650: You Are Overthinking Your Marketing… Here Is How To Stop

Remember that Billy Joel song We Didn’t Start The Fire? It is a maniacal mantra sequencing decades of rage into a lyrical pounding intentionally crafted as a relentless onomatopoeia; the song feels like it sounds allowing us as listeners to likewise feel the chaos. That song could be the soundtrack for so many chaotic business owners who are on a remorseless campaign to find the next great marketing hammer that will crack open a whole new world gushing with leads and sales because, in their minds, sales solves everything. The myth of that last statement will have to be fleshed out on another date and time; for now, we need to confront the restlessness and confusion of marketing.  It is good to turn the volume down, or maybe off completely for a moment, and sit in the silence of what is rather than the snake-oiled and empty promises of what could be. We’ve said often that marketers are like gypsies and business coaches (a bit self-deprecating seeing that business coaching is our profession); the barrier to entry into each profession is low and broad. The good news for marketers is that the human brain is wired to respond to hope and promise often neglecting reality and objectivity.  Marketing is always susceptible to the “Clark Stanley-anization” of theatrics and promise. Clark Stanley (aka The Rattlesnake King) was known as the true snake-oil sales pioneer.  According to Wikipedia, in the late 1800s Stanley began hawking his snake-oil linament at a variety of expos and shows throughout the United States. The nothingness of the snake-oil linament was exposed in the early 1900s and eventually led to a series of food and drug laws that would be the precursor to the modern U.S. Food and Drug Administration.   Stanley sold on what could happen forcing people to neglect the balance of what has happened. Both perspectives are helpful; for without seen historical learning we will miss the obvious, and without unseen hope life will lack wonder, invention, and creativity. Are all marketers like Clark Stanley?  Of course not…just some. So how can you find a marketing strategy, leader, or team who will generate leads that convert to sales in a meaningful way? Let’s start by looking in the foggy rear view. One question that our coaches ask every one of our clients when they bring up the topic (usually in frustration) around marketing; where has 80% of your business originated from in the past? We are continually stunned by the number of business owners who are ready to burn the boats, bomb the bridges, and cut off the parachute of what has brought predictable clients and customers in the past. Where has 80% of your business come from in the past?   Start your new marketing strategy there! But wait, “most of our clients are word of mouth”.  That statement has become a bit of an arrogant monicker of recent as if to declare, “We’re so good we don’t have to market.” NO!!!   That misses the point.   Marketing is tucked into every hidden crevasse of your business.  The cleanliness of your bathroom markets.  The quality of your material markets.  The clarity of your communication markets.  Every process, every system, every deliverable, every payable, and every receivable communicates something to your existing and potential clients and customers. When you allow your business to be lulled to sleep by the apathy of word-of-mouth marketing you are building your real estate on someone else’s property and you are robbing your business of the challenging creativity to innovate on what has already worked. As an example, we work with a sizeable number of homebuilders and remodelers in the construction space. Every time we present at a builder event we are asked about marketing at because of the assumption, “If I can just figure out where the faucet is, then we can open it up and have a constant stream of business.”  More leads and sales added to a poorly systematized business will do nothing but hasten the end. The system must be built to handle the load. If your dominant marketing strategy is “word of mouth”, then how do you build a system to capitalize on the mouths that are spreading your words? Throwing your hands up and hoping for the best is not a winning strategy. For homebuilders and remodelers, one of the best lead sources for new works are the professionals that live upstream.  Who are the professions that receive early indications that new projects are coming down the pipeline in construction?  Developers, Engineers, Architects, and Real Estate Professionals. Everytime we have built a simple process for homebuilders and remodelers to proactively, repetitively, and systematically make time for these professionals, magically new leads begin to come in. But doesn’t that require face-to-face (in-person or virtual) interaction?   A side note, generally (not always) if you wish for a digitally scalable marketing option that limits or eliminates face-to-face interaction, then the entire culture of your business will be changing also.  Not to mention, digital marketing and advertising will usually require a lot more money and resource expertise that you think and are typically prepared for. Stop right now for a moment.  Where has 80% of your business come from in the past (or some majority)? Stop overthinking all of the unproven ways to go generate new leads and begin building a repetitive, predictable, and meaningful process that will add value to the lead channels that have already proven themselves in your business. Down the road you can create a marketing slush fund for some skunk-works type activities when you have proven your predictable marketing model.   For now, turn the volume of marketing options down.  Just calmly walk on past Clark Stanley’s snake oil display, have confidence in the objectivity in what you already know, and take courage in building on that objectivity with the unseen hope of what could be.