Successful Marketing Is Stressful

I've mentioned before that the process of sales can be boiled down to solving problems. Seth Godin has a great angle on this idea:

That thing you're marketing... Does it add to stress or take it away? Is it stressful to talk about it? Buy it? Get rid of it? Is it more stressful not to buy it than it is to go ahead and buy one? Does it promise to reduce stress, but end up causing more?

This is a great thing to keep in mind while creating your marketing message. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to use the word "stress" in your message, but it does mean that you should show people how your product or service will lessen the stress in their lives. If someone's drowning, the person that has the most impact on them is the guy with the life preserver. What you offer is brilliant...you know it in your heart. The problem with brilliance is that, sometimes...well, sometimes it has to be bluntly pointed out to others or they fail to see it. When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, he tried to sell the rights to Western Union telegraph.  Their response? They said "Thanks, but we can't see any future in this device, other than as a novelty." Never assume your value is obvious to anyone else...tell them, bluntly and in what might seem (to you, anyway) to be excruciatingly simple detail exactly why you can be of value to them. The trick, of course, is to do this without talking down to your customers. Never assume they are stupid. Just assume they aren't spending as much time thinking about you and your business as you are...because they're not.