I'm really lucky in a lot of ways, but one specific way I am lucky is that I get to talk about marketing strategy with a lot of people.
I'm reading a book by Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers, and it's really a great book. (I'm going to add this to my suggested reading list.) One of the central points within the book is that we do not get to be really "good" at something until we've done it for 10,000 hours.
I did not get into the "marketing game" until 2009, and I'm still learning a tremendous amount about it. Certainly, I read quite a bit about marketing--each books and articles, and I do my fair share of "marketing actions." However, I feel like I learn a TON almost every time I have a conversation with someone about how to make their business generate more sales.
One of the most frequently recurring themes is a belief that people buy what you are selling.
I'm learning that is ONLY SOMETIMES TRUE.
Let me rephrase that...Of all the people who buy from me, very few of them buy what I am selling.
So what are they buying?