Whichever you prefer, the common thread is carelessly, stupidly, naïvely doing something that causes you pain and delay, and does you more harm than good.
I have come across many examples of businesses shooting themselves in the foot, so I thought I'd list some pitfalls for you to recognise and avoid. You can imagine a (falsely) reasoned argument in favour of each of these. I believe the counter argument carries far more weight in each case.
- Selling to the wrong people
Don't push your business on everyone you meet! Know how to identify your ideal customer. It's a waste of time trying to sell to people who simply don't need what you're offering. - Selling the wrong product
Don't assume all your ideal customers want what you are selling! Even if you believe they need it, they have to want it before you can sell it to them. It's a waste of time trying to sell to people who don't even need what you're offering. - Forgetting your Unique Selling Point(s) - USP(s)
You must offer more than just items of value to the ideal customers. You must give them good reasons to buy from you rather than your competitors. You must consistently tell them why you and your products are uniquely placed to help them. - Failing to focus on value creation
Customers only want to buy from you because the value they get from the purchase far outweighs the value of the money they have to part with to do so. If you don't create value for them, in their minds, they will see no need to purchase. - Haphazard Marketing
You need a Marketing strategy that covers all areas of the customers' long-term relationships with your business - From them first finding out you exist, to them telling all their friends how good you are! - Ignoring the only three ways to grow a business
Getting more people, to spend more, more often - These three 'mores' are the only three ways to grow a business. You must balance your efforts to increase each factor according to your market and the needs of your business. - Ignoring repeat business
The third 'more'! - You need to keep your customers aware of your existence, and have the 'more' there for them to buy - Ignoring Up-Selling
The second 'more'! - You need to offer products or services that are complementary to the things the customers initially wanted to buy - Only advertising when you need Customers
The first 'more'! - This is the one people usually focus on to the exclusion of the others. "We need more sales so how can we find more new customers?" Advertising isn't the only form of promotion, and promotion should be an on-going activity. - Not tracking results
Not even the 'experts' can accurately predict what will work for you and what won't. You have to test and measure each Marketing activity. You have to know what produced what. Then, if it doesn't work, drop it. But if it does work, do more of it! - Not following things through
If you're like most, you'll have many, many things you'd like to try. Don't waste time and money starting something that you can't follow through. - Running an advert only once
If you fix your 'haphazard Marketing', you'll be aware that people need to be given several opportunities to fully absorb your messages. If your promotional activity doesn't produce results first time, it's probably never been given the chance! - Copying the Competition
Do what you need to do because you know that you need to do it. Believe me, all your competitors could easily be making the same foolish mistake! Quite possibly because they all followed blindly! - Trying to save where it counts
Don't try to save money in places where it shows. When it comes to what your customers can see, you should spend whatever it takes to get everything looking right. - Spending too much money, unwisely
Your business should put cash into your pocket, so before you invest money into it, be clear on how you're going to pull that cash back out again - Spending too little money
Equally, don't be miserly and don't let frugality get in the way of efficiency. Take advantage of skilled outsiders who can do certain tasks more efficiently than you can. - Going against your intuition
While you might think that logic is the language of business, that's far from the truth. If you base all your business deals on hard logic and ignore your intuition, you'll get hurt! - Being too formal
Business is built on relationships and human beings don't want to build relationships with faceless corporations. They only want relationships with other human beings, so build rapport and relax formality as appropriate. - Failing to optimize
You can't simply focus on creating value, and imagine the rest will take care of itself. As a business owner, you need to find a way to deliver your value in a cost effective way. - Not collecting your money on time
Collecting money from people can be hard, so collect a substantial portion of the money first before you provide anything. When it comes to debt-collecting, if you act like you don't need the money, you'll never get paid!
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