The Greatest Marketing Secret of All Time

I wrote this arti­cle way back in 1998. It seems to have made a resur­gence, espe­cially with today’s econ­omy. So I said to myself, “Why not repub­lish it?” So here it is. Enjoy!

If there is some­thing about which I’m pretty adamant, it’s the idea of attract­ing qual­i­fied prospects who are will­ing to do busi­ness with you. And this involves many dif­fer­ent things.

Posi­tion­ing is one of them. In fact, it has been one of my favorite mar­ket­ing con­cepts for this very reason.

How­ever, this fun­da­men­tal mag­net­ism is not only based on pure mar­ket­ing prac­tices or strate­gies. It also involves some­thing at a much deeper level that is far more effec­tive than any other mar­ket­ing tool or process in existence.

This “thing” to which I am refer­ring is, I believe, the most impor­tant mar­ket­ing secret I can ever teach you — and it’s far from being a secret at all. It is con­sid­ered as one sim­ply because it is often neglected or ignored by many mar­keters and businesspeople.

What is this “secret” that’s so elusive?

Before I divulge it to you, I must first admit that it upsets me ter­ri­bly to see when peo­ple tend to scoff their most valu­able mar­ket­ing assets. No, I’m not refer­ring to sales­peo­ple or pro­mo­tional activ­i­ties. I’m not refer­ring to prospects or clients, either.

I’m refer­ring to love and passion.

The love they have for what they do, what they offer, and who they serve.

(Or the love they should have, anyway.)

Jack Trout and Al Ries, the fathers of posi­tion­ing, once wrote: “Mar­ket­ing is not a bat­tle of prod­ucts, but of per­cep­tions.” Like it or not, mar­ket­ing really is all about perception.

When I first started out in busi­ness, my men­tor once told me some­thing sim­i­lar. He said, “Per­ceived truth is more pow­er­ful than truth itself.” Lit­tle did he know how this one state­ment affected me — and how it lit­er­ally changed the way I look at business.

My busi­ness. My prod­ucts. And par­tic­u­larly, my clients.

If peo­ple per­ceive doing busi­ness with you has an implicit added value, espe­cially when com­pared to your com­peti­tors fiercely fight­ing for your market’s atten­tion, you will often end up with their con­fi­dence, their busi­ness, and their loy­alty as a result.

Of course, there are numer­ous ways you can add value to your busi­ness. Beyond apply­ing fun­da­men­tal mar­ket­ing prac­tices, you can and should find new and unique ways to dif­fer­en­ti­ate your­self, increase your expo­sure, and pro­mote your business.

But to me, the best mar­ket­ing doesn’t rely on tactics.

To me, the most effec­tive way to com­mu­ni­cate added value is through the gen­uine, sin­cere, and pas­sion­ate zest you have for what you do and the clients you serve.

Peo­ple have a ten­dency to grav­i­tate toward other peo­ple who love what they do — their enthu­si­asm, charisma, and authen­tic desire to serve oth­ers are instantly com­mu­ni­cated through their actions and par­tic­u­larly their mar­ket­ing efforts. No mat­ter what they are.

Sadly, how­ever, the mar­ket­place is filled with so many peo­ple who jump into busi­ness for one sole pur­pose: Money. Granted, the econ­omy might be to blame. But is it, really?

Peo­ple work for a pen­sion instead of a pas­sion. Entre­pre­neurs are so profit-​​minded that they fail to enjoy the process. Mar­keters focus on how many sales they can achieve, but then won­der why they have to keep repeat­ing the process to sus­tain their businesses.

I believe the real secret to suc­cess lies much deeper. In fact, the great mythol­o­gist, Joseph Camp­bell, said it best when he said that old cliché decades ago.

“Fol­low your bliss.”

But that say­ing is a lot older than you think. In fact, it was in 500 B.C. when Chi­nese sage Con­fu­cius said: “Do what you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”

Since then, author Mar­sha Sine­tar wrote: “Do what you love and the money will fol­low.” In his book, “Life 101,” Peter McWilliams claimed: “Do what you love and the nec­es­sary resources will fol­low.” I’ve read all those books and I agree with all of them.

How­ever, I believe this con­cept can also be applied to busi­ness. That’s why I say…

“Do what you love and the busi­ness will follow.”

That’s the great­est mar­ket­ing secret of all time. It’s to do what you love or to love what you do. And if you don’t love what you do, then find it. Make that your bliss.

As Jim Rohn once said, “If you don’t like where you are, then change it! You’re not a tree.” (And “where you are” may not always be lim­ited to a phys­i­cal loca­tion, either.)

Doing what one loves is a fun­da­men­tal mar­ket­ing process.

For exam­ple, when you deal with two peo­ple com­pet­ing for your busi­ness, and if one of them has the “fire burn­ing in their belly” (a gen­uine pas­sion for what that per­son does), then how much more will­ing will you be to do busi­ness with that per­son than the other?

How much more believ­able and cred­i­ble will that per­son be com­pared to the other? And most impor­tant, how much more value will that per­son bring to the table than the other?

Enough said.

Peo­ple who love what they do gen­er­ate far more word-​​of-​​mouth adver­tis­ing. In sub­tle ways, they com­mu­ni­cate that they are experts, that they are inter­ested more in your needs than in your money, and that they will go out of their way to please you.

They develop far more enrich­ing, reward­ing, and supe­rior cus­tomer rela­tion­ships — let alone fans, referral-​​sources, and advo­cates for you, your prod­ucts, and your business.

Entre­pre­neuri­al­ism has increased in fer­vor these days, and that’s good. But as a result, the hyper­com­pet­i­tive nature of the mar­ket­place will in turn increase the demand for more unique­ness, more com­pet­i­tive value, and greater cus­tomer service.

How­ever, if you do what you love or love what you do, your pas­sion will com­mu­ni­cate all of those things com­bined. It will come nat­u­rally and, I dare­say, seem­ingly effortlessly.

Just as peo­ple choose to work in jobs they hate, many will choose a busi­ness or an endeavor that gives them absolutely no sense of pur­pose. They do it just for the money.

Work­ers will attempt to earn a liv­ing and do so with retire­ment in mind. Sim­i­larly, many entre­pre­neurs will start a busi­ness with the mere thought of finan­cial independence.

In either case, they are anx­iously await­ing those golden years when they will finally be able to start enjoy­ing their lives. (The funny part is, the future is guar­an­teed to no one. So the key is to enjoy it now, not later. Because later may never come.)

But don’t con­fuse “enjoy­ment” with “love.” Doing what you love doesn’t always mean enjoy­ing what you love. It does take work. Often, work you might not enjoy.

How­ever, if your goal is to focus on cre­at­ing a suc­cess­ful busi­ness, then do it at the ser­vice of oth­ers, not at the expense of oth­ers. Do what you love, and the busi­ness will fol­low. Love the peo­ple you serve, and the cus­tomers will fol­low. That’s the key.

Need­less to say, if you do what you love in a busi­ness you enjoy, you will not only make money as a nat­ural byprod­uct but also enjoy much hap­pi­ness, sat­is­fac­tion, joy, inner peace, and of all things, secu­rity in the process. And that’s what we really want, isn’t it?

Ulti­mately, your love will emanate in all that you do. You will nat­u­rally attract more busi­ness by the sheer fact that your pas­sion is also com­mu­ni­cat­ing that you are offer­ing the best solu­tion to their prob­lems. That solu­tion is… you!

About the Author

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