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Dont Teach A Man to Fish

Written by: Donald F. Pooley

Article Overview: I so believed in the concept of teaching a man to fish.

Dont Teach A Man to Fish

I so believed in the concept of teaching a man to fish.
It's what I fought for.
And I was wrong.
Terribly, hopelessly, completely wrong. I'd heard the phrase: "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he can eat forever."
Look around you. Most people don't want to cook their lunch and dinner. They'd rather buy coffee than make it. They would rather have 500 channels of entertainment, than go out for a picnic or a walk.
Today's 'man' wants the fish on a plate. Cooked. And if he could get that fish every day, he'd be more than happy. In fact, if you were providing the fish cooked to his table, he'd be your client forever.
Understand the ramifications of this concept. It means your chances of getting a sale are much, much, much better if your client has to use no creativity at all. The products that you sell must be seamless to implement.
To hell with the concepts. What the customer of today wants is instant gratification.
I don't know if you understand the importance of what I'm saying. I'm saying that you need to go back and see if your product or service can be implemented just like a computer program.
Press 'Enter' and it opens. Do this. Do that.
You'll sell to more first time customers if you use sell the fish in a plate to them. Once a client has settled in, it's easier to teach him how to fish.
Don't keep reading this. Get your fishing rod ready. You've got work to do.
©-2005 Psychotactics Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Sean D'Souza: Wouldn't you love to access a secret library of business ideas? Find simple, yet electrifying ideas, on copywriting, public speaking, sales conversion, psychological tactics and branding? To learn more click here to visit the Psychotactics website and judge for yourself.

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Related Forum Posts
Re: Playing sports or games with clients - I say, "Give it all you have!" If you win you'll get to see his/her true character in how he/she handles it. You can learn a lot about a person from how they react to situations. If this caused friction in your work environment, then you probably weren't really enjoying working there anyway and life is too short to work at a JOB. I know it's easy for me to say I'd quit if I was uncomfortable with my boss. Sometimes it's much easier said than done in reality. You just have to strive to be happy whatever you do. Read the books, Fish and Fish, too..... or Fish, Two. Can't remember the exact name, but they are great books.
Re: Keep your image or avatar distorted for more click-throughs - [quote="Kevin":1rxz4jk2]Keep your images or avatars distorted on your social networking site or forum for more click-throughs? Apparently this strategy actually works. In Jan/Feb 2009's issue of "Inc." magazine, writer Max Chafkin says "Fixing the wonky images, for instance (on PlentyOfFish.com), might actually hurt Plenty of Fish. Right now, users are compelled to click on people's profiles in order to get to the next screen and view proper headshots. That causes people to view more profiles and allows Frind, who gets paid by the page view, to serve more ads" (pg 68).[/quote:1rxz4jk2] I don't think what Plenty of Fish is doing is good. People had been compelled to click which is what google will tell you not to do when you are applying for adsense for your website
Re: How to Promote Your Blog – The Definitive Guide to Promoting - Great Post! Dont forget to put your blog in Anchor Text For SEO purposes for the keywords you want when getting backlinks (for example with article marketing)...Very important. You can conquer quite a few small Niches and get your site on the number 1 spot in Google!
Re: Due Diligence, Market Research.. Ahead of the curve. - Congrats! A few months ago I wrote extensively on market research. Check in the Inventors corner for the posts. Let me know if I can help further! Dont spend a dime on a protype or advertising until you do some research! Jude
Re: Who hates cold calling? - I saw this and had to chime in. I HATE COLD CALLS. lol its terrible and a wast of my time. Something i have done is gotten online and found all the networking event happening in my area for the next 2 months and i try and go to about 3 a week. Even just for an hour. Dont bring any business cards. Just meet new people ask them alot about what they do, not too much about what i do and follow up the next day or 2. Has worked well


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