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Guest post by: James Yuille Become an Author

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Here's a wonderful story that I share with my clients that helps answer this question. Let me share it with you...

A tourist is lost in an unfamiliar town. He's in a hire care and has to find an address but has no map.

Frustrated, he asks a passer-by for directions.

Keen to help, the passer-by starts by saying "Go straight ahead, take the second left then turn right at the school..."

"No, that's wrong. Turn right at the crossroads in front of you, follow the road until you find the river and turn left. It's the street across the bridge on your right as you pass the church..."

"Hang on; that's not it either. Do a U-turn, go back to the train track and turn..."

"You know, if I were you, I wouldn't be starting to get there from here."

OK, so you're asking "Why is that relevant to me, and what has it to do with meat trucks and hungry dogs?"

It's like this. Most people go out to the market with a product or service and try to sell it, and then call for help when they don't get anywhere. When I apply my questioning process to their situation, what is revealed is that they don't know what they're really selling (what problem do they solve) or who their buyer is likely to be (for whom they will solve the problem).

On top of that, because they've never studied marketing, they copy everyone else's advertising mistakes with the result that they look the same as everyone else in their marketplace.

Mostly it's a case of the blind leading the unknowing.

I had a disagreement with a client about this just last Friday.

This client has been following an industry leader. An industry leader who says "Websites don't work for this industry" yet when you visit their site, you can see why. All graphics, no text, no story, no call to action, no name capture, no keyword matching... the list goes on. Almost as bad a site as you could imagine actually!

My client had been following advise from others about the sales letters and ads I'd written, modifying them beyond belief because "her friends" had told her they wouldn't work.

Guess what? None of her friends letters work either and you'd be right in guessing that their recommended modifications didn't work.

Even more tragic was that at a recent exhibition her goods didn't sell. Many potential buyers asked if she had this or that available (telling her what they wanted) but when I challenged her to make them, she said she couldn't as it was uneconomical.

When you're a hungry dog, you learn very quickly not to follow empty meat trucks!

A very quick visit to the Overture search toll and then to Google revealed high demand and two reasonably well-build sites offering the exact product with "Buy now" links. In effect, I found her a niche that would make her money but was she prepared to do anything about it?

No. Wasn't interested. Her attitude was "I make what I make without compromise and at my standards of quality. I'm not interested or willing to do anything else"

Why waste time making what folk don't want when you can make stuff they want and will pay for?

You can lead a horse to water... but sometimes you need to hold its head under and kick it in the rear end before it drinks!
When I asked the question "What is the greatest sales and marketing challenge facing you in 2005?" many replied "Knowing which Guru to follow" A good question and in response, my best advise on who to follow? Someone from the trenches. Someone who has done it in the real world as well as online. Online is only part of the action.

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