by Chemory Gunko

What’s your marketing mindset (Microsoft Word)

Any marketing campaign, at it’s essence, is all about shouting your name out to the world, in an effort to get masses of exposure and attract the attention of people out there who are looking for you and your amazing products and services. It all begins though, with the way you see your business and the value you believe what you offer has to bring.

So, just how do you think about your products and services, and what are the words, thoughts and ideas that you use when describing your offering to yourself?

 

For many people, the idea of marketing is scary. You’re putting yourself out there – and like putting yourself out there in any situation, what you risk is rejection.

 

From people simply being rude when you send out an email or make a cold call, to people who are downright mean when you try to talk to them about your product or service, and probably the scariest of all, dealing with the fact that a lot of people are just plain going to say no to you, rejection is a bitter pill for any of us to swallow.

 

Probably the worst thing about rejection though, is that it slowly starts to erode away at your confidence, and that, in turn, starts making you doubt the value of what you bring to the table.

 

As you shrink further back, you also start taking on the negative criticisms that have been leveled at you, and you start believing them yourself, and this is a killer for many young and aspiring businesses, who only have one or two staff resources available to them – mostly because it’s extraordinarily difficult to pull yourself out of a slump like that.

So what’s the solution?

 

The simplest way for anyone to start looking at how they think about any situation in their lives, is to start paying attention to the words you use when you speak about that situation – especially the words you use when you speak to yourself inside your head.

 

What many people fail to realise, is that every time you have the voices of doom and gloom going on inside your head, you’re practicing for your next sales pitch.

 

This is purely because we are creatures of habit – and if you spend five to eight hours a day running over all the negatives in your head, practicing those trains of thought, that’s what’s going to come across, and probably even out of your mouth, when you do finally land that golden sales opportunity.

 

How do you turn it around?

 

Luckily there are a number of easy exercises you can do to influence and change the dialogue going on in your head.

The elevator pitch

 

Picture this: you step on to an elevator in a hotel, and a voice behind you says: “That looks interesting,” referring to the sample product you are carrying in your hands.

 

You turn around to look, and lo and behold it’s the CEO of the company you’ve been trying to get into for the past 3 years.

 

You now have his undivided attention for the next 30 seconds. So what are you going to say to him?

 

The elevator pitch is the greatest tool in any sales arsenal – it’s a 30-second condensed verbal pitch that covers the highlights and lowlights of what you have to offer, in a way that leaves your listener wanting more.

 

To write a successful elevator pitch, you need to ask yourself what the three or four most important points are that you would need to get across to a potential client, so that they are left curious and intrigued about your product or service.

Now, re-train your brain

 

There are more than a couple of ways that you can re-train your thinking patterns, and it’s important that you do this, so that you instill a pattern of positive thinking about your business endeavours.

 

If you’ve taken the time to write an elevator pitch, then that can be your first port of call here. Now, when the doubts and nagging voices rear their heads, what you can do is immediately launch into your elevator speech internally.

 

Alternatively you can make a list of benefits and features of your product that you carry with you, and when the voices kick in, what you do is refer to that list, or simply start running through the positives you remember in your head.

 

Another trick that’s worked well for many people over the years is to create a break state, or reminder. This can be anything, like jumping backwards or making a weird noise when the thoughts come rushing in. It could even be writing a positive statement that you want to focus on, on your arm, or somewhere else that will be a constant visual reminder.

 

Then, when the doubts and insecurities rear their heads, you can simply focus on repeating the positive statement to yourself.

 

One of the coolest things about these suggestions is that no one has to know what is going on in your head.

 

And hang tough, you’ve had years of practice of running yourself down, so sometimes it may take a few days, or even a week, of diligent practice before you get to the point where you begin to feel different.

 

What I can promise you though, is that it will make a difference, and you will start to feel better – much better in fact.

 

And once you feel better, that positive energy will start shining through, and your new-found confidence in your products and offerings is what will help you catapult your sales and marketing results onto a whole new level.

 

Words: 942

A note to the editor:

Dsignhaus is a B2B Marketing Services Agency with in-depth and specialist knowledge in the field of digital marketing.

Submission & Enquiries

Chemory Gunko

MD & Creative Director

Dsignhaus (Pty) Ltd

 

Tel: 011 025 4165

Cell: 082 224 2357

Email: chemory@dsignhaus.co.za

Web: www.dsignhaus.co.za

 

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