Great Business Marketing Tip: Don't Let The Tires Crash Your Jumbo Jet

I want you to visualize a big 747 plane—big jumbo jet with whatever colors and emblems you want.

As big and complex as a 747 is, the success of its operation relies in great part on a few small things. Things like tires for example—at least small in relation to the size and cost of the whole plane. But what will determine whether this big bird delivers its 400 passengers to the airport terminal or to the city morgue depends on what happens when the tires make contact with the runway.

Think of this; the plane will be in the air for roughly 15 hours when it flies from Chicago to Tokyo, yet, the success or failure of the flight could be determined in the 4-5 seconds it takes for all the tires to be in contact with the runway.

Now, what does this have to do with you and your business? Everything. When we—the BizzBoosters—share this with the participants to one of our marketing workshops, many say it’s the most impacting ah-ha moment of the day when they get it.

The big 747 in our analogy is in fact your marketing: your plan, your massive investment of time and money in your communication tools, promo material, web site, billboards, memberships in networking groups and cost of attending events. For many entrepreneurs or professionals, it’s a huge deal. Like a big 747.

The runway is the marketplace—the place where you connect with someone in person, online, on the phone, or on paper. The tires are your points of contact—a time or place when you are in contact with someone else for the purpose of serving or marketing.

For example, if you’re an accountant working in your office 40 hours a week, there are not that many points of contact with your clients or prospects in that week, relatively speaking. A dozen short phone calls, meeting a few people at a breakfast event, a few visitors to your web site, a couple of people leaving a message on your voice mail. It’s a larger percentage of time than the 5 seconds compared to 15 hours in the example of the 747, but it’s still relatively small.

Yet, those points of contact are vital. Well executed points of contact can allow your business to soar like an eagle. Badly executed points of contact can make your business crash in flames.

No matter where you are in the development of your career or business or how much or little money you’re putting into your promotional material, it MUST be completely professional looking. Anything less will seriously hurt your credibility. If the first impression is unprofessional, it will take many subsequent contacts to erase that—if ever. Start on the right foot by making sure that at EVERY point of contact, ALL your basic marketing tools reflect a truly polished image.

Because people are selling ALL the time, and because people are buying ALL the time, your points of contact are EVERYTHING you do EVERYWHERE another human being is present, whether you are there with that person physically or not. Everything... everywhere... every time!

Here’s a very apropos text by Harry Beckwith, from his bestseller Selling the Invisible:
"Study your points of contact.
To get started, study every point at which you make contact with a prospect. Your business card. Your building / store / office. Your brochure. Your website. Your public appearances. A sales call or presentation. Be aware of your performance at each and every one of these points of contact—the moments that decide whether or not you get the business.

Then, ask: What am I doing to make a phenomenal impression at every point? Don't squander one point of contact. It may be your only one. The points of contact continue once the person becomes a client. The moments could be surprisingly few. A call here and there. A meeting now and then. Maybe just a few points of contact. Did you get everything possible from those points of contact? Did the client feel respected, impressed, delighted, amazed?

Study each point of contact. Then improve each one—significantly."

Great recommendation Mr. Beckwith. Thanks.

There’s no doubt you have to spend resources on that big 747 that is your marketing. But where too many people fail is they don’t spend enough time and energy on the tires—the points of contact.

I was reading recently this quotation from the CEO of a big European airline company... (I forgot which one…). But he was saying that to complete a transaction, each customer deals with about five employees on average. That’s all the chances you have to do better than the competition... Five fleeting moments... He went on to say that since his airline serves about 10 million customers a year, the success—or failure—of his business depends on how well—or how bad—things go at each and every one of those 50 million points of contact.

It is the BizzBoosters’ opinion that there’s no such a thing as a ‘neutral’ impression when you come in contact with people. You make a good one, or a bad one, with different degrees of course, but you make an impression every time, at every point of contact. Why not put all the chances on your side?

I wish you ALL the business success you desire and deserve. Remember that the success you desire is function of your ambition, but the success you deserve is function of your ACTION!

Daniel G. St-Jean
BizzBooster, and The Sparkplug of Personal Development
Author of 7 Simple Keys To Spark Change In Your Life Now!
Co-author of 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life – volume 2