Where is a pretty important word today. As we have broken down barriers and the world has seemingly became smaller are demands have increased.

No, don’t think about where you should stick your next ad or send your next newsletter. Where is about the communities that you spend your time in. Successful marketers today spent their time in the business that their customers are in. The simplest way to do that is through FOCUS!

Focus where your customers are spending their time. What is important to them, what are their driving issues? I am not talking about sitting down across the table in a sales call and looking at your customer right in the eye and saying, “What is keeping you up at night? If I hear that one more time in my life, I might just well let’s say I prefer not. What I am saying is participating in their communities even to the extent of creating business for them.

If you know your market well enough, it may be only one particular sales channel you will not find 8 zillion other competitors there. Case in point, if you are at a network function with 25 competitors and 4 prospects; YOU ARE AT THE WRONG PLACE! There is no synergy. I was at one meeting one time and though I would not term the others as 25 competitors but I did sit back and considered that there were less than 5 people in the room that would consider my services. I went and had a beer!

In the old days, we did not depend on “Social interaction” on the web. Times are changing and this is an important part of today’s business and for a great article on the subject review Anitta Campbell of Small Business Trends latest post on AMEX, From Center of Your Universe, to Satellite Outposts. . If you think that you can do all your social interaction through the web, let me tell you can’t. One of my arguments about the web is that it tries to imitate the real thing. It’s not the real thing! A handshake is the real thing.

Remember, the salesman that comes in and talks about Industry happenings and what others are doing. You welcome that sales call, there is discussion and you learn things that create business. Trade Shows are a great alternative. However, I do not recommend ones that are for me, but ones that are for my customer. I want to learn my customer’s business. Interacting with their base, I learn more about what might be keeping them up at night instead of asking them!

Where will by my blog theme for a few days highlighted by a podcast with Carol Ptak, a real thought leader. It is a 40-minute podcast but we could have talked for hours about Where. 

P.S. The Supply Chain has started using the concept of asking Where in lieu of How Much, you get very different answers. I learn a tremendous amount from Supply Chain people as I do from software development people. Their niches, I believe provide great information for cutting edge marketing discussions.

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