The Simple Fix for Most Marketing Mistakes

A client was asking me about how to present his next offer, because something had shifted with the dates, and he was struggling with how to frame it so that he felt good about telling people about the change.

Whether you have dates that shift, a change in price, or something else to tell your audience, there’s a simple fix to it. So let me tell you a story to illustrate it.

Where are the sign-ups?

I’ve run our Heart of Money Transformational Journey course for years now, more than 24 times. It’s usually sold out, meaning that we’ve had 80+ participants.

In January 2012, however, as the deadline approached, we had only 18 signed up. As you might imagine, my stomach was doing the frizzle-frazzle.

“What in the heck is going on?” Not only was the course important to run, but without the cash flow from that course, we would have found ourselves in a not-fun position. It’s one thing to under enroll by a dozen or so. It’s another to be down 80%.

I had all kinds of fantasies about how to “save face” and not look bad while I continued to try to fill seats, because of course that’s where I went. Thankfully I was able to get support from my wife, and to take refuge in spiritual practice, which allowed me to calm down and drop into acceptance, surrender, and humility.

From there, the only path forward was obvious. Ask. So that’s what I did.

I sent an email out saying something very similar to: “Hey, this course usually sells out, but hardly anyone is buying this time around. Did we do something? What’s going on out there?”

And I got LOTS of replies. What became apparent was that the financial crisis was finally coming to roost in our audience, and a shift in the market was, too. I made the decision, just that once, to offer the course on a “Pay from your heart” basis.

We ended up enrolling our usual number of participants, about 80. We made less money than if we had sold them all at full price, but not a ton less. And we made a lot more than if we had had only 18 people. Plus when you add in the good will and trust we generated in the process, that counts for a lot.

It reinforced what I’ve used and taught for years as the simple fix to most marketing problems.

The Simple Fix: Honesty

It sounds simple, but it’s not entirely. It takes an ability to surrender into humility and say what’s really true, which can be uncomfortable (to say the least.)

In another example I had simply priced a course wrong. I was exhausted from parenting two year-old twins, things were a bit of a struggle in many ways, and I picked a price that I thought felt right, but clearly wasn’t.

So, part way through the launch, after having announced the course and the pricing, I told the truth. “I got the price wrong.” I changed the price, and went on with it.

And while that retelling may have made it sound easy, it was more like a nail biting, heart-wrenching approach to the edge of a cliff made bearable only through spiritual practice and support.

A Caveat

You don’t want to have to be honest like this too often. 🙂 Make too many mistakes publicly and that’s a sloppy business owner. If I made a mistake like that every time we ran a course, I don’t think people would trust us very much. They might come to see it either as a gimmick, or that I had no idea what I was doing.

However, making mistakes is part of being human, in case that wasn’t obvious. The Sufi tradition has a saying attributed to the Divine, “I made the human being to make mistakes. If the human being did not make mistakes, I would have made another wholly new race of beings that did.”

The reason? So we can experience the grace of love and acceptance that is there when we make a mistake. That grace, sometimes called forgiveness, is a Divine quality and is incredibly healing to the heart. Experiencing and integrating that quality really supports us in our journey towards being fully in service in our world.

So we make mistakes. And when we accept them face-on, our hearts swell with love and acceptance.

I helped my client face the mistake, come to a place of heart-swelling surrender and grace, and then move forward with honesty. Yes, it all worked out. A little messy, but it worked out just fine.

How About You?

Have you fixed marketing mistakes with public honesty before? Does it terrify you? Or inspire you? I’d love to hear what your experience, thoughts and questions are! Let’s inspire each other with our stories!

Peace,

Mark

p.s. Spiritual Development No-Cost Learning Series

Tomorrow, Thursday, the first lesson of the Spiritual Development No-Cost Learning Series will deal with the tension between wanting more more more, versus surrendering to what is.

If you have a business, I’m guessing you struggle with this from time to time. Ambition, making more, having more, versus what feels like the more spiritually enlightened course to just surrender to what is…

Whether you are trying to face a mistake with honesty and humility, or struggling with the tension between ambition and surrender, the question is one of spiritual development.

I want to send you the lesson tomorrow, as a PDF and mp3, as well as the two follow-up lessons. If you want it, all you have to do:

Click here to let me know you want the Spiritual Development No-Cost Learning Series.