Tuesday, March 14, 2006

When The Most Brilliant Marketing is Not Enough

Yesterday, I went to a picture-taking place in the mall.  My wife's brother was in town with his family, and we wanted to get some pictures taken of our daughter with her cousin--ages 2 & 4 respectively.  

Well…

..all I can say is that the picture-taking place  had one slick marketing and sales operation…and I mean that in a nice way.

They had it all…brilliant upselling…a great customer-loyalty program…compelling offers…a 100% satisfaction guarantee.  

If I told you the name of this place, I would tell you to go there and observe their sales team.  As a marketing consultant, I can think of some things they could do better, but not much.  They had just about everything covered to maximize each sale and keep you coming back again and again.

There was just one problem…

…the photographer stunk.  

It became dreadfully obvious that this woman was clueless on how to take a picture…and we became painfully aware that she was not use to dealing with children (at a place that supposedly specialized in children’s photography no less!).  

In the end, because of time restraints, we ended up buying just 2 5 X7 pictures just so we’d have something.  We were prepared to spend much more money, but the quality of the photos just weren't there.

So, the big lesson for today’s blog is this…

…a well-done marketing and sales system can skyrocket your business, but only if you are  able to deliver the goods.  

To Your Continued Success,

Carlon Haas
www.carlonhaas.com

P.S. If anyone has a marketing question they’d like answered (no matter if you think it’s stupid), send it to me at carlon@earthlink.net.  I'll be answering questions from my readers every Friday.  

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