Scott: There are a zillion marketing books and methods out there. What makes Gravitational Marketing different?
Jim: We don't focus on theory and fluff. We get right down to business and we're not afraid to talk about making people buy. We talk about things that make people come to you and make the cash register ring. We focus on lead generation, which is so frequently overlooked.
Travis: Most other marketing advice assumes you already have a flow of leads. What good is a sales strategy if you don't have anyone to sell to? This book is about naturally attracting prospects without the traditional hard sell approach and without the wasted time, energy and cash of traditional marketing.
Scott: Why now?
Jim: Consumer confidence and consumer attention are at an all time low. Clutter, confusion and lack of time are at an all time high. In order for any business owner, entrepreneur or sales professional to compete today they are going to have to do something different. This is the foundation of what will work in today’s “instant economy.”
Scott: What’s the biggest mistake business owners commonly make in their marketing?
Travis: Limiting. Most entrepreneurs limit their marketing and limit themselves for that matter. They think small, instead of thinking big. Marketing should be infinitely scalable and economical. Marketing should be an investment. That’s why choosing a marketing budget is a foolish idea. It’s limiting.
Scott: How can they do it better?
Travis: You should choose a test budget and if that test budget produces a return on investment you should invest more into marketing. Most entrepreneurs say, “This is all I have to spend and that’s it.” That’s a myopic vision of the potential of the business.
Scott: But doesn’t that assume that your production and delivery is scalable? Most businesses can’t scale smoothly – at some point there’s a big leap. Even online businesses – just ask anyone who’s ever been Slashdotted or made the first page of Digg only to have their server crash from the load. So if you scale up your marketing too much beyond your capacity to deliver and service your customers, can’t it actually backfire? Isn’t there such a thing as “too much marketing”?
Jim: I don’t believe that there is such a thing as too much marketing and a scalable system is never bad. There is such a thing as too fast marketing, but that’s a blessing not a curse. Most businesses only wish they had that kind of an issue.
You see, having a scalable system gives you the opportunity to increase business at will. A well developed Gravitational Marketing system should allow you to scale your growth linearly. You’ll know by putting this much money into the system, you’ll get X number of leads, which based on your current sales system, lifecycle and closing ratio should deliver X number of customers.
You should always test small. By doing so you’ll never be surprised with some enormous level of business you can’t handle. Although this controlled growth can be a detriment as well because some pretty amazing business breakthroughs, shortcuts and innovations come from unexpected and difficult situations that test a business owner’s ingenuity and creativity.
Scott: One of the ideas you promote strongly in the book is marketing automation – making it so that humans, particularly the business owner, don’t have to do as much by hand. But with the growing popularity of social networking and social media, it seems there’s even more of an emphasis on personal relationships and direct personal contact than ever before. How do you reconcile that?
Jim: We agree with you. Successful marketing is ALL about relationships. People do business with those they know, like and trust. So, social media is a welcome addition to the marketing toolbox. We believe that marketing automation and systematic communication can actually help you build stronger personal relationships with your core audience by allowing you to communicate with them with more frequency than you would if you didn’t have automatic processes in place.
Marketing automation allows you to sift and sort your leads and prospects so that you’re left with more time to build meaning personal relationships with those people who will pay more, stay longer and refer repeatedly. These are your raving fan base.
Scott: You guys got your start at an ad agency working with car dealerships. Tell me a little more about that.
Jim: It was fierce, competitive and about one thing…today’s results. The automotive business is the most fiercely competitive retail environment in the world and it’s like the Wild West. In this arena consumer confidence and trust is as low as it can go and the clutter is through the roof and we went from hero to zero every weekend depending on how many cars were sold. We learned how to be successful in this environment and that experience has helped us created the systems and processes we teach our clients today.
Travis: While at the agency, we helped dealers sell what was perceived to be the worst car in America. We had to erase the preconceived notions the dealers had in their mind about who the vehicle was for and help them find the people who wanted these vehicles and create a GPS (Gravitational Positioning Statement) that resonated with that audience.