I was chatting to a kitchen retailer a couple of weeks ago; talking through some marketing ideas for his business. We came up with some great strategies to generate more leads and win more work, but then he stopped me and said:
“Here’s the thing, David – ideas are not necessarily the issue; it’s putting them in place that’s the problem.”
It’s a simple statement. But to me, it’s profound in its ability to sum-up where so many kitchen businesses are at.
You see, many of us are not short of ideas on how to get more customers. Even if we are, it’s relatively easy to find someone who isn’t. (If that makes sense?!)
What’s often more difficult is finding the time and resource to get those ideas into place and implemented effectively.
If this all sounds familiar, I can assure you that you’re not alone – most independent kitchen retailers I know are in the same boat.
They’re out there on the road; doing site visits, surveys and putting quotes together. They simply don’t have the time to be in the office creating the marketing.
And when they DO find the time to enhance their marketing, it often takes far longer than it should, and it takes away from the time that they could be spending talking to prospective customers and making sales.
The solution?
I’m a firm believer in doing what you enjoy, doing what you’re good at, and doing what only you can do well in your business.
When I don’t know how to do something, or I don’t have the time and/or inclination to do it, I find someone who can do it instead. That approach generally pays off … often in truckloads.
The alternative? You don’t do anything.
But as we all know, if you don’t get yourself out there, and you don’t get in front of prospects, you’ll make less sales, so it’s not much of an alternative.
So, my message is simple: if you’ve got marketing ideas or strategies that you know should be in place - find a way of getting them done, with or without your involvement.
