In business, often the reasons for success and failure can be considered very complex. But when you break down marketing successes and failures, there are really just two reasons why a service-based business is not having desired success.
1) You have the wrong strategy; or
2) You have the wrong people implementing the strategy.
More often than not, we are trying to fix the wrong problem.
It seems pretty obvious, but many firms can begin to solve their marketing issues by first determining which reason is causing the issue and then fixing the right problem. For instance, if you do a lot of public seminars but are not seeing corresponding sales results, you may want to just stop doing them.
I received a call from a financial advisor early last month with a "strategy" issue about the public workshops he was hosting. He had people attending his workshop, he received high evaluations on the seminar presentation, and 75 percent said they would like more information or a meeting.
However, very few every turned into an appointment or a sale. He was convinced that the wrong people were attending the seminar for the topic he was presenting on. Crazy enough, after talking with his staff, the reason was right in front of him.
