If you are on my newsletter list you would have realised that last week I flew home early from Melbourne with the flu and hence during my four days in bed managed to catch up on lots of TV shows and watch the movie comedy “The Guilt Trip”.
It’s a recent release movie starring Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand as a mother and son. Seth is an inventor so they spend 8 days driving across America so he can try to sell his new cleaning product to a variety of companies including Kmart, Costco and the Home Shopping Network.
Seth Rogen character’s Andy is an inventor so it he is fabulous at inventing product but not so good at marketing them. I see this with a lot of business owners. Can you relate? You are an awesome web designer, coach, consultant, naturopath, hairdresser or widget creator but you just can’t seem to get enough people to buy your product or service.
I remember years ago listening to one of my first online mentors, Ali Brown, and she said “Marketing is More Important Than the Mastery”. This has guided me throughout my business ever since. It’s doesn’t matter if you have the best widget or are the top hairdresser in the world, if no one knows you exist or aren’t clear how you can help them, then no sale is made and you don’t have a business – just a very expensive, time sucking hobby!
So back to The Guilt Trip. Andy started his first few sales pitches talking about his background and the natural products which he included in his new cleaning product and he got a whole lot of “thanks for coming in, we will be in touch”. It wasn’t until his mother pointed out that his product was confusing and unclear that he changed his approach.
Instead of starting his pitch with his background and products he asked the people he was talking with if they had any children or pets. He then follow up with, did they want to keep their children and pets alive whilst reducing the toxins around the home.
So instead of focussing on what he thought was important he was focussing on what his customers wanted and what their concerns were. Then to seal the deal, he drank the cleaning products – just to prove that it was completely safe!
It’s time to have a look at your marketing message and see what you are focusing on. Are you focusing on what you think is important or what your customers think is important? Remember focus on customer benefits and you can’t go wrong.
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