A Marketing Company Reveals The Greatest Mistakes Companies Are Making Right Now And What You Can Do About It!
“In fact, I predict one day Amazon will fail. Amazon will go bankrupt.If you look at large companies, their lifespans tend to be 30-plus years, not a hundred-plus years.” — Jeff Bezos Owner and CEO of Amazon
Jeff Bezos shocked the business world with this realization. The idea that Amazon could go bankrupt seems ridiculous to most people. It’s the biggest company in the world.
But what you should really be wondering is if Amazon can fail, then what chance does your business have?
You probably already know the statistics. Thirty percent of businesses fail in the first two years. Fifty percent in the first five. And eighty percent in the first ten. It’s hard out there for a business owner.
But, business owners don’t make it any easier on themselves. Some come unprepared because it’s easy to go out there and open your own business. Some aren’t prepared to manage their money. Some are undercapitalized, others are over capitalized. Most aren’t prepared for what is required to get people into their business and turn them into customers for life. It’s this last one that is putting more businesses out of business than anything else.
For every company that expanded too quickly, had someone embezzle their money, or lost track of their profitability–there’s ten businesses that just can’t get enough customers or make enough money to stay open.
Every day you’re presented with an opportunity and a chance to grow your business–or a chance to struggle with it. Most businesses, unintentionally, end up struggling with it.
Why?
For one reason and one reason only. Getting customers is expensive and difficult and most people do a crap job of getting them.
But don’t worry, the good thing is you’re not alone. Businesses across the nation are struggling to figure out how to be relevant in this new marketplace of ideas. How to stay going with major companies taking up the lion share of the business.
And all of this can sound really challenging. But in truth, it’s all about avoiding the common mistakes businesses are making every day when it comes to their customers.
In fact, Bezos himself said exactly what businesses needed to do: “If we start to focus on ourselves, instead of focusing on our customers, that will be the beginning of the end,” he said. “We have to try and delay that day for as long as possible.”
Your business isn’t about you.
When you got into business, you had a service, or a product, or an idea that you thought could help people or that people could use and would like to use. You were solving a problem that you saw and are sure other people were experiencing. You were at the best of what it means to be a business owner.
But then it happened….
A bad or slow month. A failed marketing plan. Or maybe the people just aren’t coming like you thought they would. So you’re looking for anything to get your business going, and your eyes drift away from your customers and drift toward your business. This is where the mistakes start to happen.
MISTAKE #1 Being comfortable with what you have
Small town businesses don’t go out of business because Wal-Mart came to town. They go out of business, because they didn’t keep building their company inside their community,
and as soon as their customers had the option for more choices at cheaper prices, they fled.
Not building a consistent marketing strategy to attract new business and solidify yourself as the go to person in your community for the service you deliver leaves you open to be beaten. There’s always someone willing to do it cheaper, someone willing to sell it better, and someone willing to create a better name for themselves than you.
The solution is simple though. Be like the sharks and keep moving forward, don’t stop. Keep thinking of new ways to get your service, your product, and your company out in front of customers and how to get more and more customers till your forced to open a second or third company to hold them all.
Businesses don’t fail out of nowhere, nor do they grow out of luck. It takes a systematic approach to grow and any business lacking the will or the desire to create and execute such a plan will be out of business because of it. . It takes a systematic approach to grow and any business lacking the will or the desire to create and execute such a plan will be out of business because of it.
MISTAKE #2 Thinking They Should Just Be Your Customer!
One of the biggest mistakes a business owner can make is taking customers for granted and forgetting about those people who express interest but never come and buy. It sounds
like two mistakes, but, they’re one in the same.
You’re not talking to and selling customers in a consistent and systematic away.
We live in a very loud world today.
It’s no longer about sales but about follow-up. Eighty Percent of Purchases are made on the fifth follow-up, most salespeople and most businesses stop at one. The moment your customers and prospects stop hearing from you is the moment that they’ll stop thinking about you.
The moment people stop thinking about you, is the moment you start going out of business, and becoming nostalgia.
Why is this the case? —- Because the moment you stop talking to your customers, is the moment you stop innovating, and figuring out ways to meet their changing needs. Toys ‘R Us is a series of empty store fronts reminding people of their disappearing childhood, not because of Amazon–they were in Financial Difficulties years before
Amazon ever went public–but because they stopped bringing customers to their doors in new and creative ways, and stopped being an icon of childhood and started being another store.
Your business grows and fails based on how well you communicate with your customers and understand them.
MISTAKE #3 Not Knowing The Real Value Of Your Customer
Most business owners never know who their customer really is. Let alone what their real value is. And even more so, how to exact the full value from your customers.
People know their product, they know their business, they know the basic trends, at least business owners that have even the slightest desire to be in business by the end of two years have that. But to really understand your potential client, what they’re really worth, and how to unleash their ultimate value… Often goes completely untouched!
And that’s the mistake!
Business in one way is a game of numbers: cost per lead, cost per sale, yearly value, and life time value. Of course, most business owners don’t know all their numbers.
How much does it cost you to get a new client? What’s the value of that client on your basic service? What other services can that client potentially purchase to increase their yearly value? What does it cost to get that client to purchase those other services or products?
Knowing these numbers transforms businesses, turning them from good to great. It allows them to spend more money on advertising and marketing. It allows them to know what they need to do to help their market flourish instead of flounder.
But those numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. Companies that go from Great to Excellent go even deeper. From splitting them up in gender, age, economic status, and finding out conversions and values to each of these groups. Allowing them to optimize their results and place the right messages and right services in front of each potential customer. Segmenting their audiences and producing new customers by speaking to them from where they’re at in the sales process and what they want the most from the business.
The sad part is that good just won’t cut it anymore in today’s world. There’s too many businesses that are good at what they do, that have a good service and a good product and a good offer. That leaves good producing poor results and leaving a lot of people who think they’re good, wondering why everything isn’t working. Great stands out a little better, but in the end, it produces only good results.
The only road for success is excellence.The only way to get there is to make sure that every system you have adds to your knowledge of what value every potential customer has. Amazon, Google, Social Media, and the such don’t become successful because they’re selling to everyone, but because they’re collecting data on everyone,
and know what they want. Never miss a chance to gain a bit of knowledge on your customer. And never stop digging into maximizing your approach. Because the person who can afford to advertise the most wins. The only way you can be that person is to know your customer and know their value and work to maximize that value over time.Marketing Is Challenging
You probably didn’t get into business to market and sell a service. You might know it’s something that needs to be done, but at the same time, you can find yourself getting annoyed. Especially if you’re spending more time trying to get new clients than you do actually delivering your amazing products or service to clients.
We, here at Spotlight Revenue pride ourselves on helping businesses get back to doing what they got into business to do. In a single phone call, we can work with you to figure out your goals for your business, what your expected costs should be in getting conversions, and most importantly, how we can run this system to grow your business year in and year out.
