The only two things you need in your business
Website design By BotEap.comManagement guru Peter Drucker once noted, “Marketing and innovation are the only two things in business that make money; everything else is an expense.” Most people have heard of Drucker – he’s a legend in business management circles. He was instrumental in making General Motors more profitable in the 1940s, and he did so by carefully analyzing everything they did from the inside. That led to his famous date.
Website design By BotEap.comMarketing is the sum total of the things you do to generate sales, including advertising to attract new customers and do more business with existing customers. The framework you establish to do that is your marketing system. I specialize in helping my clients adopt marketing systems that automate most of these factors. Automation is very beneficial in marketing. For example, when done right, direct response marketing is superior to even the best door-to-door salesperson. So I especially teach DRM, where you send sales letters to make your sales pitch complete, along with tracking systems to convert leads into sales, associated with ongoing systems to keep doing more business with existing customers.
Website design By BotEap.comInnovation includes invention and creativity: the process of doing things differently from others. If you have something that you have created and it is working to attract new customers and excite your existing customers, and your competitors notice and are jealous of what you are doing, well, that is the kind of innovation you are looking for. by. You want them to freak out because they can’t figure out exactly what you’re doing, or even if may see what you’re doing, they can’t duplicate it. It’s a bit of a mystery, an unknown quantity off the radar.
Website design By BotEap.comYou have to do things that make people stand up and pay attention, especially the people you are trying to sell to. Innovation will result in more business.
Website design By BotEap.comEverything, apart from marketing and innovation, is an expense.. You could include a long list of all the things that make up the other category. You know what they are in your own business, although they may be a little different in other businesses and markets. Whatever they are, they don’t generate income or sales. So spend your time on marketing and innovation; Let others focus on meeting the other demands of your business. That may mean hiring people to take care of your accounting or using a fulfillment center to ship orders to your customers. If you focus on innovation and marketing, you will earn more income with less effort. You will have more satisfied customers and fewer cash flow problems.
Website design By BotEap.comThe people who actually get innovation and marketing are the ones who make the most money, because the simple fact is that most companies have little time for innovation and almost no time for marketing. A few years ago, a friend had the opportunity to speak with the late Dr. Gary Buss; He asked Russ what he did, and when Russ told him marketing, he replied, “Wow, that’s where the action is.”
Website design By BotEap.comBuss then went on to say, “I made money in real estate, and then I took that money and bought the Los Angeles Lakers, and it’s been a huge success. But even with the great players we’ve had, like Magic Johnson, Shaq, and Kobe Bryant, we had to constantly market. I did everything I could to get the Hollywood crowd involved, because I knew that if those Hollywood guys would come to the games and sit on the court, it would be a huge advantage. great team, you can have a great business But it can go away quickly if you don’t know how to market. “
Website design By BotEap.comThat really impressed me, and it really drove home this concept that it all comes down to marketing and innovation. Oh, there are other important things you have to do; do not misunderstand. You have to have someone who takes care of the financial part of the business and runs it on a day-to-day basis. Personally, I am a terrible business person, so I know the importance of surrounding myself with people who can handle day-to-day affairs. The bottom line is to never forget marketing and innovation.
Website design By BotEap.comSo far I have read the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson several times, and I have also listened to the audiobook. This book was published immediately after Jobs’ death. According to Isaacson, some of the people closest to Jobs said that there has never been a CEO who spent as much time as completely focused on marketing and advertising as Steve Jobs did. I found it very instructive, because after Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, during those 13 years before he quit and then passed away, he made Apple the most profitable company in the world. He did it partly through marketing, partly through great innovation.
Website design By BotEap.comOne of my heroes is the late and great Ray Kroc of McDonald’s fame. During the 1960s, when fast food was taking off and the suburbs were expanding rapidly, there were hundreds of companies trying to take down McDonald’s. One day a journalist approached Kroc and said, “Now you have hundreds of competitors, popping up everywhere. What are you going to do with all these competitors?” Ray replied, “We are going to innovate faster than they can copy.” There is a lot of wisdom in those words.
Website design By BotEap.comConstant innovation makes you the competitor everyone is trying to beat. You are always looking for new and better ways to do everything, and that is directly related to the marketing itself. Marketing is about how the customer sees you, what the customer thinks of you, how excited they are to do business with you and to buy the products and services you develop. It also includes your ability to connect with them, to create bonds that keep them coming back again and again for as long as possible. Think about it. The most innovative companies are also the ones that do the best marketing work, and vice versa.