I’ve been thinking about writing this for quite a while, but have been holding back and I’m not sure why.
I am operating a small business in the massive industry of mental health and I often find myself saying to people, “How do I let potential clients know about what I am doing and trust that I am doing it well?”. I have a website, a direct marketing agency and a social media team that attend to platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. Yet still I find myself struggling to get my messages out there, amidst the competition from organisations such as ICAS and other EAP service providers.
I think it’s a bit like the balance in your bank account – if you have a big one you can get access to lots more but if you have a small one, you can hardly get an extra cent. I think human nature is such that people want to go with the well-known brands rather than risk trying out something new. I myself am a bit like this. For example, when I travel on the road and need to stop in a small town for a break and a coffee, I tend to look for a Wimpy or a Mugg ‘n Bean before trying out Ouma se Koffie Huis. So I get it.
The problem is that the small fish start resorting to anything to get attention – and yet still they struggle. Even offering things for free can fail to get the deal. Money-back guarantees can fail to get any attention. And then there is making your offering too cheap, which leads to people thinking that it is obviously sub-standard! Have you ever bought something purely because it was the most expensive of the selection with the rationale that it must be the best?
In today’s society we have the added challenge of there being a number of skelms out there ready to make a quick buck off an empty product. This leads people to be generally suspicious of something small, new, and relatively untested. It doesn’t matter if it costs R100.00 or R100 000.00, no-one wants to be ripped off – and so, again, people tend to stick with what they know!
To all the small fish out there, I understand your pain.
To all the clients out there, I encourage you to take a chance on a smaller fish and move out of your comfort zone… trust me, this is often where the magic happens!
Take care everyone.
Lesley
p.s. If you are interested in hearing some feedback from clients that have taken a chance on me, take a look at the Testimonials page … I promise, these are real words from real clients!