30 Head-trash Excuses for an Empty Sales Pipeline

Like all good habits, consistent marketing activity can be difficult to keep doing regularly, especially when things start to get tough.

Then that little voice in the back of your head keeps giving you good reasons to put it off to another day. And then another day. And then another.

The range of different excuses is vast, but they all lead to the same end result – an empty sales pipeline for your business, and no income for you.

How many of these sound familiar?

1. There’s a recession on. Nobody’s buying anything
2. I’m too busy with work at the moment. I’ll look at marketing when it’s quieter
3. My prospects don’t want what I have right now
4. My prospects seem perfectly happy with the competition
5. My prospects won’t have the budget at this time of year
6. My prospects are very busy now, and I don’t want to interrupt them
7. My prospects are perfectly happy to live with the problem for the moment
8. I tried (emailing, networking, blogging) once before 5 years ago and it didn’t work
9. My prospects don’t read their email
10. My prospects never answer the phone (or listen to their voicemail)
11. My prospects don’t open the post
12. My prospects never read the paper
13. My prospects never surf the web looking for suppliers
14. I don’t see my competition marketing much at the moment, so it probably won’t work for me
15. I see my competition marketing all the time, so it probably won’t work for me
16. I’ve managed to grow my business so far without much marketing. Things should just carry on as normal, right?
17. Things have changed since last time I ran that successful campaign. It won’t work this time
18. Nothing has changed since last time I ran that unsuccessful campaign. It won’t work this time
19. My prospects will be more interested if I leave it until next week/month/year
20. Why bother? I just know they’ll say “no” right away
21. My website isn’t finished yet
22. I don’t have any brochures yet
23. I don’t have a business card yet
24. I can’t think of a really compelling message
25. I’m still waiting for the results from that ad campaign I did last quarter
26. I’m still waiting for the web developer / graphic designer / copywriter to get back to me
27. I still haven’t followed up with the leads from last time
28. I’m good at what I do – I really shouldn’t have to market myself
29. When people need what I have, they’ll find me
30. Having a tidy desk is more important to me right now

I’ve been guilty of most of them at one time or another. And I’ve found there’s only one sure-fire cure.

Stop sitting there talking yourself out of business and do something now!

Iain

PS If you’re geniunely stuck for ideas as to how to move your marketing forward, take a look at these free marketing ideas.

Tagged as: head trash, marketing, Marketing Motivation, recession, recession marketing, sales pipeline, selling