A message I start meetings with most potential clients is: “I can’t help you if you don’t have a good product.” Marketing cannot help a stone roll up hill but can help a stone roll downhill twice as fast.
You should not hire a marketing person if you product and service is terrible. Because it will be a negative return on investment. There maybe some short term gains but it will be causing medium and long term losses. Why is that? Because people talk. Word of mouth can be the best and worst form of advertising.
Word of mouth happens when you have a good product and good service. People like it so they tell others. That endorsement from a friend or family member carries more weight than most any medium of advertising has ever carried. But the exact opposite is true as well.
If someone has a bad experience they will tell their family or friends. Those family and friends are probably going to trust that person’s experience.
If customers are having a bad experience and you add some marketing into the mix, more people will come. More people coming and having a bad experience means more people talking bad about your business. This will end up you costing more than it makes you and it could be enough to close a business.
But if you have a bad product and you know it, you have an opportunity to start fixing it before it is too late. Knowing is half the battle. The other half is caring enough to do something about it. Don’t miss an opportunity to make a stark raving fan!
