Aug
29
Every now and again, companies run seminars to tell you all about their products/ how to do things/ how not to do things.
It's often worthwhile going along and taking a look - especially if the seminar is being run by other players in your market. It's good to know what the competition is up to.
Yesterday, I was at a seminar given by a company which advises people how to get more sales. That's of interest to me.
Sitting next to me was a very nice man who started his business last year. He does clever things with video cameras. He's been working hard on his marketing and reckoned he could be working smarter - that's why he was there.
The seminar droned on. Sorry to say, but it appeared the "consultants" had pulled out a marketing textbook and were reading the paragraph headlines to us. let me give you some examples.
We were told we had to,
"Establish competitive differentiation and positioning"
then we found that we should be,
"Developing and implementing a marketing programme"
My video camera friend started to look a little frustrated. He let out a big sigh and put his hand in the air...
"I haven't come all this way for you to tell me what the result is." he said,
"I need you to tell me how I'm going to get there - and what the hell is differentiation anyway?"
Several people around us murmured support.
The speaker gave him what might be described as a cold stare and told my new friend to "find him during the coffee break".
Video man slumped in his chair, leaned towards me and muttered, "I feel a right prat now..."
What a pity.
Anyone can tell you what you should be aiming for, anyone can tell you what you should be doing.
What is much, much harder is helping people to find out what their business needs in terms of real marketing work.
Before you start working out what you need, you need to understand what you've got, where you are and what you're doing NOW.
At HotelSphere, you can now take advantage of the Three Minute Marketing Audit from the Results Academy.
Find out where you are, then you can plot your course to where you need to be.
Little steps, not grand designs. That's the way to real sales improvement.
It's often worthwhile going along and taking a look - especially if the seminar is being run by other players in your market. It's good to know what the competition is up to.
Yesterday, I was at a seminar given by a company which advises people how to get more sales. That's of interest to me.
Sitting next to me was a very nice man who started his business last year. He does clever things with video cameras. He's been working hard on his marketing and reckoned he could be working smarter - that's why he was there.
The seminar droned on. Sorry to say, but it appeared the "consultants" had pulled out a marketing textbook and were reading the paragraph headlines to us. let me give you some examples.
We were told we had to,
"Establish competitive differentiation and positioning"
then we found that we should be,
"Developing and implementing a marketing programme"
My video camera friend started to look a little frustrated. He let out a big sigh and put his hand in the air...
"I haven't come all this way for you to tell me what the result is." he said,
"I need you to tell me how I'm going to get there - and what the hell is differentiation anyway?"
Several people around us murmured support.
The speaker gave him what might be described as a cold stare and told my new friend to "find him during the coffee break".
Video man slumped in his chair, leaned towards me and muttered, "I feel a right prat now..."
What a pity.
Anyone can tell you what you should be aiming for, anyone can tell you what you should be doing.
What is much, much harder is helping people to find out what their business needs in terms of real marketing work.
Before you start working out what you need, you need to understand what you've got, where you are and what you're doing NOW.
At HotelSphere, you can now take advantage of the Three Minute Marketing Audit from the Results Academy.
Find out where you are, then you can plot your course to where you need to be.
Little steps, not grand designs. That's the way to real sales improvement.
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