Everyone who is successful in business has a mentor (or mentors) and a coach – or should have! Even Bill Gates (once the world’s richest man) had Warren Buffett (the world’s second richest man) as his mentor. One of my mentors is Dan Kennedy. I receive his paid newsletter once a month and it’s a great way to improve my business and marketing knowledge. One of the topics in the newsletter was ‘Are You a Marketer or a Shop-Keeper?‘ As I have recently been talking to a number of small retailers I found this topic to be particularly relevant.
Out of 14 retailers who I spoke to in December, only 4 (28%) understood the importance of constant promotion in a retail store. I was dumbfounded! The other 72% held the belief that doing the same things they were doing (very little) was somehow going to lead to sales increasing in their stores.
I heard that Albert Einstein quoted this definition of insanity … "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
These retailers were silently praying for a few more people to come into the store, that staff won’t call in sick, suppliers won’t increase their prices, no competitors will open a shop nearby, and that the landlord won’t up the rent this year. Dan Kennedy calls this approach ‘passive marketing’ – which actually is doing nothing at all. He said "This person is a shop-keeper and an order taker, sticking up a sign, putting goods on a table, sitting and waiting."
The only way forward is being a marketer – constantly promoting to attract new customers, get them to spend more, and return more often. That’s how businesses really improve cash-flow and increase their value.