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Mistake #2 of The Top 5 Marketing Mistakes you Made in 2007!

by Luis Eguiluz

We previously discussed the first out of five top marketing mistake you may have made in 2007. What was it? Believing that everyone is part of YOUR market. If you have not had a chance to read it, then click here to read that article, before you continue with this one.

So now that we know that not everyone is part of your market, what is the second of the five marketing mistakes you may have made in 2007? Let's see.

Top Marketing Mistake #2 - Not realizing that EVERYONE in your company IS part of your marketing team

When you first started out you were probably wearing a lot of hats: project manager, owner, human resources, accounting, and even marketing. As you grew, you started to hire people you felt would be good at each of these various tasks.

As any good owner knows, having the right person for the job is crucial to ensure that the time and money you spend on the development of that individual will contribute to the bottom line of the business.

Then its no wonder that as time progresses, especially once you have someone or a team of people who belong to your "Marketing" department, also referred to as Business Development, that you may start believing that these are the only people in your company who actually market your company. This is a huge mistake!

The Story

To give an example of why not realizing that EVERYONE, from the janitor all the way to the CEO is always "marketing" your company, let me tell you a real-life story.

It was about a year and half ago that I had to call my client because of a very important job that we were working on. In the past, whenever I called, I was always greeted with a "Good afternoon, [company name], how can I help you". The receptionist was very cordial and very helpful.

At the time that I had to call my client, it appears that she had gone on vacation for a week and someone else was filling her spot.  So when I called this new person picked up and all that I got from the person was: "Yeah, what do you want?". No good morning, nothing. Just "Yeah, what do you want?" in a very nasty tone.

Personally it didn't affect me in any way, shape or form, after all I was just a consultant and this company was my client, but imagine if I would have been a prospective client? What if I could have been what amounted to the biggest client this company would have ever had? What type of "perception" on the professionalism of this company would I, as a prospective client, have based on the "Yeah, what do you want?" attitude that I got?

Remember: Every Team Member Counts

If you ask anyone who knows anything about marketing what would be the one word to describes the real purpose of marketing, more then likely they will say: Perception.

• Perception is the reason for having a marketing department.
   
• Perception is the reason a company spends millions.
   
• Perception is the reason why the owner of Taco Bell went on national TV last year, during the whole tainted Taco Bell food affair, to ensure its customers that Taco Bell would not let this happen again.

The purpose of marketing is NOT to "force" you to buy a product or use a service, but it's to convince you that you should buy the product and use the service. Why? Because you "perceive" it as a benefit to you.

Your marketing department concentrates on developing the perception outside of your company, to the general public. But, if you think about, perception also needs to be created inside of your company.

When clients visit your business, whether its just a home-office or a large corporate building, what kind of perception are your team members creating?

Whether you run a predominant "white" or "blue" collar business, do your team members:

• Dress appropriately?
   
• Are their clothes clean, without stains?
   
• Do they go around cursing and yelling?
   
• Do they try to be helpful and pro-active, or do they have a "let the next guy take care of it" attitude?
   
• Are they cordial and friendly?
   
• Even more important, do they act and talk in a professional manner, even during a tense situation? Or do they start to yell, scream, curse, etc?

Remember, the above doesn't ONLY apply to low to mid level team members, this applies to EVERYONE, including the owners.

As an owner YOU must set the example and the environment for your team.

If you scream, yell and curse, then why wouldn't your team do the same? If you don't act in a professional manner, why should you expect your team do so?

In conclusion

The bottom line is, as a business owner you should not solely rely on your marketing department to create the desired perception of your company. You MUST understand and realize that EVERY single member in your team will contribute to supporting this perception or destroying it.

So if you made this mistake in 2007, make sure you set goals and plan training seminars to help ensure every single team member is helping to develop the right perception of your company. Don't forget, one thing is to say it, but another thing is to do it. So make sure that you, as the owner, also lead by example.

The last thing you want is to spend hundreds, thousands, even millions of dollars on marketing and creating a specific perception of your business, just to have it destroyed by a "Yeah, what do you want?" attitude.