I love Seth Godin. Anyone who is in the marketing world and has two eyes and two ears knows of Seth’s remarkable best selling marketing prowess and guru like presence. A visionary in the same light as Steve Jobs, Seth has and continues to teach us Seth Wannabee’s how we must roll, and roll wisely, with the changing climate of today’s consumers. He instructs how to serve them better, how to get their attention in this increasingly distractive world, how to gain their respect and trust, and ultimately how to win them over and sell them our products and services like no other maestro can.
I subscribe to his daily blog which I look forward to each morning. This one, which came the other day, hit home so fiercely I must share. Go read and I’ll be here when you get back.
He’s not being mean. I run into this dilemma all the time, especially when trying to grow a new business in these tough times. Recently I was approached by a deli owner struggling to keep his doors open. My mama taught me “yes.” Yes I can, Yes I will, Yes, there’s no job too small for me. And I’m sure your mama taught you the same lessons growing up. She meant well, and for many aspects of my life ‘yes’ has served me well. And I like being a yes person, it really makes me feel like a better person. But here was a clear instance where no was the the more obvious answer, the better answer, the more responsible answer.
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But... I couldn’t get it out. I hemmed, I hawed, I tried to talk him out of it, and in my lame attempts I succeeded in convincing him even more that he did, in fact, need my services. How was this happening? I wasn’t trying to play hard to get, here!The fact was, that Deli Man couldn’t afford my services, A, and B, even if he could, my services were not what he needed right now; he needed to make a business decision as to whether he was going to keep his doors open. Online marketing and a website was not going to do it for him, at least not at this juncture. In the end I told him I would think about it and see if we could work something out, knowing all along that we would not.
Ultimately I wussed out and sent him a cowardly email the following day explaining to him why I couldn’t take on the job. Next time I’ll do a better job.
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Know when to walk away, as tempting as it may be to take peoples money. In the long run people will respect you for that decision because taking peoples money is NOT what it’s about. It’s about helping them make wise decisions and about long term relationships. Sometimes it’s just not about you.
Suzen Pettit, a longtime Brookfield resident, is principal at Omaginarium and Omagine Health, a marketing firm specializing in growing small businesses and medical practices by creating search engine optimized websites, internet marketing, social media marketing, affordable SEO and email marketing.
Contact Suzen at 203-733-8578 or email her at Suzen@omaginarium.com.
