Fear of Failure: For a Marketer, It’s the Kiss of Death

Susan B. Anthony was once quoted as saying "Failure is impossible". And you know what? I believe she was right because regardless of the outcome of whatever action you take, in anything you do, you always gain something from taking action.

On the other hand, fear of failure typically shows up as procrastination or inactivity which is the complete opposite of what fosters great marketing which for most of us requires properly targeted consistent and persistent action.

Now maybe you tried some marketing, even worse maybe you spent some of your hard to come by, hard earned money and didn’t quite achieve what you ultimately set out for.

As a marketer, and yes whether you realize it or not we are all marketers, if I was afraid to fail, I’d probably never try anything – unless of course it was a sure thing and I don’t believe anything in life is a ‘sure thing’. But anyway, if I never tried anything, I believe it would be safe to say that my target audience would not know who I was or what I do. Then as a result I’d most likely go out of business due to lack of sustainable income.

Now I’ve read the studies too that state the lack of capital as the main reason most small businesses fail however, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that although I can’t prove it, I believe one of the biggest reasons business fail or underachieve is due to lack of effective marketing.

The key here is to not be attached to an outcome. So what if customers weren’t banging down your door because of your last marketing campaign. What’s most important here is what you do going forward. The past is the past, you can’t change that. You can however, shape your future by what you do right now in the present.

Stay in the game. Learn from your previous marketing efforts and move forward.

Now marketing is all about timing and consistency and since timing is almost impossible to predict, consistency is key. You cannot know when every prospect is going to be ready to buy – that’s just impossible. It’s almost like trying to time the stock market. "Should I invest now? No. Should I invest now? No. How about now? Yes, it looks good, I’ll invest now." Waiting for what seems to be the perfect time to invest is for the most part just like gambling. Hopefully you’re at least taking educated guesses there though, but that’s beside the point. Also note that even the best of the best investors regularly have bad timing however, their consistency and willingness to keep playing eventually bring them success.

So yes I’m drawing a parallel for you here. And my point is just get on the playing field. Get you marketing message out there consistently. Don’t sit back and wait for the perfect time to market your business – NOW is the perfect time! It’s always the perfect time to market your business because there is simply no way you can know when the perfect time is for everybody. However, by consistently getting your message out there to your target audience, you stand a much better chance of being top-of-mind when a certain prospect is ready to buy.

For example, if I sent out the same marketing piece every month, maybe for the first 4 months a particular prospect wasn’t interested. But then that 5^th month rolls around and that prospect’s situation has changed a bit for whatever reason unknown to me, they now just happen to need what I offer and ‘whalla’ there I am positioned right in front of them.

Another key point to consider is that each ‘no’ brings you one step closer to a ‘yes’. So being told ‘no’ should not be looked at as a failure, but as a stepping stone bringing you closer to what you want.

So let me close by combining wisdom from 3 sources for you, former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Nike, and Lotto and it goes something like this: "There is nothing to fear but fear itself" so "Just Do It" because "You’ve got to be in it to win it"!

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