Small Business Marketing Articles...

The 7 Deadly Sins of Marketing Your Small Business and How to Avoid Them

Each strategic marketing activity has a rippling effect…some positive, some negative. But, there are 7 Deadly Sins in marketing. If you commit them, they will bankrupt your small business at lightening speed—much quicker than any other sins you may commit.

Recognizing and identifying the 7 Deadly Sins is easy, but how to avoid them can be tough. I regularly see small business owners who know they are “sinning”, but who don’t know how to avoid it.

So, what ARE the 7 Deadly Sins and more importantly HOW do you avoid them? Learning how you can turn these critical “sins” into awesome successes will have your prospects singing your praises and put your small business on the path of the Promised Land.

Deadly Sin #1: Talking ONLY about yourself

Prospects want to know “What’s in it for me?” If you don’t answer that question and answer it immediately—they’ll find someone who can and will. Only talking about yourself…”I do this, I do that, I have been in business for…I am the best in…” focuses only on you. And, the focus doesn’t belong on you, but rather on the prospect.

You MUST focus on your prospect or you’ll never have a snowball’s chance of (you know what) in turning them into a paying customer. Aim your message directly at potential clients’ or customers’ problems, pains and what they want or need. This shows them that you’re interested in them more than in yourself.

By concentrating on your prospect, you’re demonstrating that you want to help them instead of just making a quick buck for yourself. If you don’t let them know what’s in it for them and endlessly toot your own horn, then they’ll take their business to someone who is willing to focus on them.

Deadly Sin #2: Failing to effectively communicate the problems you can solve

You’d be surprised just how many small business owners cannot effectively communicate the problems they can solve. You would think this would be easy, but it’s not. Most speak in generalities…and generalities, my dear business owners do not communicate that you can solve a client’s problem.

First, you MUST know your target market—intimately.

You’ve got to have your hand on the literal pulse of your marketplace. What challenges do your prospects face? What are their struggles? What are they looking for? How can your product or service help them overcome those challenges? Can you provide an effective solution? Can you solve their problem? Can you help them avoid the problem altogether?
If you don’t know what your prospects problems are—if you don’t know what they want and need—then how on earth can you expect to communicate about the problems you can solve for them?

Obviously, you can’t solve a problem that you’re not aware of. Neither can you solve a problem you can’t communicate about.

In this area, you HAVE to talk specifics, not generalities. People want to know exactly how your product or service solves a specific problem for them. They want direct information from you, not a song-and-dance sales routine, which is something they can get anywhere…just not anywhere they’re going to spend their money.

Save the song-and-dance routine for a little theatre production. Know your target market, its needs and exactly how you can meet those needs, its problems and exactly how you can solve those problems.

Communicating effectively and precisely to your prospects about how you can solve their problems will show them that you can do it better than anyone else.

Deadly Sin #3: Selling features

People buy benefits, not features. Period. But, they can’t buy benefits from you unless that’s what you’re selling.

I meet small business owners weekly who don’t know the difference between features and benefits. It’s simple though. Features are the components or elements of a product or service, while benefits are the precise advantages of that product or service.

Let’s pretend you sell cars and you had a prospect that could not drive for more than 2 hours because of lower back pain. If you sold features—which from now on you will never do—you might say, “This model comes with an adjustable lumbar support in the driver side seat.”

Your prospect will probably think, “Whoo-hoo … big deal, who really cares?”

But, if you sell benefits—which from now on you always will—you might say, “Mr. Jones this lumbar support keeps your lower back supported at all times, keeping it from getting fatigued. This means your lower back will no longer hurt when you drive and now you can take long road-trips.”

Your prospect will shout, “Hallelujah! Where do I pay?”

That the vehicle has a lumbar support doesn’t tell you anything, but knowing that the lumbar support keeps your lower back from hurting actually sells the vehicle. It lets the prospect know that the vehicle can fill their need for low back comfort while driving on long road trips.

See the difference?

Benefits ALWAYS fill a prospect’s specific need—in this case, the prospect’s lower back pain will be gone = benefit = sale.

In other words, features are appetizers, while benefits are the main course. Features only whet a prospect’s desire for a product or service. But, it’s benefits that fill them up.

You MUST sell benefits in order to grow your business and achieve success.

Deadly Sin #4: Being all things to all people

No one wants to do business with someone who’s a “jack-of-all-trades and an expert in none.” People have to be confident that you’re a qualified professional in your industry or area of expertise. Otherwise, they’ll be too skeptical of doing business with you.

You MUST specialize in order to attract prospects instead of presenting yourself as a one-stop-for-everything kind of business.

You can’t dabble in this, do a little of that, and do something else on the side. You have to carve out a niche or specialty in your industry and then concentrate on being the very best in that area.

Take Taco Bell® for instance. Do you think it would be the leading Mexican fast food restaurant if it had mixed in burgers and hotdogs along the way? No, instead it has stuck to what it does best instead of trying to be all things to all people.

There’s a valuable lesson here for small business owners...specializing increases your potential for success.

Deadly Sin #5: Not being consistent

We all know someone who’s wishy-washy. You know the type. You never know how they stand on anything. Truth is, they don’t know how they stand. Dealing with people like that or even being around them can be incredibly confusing and frustrating.

You HAVE to be consistent in your image and in your marketing message. Or, prospect will see you as all-over-the-board and wishy-washy. No one wants to spend money with someone who takes such a flakey approach to doing business.

I see countless numbers of small business owners who present themselves in this way. They say one thing and do something else. Their stationery is green but their brochures are purple. They change their logo every time they reprint their business cards. It confuses prospects and makes them leery of trusting you.

If you don’t define your image and present it consistently within your marketplace, prospects will take their business elsewhere.

Deadly Sin #6: Doing things “just good enough”

We’ve all worked with slackers—people who do the bare minimum—only producing the least amount of work that they possibly can. And, worse than that, the work that they do produce is not the best quality.

Regardless of your industry or area of expertise, the marketplace is more competitive than ever. If you can’t and don’t wow people, they’ll take their business to someone who takes pride in wowing them. It happens everyday in the world of small businesses.

You can’t afford to be “just good enough” when it comes to your small business.

You’ve got to not only meet a client or customer’s expectations, but you’ve got to surpass those expectations in order to stay competitive. By doing the bare minimum that you can possibly get by with, you’re signaling to prospects and current clients alike that you don’t genuinely value their business.

Deadly Sin #7: Having the mindset that you won’t lose business

Thinking that a customer or client will always stick with you is a fool’s thought at best. In reality, they can and will leave at any moment—that is, unless you conduct your business with that mindset at all times.

I don’t mean being paranoid or worrying yourself into a paralyzed state. But, keeping in mind that the business door swings both ways, will make you provide a product or service that makes them stay.

Views such as “they would never leave me…after all I’ve done for them, they would be crazy to go somewhere else…” are all false and egotistical.

You can NEVER afford to take for granted that any client or customer will stay with you.

I once heard a small business owner boasting, “There’s nobody else close who does what I do. There’s nobody who’s as experienced. There’s nobody as awesome as me.” Oddly, I never heard him say, “There’s nobody who’s as responsive to my customer’s need as me. There’s nobody who’s able to provide my customer with better service.”

As a small business owner, you MUST be more responsive to your customer’s need than anyone else. And, you MUST be able to deliver the best possible product or service for meeting that need specifically.

If you don’t, the same door they came through is the same door by which they’ll leave. And, they won’t be back—EVER.

Now that you not only know the 7 Deadly Sins of marketing your small business, but also know how to avoid them...there’s no excuse for committing them again.

You can easily avoid the 7 Deadly Sins by running your small business on the flipside here—which is—focusing on prospects, knowing what problems you can solve, selling benefits, specializing, being consistent, wowing people, and knowing that customers can and will leave.

Go forth and sin no more.

By Jeanna Pool
© CATALYST creative, inc.
All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeanna Pool's firm CATALYST creative, inc. helps small businesses attract more clients on a consistent basis. Visit Jeanna’s web site at http://www.CatalystCreativeInc.com for marketing resources, tips and strategies to help you attract all the clients you want and can handle.

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