My Cities Having A Month Long Small Biz Festival And...(SHOCKING)

4 replies
...there isn't A SINGLE EVENT ON SELLING out of the 41 seminars/speaking events being held.

Only probably 20% of these events are even marketing related.

I actually counted 9/41, and even then, they are mostly vague, quasi-marketing related online stuff like 'How To Use Social Media', 'How To Blog' or 'Reputation Management'.

The other 80% of the events fall into things like business financials, networking events, legal stuff, staffing, safety...

There was one event that caught my eye on 'telephone techniques', but it's a $435 dollar entry (WTF? 80% of the other events are free, or like $30 entry) and it touted things like 'telephone etiquette' and 'customer service'.

Here's another appalling discovery : I did a search of the entire list of 41 events for the following words, and this is how many times they appeared in the titles of the events :

Sales : 0/41
Revenue : 0/41
Profit : 4/41
Customers : 1/41
Client : 1/41
Sell : 0/41
Prospecting : 0/41
Marketing : 2/41
Advertising : 0/41

It's no wonder 95% of businesses fail. Look at the focus. It's ALL on the trivial stuff. Nothing on providing value, on promoting a product, on marketing, or sales. THERE'S NO BUSINESS WITHOUT SELLING/MARKETING!!

Thoughts people?
#andshocking #biz #cities #festival #long #month #small
  • Profile picture of the author DaniMc
    I agree that most business owners have their priorities all screwed up.

    Sounds like you should approach the organizers and pitch them to let you run a segment of the festival next year.

    Or: Start your own week-long festival type even with different experts on marketing and selling for small biz.
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    Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
    Yeah the lack of marketing and sales sounds like some great opportunities for you to offer your services and speak before the groups.

    It's like the story of the shoe companies and Africa. Many went over saw no one was wearing shoes and reported back "Bad news there is no market here, no one wears shoes." Yet one company's rep saw the lack of shoes and reported back, "No one is wearing shoes there is a huge market for our shoes here."

    Do you see things like this as an obstacle or an opportunity?
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    Yup, people don't know how to sell. And most of them are unwilling to confront that fact.

    It's so much easier to say "It's the economy" and go stick your head in the sand. Why not get another fancy gimmick that promises the world? Isn't that much more fun than the actual work of improving your skill?
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  • Profile picture of the author Dperry8
    "If you make it, they will come."
    I agree with everything said above. This sounds like golden opportunity for you to do your own event, maybe with the local chamber of commerce, and position yourself as an authority.

    You can get a lot of business if you play your cards right.
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