No Such Thing As Failure
“There is no such thing as failure, only results, with some more successful than others” – Jeff Keller (Author, Attitude is Everything).
This quote couldn’t be more true – especially in marketing. Marketing efforts are all truly just big experiments. Some of them turn out exactly as planned, and some of them go in a direction you hadn’t expected or thought of.
This is one reason I love business – it’s results oriented. You try something, it works – fantastic! If you try something and it doesn’t work – you know pretty quickly that you need to tweak it.
Let’s put this in the context of a marketing message. Let’s say you’re launching something new in your business. You put together a marketing message and no one responds. Oy! We all hate that!
But, when that happens, instead of thinking people just aren’t interested, take a look at your marketing message. Could you have made the headline more connective? Did you ask your niche for input on the program, or the marketing message? Does your message leave any unanswered questions?
A really great thing to do when creating your marketing messages is ask a trusted group of friends for feedback. Specifically, ask them: Does this message speak to your challenges around (the area the product or service addresses)? And, do you have any questions about the offer?
See what responses you get back and then tweak your message. Produce it again and see if the results change.
This week, I invite you to strike the word “failure” from your vocabulary. If you try something that doesn’t work out – it’s ok – you can always tweak it and try something different!
Is there something in your marketing efforts that isn’t working? If so, who can you ask for feedback? Why not ask here, at the blog? There are many amazing entrepreneurs that read this blog and would be happy to assist you!
December 17th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
I totally resonate with this Jenn. Fear of failure can be so paralyzing but if everyone would just realise there is no such thing as failures - just plans that do not work as well as they could! It is all just feedback, which if you can listen to without judging yourself, will only make you better and stronger and more primed for success in the future. Learn from your “mistakes” but do not judge them.
December 17th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Oh - Katherine, I love this:
“It is all just feedback, which if you can listen to without judging yourself, will only make you better and stronger and more primed for success in the future.”
It’s all just feedback… and feedback definitely isn’t as scary as failure.
I love that you point to listening to ourselves without judging. Aren’t we always so hard on ourselves? If we talked to our friends the way we sometimes talk to ourselves… we wouldn’t have very many friends!
December 19th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
That’s a great perspective to look at marketing from!
December 20th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Each person defines failure differently. Just because something did not work the way we planned it to work, does not mean it failed. It just needs a bit of overhaul! In my opinion, if your attempts at whatever it is you are doing did not produce the results you wanted . . . you did not fail. As with all things in life, I think that FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION! We just choose to travel a different path when the original path did not lead us where we thought it would! Try, try and sometimes try again and there will never be the option of failing.
Carol Deckert, Networking Coach
Referrals Unlimited Network
http://www.runlancaster.com
December 30th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
I believe that when something doesn’t work they way we expect, that is a learning experience for us. Because then you have learned what may not be working for your market or maybe it is that the message needs to be “tweaked” a bit. One idea when this happens is to do a survey to get a collection of responses from your ideal clients to see what they are looking for. You may have just gotten the day or time incorrect and that is an easy fix. Maybe what you are thought your clients wanted or needed isn’t on mark….however, this is a good way to find out. I say, “Don’t worry about failing…because without trying you will have NO idea if it is possible. And if something doesn’t work the first time…that is just one thing. Don’t give up on yourself and what you want. You are worth having what you want in life!”