, you must adopt a stance that you will do what it takes to reach the top and be a champion.

This requires a new mindset and shift in your thinking. about marketing and a realization that it is the most important function of your business.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in business for many years or you just took the leap and opened your new business, your attitude toward marketing will determine your level of success. Just look at what the New York Giants accomplished. They believed in themselves and were committed to becoming the champs. Small businesses must also adopt the mindset.

You must prepare to win, play hard and execute relentlessly. Now, get off your butt and get on the field and start playing the game like a champion.

Until next time, to all your marketing victories.

Coach Ron

Winning the Marketing Game Requires Mastering the Fundamentals

Every game has fundamentals that must be mastered to achieve a championship level. In baseball, it’s hit, throw, run, and catch. Basketball requires you to dribble, pass, shoot and rebound. The game of football demands you to run, throw, catch, block, tackle, and kick. Each game has its unique rules and playing philosophies.

Marketing your business is no different.

When you play without knowing the fundamentals you will quickly fumble away your chances of winning. Many small business owners fly by the seat of their pants when it comes to the marketing fundamentals. What they usually do is copy what their competition is doing!

This is the probably the worst idea they could possibly have. What if their competition is doing it wrong and getting terrible results? What if the competition is going after a totally different target market? What if the competition is pricing their product or service to cheaply to make money? Does soundly like a good approach, does it?

That’s where the fundamentals come in. You must focus your efforts on four different areas of marketing to win the game:

1. Market: Know your target market and what they want, need or desire

2. Message: Create a clear, consistent and compelling message

3. Media: Deliver the message through the media your target market prefers most

4. Relationships: Create, nurture and leverage relationships with your customer or clients

Each of these areas are totally dependent on the other and must be addressed to work. Typically, only one or two are addressed by the small business owner. They create a message and give little thought to what the market wants. Or, they discover a media method to deliver but fail to develop a compelling message that works (think internet websites).

Just like if you were playing for the Super Bowl title in football and didn’t know how to tackle, you wouldn’t have a chance of winning. No matter how well you ran or caught the ball you would lose the game because you lack this one key fundamental.

So as you play the marketing game remember these four fundamentals – market, message, media and relationships.

It’s because business owners and entrepreneurs are struggling to find qualified prospects and communicate a clear, simple offer to them…that leads to steady and repetitive sales. The owner is usually great at doing whatever it is he or she does but has absolutely no “marketing” skills. But…if they only knew how to market clearly, consistently, and relentlessly they would dominate their competition and not worry about how they are going to pay the bills!

What Would Your Business Look Like If You Had More Marketing Wins and Fewer Losses?

How many marketing wins did you record in the last 12 months? How many losses?

Are you even keeping score? Most businesses owners don’t. They only find out the score when it’s too late – when sales bottom out and profits dive into the red and they’re left scrambling.

Marketing is the ultimate game in business. Either you are playing the game and giving it maximum effort or you’re sitting on the sidelines watching your competitors score. Every competitive game has a scoring system to determine the winners from the losers. In the business world its how much profit your marketing generates!

The scoring system of the marketing game is simple: if your marketing generates more sales and profits than it costs to produce you earn a marketing win. If it doesn’t produce enough to cover expenses, it’s a marketing loss. Most business owners have no idea if their marketing is winning or losing. They make the mistake of running ads and promotions and hope one of them will eventually pay off. In the marketing game, hope is not a strategy!

Playing the game can be very aggravating. Your most clever and well planned marketing plays may fail miserably. But you cannot give up and quit playing the game. Every business, no matter their size or stature, experiences marketing losses – think of the infamous “New Coke” or the Edsel fiascoes.

Last time I checked, Coca-Cola and Ford are still in business and spending millions on marketing. Both learned from their mistakes, returned to the fundamentals and tried different direction. So must you!