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Mind Capture

By Tony Rubleski
President & Author,
Mind Capture Group
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I hear it all the time. The same old tired and worn out excuses and reasons as to why people can’t, don’t or won’t implement new marketing strategies within their business and prospecting efforts. Here are the most common excuses:

“I don’t have any time.”
“We don’t have any money left in the marketing budget.”
“That would never get approved by the home office.”
“That’s a great idea Tony, but it would never work in our business.”
“We have another meeting next month to see what everyone thinks about the idea.”

What’s so troubling about these five statements is that they’re based on two major momentum destroyers: fear and procrastination. I’m going to take an important detour in this column from discussing specific marketing techniques and explain why excuses in marketing have killed more sales and profits than most people can even imagine.

It’s frustrating to see and hear how many people still continue to talk themselves out of serving more people by growing their enterprise by not trying something new within their marketing efforts. They allow excuses or the unqualified opinions of colleagues, friends or family members to distract and sway them off course.

Let’s take an up-close look at how to avoid and deal with excuses in your marketing efforts when temptation arises or when others around you attempt to sabotage your plans. However, let me first list three telltale warning signs that your efforts to implement new marketing initiatives may be in danger:

1. You have to run it by a committee or other people on staff
2. You worry what others will say about your idea
3. It’s something new and unique to your industry

In the first point, the danger lies in the fact that many people are wired to play-it-safe and not rock the boat, especially, in a fragile job market like today. Do not expect your fellow associates to roll out the red carpet when you attempt to present a new idea or initiative that involves any possible risk or heaven forbid — change! Most humans dislike change and seem to forget that change is the only constant we have. Life is not static, nor is business. Change should be encouraged and embraced, not feared and ridiculed.

In addition, when you have too many chiefs weighing in on marketing, often with little or no qualifications to do so, expect delays, excuses and trouble. I see this problem in many cases where the marketing department foolishly ignores ideas from the sales team. They view the sales reps as cogs in their plans, a nuisance, and quickly dismiss great ideas and innovations that could dramatically help the company to grow and serve many more people. Why does this happen? One key reason: fear! Fear of the unknown. Fear of looking bad. Fear of the idea actually working. Fear for their job. Fear of possibly offending someone. The list of fears often goes on and on.

In the second warning sign, many people analyze and procrastinate on taking action because change is often uncomfortable and the fear of criticism robs vital energy out of the idea. Great marketers have thick skin. They know that with success they’ll also receive ridicule, jealousy and envy from others either publicly or privately. Strangely, one negative comment often tends to get overblown in a person’s mind and can quickly over run positive momentum if not kept in proper check and perspective.

The third and final point involves the impact new ideas have within your industry. If the marketing idea produces positive results and attention, count on the competition and your fellow peers to initially frown upon it. The reasons are many, but here’s the key one: they didn’t have the courage to think of it or act on the idea themselves.

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