Marketing vs. Sales

Transform your magic career by distinguishing between the flashy allure of marketing and the powerhouse of sales.

The post Marketing vs. Sales appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, my friends, and welcome to a brand
new episode of Discourse in Magic.
My name is Jonah Babins and today we are
talking about the difference between
marketing and sales.
Now, many of you maybe feel like you know
the difference.
Maybe you do know the difference, maybe
those both just seem like business words to
you, but specifically I want to talk about
the difference between marketing and sales
for a magician, because a lot of the times

(00:31):
when I speak to magicians, what they think
they need for their magic business is very
different than what they actually need.
Start thinking for yourself, like, if you
want your magic business to be bigger, what
are the things that jump out to you as the
things that you need?
I'm going to tell you some of the things
that I hear.
I hear magicians say I want people to want
me for their day.

(00:52):
I hear magicians say I have to be on Fool
Us or America's Got Talent and that's what
will make my business pop off.
And while that stuff may be true, I can
certainly tell you the parts where it may
not be true.
But that is marketing, and I'm going to
walk you the difference between marketing
and sales, because what many of you need,
especially for where you are in your magic

(01:12):
career has more to do with sales than it
does to do with marketing.
So let's talk about it.
Marketing in the magic business, the way
you can think about it, is marketing
materials the stuff so many of you that may
feel like it's a social media page or a
great website or a great video, or being on
Fool Us or being on AGT.

(01:32):
That is marketing.
That's the stuff that you know build some
name recognition.
What is sales?
Well, sales is you going and getting those
bookings.
It is ads, it is SEO, it is cold email, it
is gig sites, it's following up, it's sales
calls.
It's all of the things that actually
convert people into bookings, and it's you
going out there and hunting.

(01:53):
Now, why is this important?
Well, a lot of magicians think that what
they need is marketing, and I can tell you
I have been on Fool Us twice and if I add
up all of the gigs in my life that have
ever come from me being on Fool Us, I can
fit them on one hand, but if I add up all
the gigs in my life that came from cold
email or ads or gig sites or SEO or any one

(02:17):
of those things, they cannot be counted on
my hands and toes combined.
So why am I mentioning all of that to you?
Well, a lot of magicians think that all
they need is to be on Fool Us and their
magic business will pop off.
Or all they need is to be on America's Got
Talent and their magic business will pop
off.
Well, I can tell you, having worked and
helped magicians who have been on Fool Us,

(02:38):
who have been on America's Got Talent, who
have hundreds of thousands of followers on
social media, they are still getting their
leads from the same sources that I talked
about.
Now, look, there was a time 50 years ago
where you would go on a late night show
with Johnny, whatever his name is.
You'd go on a late night show and after

(02:59):
that late night show, your business would
pop off.
But that was back when there were four
channels or five channels, and millions and
millions of people would watch it.
Now, when my Fool Us airs, maybe millions
of people watch it, but most of them do not
book magicians, and it's a show that's on
every week for 11 years with four magicians
per episode.

(03:20):
So it's not like me.
Being on the show is going to be the thing
that makes someone say, oh my gosh, you are
the right person for this.
It might, but it possibly won't.
Now I'll tell you what is true.
What is true is that if you have stupendous
marketing, then you don't need sales.
You can think of people like, or you can
think of people like Shin Lim, people that,

(03:41):
because they crushed it so hard on those
shows that they got billions of views,
people actually know who they are.
But, by the way, shin Lim still runs ads
for people to go see his show in Vegas.
You know Piff still runs ads for people to
go see his show when he's on tour.
So a lot of you think that you need more
marketing.
But, to be honest, marketing, the way I
think about it, marketing is the stuff that

(04:04):
you show to the people when you're doing
sales.
So if someone is clicking on multiple
magicians ads to see who's good for their
event, the fact that you've been on TV, a
beautiful website and a beautiful video
those are the things that are going to make
them pick you, the actual tools, the actual
materials that make them say you are the
right person for the job.

(04:25):
So, even though there are examples of
people that have marketing that is so darn
good that has catapulted their career.
Every magician and I mean every magician
needs to focus on sales, and probably, if
you're listening to this, you're not so
world famous in your magic career that you
don't have to focus on sales, and I think

(04:46):
it may be not a great idea for your
approach to the magic business to be just
to get so famous and to get so well known
that you don't have to think about sale.
Most of you listening to this need sales
and really what you need is a combination
of both.
At the very least.
You need a great website and a great video,

(05:07):
and then you need sales.
You need ads or SEO or cold email or gig
sites or whatever.
You need some sales skills.
You need to understand pricing and sales
calls and things like that.
There are bonuses.
Floss is a bonus, agt is a bonus, any other
TV spots or things like that.
You know great social media following.
Those are all bonuses and they will help.
I promise they will help, but they are

(05:28):
probably not the thing that you need to
catapult your business.
So a combination is best and really the
reason I'm recording this is to tell most
of you that, if you're listening to this
and what you thought you needed was more
fame, people to know who you are.
What you probably need more of in this part

(05:50):
of your career is more sales.
You need to go out and get the bookings,
the people that are looking for people like
you.
You need them to be able to find you much
easier than the way that they are not
finding you now.
So I hope you learned something.
I hope this gives you some good idea as to
what actionable steps you should be taking,
especially to close a handful more gigs for

(06:12):
the holiday seasons.
If you want help with either your sales or
your marketing probably more sales but if
you want help with whatever those things
are, please send me an email to magic at
torontomagiccompanycom and come join me and
45 other magicians in the mastermind
scaling our business with ads, seo, cold
email, gig sites, social media, great

(06:33):
website, great video, everything.
It's a great community and you might be a
great fit for it.
Thanks so much for being here and I'll see
you next Thursday, ciao.