Chasing Perfection

by Robert Middleton

You may have heard Voltaire’s quote, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

Striving to make our marketing perfect, we never actually implement a good marketing strategy. Perfectionism in crafting an Audio Logo or an eZine results in delays of weeks, months, even years. I see it all the time.

But it’s important to realize that there are two kinds of perfect. The first kind mentioned above results in failure. The other one results in great success. So you need to distinguish one from the other.

The perfect that results in success is embodied in the Japanese practice of Kaizen, or “continuous improvement.” Here, good is a stepping-stone on the way to perfect. You do the best you can and   put it out there. And then you tweak it and put it out there again.

Until finally it’s perfect — or close to it.

I have another favorite saying : “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” (It’s attributed widely to Herbert A. Simon.) This means that since you’re probably going to make a mess of it the first time around, it’s probably best to try something – anything – and learn from your mistakes.

It’s important to remember that those who are doing extremely well in their business and their marketing didn’t get there overnight. They built it one brick at a time. And some of those first bricks were not so perfect.

For instance, my first web site (from 1997) was pretty bad. Just this side of “butt ugly.” My second attempt was better. My third version was getting there and my fourth and final design actually works quite well and brings me all the business I can handle.

There’s also another enemy of good, and that’s “good enough.” We see this everywhere. The striving for perfection ended a long time  ago. Just look around…

I see it in my corner grocery, which sells peaches that look great but taste like sawdust. And you see it in marketing that is boring and mediocre. Marketing that lacks energy and conviction will not attract many clients.

Start to look at everything in your marketing from the eyes of a client. How would they react to your marketing?

Scrutinize your logo, business cards, web site, letters, eZine and presentations. And then tap into the vast collection of articles, books, ebooks, audio programs and professional services available to you. Finally, take the next logical step to make everything in your marketing a little bit better.

Two financial planners I met with yesterday were a good example.

They had created a complete marketing plan, marketing materials, letters and a web site, using only the guidance and action plans from the InfoGuru Marketing Manual. I was impressed by how much they had done on their own. It was a great start.

I know that if they keep chasing perfection, they’ll go far. But if they settle for what they’ve got, they don’t have a chance.

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Marketing Flashes on “Chasing Perfection”
* Let’s not focus on perfectionism, chasing after what we can never be, do or have, but on the wonderful game of chasing perfection by improving one little thing at a time.
* After thinking, planning, writing, designing and tweaking, you have something to show to the world. Put it out there boldly. About the worst that can happen is that people will ignore you.  You can live through that. They’re already ignoring you.
* Implement your marketing and closely monitor the results. If  you get some response, learn more to make it better next time.  If it’s wildly successful, make sure you understand what worked  and keep doing that same thing even a little better.
* Test a wide variety of things in various formats. For instance, I tested TeleClasses in 12- and 6-session formats. I did single  TeleClasses and free ones. I discovered success by offering very  inexpensive ones with large amounts of extra content.
* Fail your way to success. The more things you try, the faster you’ll learn what doesn’t work. By testing many marketing strategies, you’ll finally emerge with a handful that produce great results every time.

This article, copyright Robert Middleton, Action Plan Marketing. All rights reserved. Robert’s web site is a comprehensive resource on marketing for Independent Professionals. For free marketing resources and valuable marketing tools visit www.actionplan.com