Which Of These Marketing Excuses Do You Make?

The more clients I deal with, the more I see mindset as a big issue and that certainly applies in marketing.

People want to provide the product or service but they don't want to do the marketing and selling, partly because they're not very good at it and partly because it "just feels wrong".

This creates a vicious circle:

• business doesn't attract many customers
• a badly thought out and constructed marketing piece is cobbled together and sent out
  
• it does badly, costing more than it brings in, reinforcing the bad feelings of marketing.
  

I came across these top ten excuses why marketing is not for you and loved them:

1. “I’m too honest to market.”
   
   
2. “I’m too modest to market myself.”
   
   
3. “I’m too shy to market myself.”
   
   
4. "I’m too creative to market myself.”
   
   
5. “I don’t have enough time to market my business.”
   
   
6. “I don’t have enough money to market my business.”
   
   
7. “I have no personal network to market to.”
   
   
8. “My product or service is too hard to explain to people.”
   
   
9. “My product or service is so good that it should sell itself.”
   
   
10. “My niche is too narrow and I can’t find my customers.”

Do any of those strike home and sound horribly familiar.

I got the questions from an article written by marketing Coach Veronika Noize and in it she gives ripostes to each and every excuse.

Stop Your Own Self Limiting Beliefs About Marketing

I'd like you to stop and think for yourself because the learning will be much more effective if you can take your own thoughts and find a way to turn around your self limiting beliefs.

Go on, pick one and think of an answer you can say to yourself if you find yourself thinking negatively.

If it's easier to do, imagine you have a successful business and your best friend has recently started a business, is struggling and says to you "I'm to honest to market" or any one of the other excuses.

Because you are successful you know that marketing lies at the core of your success, so what will you say to your friend to shake him or her up and stop the excuses and help him or her succeed.

It is much easier helping a friend than helping yourself so use the situation and role play it in your mind and write it down.

What Did Veronika Say?

Got your answers ready? This is important because reading is so passive and it's tough to learn with active engagement.

OK now you've given it some thought, take a look at what Veronika says

Top 10 excuses why marketing is not for you

Now use her ideas to make your ripostes stronger, get them written down and easily accessible to you but not in view. I don't want the excuses to keep catching your eye and re-affirming the negative.

If you find yourself making a marketing excuse, get the list out and read your response. If necessary keep reading the response and even turn the positive into something you say to yourself every day.

Your success depends on improving your marketing mindset, to stop making excuses, to increasing your marketing skills and doing more effective marketing.

A Quick Lesson In Effective Marketing

This opportunity is only going to be around for the next few days but A list copywriter and copywriting teacher John Carlton has put together a series of three short videos to help people tighten up their marketing message.

It's called the Simple Writing System Express and you can watch the videos on John's website (compensated affiliate link - if you click through and then buy, I earn a commission. I'm not saying buy but do go along for the free ride).

The three videos cover:

1. How to find put in words your customers problems, frustrations and pain.
   
   
2. How to create a short elevator chat - and I love the twist John Carlton puts in this which I haven't seen before.
   
   
3. How to close the deal.
   

As well as watching the training videos, you will see good and bad examples of people trying to apply the ideas and feedback from John and his copywriting coaches, all of whom are star copywriters in their own right.

Watch the Simple Writing System Express Videos (affiliate link) and help take away some of your marketing excuses.

My Profit Improvement Process

Giving you the right marketing mindset is a key part of Pillar 4 Your Lead Generation System in my Eight Pillars of Business Prosperity coaching system.

You can learn more if you join my online membership club for business owners - Your Profit Club. You can join as a bronze member for FREE and as a silver member, you join my program to help you to double your profit in the next 12 months.

Comments

[Andrea]

Excellent! Part of the thought process needs to be that you have a gift that you are giving to the world, and if you don't market it you are being selfish and holding back your gift. Someone out there needs what you have. If you do not think of it in this way, then you will have problems promoting yourself and your business.

[Paul]

Andrea thanks for your comment.

There are a number of different mindsets you can have to make your marketing more effective.

However I agree that the "I can help you and if I don't do what I can to convince you, then I am letting you down and forcing you to continue in pain from your problem" is the one that reluctant marketers can find most liberating.

This idea has been made famous by Jay Abraham as the strategy of preeminence.

http://businesscoaching.typepad.com/the_business_coaching_blo/2007/09/jay-abraham-the.html