I’ve been thinking this week about how people market themselves and their businesses – or not - and, in particular, missed opportunities.
I was looking for a particular company I wanted to contact about what they offer. It’s a small business offering a product that is readily available elsewhere and I soon found that this particular company has an extremely powerful UNSP (Unique NOT Selling Point!).
I had the company name and knew the name of the Managing Director, so I dived into Google (after all I don’t own the Yellow Pages for their area and anyway Googling feels more like letting my fingers do the skateboarding), and, sure enough, it was listed. I clicked the link into an online business registry and found the postal address along with a description of the services provided – no phone number or website though. I dredged through several other similar sites and they were listed in all of them but with no contact details other than their postal address. Not one to give up easily I decided to try social networking. Nothing on Facebook or Twitter, but then, Bingo! The MD has a Linked In profile - great? Not so great! Same results as before, description of services and products but absolutely no way of getting in touch quickly…
Don’t get me wrong, I love writing to friends and family and will always find a place for paper and pen, but I certainly don’t want to wait for snail mail to make a purchase or an enquiry when several thousand other sources are available right now.
I gave up – one customer lost (and slightly niggled!).
We’ve all heard that high street sales are suffering because of online shopping and almost all UK businesses now have a website because almost all UK people are surfing the web every day so why wouldn’t we take advantage?
I think freelance training consultants can learn from this – if someone wants to find you, let them!
Not only that, tell them you’re here, who you are, what you offer and why to use you, in as many ways as possible.
We can’t control the market but we can certainly display our goods!
By the way, are you listed in Find a Trainer yet??