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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
It’s Only Common Sense: People Say the Darndest Things (to Avoid Marketing and Sales)
Here are some of the dumber things I’ve heard from people in our industry regarding marketing and sales:
- I think I’ll place one ad in a trade magazine; do you think that will be worth the money?
- I sent out 100 sales letters and only received 10 responses and five orders.
- We made this offering to 1,000 customers and made 12 sales, but two people said they didn’t like the offer, so we have stopped doing it.
- My husband doesn’t like ads with flags in them, so I don’t want to go with this graphic even if it is the Fourth of July.
- I’m only going to do this once and if it doesn’t work, that’s it. I’m done.
- What if we send this flyer out and hundreds of people respond? We could flood the shop with business!
- We stopped offering that product because too many people wanted it.
- If we delivered good product on time, we would not need advertising.
- If we delivered good product on time, we would not need salespeople.
- We’re going to concentrate on making the shop run perfectly, and then we’ll start doing some marketing.
- Once we buy our LDI, we can start advertising.
- We sent out a sales flyer and got 500 responses, but we cannot find the time to follow up on them.
- If we don’t go to that trade show, people will think we are out of business.
- There is no need to market; we have all the business we need.
- Our customers are going to be with us forever.
- We only want high-tech customers.
- I told all our lower-end customers to take a walk—we don’t need them anymore.
- We don’t deal with customers who are hard to deal with.
- We don’t deal with customers who want special treatment.
- Our business would be great if it wasn’t for those darn customers.
- Everybody knows us; we don’t have to advertise.
- All our customers know what we do; we don’t have to keep telling them.
- We fired all our reps; they were making too much money.
- We’re not bothering with social media. That’s just for kids.
- I don’t need a website designer; the kid next door is doing it for me.
- I don’t understand all this connection stuff; so what if someone across the country knows my name?
- If we got rid of this global market stuff, we’d be thriving.
- I know a good deal when I see it.
- We’re way to busy right now to get out and get new business.
- This worked in 1974 and I know it will work today.
- Putting more than one part number on a panel is not doable.
- Putting five part numbers on one panel is unethical.
- Our boss decides our marketing message—it’s his company.
- When it’s time to talk to our customers, we shove the salesperson out of the way and talk directly.
- All anyone wants is the lowest price.
- I’m not going to do that; it makes me too nervous.
- What will happen if too many people want to buy from us?
- I remember once in 1984 when we had too much business. I never want to go through that again.
- We’re way behind in the shop, so we are going to stop booking business until we catch up.
- Once we catch up, we’ll send the sales team out to get business flowing again.
- Why should I read a business book? I’ve been out of college for 20 years.
- We get all our business from word of mouth.
- I hired that salesperson a month ago and all he has brought me so far are quotes.
- I going to fire that new salesperson. It’s been five weeks and we only have two new customers.
- I’m going to hire that salesperson; he will bring me all of his business from his old company.
- I have my salespeople make 100 calls a day, every day.
- No wonder sales are down; it’s a school holiday.
- No wonder sales are down; we have a new president.
- No wonder sales are up; we have a new president.
- Did you see what the stock market did yesterday? That will boost our business.
And the dumbest thing I ever heard someone say about sales and marketing…drum roll please: Build it and they will come.
It’s only common sense.
More Columns from It's Only Common Sense
It’s Only Common Sense: Great Ideas From John Mitchell’s Book on Hiring HabitsIt’s Only Common Sense: Would You Join Your Own Company?
It’s Only Common Sense: Nice Guys Really Can Finish First
It’s Only Common Sense: OCCAM—the Time Is Now
It’s Only Common Sense: Here’s What To Do After IPC APEX EXPO 2024
It’s Only Common Sense: 16 Proven Strategies for Making the Most of Your Trade Show Dollars
It’s Only Common Sense: When Your Company Starts Running Out of Popcorn
It’s Only Common Sense: Meet the New Young Guns in Sales