What are you selling under the counter?

Sometimes we think that because we can do a good job on others we can do it for ourselves. But that’s when we forget 2 things:

1. It’s on the end of our nose which, of course, we look straight past so don’t actually SEE it
2. Cobbler’s children: we’re SO busy doing our Thing for other people that we completely forget or neglect to do it for ourselves…

It’s funny, there’s so much ‘FOMO’ that goes on in business. (FOMO is Fear of Missing Out by the way). Sometimes we FOMO that everyone else is going to be at an event, or is making an offer this Black Friday, or is getting their newsletter done every week, or spending 100 hours on Facebook, or networking non-stop. There’s no end to FOMO if you let it take over.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I have already decided I want to work with someone—or buy something, or visit somewhere—and so I’m already sold. But then I get sold to even more, even when I’m already ‘in’. And sometimes it puts me off and I don’t buy.

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!

This is something that can be hard to get your head around at first, especially when you’ve just realised your Thing and you want to keep it well protected. But the best thing you can do with your Thing is give it away.

You should always be listening to your market and offering products and services they want. That’s common business sense. That said, sometimes you may know that what they (your market) ‘want’ is not what they ‘need’. The trick here is a to strike a balance and meet them where they are, then gently ‘steer’ them to where you know lies a better answer.