Blending and Marketing Success

Marketing & Sales – The Current State of Affairs

And The Strategic Blending Process

If you are paying attention, the social media folks would have you believe that all you need to do to be successful in your manufactured housing business or career today is to be a social media guru with FaceBook, LinkedIn or Twitter and an internet wizard.

I beg to differ.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that social media or any other approach that improves exposure,  new business or repeat business.  But beware – relying only on a single approach, whatever it is, to build your business or career can be filled with uncertainty, inconsistency and false hopes.

Just because you have 5000 FaceBook friends, are at the top of the heap on LinkedIn or get thousands of visitors to your blog each week is no guarantee these folks will buy or even consider buying as a result of this exposure.

Let’s go back a few years – maybe even before some of you knew what marketing or sales was.  How did people grow their business?  Well, the businesses who had common sense and a reasonable budget used a combination of;

- Public Relations

- Billboards

- Direct mail

- Direct sales approaches

- Trade show participation

- Cold telephone calling

- Word of mouth

- Advertising

Old fashioned or no longer relevant you say?

Did these work?  Well yes, they did for companies like; FedEx, IBM, McDonalds, Nordstrom, Ford and GE.

Just  ask some of the folks who exhibited at the Louisville or Tunica shows and I’ll bet some of them said it was a good investment while some of felt it was a waste of money.  What’s the difference?  Simple those who had a successful show did pre-show advertising or exposure activities and had a follow-up plan that helped them maximize their time and investment.  The others just set up their booth and showed up.

None of these successful organizations or others during the past 50 years relied on the same combination of the above strategies, but they all used a unique combination of them that best suited their markets, potential customers and their business philosophy.  None of them, I might add, relied on a single approach or strategy – their key to success was a combination of them that gave them the results they desired or what I call the “Blending process”.

I know many individuals and businesses that are becoming hooked even obsessed with the latest internet strategy of social media.  YES, it should become part of the mix as you consider your growth approaches, but to believe that all you need for success is thousands of FaceBook fans, is a recipe for disaster from my point of view.

I can hear some of you now (those under the age of 30)  “Tim you are nuts, you don’t get it, you are stuck in traditional mindsets of the past and just out of touch with reality when it comes to the use of the internet for growing your business.”  You could be right and time will tell who is right, but I will tell those of you that have that viewpoint that over the years surviving businesses did not totally or singularly embrace fads, new philosophies or approaches as their only marketing or sales strategy.

What they learned was that the right “mix” or combination of approaches was the key to success and not throwing all of their time, resources or energy into a single approach or strategy like Direct Mail that faded over time.

I will admit that direct mail over the past few years has lost a great deal of its effectiveness and can often be a waste of money and trade show participation has become more expensive and has lost some of its glamour.  Times and circumstances change and we must all do what we can to stay current and relevant, but in the end, relying too heavily on a single approach no matter how alluring or popular, can over time be a mistake and cost you business, sales, customers, reputation and even success or survival.

Why people buy has not changed a great deal in the past 50 years, but how they can and do buy has been significantly affected by technology i.e. websites, blogs, I Phones, Email marketing etc.  To have a current effective sales and marketing strategy requires that these must be added to the mix, but the real  question is – what’s next or what waits around the next corner in terms of marketing and sales opportunities and how to best to anticipate them, prepare for them, deal with them and take advantage of them.  Yes, you need to use social media with all its complexity, competition and opportunity, but consider for a moment how many millions of people are using this and what is the potential for awareness or even results.

I am a believer in adapting and adopting to change, but I am also a strong believer in continuing to use and embrace the basics or fundamentals.  In many ways technology improves our ability to keep in touch with others, but the way we use these approaches to keep in touch is most often void of the human touch.  We are losing human connectedness.  Yes, I know what you had for dinner last night and where you are going on vacation and thousands of other useless pieces of information, but when was the last time you met face to face, had a live dialog or just hung out with a client, friend or even your kids?

I have written numerous articles the past few years relative to the loss of human connectedness in the area of sales, customer service and management and the general philosophy I teach is - use technology as a tool not a crutch.

When it comes to positive and consistent results in sales and marketing it is vital that you embrace a blending process when it comes to wide exposure, reputation building, positive word of mouth and overall success.

So, Ill leave you with a question.  What is your sales and marketing philosophy or approach these days?  Are you using a blending approach or letting the social media folks drive your overall strategy?  Keep in mind – they all have an agenda – they want your money and they are excellent at creating a sense of urgency when it comes to their overall business goals.