Are You a Good Marketer or a Great One?
May 24th, 2011 by Bob Bly
A reporter once asked legendary pool player Minnesota Fats what made the difference between a great pool player ? which Fats was ? and one who was merely good.
?The good pool player makes the shot,? said Fats. ?The great pool player not only makes the shot, but does so in such a way that the balls are lined up for the next shot.?
I think the same applies to marketers.
Are you a good marketer ? or a great marketer?
A good marketer creates a product, runs a promotion for it, gets a healthy response rate, and makes a nice profit.
A great market does all that too ? but he also designs the product, promotion, or both so that the next sale is ready to be made.
For instance,?Friendly?s restaurant, regardless of what you think of their food, is often a great marketer.
Yes, when you walk in, there are always specials, enticing you to buy more during your visit.
These specials often include an ice cream desert, which many customers, after the big meal, are too full to eat.
Instead of letting the customer walk out without getting their desert ? which would slightly increase the restaurant?s margin on the meal ? my local Friendly?s gives away a certificate entitling you to get your free ice cream on your next visit.
Are they being generous?
Yes. But they are also being smart.
Because when you return to claim your free ice cream, you will most likely buy ice cream for the people with you ? or pick up a quart to take home ? or stop and have lunch.
Friendly?s is a great marketer, because they are thinking ahead to the next sale ? not just focusing on today?s transaction.
How about you?
Are you a good marketer ? or a great marketer?
Good marketers focus on the front end ? the immediate sale.
Great marketers strategize ways to maximize revenues from every product, promotion, and customer.
Good marketers make a good living.
Great marketers make a great living ? and become rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 at 11:00 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 24th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Great post Bob but… it’s not either/or.
Sometimes one may be great and then less so.
For example, I’m a big fan of Al Ries (Positioning) but his recent posts are very dated. He still thinks IBM make mainframes.
He’s still good but…
May 24th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
If I didn’t have back end products and services, I would have been out of business long ago. What started out as just a one man consulting service naturally evolved into a 7 person full service advertising agency. My client’s asked if I could handle additional services and I said “yes”.
We recently trained a gift store chain to increase their sales at the front counter. When someone walks up with a product to purchase, the sales associate behind the cash register is required to show the customer other products they have for sale. Conversions from $5 sales have gone up as high $30 and more.
May 25th, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Then there’s that good old tried-but-true method of making sure you’ve secured the next purchase — give the customer a really fantastic experience on the current one! Treat each sale as a marketing demo for the next one, and your customers will be back — with their friends.
May 25th, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Great post, Bob!
Too many folks, it seems, content themselves with “good”, even though “great” may be easily within their grasp. I’ve caught myself, on occasion, in a complacent mood, and kicked myself for being satisfied with less than my best effort.
Thanks for the reminder! Friendly’s is a great example of taking it to the next level.
May 26th, 2011 at 7:01 am
Hi Bob,
Awesome stuff, I discovered your blog from a link on Rich Schefren’s website. I’ve bookmarked you!…
All the best,
David Edwards
May 26th, 2011 at 10:15 am
Definitely true, and great example using Friendly’s.
When I started creating and marketing my own products, I realized there was a lot of potential for me to keep the purchasing loop going. Did it involve extra work and planning? Yes. But the end results were well worth it.
Good post Bob
May 27th, 2011 at 10:49 pm
I live in Charlotte, home to Bank of America. The guy who used to run the bank, Hugh McColl was at a lunch with new trainees. One of them asked the CEO, “how do I get ahead at the bank?”
McColl replied, “do what you’re asked to do then ask for more.”
It’s amazing what happens when you ask for business.
June 2nd, 2011 at 1:45 am
A lot of it comes down to thinking about ways to make customers happy. It seems basic, but most people tend to treat customers as objects who will pay a set amount of money then leave.
For example, I ate at a restaurant tonight where the owner went around to each table to make sure things were ok, in addition to attention from the server. He even boxed our food and every single person on staff we saw smiled and said goodbye as we left. Good food, but the experience was better when I food out they actually cared about repeat business. Great restaurant marketing leaves customers regretting they hadn’t left a bigger tip.
June 6th, 2011 at 9:39 pm
That’s such a brilliant idea that I never thought of Bob!
Entice them with a little freebie in the future, knowing that they’ll come back for more than just the freebie.
July 20th, 2011 at 11:37 am
I totally have to agree with your blog post Bob! If you truly believe you’re a great marketer, then you are one. You don’t have to deal with the difficult issues that can arise with this because you already know how to get past them!
May 26th, 2012 at 12:27 pm
I found this amazing site A couple of week inside the past i can’t quit reading through , thank you
May 26th, 2012 at 3:26 pm
I ran into this internet site inadvertently, astonishingly, this really is the great net web site
May 27th, 2012 at 1:38 am
Hii,, Fantastic evaluation there is a littl numerous evaluation offered, but your internet internet site nevertheless in the front regarding my own selection.
July 5th, 2012 at 9:37 pm
I’ve developed a take note to become able to personally to write a thing added excellent upon Mondays, in anticipation of your present verify out
July 18th, 2012 at 4:51 am
I prefer this website and that i can be utilized as soon as much more.
August 2nd, 2012 at 9:13 am
Preserve the great internet site with this report sort, I am particular several folks including this.
November 4th, 2012 at 4:27 am
Numerous of my individual net site visitors possess were unsatisfied with my internet site not working properly all through Traveler nevertheless seems to become great all through Opera. Would you could have any suggestions to aid repair this concern?
November 15th, 2012 at 5:24 am
I was merely killing period undertaking a random search and came across your blog post. I really have fun right here
January 23rd, 2013 at 6:10 pm
This really is actually the best weblog if you wants to locate out about this particular topic.