The Boring Bits of Marketing
We all love to talk wild ideas…then we get to the part where I start boring the clients.
Boring Bit #1: Great idea! Do you have a budget? Do you know how you can get the necessary dollars? Can you/should you you allocate budget from somewhere else? If so, what effect will that have on on the overall business? (Example of what not to do: Spending big bucks on a killer salesperson and aggressive direct marketing…when you’re short at least three software developers to finish the product.)
Boring Bit #2: Okay, you can get the dollars, who’s going to make it happen? (Tip: This shouldn’t be your office manager in her “spare time.”)
Boring Bit #3: How does this fit with your other marketing programs? Or does it? Is that good or bad? Why good? Why bad? Will you confuse your customers?
Boring Bit #4: Is this going to tick off your current sales and distribution channels? Are you going to cannibalize your existing revenue base?
Boring Bit #5: How will this affect your operations? (Say you’re WILDLY successful, can you ship and support that much product? Answer that many phone calls? Follow up on the hot ones?)
Boring Bit #6: Do you have the time to allow this great idea to produce results? (I get calls from people who are 30 days to 60 days away from closing the doors. Sorry, but that’s too late; I don’t have magic marketing dust.)
Boring Bit #7: How are you going to track results? This can be as simple as keeping a good ol’ fashioned call log.
…and so on and so forth….accounting, insurance, employee training, customer retention…Zzzzzzz
Think you might need to talk about some boring bits? You could start with one of my entrepreneur sanity check consultations. I review your marketing materials, your web site, your ideas…and then we talk the good, bad and ugly…right down to the boring bits. Drop me a line if you’d like to know more. (And, yes, one of the first questions I’ll ask is do you have a budget…for me and for anything else.)
Tags: entrepreneur success, entrepreneurship, entrepreneur sanity check, start-up success, marketing troubleshooting
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