Are you invisible to your customers?

I knew a man, Stan that did his advertising by just going door to door and saying “hello” and leaving his number in the hands of his potential client. Stan was very successful at this type of work. He made a good living for him and his family, putting his kids though college and set up a meager retirement for him and his wife. Stan started working on his business at the age of 18 and retired at 67. (49 years if you are doing the math.) This was longer than he was married! Knowing he was happy with his lot in life I asked him if he would do anything different.

Marketing? What’s that you say?

Stan looked at me and said quite seriously, “If I could have been in front of more customers for a longer time I would have, but there is only so many hours in a day.” I didn’t know what to say about that, I mean,

“Didn’t you leave material with the clients?” I asked him.

“Like what?” he asked.

“Business cards, brochures, pens with your name on them, anything like that?”

“No.” he said with a crest fallen look in his eye. “I never thought about that.”

Now I know he was an old school type of salesman and the internet was just being born when he was retiring, but I asked him what he thought of it as a marketing tool.

“That would have been the best thing in the world for me. I wouldn’t have needed to be on the road for 2 or 3 months at a time. I could have had my sales pitch in front of anyone interested in my services 24 hours a day 7 days a week! I could have been with my family more…”

Now you see me….

Stan’s story made me think, and remember what my business was all about… Visibility! If your customers can’t see you, they can’t remember that you are the one to be their “GO TO” person. If Stan could have been in front of his customers more often, he may have been the one the client went with for services. Something as simple as a pen that had his name and number on it, making it easier to remember and contact him would have helped. He could have duplicated his efforts of talking to his customers, by leaving a brochure with all his information on it at the very least, and what about a website that is working for your 24/7 365? . . . . What an idea! A Virtual Sales person doing all the pre qualifying for him so he could go and be in front of the customers that really wanted his product from the word go.

Just a small idea from someone wanting to make sure your business is visible to everyone that wants your services, and some that didn’t even know they needed them.