You may think youre in the software business, but thats not all. You may think youre in the retail business but theres more to it than retailing. You may consider yourself to be in the manufacturing business, but youre more than merely a manufacturer. No matter what business your business card or Web site says youre engaged in, youre really in three businesses: your primary business, the marketing business, and the people business. Every business in the world must sell what it is offering. When that happens, youre in the marketing business. If you havent realized that before, you need to clearly understand this before your business can succeed. Youve got to market what you sell to your employees, to your salespeople, to your distributors, and suppliers, and most importantly to your customers. All these people can help you move your business forward. It is important that you focus on your primary business to create quality, value and desirability. Instead of focusing on diversification and expansion, your focus should be on finding way that you can better serve your niche market. This is where many businesses fail. They always want to expand and diversify before they have first become the best in their niche market. For example, in the early 90s Gerber Baby Food put their name on other items created for babies, non-food items. They thought because of the Gerber name that they could succeed in any baby-related field. It ended up costing them millions of dollars in losses to realize that the Gerber name was related to baby food only and not to babies. Their failure to focus on their niche was an extremely expensive mistake. Another example was when Coca-Cola decided to go outside the soft drink industry and purchase a winery. Coke thought they were experts in all beverages, but they found out they were wrong. The winery failed and coke ended up selling it. They learned that just because they were experts in the soft-drink industry that didnt make them experts in every other beverage business. The important lesson here is that if youre going to be successful, you must focus 100% of your attention on your business. Instead of diluting your focus on diversity and expansion, you should be sharpening your marketing skills as well as your people skills. As you are always in the marketing business, you are always in the people business as well. Even if you have a Web site where you do nothing but affiliate marketing or you work in an office with no customer contact you still at some point will have contact with other people. The people around you, such as your employees, salespeople, and distributors must sense your enthusiasm, share your vision, and get onto your wavelength. People must be aware of why they should purchase what youre selling. If you lack crucial people skills, all the best marketing in world wont help you because it is real people who will end up buying or not buying what you offer. If you dont know what turns them on, you wont be successful. When you focus on your business the majority of that focus needs to be on your marketing. You have to become as much as an expert in marketing as you are in your own field. This is never more evident than with a Web site. Unless you know marketing and the need for fast response time, individual attention, and continually fresh online presence, having a Web site will only be an invitation to frustration. Even if youre an expert in the field of marketing, if you dont know people, youre in for a lot of trouble. People make the product. People provide the service. People buy your product. People purchase your service. No matter what you do or produce, eventually it all comes down to people. If you dont know that youre in the people business, you will not succeed. The key to success in business today is no longer mass marketing. Instead, its individual marketing. Businesses that are successful in the 21st century will be those that realize theyre not just in their own primary business but that theyre also in the marketing business and the people business as well. The sooner you realize this and focus on all three, the sooner your business will rise in profits. |
