Measuring Your Marketing Mindset

Over the past 30 years I have worked with and presented before thousands of business owners across the country. From the very beginning I’ve been fascinated by one question: What separates the small fraction of businesses that succeed from the vast majority that struggle and fail? Time and again the answer has revealed itself to me as a single word: Marketing.

Successful firms understand and employ Marketing on a consistent basis, and those that struggle don’t. It is as simple as that. Simple yes, but not easy.

Why is it that, for most business owners, marketing is a mystery and sales is a dirty word? I’d like to share six reasons why I believe this is the case, along with some thoughts on what you can do to get it turned around.

Reason 1: Ignorance
It is very difficult to get an education in Small Business Marketing, and few people are born naturally skilled in it. The type of Marketing taught in colleges relates to large corporations with big budgets and teams of people.

Reason 2: Cost
No doubt about it, customer acquisition is expensive. Not as expensive as bankruptcy, but still quite costly. Many business owners are unwilling to spend any amount on something they don’t understand and don’t enjoy. Even those who realize they must budget for marketing don’t know how much to spend, what to spend it on and how to tell if they are getting sufficient return on their investment.

Reason 3: Lack Of Control
With insufficient marketing education or experience, many business owners feel powerless within the process. Hiring and managing others who are performing tasks that you not only can’t do but don’t really understand, is a nerve-rattling exercise which many would prefer to avoid.

Reason 4: Disinterest
In spite of its critical role in their firms, many business owners just aren’t interested in Marketing. They find it a boring, tangential aspect of entrepreneurship that they would just as soon ignore.

Reason 5: Disbelief
Since they have never run a successful marketing campaign of their own, many business owners believe it’s one of those “things that happen to other people.” There must be some type of magic required which they are not equipped to apply and never will be.

Reason 6: The Stigma of Sales
Few things make many business owners more uncomfortable than being perceived as too “salesy” or self-promotional. Blowing their own horn, doggedly following up on a prospector attempting to close a sale is so far out of their comfort zone they almost won’t even consider it.

What Is Your Marketing Mindset?
Do three or more of the above Six Reasons apply to you? If so, it’s time to begin passionately developing your Marketing muscles by attacking each challenge individually. But, before you do anything else, you need an attitude adjustment.

You must come to the realization that, without a successful ongoing marketing program, and someone to be the salesman, you are destined to struggle and ultimately fail in your business. You will never make the kind of money that you’d like and are not building an asset that you can sell and potentially retire on in the future. In effect, you’re kidding yourself about being a true entrepreneur.

So consider changing your attitude about Marketing. Commit to becoming a marketing expert. Role model the most successful independent companies in your industry. Set a marketing budget and spend it. Define success and track results. Get interested. Get educated. Get control over the process. Make friends with your inner Salesman. Get some success going and begin building your belief that the magic of successful Marketing is actually within your ability to direct.

Nothing solves a company’s problems like strong cash flow. And you can make that happen in 2013 just by changing your mind, about Marketing.