I'm sure most of you have seen at one point in your lives, movie "Miracle on 34th Street". Do you recall scene where Macy's Santa Claus tells one of children that he should go to Gimbals' department store because they had exactly what child wanted? The Owner of Macy's was furious at Santa for sending a customer to competition, but as we all know, in end, Santa's actions created a wealth of goodwill for Macy's.Now you're probably asking yourself what in world does this have to do with marketing online. Well, it has a LOT to do with it.
With virtually every marketing site filled with so much hype, and pure garbage to outright lies and scams, people don't know what to believe anymore.
Let me tell you one of those so called 'secrets' to marketing that really isn't anything new, but is used by so few people. When I tell you what it is you'll probably think I'm crazy but I'm going to tell you exactly how it can turn your business around in a short period of time.
The secret? "Honesty" Now what do I mean? Let me first give you a real world example. A few weeks ago I received a call from a potential client ready and willing to spend several thousand dollars on a search engine optimization project. This person has a legitimate health oriented product that can sell very well. I needed some background so in course of conversation I discovered that this individual had already paid another company over $1000 for search engine optimization but he was unhappy with results. The potential client was very unfamiliar with how SEO works, and was not really sure what he had spent his money on.
I did a little research and lo and behold, when I entered his main keyword into a major search engine, he had a page 1 #1 ranking for his MOST IMPORTANT term. Now it doesn't get any better than this.
Now here's where connection to movie comes in. Are you willing to tell a potential customer that 1) The company that they hired did a good job for them 2) You can't improve on what they did because nothing is better than a #1 position, (assuming you were in same line of work as me) 3) That they should save their money
Or are you so desperate that you will make up any story to get big $$$ deals from a potential client who is not really sure of entire process. Are you willing to be Macy's Santa Claus who will send a customer somewhere else if they can do it better than you can? Or are you only driven by money you can make.
But here's another little secret. Honesty will in long run, pay far more than trying to make that one time quick sale. You see, virtually all of my customers now come from word of mouth referrals, and in many cases from people who I sent elsewhere or told that they didn't need to spend any more money. One of these customers I turned away has sent me 6 clients this year. That is a lot of money. And I wouldn't have received any referrals if I just would have taken potential customers money for something they didn't need and you know why? Because people are smart. They may not know at first that you are just trying to make a quick sale, but they will when they see results. Never EVER take a job unless you feel you can deliver what you promise, or greatly improve upon what client already has established.