Mistakes to avoid in sales and marketing.
There’s a great quote from Oscar Wilde that says experience is the name we give to our mistakes. It’s a good point. You can learn a lot from making mistakes but you don’t have to learn everything that way.
Suggesting you dodge the mistakes you can sounds like I’m giving you a walkthrough for a computer game. Whether you consider business a game or not, making mistakes can set you back, waste energy and be a distraction. They can also lead to wonderful discoveries.
So here are my top five mistakes to avoid in sales and marketing. Remember fail fast, keep learning and make your mistakes in other areas.
1. Not knowing who does sales in your business.
Can you say right now who does sales in your business? Do you have certain names or job roles coming to mind? The answer is that everyone is responsible for sales – that’s where the money comes from.
There’s no point in protesting that you just answer the phone or do design or empty the bins. You’re still part of the business. What you do and how you present yourself has an impact on potential customers. So step up and accept that you’re now in sales and so is everyone else.
2. Not knowing who your customer is.
It’s pretty easy to assume that you know who your customer is but you might want to make sure.
Let me present Weetbix as an example. Are you thinking that their customers are families with kids looking for a budget-friendly healthy breakfast( we’ll skip over the lashing of sugar you’ll add)? It seems obvious but it’s wrong (try supermarkets and the NHS).
Whether you’re B2C or B2B, think about who is doing the buying. If you run a top shop, your customer isn’t the children but their parents. So you need to sell to both of them.
In a similar vein, don’t make the mistake of assuming everyone could be your customer. Something for everyone is a lazy phrase that suggests you can’t be bothered to identify the benefits for individual customer groups. Give yourself a shake and use these prompts to build an avatar before you spend a penny on marketing.
- Location
- Status/class
- Age/gender
- Likes/dislikes
- Favourite music/film/sports/food/drinks/entertainment/holiday destination
- Political beliefs/religion
- The car they drive
- The supermarket they shop at
To dig deeper, I’ve linked to an article, at the end, all about avatars and how to make yours.
3. Saying that you don’t do marketing.
Talking of marketing a big mistake is to claim that you don’t do it. Of course, you do. You simply don’t have a plan, a specific budget or realise that what you do is actually marketing.
There’s a lot more to marketing than advertising. Marketing starts when you decide what your business looks like, what it does, what you sell and how much you charge. It’s the story you tell whether that’s in a shop or online. It’s what connects you to your customers and their experience of your work.
Saying that you don’t do marketing is doing yourself a disservice – you’ve been doing it since you first started. You might not do hard sales (a good plan – customers respond better to storytelling) but you’ve been there positioning your offer all along.
Now is a good time to look at what’s been working for you so you can build your business and your brand.
4. Thinking that social media is a quick and easy way to promote your business.
I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone using social media for promotion that thought it was easy. You’re competing in a crowded marketplace with ever-changing algorithms. Producing content is a time-consuming activity. You need to engage with other users as well as broadcasting.
If you’re planning on using it (and you probably are) get some training, document rather than sell and remember it’s not the only way. Consider spreading your wings and using a variety of channels to reach your customers. Here are a few to investigate.
- Leaflets
- Newspaper
- PR
- Radio
- Outdoor
- Sponsors
5. Ignoring what your competitors are doing.
Going your own way is great but how do you know what’s good and bad if you’re not benchmarking? No matter how clear your vision is I bet even Apple, who are known for going in a different direction to everyone else, aren’t wandering around humming My Way.
Be nosey about what others in your industry are up to when it comes to sales and marketing. It’s not like you’re trying to access classified information! And for added inspiration try benchmarking outside your industry to find new and exciting directions.
Going your own way is great but how do you know what’s good and bad if you’re not benchmarking? No matter how clear your vision is I bet even Apple, who are known for going in a different direction to everyone else, aren’t wandering around humming My Way.
Enough from me – time for you to get dodging in order to win.