Many painters fall into the trap of trying to start a business without having any kind of a business plan. Worse than that, when they finally do get one, it’s so haphazard that there is no way they’re going to get it to work. This article is going to be the first in a series of articles explaining what I consider the 5 most important things that you have to consider when promoting any kind of product or service. This first article will start off with the first P. I call it Purpose.
Imagine that you’re walking down the street. You run into some stranger. You’ve got this really great gizmo. You haven’t thought about how you’re going to approach the person or what you expect from him as far as reaction, should you stop him and tell him about your product. This is your first mistake.
What is your purpose? What do you want to happen from this confrontation? Do you want him to just take your gizmo and try it, no strings attached? If so, you better have a way for him to contact you to let you know how he liked it. That means having some kind of a business card to give him or something like that. Even a piece of paper with your name and number so he can call you.
Maybe you want him to buy it. Well, if you’re going to give him a sales pitch on the street, you better have one convincing sales pitch. Most people don’t buy things upon first look-see. They’re going to be very skeptical. Therefore, you will have to not only show this person everything that your gizmo does but also explain to the person why they need it. After all, what good is your latest gizmo if the person has no use for it?
What if what you want is simply to demonstrate the gizmo right there and let the person decide what course of action he or she wants to take? They may ask to bring it home to try, in which case you will need to provide that contact info, or they may want to buy it right there, which means you’re going to have to have a way to take their order. In other words, you have to prepare for either scenario.
The point I am trying to make here is this. You have to have a purpose, a game plan, some idea of what you expect to happen when you present your gizmo to this person. If you don’t know what you want to happen, when something DOES happen, you won’t be prepared for it. If you’re not prepared, you can lose the sale over something as simple as not having a way for the person to contact you after they have tried your product.
Once you know what your purpose is, the rest will fall into place a lot easier.
In our next installment, we’re going to cover our next P.
See you then.
