Why Marketing To Those Who Only ‘Need” Your Services Is a Bad Idea

I know, that sounds a bit unusual, but hear me out.

I had a prospective platinum level client call me the other day. (That’s the program in which I develop and implement your marketing system for you in exchange for a percentage of the new business. However in the spirit of full disclosure, I’ll also tell you that it requires a $15K retainer that’s credited against the results. Plus, you need to have some additional money to spend on marketing your services-so this isn’t a program for smaller players.)

Anyway, after he pitched me his idea, I asked the logical question, “Why do you think this is a good business idea?”

His answer is one that I hear a lot (and probably will sound familiar), “Because there is a need for this.”

OK, fair enough. We certainly don’t want to enter into a business in which there is no need.

But is it enough?

The unfortunate answer is, “No”.

“Need”, in and of itself, is seldom a strong enough reason to go into (or continue to be in) a particular market.

There’s something missing that’s even more important, which I’ll share with you in just a minute.

But back to “need” and why it’s not enough.

Since I don’t know that much about your business, but know a lot about mine, I’ll use Gentle Rain as an example.

Fundamentally, I’m in the business of getting more business for my clients. That’s the end result of everything I do.

Now you might say that there’s a great “need” for this type of service-and you’d be right. Over 25,000 of you subscribe to this newsletter and I’ll assume that you would not be doing so if you didn’t have some level of need around getting consistent streams of brand new clients.

But here’s the interesting thing.

Although there’s great need, only a teensy-tiny percentage of you actually take action. It isn’t just me-I’ve talked to my marketing consulting colleagues and they report the exact same thing.

In fact regardless of the type of business you’re in…There’s a big discrepancy between those who have self-identified themselves as having a need, and those that actually do something.

From a purely practical perspective it’s not that the information I teach hasn’t been around for a long time. (It has.) And it’s not that the need all of a sudden “just occurs”.

All of my readers have the “need”, but if that was the only criteria I used-my business never would have achieved the success it has.

But what I’ve done, (and what you need to do as well) is focus on the other 2 key components. These ensure that you just don’t attract tire kickers, but prospects who are eager to actually do business with you.

What’s the next component?

It’s: “Desire”

It’s the segment of your market that really wants to achieve results. And that’s only a small percentage.

I know that’s true for my market, I’ll bet it’s the same for yours.

Although my market may “say” they desire to have a marketing system that attracts consistent streams of new clients, in reality they just want relief from a famine business cycle. They’re looking for a short term fix rather than a long term solution.

I get that. (And it’s one of the reasons why so many people unsubscribe and then re-subscribe to my list when the “temporary” solution that offered short term relief was…well, temporary.)

There aren’t too many markets in which “desire” is virtually universal. Golf comes to mind. There are probably a few others. But in most b2b businesses, there’s only a small segment that really has the desire to implement the solution you offer. The key is to focus on them. (I’ve shared the two easiest ways to identify this group in previous articles and programs.)

Need + Desire= A better business. (But there’s another component as well.)

The late great marketing guru Gary Halbert was famous for his challenge of asking his seminar audiences to imagine they were about to open a restaurant. What competitive advantage would they most desired for their business? People would say “lowest price”, “best location”, “greatest quality”.

Gary would listen and nod and say, “I’ll beat you every time. What I would ask for is ‘a starving crowd’”.

The classic example of Need + Desire.

Every market has its “starving crowd”. It’s your job to find it and tailor your marketing to them.

Which brings me to the third component.

As you know, I do a lot of work with consultants and advisors. My strategy up until a few years ago was to focus on new businesses after they had been around for 18 months. Why that long?

Here’s the reality I face. One thing most every new business owner underestimates is how difficult it is to attract consistent streams of brand new clients. When they start off, they’ve got their (usually small) network of people they know, and for the first year and a half they are able to get a reasonable amount of business from them. But they forget an important truism.

Clients Go Away.

And after approximately 18 months they’ve now lapped the track with their current circle of relationships, money’s running low, and now they finally have both the NEED and the DESIRE to take action.

But they’re missing something.

Resources.

They’ve now got no money to invest in what I’m going to tell them to do.

So the complete formula is:

Need+Desire+Resources=Very Successful Business

The trick is 1) determining who that is, and 2) developing a marketing campaign that appeals specifically to them.

In my case that’s my Platinum program. And for the very (very) small percentage of you who have all three components, I hope you’ll reach out to me so we can talk more about your specific goals and how I can assist you.

Let me know. Talk soon.
Mark
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