Avoiding Marketing

Avoiding Marketing

Introduction

Most of us would acknowledge that marketing our firms is important, though such a statement is often followed by “but…” It’s nothing to beat ourselves up about, but not having a marketing mindset will hold your firm back.

Three Reasons Why We Avoid It

It follows that some significant obstacles must lie between our intentions and our actions or more marketing would be happening. Perhaps these will ring a bell. Here are the most common reasons why we don’t have a marketing plan.

• First, marketing is important but not urgent. We don’t dare neglect it, but since immediate results won’t follow from our marketing efforts, it’s safe to say that immediate consequences won’t, either. Getting CPR after your heart has stopped beating is urgent. Exercising regularly is important—though certainly not urgent. Miss a trip to the gym here and there, and not much happens. Miss a bunch of them and slowly the urgent will remind you of the important.
• Second, marketing forces positioning, and it’s difficult to stake out a position in the market place that we can live with. By avoiding “positioning,” we can still carry around a half dozen magnetic signs in the trunk, putting the most appropriate one on the car door for those sales meetings. Marketing doesn’t happen because we aren’t sure what to say.
• Third, marketing may not happen because we believe it’s about getting more work when we can hardly handle the amount of work we already have. But marketing is about control, not growth. In other words, marketing enables you to attract a certain kind of work, defined as profitable, enjoyable, etc.

As much as you like “control” (the original reason for starting your business), think of marketing as “control”-oriented and you’ll find yourself more interested!