It’s the one phrase I hear ALL the time when I first meet with people. “I know we should be doing more, but we just don’t have time for marketing,” they confess dolefully. I also hear its variants:
“I know our website hasn’t been updated in 10 years, but….”
“I know we don’t have any collateral material, but….”
“I know our logo is still so 1986, but…”
“I know our materials don’t really reflect what we do, but…”
But what? Yes you need time to sell, consult, implement, do your accounting, pay taxes, meet, go to the bathroom, grab a bite to eat AND…you need to make time for marketing. There’s not enough time? No, there’s always enough time. Everyone gets the same 24 hours a day. You get to choose how to spend it. Many times you shoot yourself in the foot by focusing all your energy on sales - only to lose the deal because your presence (your marketing) didn’t make you a credible competitor.
Recently in John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing blog for small business marketing, John wrote :
Marketing is and must become a habitual activity in your business. You must live by the marketing calendar or die by the lack of time available to complete the greasing of the squeaky wheel.
Amen, Brother John! I’m a big fan of Stephen Covey, and live by his quadrant theory of paying attention to those items on your to-do list that are important, but not urgent. Those items will propel your business forward. That’s where marketing lives. Marketing means getting people to know, like and trust you — and that’s a lot easier to do if you buid a relationship BEFORE you’re trying desperately to sell them something.
So what’s the secret to maketing marketing a habit? The secret is….to make a calendar. It can be in Excel. It can be in Marketing Plan Pro. It can be on a giant whiteboard in your office. Just do it. Live it. Your sales people will thank me later. I promise.
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