When Just Surviving Is A Struggle, It's Time To Assess Your Marketing Strategy
Traditional sales techniques depend on one-on-one relationship building, or sales techniques. 20 - 30 years ago this worked fine. In fact, one-on-one meetings were the primary vehicle used in business to learn about new products or services.Today, however, business systems have changed on almost every level; managers have markedly less time for "how do you do" meetings, and an overwhelming amount of easily accessible information reduces the need for personal meetings. Consumers frequently consult search engines and websites before heading for the store. This trend will accelerate.
The introduction of your business can be reduced to a 1-2 minute website visit, so why would a potential customer invest 30-60 minutes with you (or anybody else) when they can kick the tires online first? Sure, some will, but most will not - until they are ready. This means that your communication effort should be marketing based, not sales based. You need to drive people to your website strategically, capture contact information, and provide compelling decision facilitating follow up information (not sales information) systematically. The first qualified business to do this well in your market space has the power to dominate. 99% of businesses don't aspire to dominate (for them, surviving is just fine), but the other 1% who do will enjoy control over business growth and long-term prosperity that makes a real difference professionally, as well as personally.
