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327Chapter 21: Ten Ideas to Embrace and Ten to Avoid

existence. They need to be told, reminded, inspired, and given reasons
and incentives to take new buying actions. When you build it, build a
plan to market it.

7. Move fast: If you snooze you might lose.

This is irresistible bait for businesses that operate without a marketing
plan (see Chapter 22). They don’t know their own objectives and strate-
gies, and so any tactic sounds like a fine idea.

As a result, when a proposal comes in from an ad salesperson, an
Internet business opportunity promoter, or even from a company that
wants to merge or partner, the business owner is all ears, fearful that
this might be an opportunity too good to pass on. Often, the idea comes
with a quick deadline or the threat of involving a competitor instead,
leading straight to a hasty decision.

Remember what they say about the correlation between haste and waste.

8. Think people will care that you’re under new management.

Or think that they’ll care that We’ve doubled our floor space, We’ve added
a new drive-up window, or any other self-congratulatory announcement
that produces similarly low market enthusiasm. To move the spotlight
off yourself, add a customer benefit. Turn We’re celebrating our fifth
anniversary into We’re celebrating our fifth anniversary with five free
events you won’t want to miss.

Remember, prospects care most about what’s in it for them.

9. Believe there’s a pie in the online sky.

Contrary to rampant belief, the opportunities of the cyber world aren’t
just ripe for the picking. The chance of opening a Web site and instantly
winning business from distant new prospects is as likely as opening a
toll-free line and immediately having it ring off the hook with orders.

To win your slice of online opportunity, invest time and money to drive
people to your site (see Chapter 16).

10. Believe your customer is captive.

Reality is, your customers know they have other options.

If they’re standing in front of you, and you turn your attention to answer
a phone, they notice. If you offer new customers a better deal than cur-
rent customers enjoy, they notice. If you spend more time and money
courting new prospects than rewarding business from current clientele,
they most certainly notice and in time will begin to disengage from your
business as a result.

Realize that customer loyalty is the key to profitability, and that earning
it is a never-ending process (see Chapters 18 and 19).