Evidence abounds in markets across the world that the most talented fashion designer may not always be the best paid. Neither will the best surgeon always be the most financially successful. Nor will the chef with the best culinary skills always have the most successful restaurant!

So being the best at what you do will NOT automatically make YOU BETTER at getting people to pay you to do it, than others NOT as gifted as you are!

The above examples are pointers to realities we see every day.  You probably know one or two examples you can think of that fit this pattern. That guy who never really did well in training but who rakes in more money from his practice that the other person that everyone knew was the school genius? Aha!

But what makes that happen?

Why is it possible that the individual who is so gifted at doing what s/he does (e.g. hairdressing, catering, graphics design, PC repairs, public speaking, consulting etc.) can end up not making as much money doing IT, as his/her counterpart who probably comes across as average?

There are several possible reasons. But the most common one is that those “less” gifted others who sell more, tend to be better at finding and winning profitable buyers than the gifted expert.

Not only do they know how to recruit buyers, but quite often they also know how to DELIVER compelling customer service during and after completion of sales, in a way that leads to repeat business.

So, the client may even admit that they are not the best, yet s/he might decide to stick with them all the same because s/he is sure they will give him/her their best at all times.

That would be better than having to deal with (say) a talented genius with an ego/attitude who acts like s/he is doing the client a favor!

I argue in this piece that if you want long term selling success – regardless of any adversity – you will need to make relentless smart marketing a way of life.

Among other things, you must LEARN how to recruit and make repeatable sales to high quality prequalified prospects. This will help you make money MORE profitably, and avoid shortchanging yourself in use of your wonderful abilities!

I’ve seen business owners who act like they believe announcing their solution as the best there is, will make buyers start falling over themselves to get it.

Nothing could be further from the truth – especially in today’s fast paced PC and Internet technology driven world, in which more and more providers are offering what are increasingly hard to differentiate solutions.

Never has the need to define and differentiate one’s self been more crucial for a business’ survival than the times we are in now.

To achieve name/brand recognition boosting outcome you need RELENTLESS devotion to intelligent in-bound marketing.

Like I always tell clients I coach in the use of Web Marketing Systems (WMS) I develop and implement for them:

“Marketing is the life blood of ANY business. Without it, a slow and certain death of that enterprise is likely!” – Tayo Solagbade

The above truth is not hard to appreciate. Without people (especially new people) getting to know about what you sell, it’s unlikely that you will be able to grow your sales. That could mean you would not be able to boost profits over time.

These are times when costs and expenses have become notorious for climbing higher at short notice – sometimes overnight, in markets like Nigeria.

As a result, NOT actively implementing strategies to drive margins up on a continuous basis can be a serious recipe for disaster and ultimate failure of a business.

Any business owner who wants to succeed for the long term, by defeating the worst possible forms of adversity, must come to terms with the above.

You NEED to have an emotional investment in the marketing of your business.

That requires being in a business for which you have an enduring passion. It simply cannot be something you adopt a detached intellectual disposition to. That’s a mistake very typically made by lots of people.

One reason I’ve noticed some people struggle to do marketing in a way that works for the long term, is they venture into businesses for which they lack passion to keep going.

Typically, it’s the money to be made that attracts them to the venture. But most times they fail to reckon with the challenge of adversity, that often comes in form of prolonged delays, disappointments, and setbacks that complicate life for entrepreneurs in their pursuit of success!

I’ve seen quite a number of people experience poor marketing reach and impact in their businesses, because of this lack of passion.

They just could not find the courage and conviction to put in ENOUGH effort, and to keep going. So they began to complain and ultimately got weary, and eventually quit.

Some people would argue that they only need to hire a specialist to do the marketing for them, while they focus on what matters – the “solution” that they create.

In some market situations and for some business models, this may be true. But even for them, things could turn out better if the brand owner were to develop more interest in the marketing of his/her solutions!

For the larger majority however, the reality, based on abundant historical and contemporary evidence, is that marketing needs to be a way of life.

It has to be something you commit to doing as creatively as possible, on a routine and relentlessly repetitive basis, by coming up with new ideas, concepts and strategies for getting the solutions you SELL noticed by the target audience you’ve identified to be in need of it.

EXAMPLE: The above is what Richard Branson has done SO WELL for his many different companies over the years.

And most times he’s gotten massive marketing exposure for the brands he promotes without spending ANY money!

If you know Branson, you likely know what I mean – he goes around doing all sorts of publicity stunts in ways and places where he knows the media will not resist capturing the moments to publish.

We’ve all seen one or more photos or videos that illustrate the point being made here.

What most of us however may miss is the fact that Branson, in many cases, was using the strategy of “Marketing Without Advertising” to draw the attention of potential buyers to new solutions offered by the Virgin group.

In other words, even though he was not directly asking people to buy, many times he was actually indirectly working to boost increased AWARENESS of his brand amongst larger numbers of the populace (potential buyers) – who then went on to talk about him to others!

“Shrewd” is the word that best captures what this genius of a man does, in my opinion.

But not all of us enjoy the advantage of being a ready target for media news hounds!

So we may not exactly be able to adopt the Branson approach.

However, we can use another strategy he employs – all of us can actually do this. And that is using article writing for low to zero cost marketing!

Branson – and many other highly successful business owners – especially in the developed world, write articles based on their experience and expertise for the consumption of their target audience.

While putting in useful information and education, they also find subtle ways to inject material that gets the readers to learn about solutions they offer.

Entrepreneurs at various levels of success use article writing in the above described manner on a regular basis…

They do it because it works and it costs next to nothing – BUT it’s far from being easy. Writing stuff that makes sense on a regular basis, for the long term is not a walk in the park!

But those who do it know they can use it to reach a potentially unlimited audience of buyers anywhere – especially when done using the web.

And this brings me to the crux of my message in this piece: The World Wide Web makes marketing as a way of life much easier than it used to be

During the pre-Internet days, the idea of marketing to reach a global audience at low to zero cost was more or less unthinkable. Only the big businesses did that, and even for them it was not an easy run.

A lot of money had to be involved.

Today, a virtual nobody (no pun intended) can use the web to inexpensively promote a solution s/he offers to massive numbers of people without leaving his/her home.

This means you and I can do it, if we learn how!

Indeed, and as I’ve said in many of my past articles, I’ve sold my custom Excel-VB software to buyers within and outside Africa who have NEVER seen me in the flesh till this day.

And that was made possible only by the Internet.

When leveraged with use of a Smartphone equipped with video, audio and photo publishing features, a results focused business owner can achieve elaborate marketing reach and impact at the cost of just his/her Internet connection.

But quite often s/he needs to know how to go about it, to get the desired results.

In other words, despite the fact that it promises more cost-effective returns, when used correctly, the Web still needs to be “worked” – often long and hard – by the business owner, for success to come.

And one of the important things s/he needs to understand is that PERSISTENCE is a key requirement for achieving marketing success – even when using the Web.

As one who has successfully used the web to get noticed by those who matter (i.e. potential buyers/partners), for years, I can state categorically that no room exists for overnight success in marketing, offline or via the web.

I should know. I’ve done – and do – both. Though today, I get over 80% of my sales from marketing to – and serving – clients online.

But many long years of hard work done with sweat and blood were required to get this far.

And I continue to put more into the process – which as the theme of this article indicates, is perpetual or never ending,

What has helped me succeed for the long term in marketing has always been my ability to be relentless.

My mental attitude is that no amount of marketing is ever too much…

…and I also believe that any day I do NOT invest quality time and effort in marketing my solutions to pre-qualified prospects is a “lost” day for me, which I will need to win back the next day or week!

To put it simply therefore, marketing, for me, is as essential to my business existence as BREATHING is to my staying alive. If I’m not doing it, then I feel like my business life is dying slowly from a lack of invigorating and rejuvenating OXYGEN.

Only when you adopt that kind of mindset can you be sure of generating a reliable stream of potential sales leads from high quality prospects,

This is because your consistent investment in putting the word out there using various strategies will add up over time in your favor.

People SEE the stream of material you propagate to promote your brand, especially when it’s done the MWA (Marketing Without Advertising) way, and they develop a positive disposition towards you and your brand i.e. they see your work as useful, even as it invites them to buy what you sell – without offending.

Sadly, I see too many business owners in this part of the world who seriously struggle to adopt this approach to promoting their brands.

Examples include Real Estate solutions providers who put in only the barest minimum towards marketing themselves.

For instance, some send out marketing offers with no branded online presence to back up what they are saying – choosing instead to use third party websites they believe deliver the same benefit.

But what they do often sends a negative signal to a serious minded high quality prospect who may conclude that such real estate companies do NOT take themselves seriously enough for him/her to take them seriously. And so s/he moves on!

Do you want to boost your chances of achieve long term, reliable selling success?

One that can defy even the worst periods of “recession” to attract buyers to you when others struggle to find them?

Make your marketing become like breathing for you – as prescribed in this article. Make it a way of life. Let it become second nature – something you do as a natural reflex, almost without thinking i.e. with what we call “Unconscious Competence”.

Do that and your business marketing success will be inevitable in the long term, regardless of adversity.