The myth most business owners believe: The saying goes, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” As business owners we believe that the most important thing in our business is the product or service we are offering. We just know that our product or service is so superior to the competition's product that customers will just flock to buy it from us.
Why this myth causes a problem: Simply put–a business without customers is called a hobby! I too learned this one the hard way. When I opened my business 20+ years ago, I knew I was a good CPA so I felt I would do fine. Really, how hard could it be? So in the first month I picked up six clients and thought, “Wow! This is easy!” It then took six months to pick up the next client. That quickly taught me that concentrating on how good my service was just wasn’t enough.
The truth successful business owners learn the hard way! I was listening to a call that featured Bill Glazer (author of Outrageous Advertising That’s Outrageously Successful) who also a very successful business and marketing coach who stated it best:
“The biggest problem that business owners have when trying to increasing profits is that they are concentrating mainly on how great their product or service is. Yes, this is important, but the art and the trick of a successful business is not in the product or the creation of the product, but rather in the selling of the product. Most people think if they just create a great product, the world will beat a path to your door to buy the thing.”
He continues with this key point:
“If you have a great product and terrible sales and marketing, you will most likely make little or no money. If you have an average product and great sales and marketing, you will most likely make a ton of money. Of course it’s better to have both a great product and great marketing. “
Lesson learned: People need to buy your product or service before they can learn how great you are!