Are You An Aspirin Or a Vitamin?

A stitch in time may save nine and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...but we live in the nation of Procrasta, which means for every one Boy Scout out there that thinks ahead and performs that one stitch in time there are nine of us who won't.

So you can sell sewing kits to the one—there is a need for them—or your can sell emergency sewing services or custom clothing with same-day alterations to the nine.

As I said, both are needed and there is honor and prestige in selling both.

But if you choose to sell sewing kits or the ounce of prevention in the form of the best multi-vitamin on the planet, please understand that it will take more creativity, better story-telling, and more persistence to grow than if you choose to sell the cure.

Everyone questions the cost of the gym membership and the cold pressed green juice...but have you ever heard anyone in the emergency room asking how much the open heart surgery would cost?

And don't fall for the better mousetrap lie.

• Ralph Waldo Emerson didn't even write the quote we think he wrote.
• A salesman by the name of Hubbard did.
• Hubbard attributed the quote to Emerson to give his own success gravitas.
• Between 1838, when the United States Patent Office opened its doors, and 1996, more than 4,400 mousetrap patents were awarded in dozens of different subclasses, including "Electrocuting and Explosive," "Swinging Striker," "Choking or Squeezing," and 36 others. That's an average of more than two dozen patents every year for more than 150 years. (The Atlantic)
• Better mousetraps die lonely deaths stacked high in dark storage containers along with thousands of their clones every day due to its inventor's inability to market and sell them.

Take a long hard look at what you sell today and continue looking until you can answer definitively whether you sell an aspirin or a vitamin.

When you are clear on that then you'll be able to create your message to market match.

Until you get that right...well, I hope you have a lot of aspirin handy because you'll be banging your head against the wall.

Would you like one of my private business coaching aspirin? Three of you have taken me up on it in just the last four days. At that rate I will be raising prices and delaying new clients soon...because I take my sales and marketing vitamins.