This might sound very counterintuitive that a dedicated marketing automation agency & multi-certified consultant with so much experience & love for this subject is speaking against it to start with!
But trust me, this is probably the most important piece of information on this website that you are going to ready.
Here is the thing…
Marketing Automation, Sales Funnels, CRM, and a bunch of other Blah-Blah Tech Stacks (MarTech, SalesTech, AdTech, FinTech, etc.) are secondary in your business.
MALIK MERCHANT
Yes, that’s correct, I said that & you can quote me on that as well.
I have personally worked on over 250 such projects in the last 5 years – small, big & very large.
I have seen this again & again.
Instead of focusing on the most Basic, Fundamental & Mandatory parts of the business…most people these days focus more on fancy & flashy front-end things like…
- Which MarTech Stack we are going to use, and how many different tools we are going to add to the stack (so that it looks cool)
- Which CRM & ERP subscription we should buy
- Branding, premium fonts, logo & color palette that costs $5k to $25k and has no solid contribution to your revenue
- Spend weeks or even months on finalizing a designer email template that matches the so-called brand guide!
- Worry & panic about how perfect & pretty the website & mobile app looks
- Have 5 different sales funnels ready before you launch but they deliver no value whatsoever
- Subscribe for all the (useless & unnecessary) software tools they can buy (and hardly ever fully use)
- Have an email campaign with 50 emails & zero eligible prospects in the database
- Print expensive catalogs & brochures that are only focused on bragging about how good their company is (instead of focusing on your customer’s pain points & what you offer)
- And so on…
Let me tell you right now that none of the above matters in the first place.
In fact…I know at least 5 smart people who run multi-million dollar businesses without all the above fancy mumbo-jumbo, only with a simple, black & white WordPress website that I can create in 1 day!
But what they are doing is missed by the majority of business owners & especially the modern entrepreneurs, solo-preneurs, wanna-preneurs & fake social media brag-o-preneurs!
The list is very long and it will probably take me a few pages to cover everything but here is a small list of the most essential things that you need to worry about in your business instead of fancy marketing automation and sales funnels.
The Business/Brand USP
- What differentiates you from thousands of other businesses in your niche?
- What is that uniqueness about your business/brand that people remember or better – can’t forget!
- Or are you just one more domain on the internet & one more profile/page on social media websites?
Know The Market
- Do you exactly know what your market is looking for?
- Have you prepared a detailed list of pain points, wants & needs of your customers?
- Do you know what makes your customers pull out their credit cards & pay for the type of products or services that you are offering?
Your Core Offer/s
- What you are offering to your customers?
- Is your offer just a checklist or an irresistible package of benefits that your customers can’t wait to buy?
- What’s that one big problem that your product or service solves?
Ability to Deliver
- Are you actually able to deliver what you promise to your paid customers?
- Does your product or service fulfill the promises that your marketing material & salespeople made to sell it?
- Or are you making fake & over the top claims to trick your audience & make them buy?
Solid After Sale/Customer Service
- Do you treat your customers like a one-night stand or a lifelong friend?
- Do you care about them & keep in touch with them after the business transaction is over?
- Do you have a solid service team or network of people to offer support, if they face any issues once the product or service is sold?
And a lot more (coming soon)
Now don’t get me wrong. Technology is a critical part of any business in this internet age – be it online or offline. No one can ignore that fact.
But imagine this for a second.
You are constructing a 25 story building but the foundation is just 5 feet deep!
Do you think you can construct that tall building with such a weak & shallow foundation?
Hell NO.
Same with your business.
Here is the bottom line
Until & unless all the fundamentals are in place in your business, don’t even think about marketing automation, sales funnels, CRM, emails & other things!
If the fundamentals are in place, most of the other things will take care of themselves!
How many times you have actually seen business owners dedicating their time, efforts & money to these things? Not too many that I have seen.
What about your own business?
Anyways, next time when you are in the middle of a never-ending discussion in your company meeting about “what should be our brand identity & colors” just ask them to cut the crap & come to the fundamentals.
I’m sure that not too many people are going to like it but those who know how to build & grow a really solid business – will appreciate you for sure!
