Your Marketing Magnet

From “I’m to honest to market” to “I don’t have enough money and time” to “I don’t need to sell myself, products or services” and more, you wouldn’t believe all the lame excuses entrepreneurs, business owners, professionals, sales agents, retailers and book authors give me as to why they can’t attract clients and market their business.

Now, don’t get me wrong! It’s not that failing to attract clients makes you bad in business. However if you’re under the misconceived notion that making lame excuses is the reason why your business isn’t as successful as you’d like it to be, it’ time to let these EXCUSES go…Because the reasons you’re making for failing are NO REASON not to succeed!

So in Today’s Foolproof Marketing Hint article (that I wrote especially for you) I thought we’d address The Top 10 excuses Women (and even a few men) entrepreneurs consistently make for not marketing their businesses and explore what’s really holding you back:

Excuse #1 – “I’m too honest to market” – This excuse tops my list because it is both a lie AND an insult! By profession, I’m a marketer. As a business owner, I’m also responsible for marketing my coaching programs. I am candid in my approach as I know many others in my field are. So contrary to what the book says, “All Marketers are not Liars.” Marketing is not a dishonest process or practice. And marketing doesn’t have to be dishonest to be effective. What is deceitful is embellishing your results, overcharging for what you believe your product or service is actually worth or deliberately defrauding your customers. If you’re guilty of doing this, then the problem lies with you, not your marketing!

Excuse #2 – “I’m too humble to market myself” – If you’re not comfortable ‘tooting your own horn’ or saying great things about yourself, start by telling perspective clients  great things about what your existing clients get out of working with you. Or better yet, let them say it for you in the form of a testimonial. Don’t think that you have to be the subject of every fascinating conversation you have with your prospects or that every word out of your mouth has to be about YOU in order to effectively market your business. Rather think about what your clients want, need and get, and that’ll keep the conversation going for as long as you need it to.

Excuse #3 – “I’m too shy to market myself” – Being a highly sensitive person myself, you’d think I’d have empathy for this excuse, but I don’t. If you want to be successful, you must do what it takes to succeed and get over yourself. Often this involves moving outside your comfort zone Shyness is a habit that can be overcome with practice.  Try joining Toastmasters or seeing a therapist. In the end, you’ll be glad you did.

Excuse #4 – “I’m too creative to market myself” – This excuse takes the cake! Marketing is a very creative process that provides you with thousands of options when structuring your campaigns. So consider your creativity an asset, not a liability. Unless you’re one of those self-indulgent, refuse-to-listen-to-anyone-else’s-marketing-advice or take any-responsibility-for-your-own-actions type. Then it’s time to grow-up and face the music. Or find a more creative excuse for why you can’t claim to be misunderstood as an excessively creative individual.

Excuse #5 – “I don’t have enough time to market my business” – This excuse sounds good at first, but in reality, it doesn’t fly. Either you are already marketing, but not acknowledging your efforts. Or your business is so busy that you don’t need to market at all. Either way this excuse is not valid since every business needs to constantly schedule time or push product, as well as replenish its customer base. And this requires some marketing. So if you haven’t got all the business you want but you don’t have time or money to market, you need to reevaluate how you’re spending your time and money, and make some tough decisions about when and what you are going to do to get those clients.

Excuse #6 – “I don’t have enough money to market my business” – I have to call you out on this excuse too. Good marketing isn’t about money. It’s about building and maintaining relationships. You can start very modestly with your marketing plans, and spend nothing but your time. If you can’t get some traction spending 40 hours a week trying to build your business relationships, maybe you should rethink your decision to be an entrepreneur.

Excuse #7 – “I have no personal network to market to” – Sorry this is another excuse that doesn’t cut it. If you truly have no family, no friends, no colleagues, no acquaintances or no former co-workers, then you best start meeting some because this is no way to live. Even if you’ve been in prison or living on a desert island for the past 20 years, you can always meet people through networking meetings, trade associations, classes, social clubs, Meetup or at the gym! So pick up the phone and call the people you want to know, and get out there and mingle!  You will see how fast your personal network will grow!!

Excuse #8 – My product or service is too hard to explain to people” – Quit explaining what you do and start talking about what your customers GET from working with you. Do you help them get thinner, fitter, smarter, married, buy their first home, or what? Seriously, nobody cares about what you do; they only care about what you do for them.
Excuse #9 – “My product or service is so good it sells itself.”  The only way this would hold true is if your product is a talking monkey, or your clients are all telepaths. Other than that, it’s going to take a little sales effort on your part. So go ahead and create some momentum in the marketplace. You’ll find that your product needs less and less of your effort to sell, until one day it does almost seems like it sells itself!

Excuse #10 – “My niche is too narrow and I can’t find my customers” – What this usually means is that you haven’t yet defined your ideal customer. It’s nearly impossible to find what you haven’t identified (and don’t give me that you’ll-know-them-when-you-see-them or everyone is my potential prospect line).  Begin with a matrix of situation and need to identify that perfect client. Let’s say you’re a financial planner for example, and you think your ideal client is “someone who wants to get their financial affairs in order.” Think instead about who needs to get their financial affairs in order, and you’ll likely come up with something like “married couples with children who have $X in assets and need to protect those assets with planning.”  It will be easier to find these people.

Okay we’ve now exhausted the Top 10 lousy excuses most struggling entrepreneurs make, but we haven’t yet addressed the biggest excuse of them all: fear. I find that the more excuses my clients offer for not moving forward with their marketing and businesses, the more fearful they are.

I’ve been there myself and understand. However it boils down to this: Are you more afraid of succeeding or failing by having to go back to working for the corporate environment, office politics and idiot boss you wanted to escape? If you’re more afraid of facing the personal responsibility of entrepreneurship than of any garbage your boss could throw at you, then you better say good-bye entrepreneur, and hello wage-slave.

If on the other hand you think the worst possible scenario is working for some moron again, and that you’ll happily work like a dog so you don’t have to slink back into that stinking office with your tail between your legs, good for you. Forget about the excuses and figure out how to make this whole self-employed thing work for you!

It’s OK to experience fear – we’ve all been fearful at some point whether picking up the phone or attending a sales meeting.  But at the end of the day, isn’t your product or service of value to someone? And aren’t your clients glad (or going to be glad) that you’ve solved a problem for them? So stop fearing the marketing process, and remember: Marketing is nothing more than the process of developing relationships. You, my friend, can do that in your sleep.

To your success!

P.S…Oh and leave a message below. Tell me what excuses you’ve been making and what’s holding you back from reaching your business goals.  And be sure to tweet it if you found this post helpful.