We can come up with all kinds of reasons why things don’t work.

We can take in a ton of information, learn as much as we can and grab hold of all the tools we can find.

And none of it will matter.

Because we aren’t committed.

We have a toe in the water.

A foothold here and another one here.

I am just as guilty of it as you are.

It’s all about fear.

Marketing tries to help people deal with this fear.  Do this and you will be ok.  Buy this and everything will be alright.  Go here and forget about everything.  And that’s not a bad thing if it helps people get over the hump in the short term.

But you and I have a business to run.

And we know how marketing works.

300 your business.

Get committed to doing one simple thing into that will make a difference for your small business.  Whether its making 10 cold calls a day or asking for daily referrals or partnering with a talented colleague, make it happen.

Be a pro.

Be a Spartan.

And watch what happens.

Wow.  Here is the take from TechCrunch.

Let’s say you’re a small business owner and you procrastinate.  A lot.  Well, you’re in luck.  There is still time to get in on the American Express Small Business Saturday campaign.  To get started, go here and sign up.

Believe it or not, here are a lot of people out there who would rather buy from you than an impersonal, packed full of crazies box store.  Take a few minutes and take advantage of this promotion but be realistic.  This is about American Express pushing their brand more than anything else.  But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some ways you can’t smartly take advantage of it for yourself.

Know that American Express does NOT limit the promotion to businesses that accept its card and that it does offer special bonuses like a $25 statement credit for card holders who shop at participating stores today.

Also, there are some cool free tools you can get that are perfect for the holiday season like $100 in free LinkedIn ads and the exposure you get from participating in a campaign “liked” by more that 2.4 million Facebook users.  Go to the page here.

Start by liking that page.  Then click on For Your Biz on the left navigational menu.  The free Facebook ads are gone but you can still get free in-store signs, digital marketing materials and LinkedIn ads to use AFTER the holiday weekend.  If you post an in-store sign, email a picture of it to AmEx at socialmedia@open.com to potentially have it posted on that Facebook page.

To get the digital marketing materials, click on the Get E-Marketing button (who says e-marketing anymore? AmEx that’s who), then the Print Yourself button and download the .ZIP file.  Warning: it’s not intuitive at all.  Your marketing materials are contained in the print materials package.

AmEx either thinks you’re an idiot or lazy because they have put together an email message, Facebook posts and tweets for you to send out about the event.  There are links to create a Facebook Business page using the Small Business Saturday page creation wizard if you are still living under a rock and don’t yet have a page on Facebook.

Good luck!

The truth can be ugly.

Nothing changes unless you allow it to happen.

After hundreds of hour with hundreds of small business owners and I can tell you that there are only a handful who truly want to learn anything new, especially anything new about marketing.  Add “online” to that and the numbers get even lower.

Why is that?

Why is there resistance to something so fundamental as marketing?

I’ve identified five main reasons.

The biggest reason is that it’s  not tangible.

It’s conceptual and therefore not respected.  It seems like all talk and a bunch of gobbledygook.  Especially if it doesn’t translate immediately into sales.  If a small business owner doesn’t see an instant benefit to himself he is not going to listen.  He simply doesn’t have the time.

The second reason is that most small business owners, if they are truly honest with themselves, really don’t want to grow. Doesn’t that sound strange?  But it’s true if you think about it.  Growth means more work, more responsibilities, more stress.  And not everyone is equipped to handle that.  And that’s ok.  We just need to be honest about it.  Because it’s not somebody else’s fault. It’s not your partner or your employees.  Buck up.  It’s you.

The third reason is that small business owners are often very averse to anything they don’t understand right away.  They simply don’t see themselves having  enough time to learn so they push new stuff away.  If something is a bit hard or confusing they go back to what they know.  What they miss is if they can’t just bust through that. If they can catch a little insight or a tip, it can make a massive difference.  I’ve seen it and it’s true.

The fourth reason is they view everything in terms of themselves and not through the eyes of the customer.  They will spend a ton of money on their store and on making their website pretty but they never ask themselves if it truly will appeal to their customers.  They think features and not benefits.  Or they don’t want to know where there customers really are and what they are doing and the tools they need to reach them.

The final reason is a very, very simple one.   They just don’t understand that everything today is marketing.  The world simply offers plenty of everything and it’s everywhere – at the touch of a button or on your phone or down that street. How are you going to compete with that?

Marketing.

That and being willing to learn.

It’s  not easy.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am not saying this stuff is easy.  It will suck at times.  You have to really make a concerted effort to change how you do things and you will make mistakes.

But that one  insight, once you have it down,  once it is in your DNA, can make a huge difference for you and your business.

Sometimes it’s just all about being at the right place, at the right time, to really embrace a new way of doing things.

If you would like to join me on November 17th for a night of learning from some amazing Orange County small business owners at a beautiful Spanish villa in Santiago Canyon, then come to TEDxIrvine.

Creative marketing at its best.

There are two dealerships that I would recommend to a friend.  One of them I am going to talk about next week.  The other is wherever Dianne Whitmire is working.

And right now she is with Carson Toyota.

This is a blog about marketing a small business in Orange County so it may seem a little off topic to be talking about selling cars.

However so much of what marketing comes down to is delivering on a brand promise.

And for Dianne Whitmire, who has built up a reputation as the “High Priustess” of Prius car sales, that personal brand promise is selling you a car with honesty and integrity.

Dianne defies the lazy, negative stereotype of your typical car salesperson.

She starts talking and right away she disarms you.  There is no smooth chit chat but there is probing.  She is trying to determine your needs.  And she wants to get the deal just right.

She strives for (okayI’ll say it) a win/win.  She does NOT see you as an adversary but as someone she can help.  She believes you NEED her help.  And you know what?  She’s right.

Despite all the information at the consumer’s fingertips, he or she will still not know as much as the person selling the car.  And that is power.  Power that more often than not (what do you think 95% of the time?) gets abused.  It is what gets you into a crappy car, with crappy financing and crappy service.

Dianne tells it like it is.  She hold nothing back.  Both the good news and the bad news.  And she goes out of her way (I mean WAY out of her way) to make things happen for the buyer.  I stay in touch with her and often times late at night she will still be working either at the dealership or driving home from a personal delivery.

Her knowledge of car specifications, her network of contacts and her experience in financing makes her a true master at her craft.  Not only that, but it is abundantly clear that she loves her work.  It makes sense.  She’s very good at it.

She took her knowledge of the Prius and turned it into complete domination of the site PriusChat.com Just go there and read some of the reviews.  You know you have a reputation when someone posts “Yet Another Thread to Thank Dianne Whitmire”.

There are very very few Dianne Whitmires out there.  As I said earlier, I know another of this type that I will discuss next week, but they are rare.  And the lesson to be learned is that success is harder than it looks.  Delivering on promises is difficult.  It’s why most people take the easy way and skip out on that kind of responsibility.   But a Dianne Whitmire thrives on that kind of responsibility because it is simply in her DNA.  It’s not a personal brand promise so much as just who she is.  So if you can find a Dianne, you should consider yourself very lucky.

Dianne Whitmire can be reached at 310 522 2317 or on her cell at 949 689 0717.  If you call her and end up buying a car, just mention OCBizBlog you will get a $100 Gas Card!