“GEE, I DON’T HAVE ANY MARKETING ISSUES?” We all have issues with our businesses. In fact, I’ve never met a company that didn’t. I believe that if your company doesn’t have some kind of issue, then you’re not trying hard enough! I have a real compassion for this situation, because I know we all get buried in issues that we can’t see ourselves, yet they require help. Just as therapists cannot conduct therapy on themselves, we business owners need an outside, objective viewpoint, too. That’s exactly why I believe it is critical to work this ‘marketing therapy’ into any strategic marketing campaign. Of course, you won’t have to sit on a couch and analyze childhood issues – it’s not a psychotherapy session that is required. But, if together your consultant and you can uncover what struggles your company has, and dig out any issues that might be holding you back, it’s possible to discover some powerful methods for harnessing your company’s strengths, your employees’ contributions, innate wisdom, and resources, and for getting best results, period. It’s rooted in your own innate intelligence as company’s founder, which sometimes gets bogged down by your day-to-day operations, by rusty marketing that isn’t producing results, or by issues buried beneath surface of your management structure. When you, as owner of business, simply “feel” that something isn’t on track, it’s exactly right time for this marketing therapy/strategy tune-up.

HOW CAN YOU OVERCOME THE FEAR OF REJECTION THAT SALESPEOPLE POTENTIALLY FACE? Here’s one technique for you, as a solo entrepreneur: Consider that calling a potential customer is not about talking them into something they don’t want. Instead, it’s a wonderful opportunity to help someone with perfect solution you have, and make his or her life easier with your product or service. Look at it as helping people, rather than pushing something on them. After all, that’s why you started business—so you could help someone do something in a better way.

I think my favorite story about handling sales rejection is from my little brother, Peter, who put himself through law school by selling dental products as a telemarketer. He just hated this job. He didn’t like getting phone slammed down in his ear, like most of us do with telemarketers. He really didn’t like making sales, period. But he needed to keep his job. Accordingly, he developed a character that helped him cope—he called himself “Clint Bond,” who was a combination of Clint Eastwood and James Bond. Clint Bond gave my brother a sense of confidence and allowed him to disassociate personally to overcome his fear & loathing of sales – suddenly, HE wasn’t getting rejections; it was his character who was getting instant hang-ups. Of course, I don’t recommend that you use someone’s name other than your own. But in Peter’s case, it really didn’t matter what his name was, as long as he represented company and its products properly. The fact is, he did quite well after developing this approach, and as a result he’s now a successful lawyer! Seriously, though, whatever works for you that is honest and ethical is fine.

If your company has a sales staff, breakdowns often happen when there is not an efficient system for conducting sales, getting your promotional literature out door, ensuring proper follow-up, project tracking and management, and seeing each job through to completion with a simple method for owner to track progress. It’s simple to correct once issue is identified.

WHAT ABOUT THE ISSUE OF FEELING LIKE A FRAUD? HOW COMMON IS IT? You might be surprised at how many people feel this way. As a business owner, typically you will experience this feeling during first 1-3 years of your business’s growth. This is especially true in professional services – you may find that a competitor has released a study before you, or has “built a better mousetrap” in some way. You may start to feel like you don’t have all answers, or you may find other products in marketplace that are just as valuable (or more so) than yours, and may even be less expensive. Any of these factors can induce you to begin feeling like a fraud in some way.

This issue can often manifest itself in your marketing – you might respond by charging far, far too little for value you actually bring to your clients.

The solution is for us to look at your positioning—how you’re unique in your offerings. Then it’s possible to determine value you bring to your clients, so you can resolve this issue and improve your revenues. The hard part is, you rarely know you’re doing this when you’re doing it! That’s exactly why we created “marketing therapy” programs to help CEO’s and owners with these issues.

“Marketing Therapy: Stop Sabotaging your Marketing”

Many publications will give you a contract for "stand-by" space. In this arrangement you send them your ad, and they hold it until they have unsold space, and then at a price that's always one third or less than regular price for space you need, insert your ad. Along these lines, be sure to check in with suburban and neighborhood newspapers. If you send out or publish any kind of catalog or ad sheet, get in touch with all other publishers and inquire about possibilities of exchange advertising. They run your ad in their publication in exchange for your running an ad for them of comparable size in yours.

Free offer: Finally, there's nothing in world that beats low cost and tremendous exposure you get when you advertise a free offer. Simply run an ad offering a free report of interest to most people - a simple one-page report with a "tag-line" inviting readers to send money for more information, with a full page advertisement for your book or other product on backside. Ask for a self-addressed stamped envelope, and depending on appeal of your report and circulation of publication in which your ad appears, you could easily be inundated with responses!

The trick here, of course, is to convert all of these responses, or a large percentage of them, into sales. This is done via "tag-line," which issues an invitation to reader to send for more information, and full page ad on back of report, and other offers you include with complete package you send back to them. As mentioned at beginning of this report, it's just a matter of unleashing your imagination. Do that, and you have a powerful force working for you that can help you reach your goals.