Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Give a Man a Fish...
Remember that old saying, “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for life”? There's a twist on that saying that's important for Internet marketers, especially those who deal in information, to know.

Although teaching someone to fish is the better long-term solution for the hungry person, the thing that brings their wallets out of their pockets is when you hand them a fish, preferrably fried and ready to eat. Most people want a ready-made solution, not something that they have to work at.

We're dealing with people on the Internet here, remember? You know, that place that has given the phrase "short attention span" a whole new meaning?

At the Internet marketing seminar I recently attended, each of the speakers offered some sort of coaching program at the end of their talk. One thing that struck me about each of these coaching offers was how much the focus of the offer was more on something ready to use, with training as more of a side benefit.

One speaker promised “a complete turn-key business along with extensive training on how to run it.” Another offered “a complete website to produce and market your teleseminars, along with a complete set of scripts and templates so you can base all of your future teleseminars off of the one I do for you.”

Now I'm not knocking these speakers or their offers. Hey, they're making big money because they know what works. And it's worthwhile to pay attention to what they're doing and to try to incorporate their insights into what you do as well.

So I encourage you to look at your business. See what you can do to incorporate a “fish” at some point in your sales system to satisfy the people who are more interested in buying a fish than in learning how to catch all the fish they could ever need.

Keep training them to fish if that's what you do. But be prepared, too, for those who only want to buy their fish ready to eat. Otherwise, you're leaving money on the table.
Jeff

Labels: business system, solutions