Are you putting the sales cart before the marketing horse?

Just the other day I was on the phone with a potential client. We’d met at a recent seminar in San Diego, and I’d admired her can-do spirit, energy, and desire to help others by sharing what she had learned. On top of that, based on a quick peek at her Website, it seemed she had at least some idea of how to market herself on the Web.

Our conversation got off to a great start as we talked about what she’d need in place to launch her own teleclass series. But I could tell as I started listing all the different parts and pieces (marketing plan, sales page, thank you page, follow up autoresponders, promo emails, and more), and people she’d need to get it all done (copywriter, Web designer/Virtual Assistants, etc.) that she was totally overwhelmed.

That’s when she revealed a few, key facts…

1) As a retiree she was living off—and funding her business with—her retirement pension…And that wasn’t huge.

2) While she had her Website set up to grow her list, she didn’t really have a list to speak of yet. Plus she was struggling to get enough traffic to her site.

3) She’d tried doing some live speaking events but hadn’t had much luck getting people to attend her talks.

4) She didn’t have a plan in place for marketing her events, her Website, or her business. She was just winging it then wondering why nothing was working.

Right away I knew she was putting the sales cart before the marketing horse so to speak.

Sure, running a multi-part teleclass might be a terrific way for her to reach more people and grow her business. But she didn’t have the skills to do it herself nor the money to hire others to do it for her.

On top of that, since she didn’t already have a list of subscribers she regularly communicated with, she was going to have to build her list while selling her class. This is doable, but harder, more time consuming, and more expensive.

Finally, if she wasn’t able to get even handfuls of people to attend her live events, she probably wasn’t ready to invest in a bigger venture like these teleclasses. Instead she needed to take a big step back and work on her marketing basics.

My recommendation was that she stop worrying about launching something so big and complicated. Instead she should work on
getting out and doing more live events and growing her list. That way she could test different topics, titles, talks and marketing tactics to see which ones get the best response.

Then, once she had a decent following, and all the marketing materials for that talk, she could easily tweak it to deliver via teleseminars. Then later launch the full teleclass series. By then she’d already have a list of people who know, like and trust her and enjoy receiving her words of wisdom.

Of course, to do any of that she really needs to put together a marketing plan. Just like any other product or service you have to do effective marketing if you want people to show up at an event…Even a free one! Because they’re still giving you their time, and these days that is a precious and limited commodity.

The same is true with most everything in your business. If you’re having trouble selling one thing you need to figure out why or you’re likely to have just as much trouble selling something else. That requires at least a simple plan complete with goals. Otherwise your’re always guessing.

Listen, it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of the latest Online craze or business idea. Yet if you want people to buy your new product, service, program, package, or whatever…You have to have your marketing basics in order. Winging it rarely works, especially in a down economy when people are holding tightly on to their wallets.

Can you put together events, programs and product launches quickly and have great success? Sure. But if you don’t already have a solid track record, a list of followers, and marketing systems in place, you’re going to have to spend more money hiring experts to make it happen.

If that’s not in your cards, it’s best to set a big goal then work backwards to figure out how to get from here to there in small, doable steps that set you up for success. As your revenue and list grows you can launch something more ambitious.

In the case of this prospective client, since she couldn’t afford to hire me to do it for her, I suggested she grab a copy of my 2-page marketing plan guidebook “Putting Your Business on the Road to Success”.

That way she can put together a simple yet effective plan for marketing her events that makes sense given her budget and skill set. Then she can track results and figure out what’s working.

Plus, she can send her finished plan to me for a complimentary critique and get access to my marketing expertise at no additional charge (a $300 bonus that comes with this $67 product!).

You can do the same by going here: http://www.2pagemarketingplan.com

Got questions, thoughts or suggestions on this topic? Please do share by leaving a comment below…