“Time, like money, is measured by our needs.”
— George Eliot, Middlemarch
Feels right a lot of the time, doesn’t it? We have “enough” time or money based on what we need to do or buy.
What that means for us as entrepreneurs and marketers is that our prospects’ ability to afford us depends in part on context and constraints outside of our control.
We don’t sell our services or products in isolation, but as part of the greater swirling system we call the “market.”
When business slows down, it’s easy to think it’s all about you, isn’t it? Like, what have you done wrong, or not done enough of?
But, sometimes, that initial slowdown might have nothing to do with you and everything to do with other factors, other contexts, conditions, and constraints.
So if you’re blaming yourself for a slowdown, reserve some blame for the situation.
But also reserve some energy to refocus. To ask yourself the most important question you can:
“Who needs what I offer, now more than ever?”
Marketing’s job is not to convince or cajole or persuade. Never was, never should be.
No, it’s about finding the people already looking for what we do, and demonstrating to them that we’re uniquely suited to serve them.
So when the market shifts or the situation changes, for better or for worse, we don’t want to suddenly change our principles or our values.
We simply change our priorities and what we choose to focus on.
We do that based on the answer to the above question: Who needs us, who’s looking for us, despite the current situation or even because of it?
In your corner of your market, there are likely buyers who are nervous, who want to pull back. But there are also probably buyers who wouldn’t dream of it.
The question is: Who is your marketing focusing on?
And the way to know if you’re targeting the right prospect is to ask yourself this:
“What is their name, and what are they feeling right now?”
Because if we don’t know the real name of a real prospect and their real context, how could we give them real reasons to consider us?
Like George Eliot wrote way back in the 1800s, time and money are measured by our needs.
So the question is: What are the current needs of our prospects?
Kelford Inc. is the marketing team that’s never at a loss for words. If you’re struggling with what to say and where to say it to attract ideal clients, we’ll show you the way.