Momentum alone can sustain your customer relationships for years or even decades at a time. Your customer service is adequate, or better. You keep your promises. Your products or services are consistent within themselves, and within the marketplace at large. Your customers are busy, and looking around to replace you isn’t a priority.

Then your buyer changes job position, retires or maybe even dies. Or the world around you evolves as new technologies are gradually (or even suddenly) adopted and what you do becomes irrelevant.

The problem with momentum is unexpected change. Sorry, but your business will change, whether you like it or not.

Some business models are centered around large amounts of disposable income or fads. They all evaporate under dry conditions. Don’t look for momentum here, unless your market niche is extremely focused. (That’s a hint…)

Keeping momentum going is usually easier than getting it started. That’s especially true in a difficult market environment. So focus on strategies that create momentum and/or ease the process of creating. Here’s one:

Strategy One: Create a Business Strategy Based on Honesty
Be honest. No, I don’t mean be honest with your customers and follow local codes. That’s a given.

To gain momentum, you must be honest about your business, your skills, knowledge, talents and gifts. Your company’s products and services must similarly follow suit. No amount of hallucination and no marketing strategy can replace what’s lacking or what the competition clearly does better.

On the other hand, a business with real substance at the center has a fighting chance to get a foothold, to build momentum. For many of us, this can go deep. What’s your true purpose in life? What are your blessings and what is your misson? So asks Tim Kelly in his book: True Purpose: 12 Strategies for Discovering the Difference You Are Meant to Make
And please, please don’t roll out one of those trite “mission statements” that became so popular in the 90s.

Is “purpose” a marketing strategy? There is none better. Will you still need other marketing tactics and strategies? Probably so. And they’ll be clear and simple to implement with honesty at their core.

Stay Tuned for More Strategies in this Series!

What’s not so easy to find? Hard facts and case studies that demonstrate if any of this creates profit on a sustainable basis. Yes, the occasional viral video hits the jackpot, and once and a while a local business scores big on Twitter. But day in and day out? Don’t bank on it.

Online marketing, is just that: marketing. Unless you’re amazon.com, that’s not the same as sales.

Especially for the B2B world, selling is a personal contact sport. Only to the extent that online tools enhance relationships and awareness, can they indeed lead to sales. Same for direct mail, brochures and printed collateral which are increasingly rare and correspondingly effective these days.

You’re gettng word of mouth, referrals and testimonials? Great. Increased credibility and visibility though internet channels? Super Duper! Top of mind presence though e-mail and direct marketing? Very cool.

Still, and especially in tough times, your business must address the question of selling. Not blog posts. Not impersonal e-mails. Not customer service. Selling. It’s a separate in-the-moment skill that has to be carefully woven into the texture of your company.

Taking a lot of time to develop, update and enhance your selling skills, product knowledge, and customer knowledge (and that of your team) isn’t fast, sexy or cheap. Which is precisely why so few companies get it right.

Adobe actively sponsors such user groups across the globe, and incentivizes them with discounts, raffles and educational materials. It’s a win-win and a great chance to network with your peers.

Here’s more information about the User Group Network.

If you’re interested in an Adobe chapter, drop me a note: bill@copiesandink.com

One quote stands in my mind:

“Coming home with 30 or 40 cards is not nearly as effective as having half a dozen [that were from] really good quality conversations where having the business card and the ability to reconnect was important to you,” Ross Parker says. “I think people miss that.”

Do you think business cards are obsolete in the internet era? Let’s hear your take!