Today’s post is a lesson to be learned.
FIRST…Just a quick reminder: The PREsuasion Chiropractic Manual will undergo a bit of price augmentation on August 15th. If you know of a chiropractor who wants to learn how to market effectively and with integrity, tell them to skip the gimmicks and order the PREsuasion Chiropractic Manual (5th Edition). Just click on Products, and then Books & Manuals. And if you scroll down through the product categories and click on chiropractic, you can browse our selection of chiropractic marketing materials.
Here We Go…
A gymnastic facility opened in the town of Happyville in 2006. Over the course of the last four years, Happyville Gymnastics did very well. The quality of their instructors and the way in which they operated their business was inspirational and second to none.
Their business continued to do well – even during some of the more challenging economic periods of the last four years. People might cut back on the number of nights they eat out for dinner, but they rarely cut back when it comes to their kids.
Still, the owner of Happyville Gymnastics wanted more. Rather than build the business on an already established solid foundation, the owner attended a marketing bootcamp that was presented by a well-known internet marketing guru, and soon thereafter – implemented a marketing system (so-to-speak) that was quite a bit “different.”
Happyville Gymnastics had never been known to offer “deals” or run “specials,” but after that marketing seminar, things started heading in a price-oriented (vs. value-oriented) direction. For example, the owner offered $10.00 off summer registration if you registered by April 30th, but then in mid May, ran another special that offered the entire summer for FREE if you registered for the fall by May 30th. The PROBLEM here is that most people who were going to keep their kids in the program throughout the summer were going to be registering for the fall. However, because the first offer had no mention of getting the summer for FREE (only $10.00 off), the folks who jumped at saving $10.00 basically got burned. And to make matters worse, the owner was very firm on his policy that – if you took the first offer, that’s what you got and there was nothing you could do about it.
After a great deal of protest by his customers, the owner caved and made things right. By that time, however, things were in the crapper. Like soccer moms, gymnastic moms all know each other and they all talk (a lot). Happyville Gymnastics was now known as the place that “wheels and deals.” This, in turn, called into question everything that made that gymnastics facility credible. In short, Happyville Gymnastics went from 4 star to a half star in just under one year. Remember a pretty girl who swears like a truck driver – quickly loses her beauty.
The Lesson: You can’t SAY that you’re a diamond, but then market yourself like you’re a clear piece of plastic. Like it or not, the only person you’re fooling is yourself. You can be the best brand on the block, but it only takes one gimmick to SHRED years of credibility.
Fair? No.
Deserved? Absolutely!
There’s are a number of professions that come to mind that are guilty when it comes to big claims that are married to gimmicks and scams. The underlying cause of this condition is typically the same – regardless of profession. The culprit: Lack of marketing strategy know-how.
As my friend Dr. Mike said to me just about 7 weeks ago, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” And it’s because many business owners don’t know, that they make numerous foolish mistakes. Receiving a degree in any field (yes – even business), DOES NOT mean that you know how to operate a business. Business owners must realize this, and then do something about it BEFORE they open their doors. Hiring people to teach them scams, gimmicks, and tactics is a reaction, and no different than putting a couple of pieces of masking tape over a large hole on the bottom of a row boat: It’s a temporary fix to a much larger problem.
The owner of Happyville Gymnastics was hungry, but wanted to satisfy his hunger in all the wrong ways. Going to a carnival and demonstrating how a magic knife can cut through an aluminum can and then slice a tomato…may be appropriate for a magic knife, but is less appropriate when attempting to sell a 2 carat, VVS1, F color diamond. You MUST know your product or service, and you must match product/service to the marketing, and the marketing to the product/service. Doing anything other than doing it right – will have you jumping from system to system to system. That’s no way to build and sustain a highly-profitable, highly-credible business.
Think about it.
Have A GREAT Day!
…Dr. Marc