What is the Best approach for a Cue Maker when marketing his cues
- Thread starter manwon
- Start date
It seems to me that marketing oneself, will most likely, closely parallel one's personality. If you are not a humble type, you won't just sit back and let your cues do the talking. If you are the humble type, you could be the finest cuemaker living, and no one might not ever find out just how good your cues are. At least, ot on a large scale.
If you look at a large segment of the top cue building population, you will find that many, many of them have had a "front man" or a "mouth". The builder himself may not sing his own praises, but he usually doesn't have to.
I wouldn't be so quick to judge a cuemaker by his form of advertising. That could prove to bite you in the butt one way or the other. Don't judge a book by it's cover in other words.
Gene
If you look at a large segment of the top cue building population, you will find that many, many of them have had a "front man" or a "mouth". The builder himself may not sing his own praises, but he usually doesn't have to.
I wouldn't be so quick to judge a cuemaker by his form of advertising. That could prove to bite you in the butt one way or the other. Don't judge a book by it's cover in other words.
Gene
manwon said:Hello Az, I have been watching the forum very closely and I have noticed that there are many New Cue Makers, in addition to many well established who post here daily. My purpose for this post is get opinions, is it better and will you get more attention by building a great product and being humble or is it better to blow your Own horn over and over and over again. I come for the old school, I think personally you should allow your products to speak for themselves.
Where I come from if you must tell everyone how good you are, you have no confidence, and you are looking for a pat on head to help you get through another day. I mean to show people what you are doing and your new designs is a good thing if it is done with humility. However, when you are selling Ocean Front Property in Arizona, sooner of later the false impressions you are creating will come back to Haunt you. In the long run, you can only fool some of the people some of the time, however, you can never fool or hide from yourself.
Action speak louder than words. Communication, and honesty with you costumers is very important.
???????????
Go Bazook on all cuemakers other than yourself. Start a new trend like all your cues made 71 an 3/4 inches long. Treat your shafts to a daily bath in wd-40 for 10 days an then turn down an round. Last but not least refer to al the legends of cuemaking as suckers. Yeah! That seems to be the way to get it done or atleast some think thats the best way..........
Respectfully
Pinocchio
Go Bazook on all cuemakers other than yourself. Start a new trend like all your cues made 71 an 3/4 inches long. Treat your shafts to a daily bath in wd-40 for 10 days an then turn down an round. Last but not least refer to al the legends of cuemaking as suckers. Yeah! That seems to be the way to get it done or atleast some think thats the best way..........
Respectfully
Pinocchio
Your second and third choices are basically the same thing.
With that being said, it has been my 18 or so years experience that the more you act like you don't need or want the work, the more people want you to.
Now you must understand that this is coming from someone with a small shop who is admittedly lazy and sometimes acts as if he might not be around much longer. (giving the perception that his cues might become collectable soon. )
Bottom line, build a good hitting cue and they will sell no matter how you act.
M.C.
With that being said, it has been my 18 or so years experience that the more you act like you don't need or want the work, the more people want you to.
Now you must understand that this is coming from someone with a small shop who is admittedly lazy and sometimes acts as if he might not be around much longer. (giving the perception that his cues might become collectable soon.
)Bottom line, build a good hitting cue and they will sell no matter how you act.
M.C.
The best way for a cuemaker to makert their cues is to get themselves a stalker who will spend all their time making sure that the cumaker gets talked about.
Stalkers doa great job of pointing people who would otherwise not care towards the object of their attentions. People tend to begin to have sympathy for the cue maker when he is relentlessly stalked and start to think about getting one of his cues just to see if he is as bad as the stalker makes him out to be.
And the best thing is that the stalker gives the cuemaker a legitimate opportunity to defend (market) himself even more. Because it's not SPAM when the stalker is foaming at the mouth with a million threads about the cuemaker. Then the cuemaker gets to put even more ads on the forum.
I think I have made more money off of stalkers than any other form of advertising.
So Craig, I'd add "Get a Stalker" to your poll. ;-)
Stalkers doa great job of pointing people who would otherwise not care towards the object of their attentions. People tend to begin to have sympathy for the cue maker when he is relentlessly stalked and start to think about getting one of his cues just to see if he is as bad as the stalker makes him out to be.
And the best thing is that the stalker gives the cuemaker a legitimate opportunity to defend (market) himself even more. Because it's not SPAM when the stalker is foaming at the mouth with a million threads about the cuemaker. Then the cuemaker gets to put even more ads on the forum.
I think I have made more money off of stalkers than any other form of advertising.
So Craig, I'd add "Get a Stalker" to your poll. ;-)
JB Cases said:
John I never thought of that it may be something to consider for my next poll. However John, some people do not need a Stalker though, they do enough themselves to bring attention to themselves. Then they claim to be a victim, to divert attention away from the actions that caused them trouble in the first place.
Thanks for your opinion John, and have a good night!!!!!
Cuedog said:
Gene, I think you have made some good points. I also agree, in most cases you certainly can't judge a book by it's cover. Because to my experience the harder that cover appears to be the easier it can be cracked and the more it is trying to hide. Still water runs deep, and noise is nothing generally except an indicator of shallowness!!
Only the test of time truly identifies quality Cue Makers, not what they say, and not even what they think. The true factor is how their cues survive the test of use and time, this more than anything else answers the question.
Good Night Gene
And just who would these be? LOLzRoadkill said:
Irish634 said:
Now thats a great idea!!! Poll choice #1....tell people how to run their business. Choice #2....mind your own business & worry about yourself.
Choice #3....try to act like you know everything when you aren't even a cuemaker and bad mouth those successful.
Craig...set the poll up...I'm sure you can word some better poll options.
Thanks for your opinion Craig, and have a good day! I will wait your reply.
Varney Cues said:
Kevin, you give yourself to much credit, however, I do think that choice 3) is certainly the pot calling the kettle black. I almost feel intimidated, and I am also certainly broken hearted by your comments. I am surprised though that you did not post a photo of one of your cues with a toy gun next to it.
That would have been more in character with your normal approach, but I suspect that you know that would not be wise in this case. The next time you feel Butt Hurt, get some Preparation H you will feel better in no time, I am certain one of your posse will be glad to help you apply it.
Oh and by the way, don't worry Kevin I am not going to buy any of your cues so I can cut them up to learn your secrets
Like I said you give yourself to much credit. One thing that has surprised me Kevin, is that you are not a forum Club Member. With all the free give aways for reputation points and I-trader ratings you should be able to afford to support a forum that supports your business.
Have a nice Day Big K
I am waiting for your reply
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One word.....
PHOTOBUCKET!
PHOTOBUCKET!
DELIVERED!manwon said:
Irish634 said:
I"ll vote first. I do let my customers tell me how to run my business. Its
called a customer survey, a lot of fortune 500 companies do it. I am suprised you or somebody you know has never heard of it . It involves asking the customer how they can better serve them. I want to know what kind of job my company is doing and how to improve upon. I am most grateful to have customers and would go to great lengths to keep
them satisfied!