Soft Sell
The latest Dun & Bradstreet survey reveals why entrepreneurs are doing such a poor job marketing their businesses. Think you don't have enough money--or time--to do better? Think again.
In the 1992 movie "The Player," cynical movie
executive Griffin Mill dismisses a script with the comment,
"It lacked certain elements that we need to market a film
successfully."
Marketing experts might say the same about the marketing
approach taken by most entrepreneurs. According to a recent study
by international business information provider Dun & Bradstreet
(D&B), the typical entrepreneur is little more than primitive
when it comes to marketing. (For details about how the survey was
conducted, see "By The Numbers" on page 143.)
The survey found few small businesses use formal marketing tools
to identify new opportunities. Only about half prequalify customers
and prospects. Word-of-mouth marketing and referrals remain their
primary marketing means, while, for the most part, they spurn the
use of unsolicited e-mail and marketing through Web sites.
Generally, their sales approach is to react to customer inquiries
rather than to proactively reach out to prospects. And only about
one in five small businesses strategically plans how to market its
products and services.
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And entrepreneurs aren't arguing with the survey.
"I'm still one of the yahoos," says Robert Stephens,
founder of The Geek Squad, an 18-employee computer repair firm in
Minneapolis. Stephens, 29, rarely purchases market research,
qualifies customers as "anyone who has a computer
problem" and relies on word-of-mouth marketing for more than
half his sales.