The greatest marketing secret of all time

If there is something about which I am pretty adamant, it's the concept of attracting clients that are pre-qualified and willing to do business. And this involves many different things, but most of it comes down to three core practices: 1) Focus, 2) targeting, and 3) multiplication (such as focusing on a niche, market targeting, and multiplying one's marketing efforts).

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. This "thing" to which I am referring is, I believe, the most important marketing secret that I can ever teach you -- and it's far from being a secret at all.

It is considered as one to a certain degree simply because it is often neglected or ignored by many 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 dreams and passions.

"Marketing is not a battle of products, but of perceptions," marketing expert Jack Trout once wrote. If people perceive that doing business with you has an implicit added value, especially when compared to your competitors that are fiercely fighting for your market's attention, you will often end up with their confidence (and their repeat and referral business) as a result.

Of course, there are numerous ways that value can be added to your business -- e.g. by specializing, by branding your products and services, by presenting benefits rather than features, by delivering personalized services, by presenting a professional image, by offering something for free and so on. But the most effective way to communicate this added value is through the genuine, sincere, and passionate zest you have for what you do.

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. Sadly, however, the marketplace is filled with so many people who jump into business for one sole purpose: Money.

They work for a pension instead of a passion. They are so profit-minded that they fail to enjoy the process. The great anthropologist, Joseph Campbell, said it best when he said that old cliché: "Follow your bliss" a few decades ago. Actually, that saying is older than you think. Chinese sage Confucius, in 500 B.C., said: "Do what you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life." Author Marsha Sinetar wrote a book, entitled: "Do what you love and the money will follow." Peter McWilliams, author of "Life 101," claimed: "Do what you love and the necessary resources will follow."

Now, it's my turn. I say...

"Do what you love and the business will follow."

Well folks, there you have it. 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."

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? The answer is pretty obvious.

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 your money, and that they will go out of their way to please you. And they certainly develop far more enriching and superior customer relationships -- let alone referral-sources.

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 love what you do, your passion will intrinsically communicate all of those things combined.

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 attempt to earn a living and do so with retirement in mind (or the thought of financial independence), anxiously awaiting those golden years when they will finally start to enjoy their lives. (The funny part is that the future is guaranteed to no one. So, the key is to enjoy it now -- later may never come.)

Needless to say, if you do what you love (or focus on a business you enjoy instead of the money you want to earn from it), you will not only make money as a natural byproduct but also enjoy much happiness, satisfaction, joy, inner peace, and of all things, security.

How many millionaires out there have reached phenomenal levels of success but failed in other areas? According to Bob Proctor in his book "Born to be Rich," the list is endless. To make it short, he mentions numerous wealthy and famous Wall Street magnates in the past century alone that have ended up going insane, getting divorced (multiple times), going broke, suffering from heart attacks, committing murder, or even killing themselves.

Ultimately, if you do what you love or love what you do, you will naturally attract more business by the sheer fact that your passion is also communicating to others that you are offering the best solution to their problems. Why? You are offering them the best... YOU.