Marketing Tips, Tricks, Experiences, Marketing 101

[mojobone]

Don't go to war without your ammunition. You have to know your client's needs and how you're going to solve his problem before you walk in the room. Get over the idea that you're not in sales, or get someone to sell for you, but be prepared to give up at least half your profit, if you do.

You can't allow yourself to be discouraged (examine that last word carefully) by "no"; it's strictly a numbers game, and every "no" gets you closer to the "yes". Artists are sensitive, (it's why we're artists, duh) so rejection can seem like a huge barrier if we let ourselves feel anything about it during a meeting. We know going in, we're gonna hear more nos than yesses, so we can't internalize the rejection as criticism of ourselves or our product, we have to deal with the no. It represents an objection to our sales proposition, (we call it a value proposition, in salespeak, to put the focus on what we're doing for the client) so we have to ask why not, then listen,then adapt and overcome the objection.

You'll hear at least three objections from any given prospect, because life has trained them to never open their wallet. You should assume the sale (of course they want the product, it's a no-brainer; proceed as if they already bought, and the rest is simply paperwork) but you also have to ask for the sale, that's called closing. You'll most likely have to ask more than once, so you'll need to arm yourself with a dozen or so ways to ask that don't include the words "buy", "sell", "money", "cash" or "purchase", because those words make potential buyers anxious.

In music, you usually don't hear the "no", you just can't get in a room or on a phone with anyone who's authorized to make a decision, so the first thing you need to know is who can make the decision?

It takes a certain amount of brass to ask somebody to buy something, anything, but that's what selling is, and everybody in business has to do it. Consider what it takes to get up on a stage in front of a bunch of people and act like what you're presenting is actually worth their time and attention; I can just about guarantee that the first few hundred times you do it, it won't be, but you gotta keep doing it to get better, and you gotta keep getting better to get good.

[coachdebra]

Let's differentiate between Sales and Marketing:

Sales: "Here's my CD, thank you for your $15."

Marketing - The best definition I've ever heard for marketing is:
Creating an environment in which your target market wants to buy.

I like this definition because, first of all, it's placing the responsibility for choice where it belongs. The truth is you can't make anyone do anything they don't want to do (barring drugs, torture and brainwashing techniques )

So a sale happens because the person, the customer, decides that they want/need what you are offering at the price you are offering it, to the extent that they are ready and willing to take action to buy it.

If you can't MAKE them buy - then your job is twofold:

Create awareness - if they don't know you have what they want and need, they will certainly not buy it from you.

Create the environment in which they feel safe, comfortable and motivated to make the purchase. This can mean creating relationship. People buy from the people they know, they like and they trust. It can mean communicating what you have in terms that your target market recognize and appreciate (using language they understand and are attracted to). And it can mean making it stupid easy for them to make the purchase (removing any and all obstacles to them making the decision and taking action).

What this means for your business depends on what your business is and who your target market is.

[DesireInspires]

Nice talk.

SHow me the results.

[mojobone]

I believe coach Deb has some testimonials on her website.

[coachdebra]

Thanks Mojo

And DI - Right back atcha buddy.

[Kolstad]

Great thread!

I believe marketing comes down to having great propositions, that can pull others in.
Either in terms of (1) who you are, (2) what you do or (3) what you say, or a combination.

Potential buyers can be interested in a person, (1a) who has a name, which they can use for positive association, or (2a) can offer some special talent, that is unique to the buyers world (but not neccessarily to the seller's world), or (3a) a person that can offer a useful perspective on the issues the buyer wants to handle.

The role model then is any musician who is branding his/her identity by the book, creates fresh and exciting sounding music in a definable genre, who also educates others in performance, music production and/or other stuff related to the bizz. Which actually would fit the bill on many of the Taxi forum'ers and most certainly ALL of the Taxi employees!

I've found that some of the greatest skills required to be great at business are personal skills like diplomacy, self preservance and being understanding and open minded. Simply because you want to build as many productive relationships as possible, and you don't want to close any doors just because you walk blindly into others with your judgemental ego. That's a way to "create the environment in which your target market WANTS to buy", like Deb says. It's all about the PULL, not the push. If you're making great music, that's push enough. So, beyond that, relationships = business. I believe that's a hard fact. And it's also a hard fact that we all have an ego (or at least an uncultivated side who needs to learn). Anyone with children knows this. We can't do a dang thing, when we arrive to this planet. EVERYTHING is learned. So ego's are ok, but only in order to recognize the need we have to cultivate ourselves, and not to control us. That's also the hardest part, because we don't neccesarily always recognize when it's our ego talking and deciding, and when it's our cultivated self.

So, first step in anyone's marketing 101, imo, is to start being self-conscious, and focus on how 1,2,3 looks from the viewpoint of the customer. (1) Are we acting like a person others would associate themselves with, (2) can we do things they like, and (3) do we talk the walk of 1 and 2

And btw, this popped into my mailbox while I was writing this post http://www.discmakers.com/request/10-ef ... gn=EAWEL04

[coachdebra]

I've found that some of the greatest skills required to be great at business are personal skills like diplomacy, self preservance and being understanding and open minded.

Agreed! AND you need the foundation of great time management, financial management, project management and organization in order to be dependable, efficient and effective.

[rpittelman]

I thought I would add this story to this thread...

A guy I've known professionally for about the past 13+ years told me this story about persistence. His name is Rick and he is in the commercial insurance business and has been for a long time. He is very successful and by most peoples standards you could say that he makes a lot of money. I don't know exactly when this took place but he told me this story somewhere back in 2000 or 2001.

Rick had a mutual friend with Donald Trump and the friend was trying to refer Rick to the Donald to try and see if he could get a chance at some of his insurance business. Well as you might imagine trying to get to speak directly with Donald Trump is no easy task. Rick said that over the course of about 18 months or so he would call Mr. Trump on a weekly basis. Never actually speaking to Mr. Turmp but always leaving a message and actually he became friendly with Donald's personal assistant with whom he would speak to every week.

Well, after all of these months Rick was busy with everything else at work and in his life and he kind of stopped calling Mr. Trump. Quickly, a few months went by without him trying to contact him. Then, out of the blue, The Donald calls him. Rick was a bit shocked that he was getting the call. The first thing that Mr. Trump says to him is, "Why did you stop calling me? If you wanted my business why did you stop pursuing?” There was no right answer. There was nothing that he could say that would excuse the fact that several months had gone by with out a phone call after a year and a half of a phone call every week. Ultimately, Rick did not get the opportunity to get a crack at Mr. Trump’s insurance business.

- Robbie
You could argue that maybe Trump was a little nit picky about this but I think the point is pretty clear. If you have a measurable goal in business that you are trying to hit, then you don’t stop until you accomplish it

[DesireInspires]

The story about Donald Trump makes a lot of sense. People that are not in power must submit themselves to the people in power. Once the powerless become powerful, they can use their newly attained power as an advantage in life. The only real goal to success is to attain leverage.

I guess you have to play the game and stay in the game to have a shot at winning.

[mikeymike2000]

3. Keep chit chat to a minimum. I am not a big fan of "finding common ground", especially if you have to fabricate your end of the common ground. It can and does backfire. Also, every "salesperson" in the last fifty years or so has been trained to do this. It is easy to stand out simply by not doing it.
Chuck

Hi Chuck,

This really stands out to me cause I have never been one to "talk about the weather" so to speak. So I suppose I would stand out as someone who is not trying to make fake conversations. However, I do think I take this to the other extreme, almost to the point of uncomfortability in my content to just enjoy someone's company without always needing someone to be talking.

I tend to be an 'all business' and only meat and potatoes kind of guy. Awkward silence doesn't really occur in my world but I know that in the world of many many others, that makes people nervous.

Do you have any suggestions as to find a middle ground?

Thanks