Page 139 - Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing - PDFDrive.com

Personal Investment

Say “risk” to businesspeople, and they hear “money.”
Sometimes, they’re right. But many of the risks that people fail to take—and

the rewards they miss because of it—cost nothing. These risks are personal.
Consider the director of an exceptional service. The service is excellent, but

the sales are merely good. Why? Because the director refuses to take the
personal risks involved in personally selling his product. A big convention of
prospects comes to town. Afraid to risk himself among strangers, the director
“gets sick” on the day of the convention. On another occasion, someone
mentions a good prospect for the director in the same town. The director never
calls the prospect.

Gail Sheehy illuminated the rewards of risk-taking in her book Pathfinders.
Sheehy began her research looking for the secrets of truly contented people. She
wondered what made these people feel such a sense of well-being. Sheehy
learned that “people of high well-being” shared just a few traits, and this was
one:

They all had taken an enormous risk.
Selling a service involves personal risks. You can look too pushy. You can be
rejected. (No, you will be rejected.) People won’t return your calls. You run the
risk of feeling bad when you go home at night.
But the rewards of all those efforts will make you wonder: Why didn’t I do
that in the first place?
Taking risks doesn’t always mean risking your money. Sometimes, it just
means risking yourself.
Risk yourself.

The Collision Principle

Kurt Vonnegutt, Jr.’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater contains some excellent
advice for every marketer.

Mr. Rosewater, Sr., recognizing that his son, Eliot, had neither the brains nor
the talent to become hugely successful, gave Eliot the best advice under the
circumstances:

“Eliot, someday a large sum of money will change hands. Make sure you are
in the middle of it.”

Mr. Rosewater’s advice inspired me when a gifted graphic designer asked my