How Sam Lost It All

“The most likely person to get scammed is the guy who *most recently* got scammed. Why? He believes in magic pills and quick fixes.” — @BowTiedBull (Twitter)

A successful businessman recently reached out to me. After years of success in one business, he decided to try his hand in the emerging marijuana sector.

2 years in, it wasn’t going well. We jumped on a Zoom, I could tell his voice was full of shame, and he said to me with frustration in his voice:

“Phillip, I don’t know what to do. I’ve tried everything I possibly can, and our company is going under because we still don’t know who our customer is, and the previous marketing firm screwed us over. I’m out more money than I know what to do with. I need help, but I don’t have the money to fix this.”

I looked at this guy, his name was Sam, and my heart just broke for him because I’ve seen and met a million people like Sam — and I could see Sam going home every night and staring at his family and wondering how in the hell was he going to continue self-funding this losing venture.

When I think of Sam, I am brought back to the hundreds of business owners I’ve met in the past few years with amazing business ideas but lack the understanding of how to run a successful marketing campaign. They spend their marketing dollars on a hope and a prayer — “a hope” that this one marketing campaign will be a magic pill for their business — and “a prayer” that their delusion will become reality.

It. Never. Does.

It’s frustrating as hell for me too. When I wake up each day, I know I’m fighting for the Sam’s of the world.

As I write about in “The Undefeated Marketing System”, the Fortune 1000 companies have figured it out. They became Fortune 1000 companies because they committed to building a long-term data-backed marketing strategy for their business. They didn’t chase shiny objects thinking they were going to get rich quick — they committed to a proven marketing formula, and that long-term commitment led to their massive growth.

After 25 years in the marketing world, I can personally attest that 98.3% of business owners are not truly “committed” to their marketing. They are only “interested” in the get-rich-quick marketing fallacy.

What does “interested vs. committed” really mean?

Here’s the difference between a business owner who’s “committed” to their marketing success versus someone who’s “interested.” The “committed” business owner uses a proven marketing system to build a business over 2–5–10 years….while the interested business owner is constantly chasing the hot marketing trend or idea — and hoping it strikes a big return (never realizing their customers probably aren’t even paying attention to those foolish tactics). They think, “I should have this new Facebook ad up tomorrow because my marketing agency told me it will give me a huge return,” when they don’t even know if their customers or clients are buying products or services on Facebook.

When the inevitable marketing failure happens, the “interested” business owner quits or decides to chase a different shiny object.

So let me pose a question to you…when it comes to your marketing, are you interested or committed?

This is a question I pose to almost all entrepreneurs that personally ask me to help them market their business.

Why do I ask this question?

Because I come from the political marketing world. In politics, commitment is everything. Political marketers are working on incredibly stressful timelines with a specific endpoint: Election Day. If they don’t act quickly, commit to a data-backed marketing plan and win, they’re out of a job.

For example, during a recent election for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, two candidates went head-to-head: Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and Democrat, Rita Hart.

The race was extremely tight.

Over a five-month campaign, these two candidates combined to spend $6.4 million on their marketing. On Election Day, there were 393,922 total votes cast in the election.

Mariannette Miller-Meeks beat Rita Hart by 6 votes. That’s right, 6 votes.

Think about that.

What if you had five months to run a marketing campaign for your company, and at the end of that five-month period, either you or your top competitor would be #1 in the marketplace…and the loser would essentially be put out of business….

And it came down to a total of 6 transactions.

If the stakes were that high and your business was on the line, how committed would you be? Would your marketing be focused on an unproven slick digital marketing fad or would you take the proper steps to understand where your customer goes online, what they care about, and what will draw them into your product or service?

A race decided by 6 votes? Those are the stakes in the political marketing world. The sand is constantly shifting, and any political marketer who can’t adapt, innovate and commit to the right marketing plan will be buried by the competition — fast.

Business isn’t quite so cutthroat, but maybe it should be.

What would happen if you changed the paradigm of marketing your business? What if you adopted the political marketers’ formula — that I walk through HERE and HERE — to follow the right approach utilizing customer or client data, and being committed to your marketing — the way George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden committed to theirs?

Here’s another difference between someone who’s “committed” to their marketing success versus someone who’s “interested”….the “committed” business owner uses consumer data, follows a proven marketing success formula, and commits to seeing their marketing through to the end. On the other hand, the interested business owner wonders why spending $1500 didn’t convert a 10x return and then quits.

Sam quit.

He chased the marketing scam that is affecting so many small business owners right now — that the winning lottery ticket is just one click away.

By the time Sam realized his mistake, it was too late. He abandoned his business venture after nearly sinking every last dollar of his savings into it. He’s looking for a job now.

Interested or committed?

Just ask Sam if he wishes he could have that choice again.

PS — To read my best-selling book, The Undefeated Marketing System — How to Grow Your Business and Build Your Audience Using the Secret Formula that Elects Presidents, click HERE.

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