Ask questions. A lot of questions…

Have a deadline for a decision, or a maximum number of people you can work with, or products you have available.

Having a limit (time, number, etc.) helps with decision making.

And that’s your responsibility as someone with a brilliant ‘Thing’ for sale—to help with decision making.

Yesterday, I got back from the first 2-day ‘Small Business Marketing Workshop’ run by the very smart Jonathan Jay in his new business venture Success Track.

The purpose of the 2-day workshop was for Jonathan to share his own experience in what does and doesn’t work in terms of marketing a business. Jonathan also offered a ‘marketing clinic’, where attendees could (perhaps crushingly honestly in some cases!) receive a critique of their current marketing materials and approach (note to anyone who attended here — you will of course get the irony of Jonathan describing this in his own words as “a clinic”!).

Lots of businesses are turning away customers every day… and they probably don’t even realise it.

I’ve made a few calls over the last few days to travel companies (not all my own holiday research, I have to point out!), and it was incredible the number of the companies that didn’t even take my contact details. I could have walked away from them forever.

Here’s the range of responses I got…

We all need to set ourselves some world records to break from time to time. Or at least some ‘personal bests’.

I have been feeling a bit under the weather the past couple of days, so my dedication of course has also waned. Then I see this article and video about Eddie Kidd still running the London Marathon (that started almost 5 weeks ago – and for most people finished the same day). He is covering a few hundred metres a day most days. Which is incredible for a severely disabled man.

Now, I am NOT suggesting you lie about what you can do, but I am totally OK with you inventing a new market to own. I am also OK about you making up a new way of doing Things—specifically YOUR Thing.

If you don’t want to tear your hair out with your marketing, I’d highly recommend you only focus on people with their hands up (or at the very least on people who have them hanging loosely by their sides!).

And then there are the other people–the people who have their hands firmly pressed down against their sides. Under no circumstances are they interested in your Thing. Not now, not ever. They just don’t get your Thing, they don’t want your Thing, they don’t need your Thing. Your Thing is not for them. So don’t market to them!