I was listening to my professor, internationally famous management guru, Peter F. Drucker, talk about entrepreneurship, when suddenly he made a stark statement:
“If your marketing is good enough, then selling becomes unnecessary.”
He meant when you have devised the right product, at the right price, and it is promoted capably, then the world WILL beat a path to your door. You don’t have to twist anybody’s arm to buy.
Willing buyers will see so much value in your proposition that they’ll giddily part with their money in trade for it.
I know, this seems like a fairy tale or a daydream, but I’ve actually experienced this frictionless situation, and it is, indeed something to behold.
When I started offering seminars around the country, I developed one program that showed companies how to substitute more effective communication for much more expensive, and less efficient business travel. Soaring gas prices afflicted the country, so it was fairly easy to say:
(1) You have a need;
(2) It’s important;
(3) I can address it; and
(4) No one else offers an equivalent solution.
For approximately eighteen months, I stood alone, along with my seminar partners, in offering this solution, and that fact enabled me to do several things, not the least of which was to raise my prices several times, and profit nicely.
Then, as is the natural course of things, competitors sprang up, confusion in the market was created by competing claims, product differentiation had to be made, and downward pressure on prices and profits occurred.
In short, selling had to get underway, and fast!
For one of the best current examples you need look no further than Apple’s iPod series. At this moment, it has no viable competition, it is free to get its offering price, discounting is rare, and generally, customer satisfaction is high.
This window, from which Apple can see perfectly blue skies, smooth sailing, and a stock valuation that surprisingly surpassed that of Dell, won’t last long.
If Apple is really, really clever, it will create another marketing breakthrough–a must-have, peerless product.
If it falters, it will simply have to learn how to sell, along with most other companies!
