"The Big Money Goes To Those Companies With Superior Marketing Operations. Entrepreneurial Companies Of Today Must Evolve From Being Sales Oriented To Being Marketing Oriented In Order To Now Win The Consumer."
Scott DeGarmo
Former Editor, Success Magazine
From “The Selling Issue”
“The Days Of Simple Selling”
So why is it so important to focus on marketing instead of selling?
There was a time known as "the days of simple selling." The days of simple selling are generally considered the days before
1980 or, in some industries, before 1990. In this period of selling,
it was a lot easier for a salesperson to go in and sell to a buyer.
The reason? The marketplace was A Lot less crowded, And the Only
Way for a prospect to see all the choices and ask all their questions
about a product was to meet with a salesperson.
Why? Because you couldn't go online or to the book store and read
fifteen different magazines that compared and contrasted every
little feature & benefit. These sources of information simply
didn't exist. In the days of simple selling, there was less competition,
fewer choices, and it was easier to make a buying decision. In
short, in the days of simple selling, the seller had the power
because the buyer had very few options.
The Days Of Simple Selling Are Over!
Today buyers no longer have to rely on limited sources of information
about a product or service. The landscape of business now involves
increased competition, information, choices, and more resistance.
It has made buying cycles longer. There is now price competition
that didn't exist before. Products are becoming commodities and
a lot of the marketing messages are identical. Because of all
of this, a wedge has been created between the seller and the buyer.
This wedge is called "The Confidence Gap."
“The Confidence Gap”
The consumer's inability to determine whether any of the products
or any of the services are any better or any worse or any different
than any of the others is the Confidence Gap. This creates a big
problem. With people having all these different choices it's very
difficult for them to determine whether you are any better or
any different from anyone else. You, as a business owner, need
to overcome this problem in order to be successful.
How Do You Get Customers To Want To Do
Business With You?
Maybe you’re familiar with the author Napoleon Hill; he
wrote the book, ‘Think and Grow Rich’. He had a saying
that went like this: "It is as useless to try to sell a man
something until you have first made him want to listen as it would
be to command the earth to stop rotating." Do you believe
that? Think about it; if they don't want to listen, are they really
going to want to buy what you are selling?! It’s more likely
they’re going to view you as a pest. And that's where the
difference between sales and marketing comes into play.
In sales, you’re trying to make people want to listen to
you in a sales situation, whether they’re prepared or not
to listen and/or even interested. What we're presenting is a marketing
program that does the job of making people want to listen. It
prepares the buyers so they will come to you and give you an opportunity
to sell. Sales skills are still very important, but your time
is used more productively in closing sales rather that chasing
them down.
Marketing Is The Tool Used To Bridge The Confidence Gap
Marketing needs to be concise, well articulated, and powerfully
stated. Since marketing is one-way communication, it's not afraid
of rejection. It's not obtrusive. It’s low or no pressure.
People can review marketing at their own pace, when it's convenient
for them. And, if they aren't interested, they can ignore it altogether.
Inside Reality VS. Outside Perception
Inside Reality is everything your business does that makes you
valuable to your customers. It is what gives you a competitive
edge in the marketplace. It is all of your skills, your passion,
your systems, the way you conduct your business. The Outside Perception
is how customers and prospects perceive your business. It is the
ideas and impressions consumers gain from your direct and indirect
communication with them.
Your Outside Perception Must Match Your Inside Reality
To be successful in business and to continue that success, your
Inside Reality and Outside Perception must match. If you spend
all your resources developing the Inside Reality and neglect the
Outside Perception, you’ll be frustrated wondering why you’re
having minimal results with your superior product or service.
On the flip side, if you focus solely on the Outside Perception
and neglect the Inside Reality, prospects will soon find there
is little value in your product or service and you will get little,
if any, return business.
How Your Marketing Is Really Supposed To Work -->
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| What Do We Do? |
We teach and implement a Marketing & Innovation Program
that helps businesses overcome the 'Confidence Gap.' It
achieves this by addressing two key points - the Inside Reality
and the Outside Perception.
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