Happy Halloween! The Three Scariest Mistakes Aviation Companies Make:

It’s been a scary year (or couple of years) in the aviation industry.  One of the things we noticed  this year is that the people who are still around and thriving are not the timid or the indecisive. The economy may not have improved (there is some debate about that) but the people who  decided  if anything good is going to happen, it won’t come from waiting around – it will happen because we make it happen!

The Three Scariest Mistakes Aviation Companies Make:

1)      Assuming their product will “Sell Itself”

2)      Committing  “Random Acts of Marketing”

3)      Letting Indecision Inhibit their Marketing Efforts. 

We all know that “fortune favors the bold,” but the current economy lures some of us into indecision when it comes to making investments or taking actions that we know would improve our business.

Pilots (and great businesspeople) know that often the safest decision is one that requires bold and decisive action. 

Or, as my flight instructor used to say:

 “People who ‘chicken out’ get killed.”

So, how do you avoid these three big mistakes?

The first mistake – assuming your product or service will sell itself.

It’s a very competitive world out there. Your competitors are working hard to make it easy for your prospects to find THEIR product when they’re looking for a solution.  Your prospects are equally committed to the status quo – they have been doing business without you so far, why should they change things now?   It can be hard to convince a prospect to spend the money and effort to buy and implement your product or service unless you make a concerted, intelligent effort to find and communicate with your ideal customer.

The second mistake, committing “random acts of marketing.”

This mistake not as dangerous as the first, since any marketing is usually better than none at all. However, none of us can afford to waste money these days.  We’re convinced to buy an advertisement or a technique or a technology based on promises of a TikTok video or a telemarketer.

The third mistake – letting indecision inhibit your marketing efforts.

This is the most common and the most insidious.  It’s easy to go to work on Monday with the intention of doing a great promotion about your latest product.

The next thing you do, you’re confronted with all of the decisions you need to make and options you need to research. When you go online to look for advice, you end up going down nearly a dozen potential rabbit holes:

• Should you advertise in a magazine?
• Send a sales letter?
• Create a special web page?
• Use paid media?
• Attend a trade show?
• Host an event of your own?
• Use the latest “shiny object” or magical marketing technology you’ve seen advertised?
• How much should you invest in the campaign?
• How will you measure the results?

Before you know it, the week has gone by, your campaign never got off the ground and the opportunity has passed.

When selling a product or service, the market (and the money!) belongs to those who get things done.  

We initially created the Marketing Master Class for our consulting clients.  The more our clients know about marketing, andthe more directly involved and confident business owners are in making day-to-day marketing decisions, the more they get done.

And the more they get done, the more sales they make.

Many business owners are already engaged in some of these activities, but little changes and small decisions can coordinate their efforts and improve their results geometrically.  Sometimes small changes yield huge dividends – it’s simply a matter of knowing the tools and techniques  (some new technology, some traditional and tested) and using them correctly.