Sometimes clients delay in getting started on their web project. Over the years, I’ve heard all kinds of reasons why a client needed to delay getting started.
It’s often a big mistake, no matter what is going on in the business.
Why?
Because the truth of the matter is that a business lives or dies on whether or not it makes new sales. It doesn’t matter if the owners are getting a divorce or the business just lost its best employee or a sudden expense cropped up or some internal or external project just got dumped on your lap. In 99% of the cases, none of these matter as much as driving new business and sales. All these other things are distractions and putting too much attention/resources into them, while neglecting this other important area is counterproductive.
Driving new business is like feeding your body. You don’t skip meals. You have to eat every single day. It’s the same with business and marketing and sales. They are not optional activities that can be done “when we have time” or “when we have the resources”. They are VITAL activities and actions and when you treat them as non-vital, you are directly working against the ability of your business to survive, whether you like it or not.
Sales opportunities are created by your marketing efforts, which create desire and want for your products. And guess what the purpose of your websites is? It better be to aggressively market and sell your products and services!
It’s Marketing Before Sales
After more than 20+ years running businesses, I can say pretty emphatically that most businesses get distracted and do not prioritize properly what they should be focusing on
Marketing comes before sales. That is actually how the machine of business works and if you think about it, it makes good sense.
Think about how a brand new business get off the ground, with no sales. It might seem like a chicken and the egg sort of problem, right?
Well, the way they do it is to invest out of pocket (owner equity) or out of debt, to market their product or services.
It’s the only logical sequence since they don’t yet have sales.
If they didn’t market first (heavily and effectively) and made the mistake of waiting around until they got some sales so that they could reinvest the money into marketing, they would actually be shooting themselves in the foot.
They might never make enough sales to viably market. And if they don’t viably market they won’t have enough sales and they will just go down and down the spiral until there’s nothing left of the business. I’ve seen it so many times over the years.
A lack of marketing & sales severely impact cash flow and that impacts everything else.
Just like the human body can only endure so many days without water, it’s the same way in a business. There’s a certain critical mass of sales and marketing effort that has to be going on in order for that entity to survive.
Business Failures are Marketing Failures
Most businesses vastly underestimate the sustained effort it takes to effectively market and sell their products.
The most common reason given for business failures is under-capitalization.
But in my experience when you drill into this a little further, you find that most of the time it’s lack of effective & aggressive marketing and sales.
Most businesses try to approach it backwards and this is why they never get off the ground and wind up having cash flow problems.
Just look at how the big companies do it or successful fast growing startups.. they get out there fast and hard with super aggressive Marketing & Sales on all media channels.
It takes a large upfront and sustained effort to create adequate business demand.
So don’t put off your website and your marketing plans. Put off your other plans but not these.
Marketing is before Sales. Follow that and you’re golden.
Want to find out how to take your business to the next level? Since 2003 ClearTech Interactive has been helping businesses grow and thrive by keeping our clients focused on building effective websites that focus on marketing and sales.
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