Marketing Teflon – Protect Your Marketing Budget (Pod)

Today’s tip is a little different.  Instead of a tip on how to get clients through the door, I’m going to help you with something that I like to refer to as your Marketing Teflon coating.

Did I just make that term up?

Yes, I did.

But when I’m finished with my explanation, I think you’ll be okay with my little bit of creative license.

The “definition” of Marketing Teflon is your ability to cut through the fluff when someone emails you or calls you on the phone to sell you the newest, hottest whatever that  you’ve just got to have for your business.

The genus of this tip comes from a conversation I had recently with one of my peoples that’s much like conversations I’ve had with quite a few others in the past.

It Starts With a Phone Call

In this most recent scenario, an aesthetician client of mine responded to one of those robocalls where they say your Google listing is about to expire or something similar.

Now you may be asking yourself, “If she’s one of your clients, why is she responding to marketing robocalls?”

That’s easy. The people who design those things are good at what they do. Plain and simple. 

I’ll spare you the down and dirty details except to say that at some point during their conversation, what started as a pitch to help with her Google listing turned into a “I can help you promote your business” type of call.

The Only Question That Matters

When she was done telling me all of this, I asked the same basic question I ask whenever this kind of thing pops up.

“What are they actually going to do to bring you new customers?”

As you can imagine, she wasn’t able to tell me what they were going to do, other than “they said they were going to promote my business.”

I am certain you’ve been on the receiving end of at least one these phone calls.  Chances are you hang up before you get passed from the recorded message over to a live human being.

What’s important to note is that with these phone calls, the person on the other end of the call is a sales professional with a single purpose.

Get you to say yes.  Either to their main offer, a discounted introductory offer or at the very least some form of a freebie.

Because if you say yes, the conversation continues and they still the opportunity to sell something to you at some point in the future.

That’s straight out of the marketing playbook and it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

There are some great offers out there.

The purpose of your Marketing Teflon coating isn’t about saying no to everything, it’s about knowing what you’re saying yes to.

Presentation Is Part of the Process

When someone reaches out to you with an offer, as opposed to you going out into the market and looking for a service, they’re going to present it in the best light possible.

Something that’s going to dramatically increase sales and grow your business.

They’ll listen for clues as to what’s important to you and try to highlight those particular benefits.

Their goal is to get you to engage in something that I like to refer to as wishful listening. 

That’s where you listen to their pitch but you’re already picturing the possibilities.  Thnking about how nice those increased sales will feel.

With your Marketing Teflon coating in place, you’re a little more detached, a little more analytical.

Stay Focused on What They’re Actually Selling

The person on the other end of the line can’t sell results.  All they can sell you is a tool or a process that leads to results. 

And those are things you can evaluate.

• What’s required to make this tool work? 

• Do I have the ability to execute this process? 

• How do they produce said results? 

• Do I have the budget or time to make it work?

• Is this something I can do myself or do I need on going assistance?

These things are specific and quantifiable.

When someone reaches out to you with an offer for a product or service, they should be able to explain to you the exact path that leads directly or indirectly to a sale in non-geeky terms that makes sense to you.

If they can’t, then they either don’t understand their product well enough to sell it to you or they just don’t have a very good product.

So to wrap this up, whenever you’re listening to a marketing pitch be more analytical skeptic than wishful thinker and always have them explain in gnats behind, fine detail exactly how this would work for your specific business.

If you’ve got an offer in front of you that you’re not sure about, just give me a call. (702) 582-6708

I’ll help you make sense any technical mumbo jumbo, cut through marketing speak and make sure you’re solid on pertinent questions to ask so you can make an informed buying decision …whatever that happens to be.

Thanks for listening.  Talk to you next time.