Why We Get Inconsistent Marketing Results

by Linda C. Puig, president, Claire Communications

What motivates you to market your business…the REAL motivation? Is it fear of not having enough money? Imagining the ripple effect of helping your clients live more authentic, vibrant lives? Looking at the photograph of an aunt who swore you’d never amount to anything?

All potent enough motivators, for sure.

What’s interesting to notice is whether your motivation is going toward or going away energy (something I learned at the recent Chris Howard seminar I attended). That’s because when we are motivated away from something, the results we get tend to be erratic; when we are motivated toward, we get consistent, escalating results. Let me explain with two examples:

Leandra
Leandra doesn’t like marketing and self-promotion, but she has to bring in a certain amount of money each month from her private therapeutic practice for teens. So each month, she trudges off to networking meetings and puts up a new article on her website. Some months, she gets a lot of response; other months, nary a call.

This is an example of away-motivated marketing. Leandra markets only to stave off the financial wolf at the door.

What gets forgotten in her marketing equation is how much she LOVES counseling teens. She’s marketing because she needs the money. Imagine how different her results might be if Leandra’s marketing was going toward her passion for working with teens.  

Frank
Frank has an accounting background; he started his career in a large accounting firm and then worked for several large corporations. He’s now a coach who works with self-employed people who aren’t comfortable with finances. It was a no-brainer, he thought, to leverage his experience in accounting when defining his niche.

His first year as a coach was quite successful. But this year, he’s been putting off his marketing tasks. Seems like everything is such a chore: organizing teleclasses, putting out a consistent newsletter, following up leads. Naturally, his business is not thriving; it’s not down the drain, but it pokes along rather than races, like it did his first year.

The problem is that Frank really wants to be coaching people considering leaving the corporate world to develop work they find more meaningful. His marketing got great results his first year out, because it was new and exciting to be out on his own. But marketing to his self-employed niche has become a “should”—one of the key signs of going away motivation.  

Finding yourself engaging in a “should” or “must” or “have to” is a big clue that you may be engaging in the less reliable going away motivation. Think about it…is it any fun at all to do something because you “should?” Yuck!

A couple of other clues to going away motivation:
1. Using negations. I market my practice because I don’t want to lose clients. (What DO you want?)
2. Comparing. I market my practice because if I do, I’ll have more money and a better life. (This is a little trickier. Notice that by comparing, the focus is on what you don’t have right now, not on what you want.)   

Going toward motivation is all about getting clear on what we want and then putting our marketing muscle behind that.

So…what do YOU want?

© 2007 Claire Communications.
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