As has been stated in works ranging from the Bible to the Beatles, there is a time for every purpose. Sometimes the best course is to persist and push through the obstacle and sometimes the best course is to apply a little dose of patience. Here are some examples of when to practice persistence.
Be persistent in setting goals for your marketing programs. Better yet, make them intentions. How many unique visitors will you have at your website? How many inquires will you generate and how many of these will turn into legitimate sales opportunities? How many opt-in inquiries will you add to your database?
Be persistent in doing something every day to move your marketing and sales programs forward. You can always do a bit more to optimize the website, create more content, tighten your message, or figure out how to better add value to the selling process. My last blog post: 10 Minutes to Marketing Success will give you some additional ideas.
Be persistent in learning the new skills necessary to succeed in a changing marketing world. Since the web is such a powerful awareness and lead generation tool, anything you can learn about how it works is helpful. So are specialized skills such as search engine optimization (SEO) and lead generation techniques like pay per click (PPC).
Be persistent in your social media initiatives. Write that blog post, update your LinkedIn, or send some tweets, even when you don’t feel like it. Results in social networking don’t usually come quickly, but they will come if you stay the course.
This is plenty to be persistent about for now so let’s move on to the subject of patience.
Be patient in knowing that much of what you do will not have immediate impact. For example, it takes some time to set up a lead generation and follow-up machine that will crank out good results month-after-month.
Be patient in sticking with your marketing message. It may feel like it is old and stale to you but that is because you are exposed to it daily. You need to practice consistency and repetition until your prospects and customers are very familiar with your message.
Be patient in letting prospects buy at the pace they deem appropriate. You can cut your effective sales cycle dramatically by having a great website full of useful information, and by presenting all the information necessary to help them make the right decision (buying from you of course). But there are times when pushing too hard, too quickly, will push would-be buyers away.
Be patient with others’ impatience, especially when they demand more than you are able to deliver, more quickly than is feasible.
Although vastly different attributes, patience and persistence are definitely a winning combination in marketing.
One of the toughest mindsets to overcome — whether it’s one mistakenly held internally or by a client eager for success — is the “lightning strike” expectation of success that, ironically, really holds us back in all of our most important endeavors.
Good post, Chris.