The Biggest Mistake “Semi-Successful” Marketers Make

I want to take this opportunity to discuss the biggest mistake that semi-successful marketers make. I say ‘semi-successful’ because technically these marketers could be making lots of money, but they’re not ‘uber-successful’ because they are not realizing the full-potential of their business. 

The biggest mistake semi-successful marketers make is that they are too intent on what THEY want and not what their CUSTOMERS want. This is especially true of services marketing. Your objective should be to provide your clientele with what THEY want provided that it’s profitable for your business. If they want something different than what you offer, adapt your business model to ensure that you are providing your customers with what they want.

It’s easy to get lost in what’s most convenient for you, and if you’re getting super wealthy off of it then by all means keep going, but great services companies continue to LISTEN to what their customers want and provide them with those solutions in order to continue to grow and leverage their business.

Because of the fact that these semi-successful entrepreneurs are typically making some decent cash it is easy to get lost in that notion, easy to have a bit of an ego, etc. When this starts happening they become less likely to LISTEN to their customers because they attribute making money to being successful — and while to some extent this is true, it doesn’t mean they’re maximizing the potential of their business.

All of this becomes especially true if your company relies on varying demographics of people.

Example:

Let’s say I mow lawns for a living. I have a service where I will mow your lawn for $30 bucks every month provided you sign a 6 month deal with me, and that’s my only option.What if a young married couple has an atrocious yard. The husband has been bogged down at work and hasn’t had the opportunity to mow it lately, and his father in law is coming to dinner for the weekend and already thinks he’s a bum. Since he usually mows his yard (albeit maybe not very well), but this time he wants a really GREAT job done just this once.

Well, obviously I don’t have an option for him. He doesn’t want to pay for 6 months that he’s not going to use. Wouldn’t make sense for my lawn mowing service to have a one-time-fee of something like $45 dollars?

This is a relatively crude example, but do you see what I’m getting at?

In marketing, especially in services marketing, leave the ego and what you want at the door and make certain that you’re providing your clientele with what they want or you will be making the biggest mistake a semi-successful marketer makes. What is your take? Do you agree? What do you think is the biggest mistake a semi-successful marketer makes?