The other day I read Joel Comms blog post the other day – Here Come the Mobile Marketing Experts and I was struck by how often we, as business owners, allow this type of ‘hype’ and noise to distract us from our business. Joel commented on how, when a new trend appears, so too do the experts – he questioned whether these experts were in fact experts because they actually learned all they can about the trend, or if they were merely positioning themselves as “experts” so they can profit from it.
It is so easy to get off track for our objectives, by allowing ourselves to be distracted with bright, shiny new things. Now that’s not saying we shouldn’t look into the latest methods – but we really have to exercise a level of restraint when doing so.
How many times have you opened an email and found a call to action for the latest list building technique, the one technique that will increase sales by 500% and so and so forth….? Depending on which email lists you are signed up to, you may even see several messages a day offering you different products or services to benefit your business.
Certainly, some of these products or services are worthwhile for different businesses – in fact, these products may be more appropriate for different businesses at different times. However, I question whether all of the products are as effective as they are made out to be – or whether they are appropriate for all businesses, all the time.
Do you find yourself rushing out to grab the latest and greatest product or service to help build your business? Have you found that once you have grabbed this product, you can’t use it or that it doesn’t fit your business operations?
When I see the next ‘latest and greatest’ product through my email, I ask myself – how does this help me meet my business goals and objectives?
I then ask myself what tools I am currently using, that may do the same or similar functions to the new product and consider whether I will actually get a Return On Investment to start using it. Often the cost to change business operations far outweighs any improvement the new product may offer.
This is why having clear goals and objectives for your business is just so important! If you don’t know what you want to achieve, how can you decide what will work for your business and what won’t?
As a business owner – do you have clear goals and objectives, do you know what toolset you currently use? Do you stop and assess your product and services purchases and how they will benefit your business now and in the long run?
If not – don’t you think it’s time you do?
Finally, I ask myself whether I am the right person to even evaluate the product, service or even method – or whether I should seek advise from someone who has a better understanding. This is an age old dilemma – as a business owner, we must take care to ensure we educate ourselves sufficiently to make an informed decision, but how much can we utilise someone elses expertise to do so? I know that I am approached my many of my clients asking for either a general or specific opinion and then we, as a team, evaluate the new offering filtering it through the businesses specific requirements and situation. I also seek advise on new offerings from my colleagues, peers and other consultants – I find that I develop a view of the offering that allows me to investigate further or decide not to pursue at that point in time.
I would love to hear about your experiences with taking on new products and services – how have you evaluated them, how beneficial (or not) have the purchases been and what would you do differently next time?
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