Doctor’s orders

A man goes to the Doctor and says, “I want to become healthy.” She gives him a very thorough examination, asks him a lot of questions, then begins writing on a notepad. “I’ve had a lot of success in helping people become healthy with these 6 steps,” she says. “Follow them and I guarantee you’ll become healthy. Although they are separate steps, they also overlap, so you have to attend to all of them.”

The man looks down the list:

Stop drinking beer (he told her that he drinks a lot of beer)
Stop smoking
Change your diet: eat fresh food and cut down on sugar, starch and fat
Exercise regularly
Lose weight
Promote a strong mental attitude

“Do you think you can do that?” asks the Doctor. “Sure,” says the man. “Really it’s just common sense.”

Six weeks later the man returns to see the Doctor. He doesn’t look any more healthy, and he’s angry. He throws down the Doctor’s list, saying, “This is a scam – it doesn’t work at all. I stopped drinking beer completely – now I only drink whisky. And I stopped smoking, but then I got so tense about the exercising that I started smoking again to calm myself down.” One by one he outlines why the steps he was given were unrealistic, and un-doable. “So,” he concludes, “I don’t need your 6 steps to get healthy, I just need a pill, that’s all.”

“A magic pill?” asks the Doctor. “Whatever,” replies the man, “But make sure it works this time.”

Scenario two: An entrepreneur goes to a marketing expert and says, “I want to become wealthy.” She gives him a very thorough examination, asks him a lot of questions, then begins writing on a notepad. “I’ve had a lot of success in helping people become wealthy with these 6 steps,” she says. “Follow them and I guarantee you’ll become wealthy. Although they are separate steps, they also overlap, so you have to attend to all of them.”

Do I need to continue this little parable? I think you can see where it’s going. For a number of years my team and I have been developing a series of 6 Steps which can be applied to any tokenized offering, and indeed any product or service which requires marketing. But here’s the tricky part: My clients have to take each of the steps, actively, and with their full engagement. That way, they will get the results that the process is designed to achieve. There is no ‘magic pill’, and although some organizations report ‘magical’ results, to me they are predictable, based on following the 6 Steps program.

You may have noticed that the patient wishing to be healthy told the Doctor that the suggestions were, ‘Just common sense’, and I agree with that. But if everyone followed their common sense, there’d be no-one who was obese, or addicted to nicotine. The fact is that even when we know what is best for us, we don’t necessarily do it. This applies a lot to marketing, because here almost everyone is their own Doctor, and feels qualified to write their own prescription. Sometimes the new enterprise will even get some results too, based on the brilliance of the offering, or because there is a pre-existing audience that is ready to hear from them. But a logical step-by-step process to marketing and the creation of wealth? That’s usually beyond the reach of most new businesses, not least because they don’t have their own marketing department – something only well-established enterprises have.

Which is why I contend that your business needs to be talking with my business.

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