We worry about and try to improve our performance all the time. But improving our performance doesn’t do us much good if other people fail to realize what we are capable of.
There is a good reason why cereal companies spend more money on advertising than on any other component of their business. Lots of companies make good cereal, but ultimately they sell their product when their good cereal is the one we know of and think of when we’re shopping.
Don’t forget that in getting what you want, appearance has to complement reality.
James Rodriguez runs a jobs and life skills program called The Next Step in Paterson, New Jersey.
James works with “people who have been forgotten and cast aside, people who have been given up on.” He helps get them ready to work and then helps place them.
The Next Step teaches life skills, job skills, and job acquisition skills. “We counsel people on dressing and hygiene and tell them the first impression that you make might be the only chance you get with an employer. It’s a delicate issue, but to do justice for the person, we have to touch on it.”
It was ironic for James when he realized that while he spent time trying to get people to match their skills to a pleasant presentation, he didn’t spend very much time at all on the presentation of The Next Step. “We worried about doing a good job, which is what we are supposed to do, of course. But we didn’t worry about looking like we were doing a good job, which is what brings in more grant money and would actually allow us to help more people.”
Now James spends some more time on compiling statistics on the people they’ve helped and producing reports on the work they do. “It’s just like I tell the people I counsel: it’s not enough to be right for the job, you’ve got to look right for the job.”
What makes a small business work? Experience, location, and size of staff are important. But no other aspect of the running of small businesses is as predictive of their success as the level of resources they dedicate to marketing.
Goldenberg and Kline 1999