The Wait is Worth It

Are you a patient person?

Or does waiting create anxiety?

For me, it all depends on the why I am waiting.

I’m sure it is that way with you too, to some degree.

At the end of 2019 I was cleaning up my email and found a series of newsletters from Roy H. Williams.  Roy goes by the moniker The Wizard of Ads, like my nick name is ScLoHo.  Every Monday for several years, Roy’s newsletter arrives in my inbox.  It’s called the Monday Morning Memo.

Now there’s nothing but predictability in what I just shared with you.  I can count on receiving the appropriately named Monday Morning Memo from Roy Williams on Monday Mornings.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know that all things were predictable?

The Monday Morning Memo dated September 16th, 2019 talks about something I talk about too.  I call it the buying cycle, Roy calls it the purchase cycle.  Both of us are referring to the same thing.  And it has to do with time.

Roy used the example of engagement rings. Roy says:

330 million Americans will purchase 2 million engagement rings this year. This means that 1 American in 165 will buy an engagement ring.

There has been a tendency for digital marketers to emphasize the zero moment of truth.  That’s the instant that a person is ready to go out and hand over their credit card for a few thousand to buy that ring. The digital marketers are looking at that as the time to be in your face with their ads for diamonds.  After all, for many of us, it’s now or never.  Actually in the wedding game, a significant number of us get married more than once, so those diamond ring digital marketers may get a second or third chance down the road.

However the buying cycle or purchase cycle as Roy refers to it, is not the same for everything we buy.  I bought gas the other day, something I do about once a week.  Filling up my gas tank is a much shorter buying cycle than buying an engagement ring.

Also it is important to recognize that most of us have habits that we follow with many purchases and unless there is a reason to change our habit, we aren’t going to change them.

Earlier this year, my office moved from the northwest side of Fort Wayne, Indiana to the southwest side.  I live northeast.

When my commute to the office changed, so did some of my buying habits.  Until this move, I never would have used the gas station or grocery store that I use now.  A few years ago the breakfast place I would visit stopped selling my favorite beverage so I changed.

Because you just can’t advertise a sale and it will convince everyone to stop what they are doing and go and buy from you right now… that is why you need to move from a self-centered marketing plan to one that is customer-centered.  Being there when they need what you can offer is critical.  Reminding them and inviting them, every week is what this is all about.