Why 99.99% Of Business Marketing Never Works On Me

"...I may not so much seek... to be understood as to understand"

- Excerpt of Peace Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

I get business marketing messages every day, on just about every platform.

Email, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

I used to try to respond to everyone and let people know that I am not interested in their services.

Over time though, it's gotten to be too much.

I simply can't keep up with the influx of messages.

These days if I see a message, I'll look and determine if it is worth finishing in about 1/2 of a second.

This means about 99.99% of the time (or more) I send the message to spam or don't respond to it.

How can I make that determination so quickly?

I can very clearly see that the sender doesn't understand me.

Failing To Understand

Often they make claims that don't speak to me at all.

"As you know, your social following determines your success."

"I know that 80% of your business comes from referrals."

"From what we can tell, you struggle with (XYZ problem) and we can help you fix it."

Not only are these common things I see frequently (or at least some variation), but none of them are even remotely true.

I know for a fact your social following doesn't determine your success, as I don't have a huge following but do exceptionally well.

I've also seen both people with huge followings that are doing terrible (Over 100k followers making less than $1,000 per month), and people with tiny followings (under 100 followers, who never post) who have exceptional 7+ figure businesses.

In my business, less than 20% of my business comes from referrals.

On top of this, the things people tell me that I must be "struggling" with, obviously haven't done any research into my life or business because I am not struggling with ANY of what they claim.

...Which is kinda crazy, because I write about myself and my business every single day, so it's not like it's a mystery!

It's obvious that none of these marketers understand anything about me.

I don't want to do business with people who don't take the time to understand what I need.

How It Leads To Failure

This is also a large part of the reason that most people struggle with their businesses.

80% will fail in 5 years.

94% will fail in 10 years.

Why?

They don't understand anyone, or anything, except what they "think".

They don't understand who they are marketing to.

They don't understand their clients.

They don't understand the people on their team.

They don't understand their industry.

Often they don't even truly understand themselves.

I know all of these are true because it is true of every person I work with - they all struggle with at "least" one of these (though most struggle with multiple of these at the same time).

If you don't take the time to understand anything outside of what you "think", you'll never succeed.

Or, in the (less than) 0.000000001% time people manage to find "one" success in their life without understanding, they'll never be able to find that success again.

Understanding is the cornerstone of lasting success.

People "know" if you understand them or not very quickly.

Never "assume" you know the answer, because nearly every time you do this, you will be wrong.

When you give an answer to something that isn't even a problem, you'll never be seen, never be heard, and you'll lose the game.

PS

Another fun tip for those marketing their services - your words are important.

I frequently find people say things like...

"Hey, I hope I'm not "Bothering" you!"

"I don't mean to be a "Pest"."

"Wouldn't want to "Disturb" your day."

If you are writing this, you're telling the reader that you KNOW you are being these things.

You are being a Bother to them.

You are being a Pest to them.

You have Disturbed their day.

If you were confident that you understood the person you were reaching out to, before reaching out to them, you would know that you aren't any of these things.

You wouldn't feel like you have to include those words.