I’ve had many different experiences with clients over the years and I thought this one might resonate with a few people.
One of my clients recently launched a new product range, they had been running their company for over 25 years and they decided to create some new products using their own designs and different materials. Once they had a prototype, they contacted me to help with their marketing.
At the briefing I got the impression that they knew where the market was and had made a product based on an understanding of the sector.
This turned out not to be the case and in reality, they had just thought of something, made it and expected sales to come in. The same rules applied to pricing, I could never pin them down to a manufacturing cost, so the price kept changing.
The owners worked all day, every day in a windowless office with no view of the outside world, didn’t even know what the weather was doing.
Did that really have an impact on sales? Yes I think it did.
They missed several opportunities last summer to try something different to generate interest in the product and they refused, seemingly based on a closed mindset, to try a different approach.
Perhaps the windowless office had made them short-sighted and distorted their outlook. They had become insular and detached, almost afraid to go out and sell their products. Sales were not coming in.
Many years ago I used to have a client who had a massive world map on his wall, it was huge and every time I went there it used to give me a real positive buzz, thinking about all the opportunities there must be out there.
So if you haven’t got a window, stick a bloody great world map on the wall, it may well improve your outlook and your sales!
