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You should ask "if you should do it" before "how you should do it"

by Peter Lessard
6 replies
There seems to be an ever growing amount of posts in the Main Marketing Forum asking questions like
"I have 30k to market this how should I do it"

Their product is usually as exciting and valuable as "How to maintain a freezer at the north pole."
Next thing you know there are dozens of one line responses like
"do youtube vids" "spend it on ppc" "buy exact match domains"

Then it gets really entertaining as the OP pops back in saying OK bought this, did that, fingers crossed. I can actually see their money going up in flames.

Of course many of us in here cringe when we see these threads. Some of us, if we have a thick skin that day and are suckers for punishment pop in to the thread and throw some cold water on it.

What are your actual goals? What makes you think there are active buyers for this?
or if they gave us enough info, point out the obvious that their idea/product is really only important to them and that generally they will be greeted with a collective yawn from the marketplace no matter what their budget.

It amazes me that there are not more questions about IF something should be done rather than HOW.

There are tons of one line warriors that love to tell the OP how to pull the pin out of the grenade and very few saying are you really sure you want to do that. Of course their sig line generally has a great course for sale on how to take action on their one line recommendation.

To those of you willing to be the bearers of bad news I take my hat off to you.
To the one line warriors what I have to say to you should not be put in text.
To those of you with big budgets looking at your next steps if you have NOT done your due diligence slam on the brakes and take the time to test slowly and get some opinions from people that know the market.

Maybe we need a new sub forum titled "How To Waste Huge Budgets"
#how you should do it #if you should do it
  • Profile picture of the author DaniMc
    "How to waste big budgets" - It happens all the time and I have done it myself. It is so easy to get caught up doing "stuff" and spending real dough to move towards an imaginary target.

    Man you gotta admit sometimes it feels good to throw money at an imaginary goal, and then make believe that you are doing something productive.

    A few years ago I created a rule for myself that I will not spend money on something unless I know how it makes a profit. I haven't always been successful in following that rule, but I keep getting better.

    I like to think of a business as kind of a big clock with tons of gears inside. Somewhere, deep inside all the moving parts, is a small, simple mechanism that turns a profit. The rest of machinery of a business revolves around that simple core mechanism.

    The core process that brings in more money than it takes to perform, is the most important aspect of any business. People spend tons of money building all sorts of machinery around the "business" hoping they will discover that profit mechanism, and then all the money is wasted.

    It's like spending millions to build Big Ben before you even know how it will keep time. Can you imagine?

    The correct way to do it is:
    Idea--->Validate--->Grow

    Lot's of times people do:
    Idea ----> Spend --->Spend --->Spend

    It was never validated! The core of any business is a simple idea. So simple that it should not cost more than $100 to validate. Most could probably be validated for less than $50.

    I have been the person you are talking about. Even though I have a rule in place to never spend money on something until I know it will work, I still screw it up now and then.

    I try to ask myself two questions:
    "Will this work?"

    and

    "Can I work it?"
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    Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
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  • Profile picture of the author Peter Lessard
    Some good points Dan.
    I think we have all been guilty of it at some point and sadly there are many service providers willing to support us in our delusions and help us spend that budget.

    I was lucky early in my career as a software developer I worked for a guy that had rock solid business ethics. I sat in on meetings and bids were he had been called in for some sort of upgrade/software dev/server etc.. and it was the first time in my life I spent time with a guy that went into meetings and often talked business owners out of spending huge piles of money on the next shiny object. He often found ways for them to test the waters or spend much less than they had initially planned.

    He was incredibly successful, always had tons of work and referrals. When he showed up at an office people came to see him like he was their best friend. The real lesson I learned so young was that you could be incredibly succesful by actually providing true value and not just grabbing every dollar people want to hand you.
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    Ready to generate the next million in sales? The Next Million Agency
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    • Profile picture of the author Ron Lafuddy
      I have found that it isn't money that's the problem in most businesses, it's broken systems.
      Most times they don't need to spend additional money. They already have the all the assets
      in place to be doing great, but...those assets aren't performing well.

      Getting the cooperation of the business owner(s), managers, employees to address the problems
      that your "fresh eyes" have uncovered, is a skill in itself. Some business owners think that the answer
      is just to throw money at whatever shiny thing interests them at the time.

      Now you have broken systems and a faulty mindset. Best to move on.
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    • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
      Originally Posted by plessard View Post

      I think we have all been guilty of it at some point and sadly there are many service providers willing to support us in our delusions and help us spend that budget.
      In the copywriting forum, I was the only one who wasn't willing to support a guy
      who had these names in a domain...easy, cash, siphon in recruiting people
      on how to offer services to offline business.

      He may of been a bit careless in the use of his words,
      but it tells me a lot about his intent.

      This attracts others who have bad intent towards offline business owners.

      In the end I was told to ease up on the guy.

      Just shows how ingrained bad intent is.

      Best,
      Ewen
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      • Profile picture of the author Peter Lessard
        Originally Posted by ewenmack View Post

        In the copywriting forum, I was the only one who wasn't willing to support a guy
        who had these names in a domain...easy, cash, siphon in recruiting people
        on how to offer services to offline business.

        He may of been a bit careless in the use of his words,
        but it tells me a lot about his intent.

        This attracts others who have bad intent towards offline business owners.

        In the end I was told to ease up on the guy.

        Just shows how ingrained bad intent is.

        Best,
        Ewen
        I struggle with how much is bad intent and how much is poor training or simply fear driven.
        On the bad training end much direct sales training is about closing at any cost and turning the "prospect" into an object that simply needs to be overcome.

        On the fear side of the equation many service providers are fear driven due to empty bank accounts, they fear passing up a buck and playing the long game of providing actual value and having it come back around.

        There have been times I was broke and did not go for a hard close that I knew I could get if I tried because I knew it was not in the best interest of the client. To me choosing to stay broke a little longer was better than ruining my reputation or even how I felt about myself. In the end it is still motivated self interest I am no saint. I have just learned that you get more back if you don't go around sticking it to the other guy.
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        Ready to generate the next million in sales? The Next Million Agency
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        • Profile picture of the author digichik
          Originally Posted by plessard View Post

          I struggle with how much is bad intent and how much is poor training or simply fear driven.
          On the bad training end much direct sales training is about closing at any cost and turning the "prospect" into an object that simply needs to be overcome.

          On the fear side of the equation many service providers are fear driven due to empty bank accounts, they fear passing up a buck and playing the long game of providing actual value and having it come back around.

          There have been times I was broke and did not go for a hard close that I knew I could get if I tried because I knew it was not in the best interest of the client. To me choosing to stay broke a little longer was better than ruining my reputation or even how I felt about myself. In the end it is still motivated self interest I am no saint. I have just learned that you get more back if you don't go around sticking it to the other guy.
          This is GOLD. Reputation matters. This is how you get to build your business off of referrals, and not have to work so hard prospecting for new business. This also makes having and running a business so much more enjoyable.

          Plessard, thanks for posting interesting and provocative topics. You've helped make this place a lot more interesting lately.
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