I’ve got some news for you and this may or may not come as a surprise, but your business will fail not because you’re not good at what you do. More than likely the reason why your business will fail is because you’re not good at sales and marketing.
I’m not saying your business is going to fail, rather if your business doesn’t survive, chances are those are the reasons. Seldom do I see a business fail because they are poor craftsman or make a bad pizza or are not skilled at their craft, the majority of times a business fails today is because they don’t know how to properly implement or they don’t have a sales and marketing plan.
The Good Old Days
We no longer live in a world where you can just hang a sign out front and everyone in town will start shopping with you. Those days are over. Back in the old west if you opened a saloon or a blacksmith shop or a general store, you had everyone’s business—even as late as just a few years ago, simply providing a product or service was enough. Even back in the 70’s and 80’s you could be The Shopkeeper in town and make a great living. That ship has sailed.
The Hard Reality
Today it takes more than a great recipe. It takes knowledge, expertise, effort and action. Do you know how to create a sales and marketing plan for your business? (And downloading a template from Google doesn’t count)
Do you know how to find out how to satisfy your customers? To find out what they want, what they need and what they are willing to pay for it?
You can be the greatest pizza maker, the most elegant seamstress, the best electrician and the most fabulous photographer, but if you don’t know how to market your business, actively attract customers to your front door or website and (most importantly) ask for the money—you’re going to close up shop. Period.
What are you doing to bring people in who you can sell to. Because in the end it doesn’t matter how good the product or service is if there is nobody there to enjoy it. It doesn’t matter how good you do what you do, it matters whether you have people to do it for. In reality there are hundreds, if not thousands of reasons why your business will fail, but by-and-large it will come down to your abilty to sell and market your product.
Too many people spend all their time worrying about building a better mousetrap and never thinking about how to sell it once it’s made.
Don’t Just Build It
There’s no more, “If you build it they will come”. You have to invite them. If you invite them correctly and offer them a great product or service in the manner in which they want to buy it—then they will come. I know that’s not as nice a catchphrase, but it’s the truth.
Your business will fail if you don’t learn that one simply axiom. Build it, invite them, have a great product or service positioned like they want and they will come.
Maybe I’ll write a movie about that.
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