Elisabeth Sullivan at the American Marketing Association recently interviewed me for an article on Demarketing. I’ll be writing more on this topic throughout this month. Here’s a first brief entry:
What is demarketing? As I think of it, demarketing is (1) about making a conscious decision about the things you don‘t want to do, and then (2) making your decision clear to anyone who might otherwise be interested in hiring you for them.
The first part is strategy. The second part is communication.
If we do a good job of marketing (i.e., making a conscious decision about the things you do want to do and then making your decision clear to anyone whom you’d want to hire you for them), we don’t have to spend too much time on demarketing.
That said, the market is full of temptations, and we need a shot of demarketing every now and then to avoid several traps, among them:
(1) the “yeah, we could do that, too” trap — in which we see a market we might chase because it looks fun and because it looks like it could generate some cash flow, even if the opportunity costs of pursuing that market are too high.
(2) overeager (or poorly managed) sales staff who see only their commissions on any sales, rather than the company’s profits on good sales.
(3) poor-fit potential customers who might show up, take a lot of time and energy, and end up giving you no business or, worse, unprofitable business.
More on this topic all this month…
