2 wild animals taught me marketing

Watching wild animals in Africa hunting for food, is an extremely educative experience for marketers and those who want to dramatically increase their sales. The big cats are especially fascinating in their different hunting methods.

The lion usually has lots of difficulties hunting. This cat is built very big, strong and heavy. The result is that it is no match for the speed and agility of the antelope, its' favourite meal. So the lion relies on stealth, surprise and the quick short dash - not unlike that of a well-built 100 metres sprinter. The lion's advantage is in its' strength which enables it to kill fairly large prey that would give smaller cats like the cheetah a lot of problems.

The cheetah has a totally different hunting method. This cat is light, agile and built for high speeds. No problems catching that small antelope in the herd scampering for safety. But unlike the lion, the cheetah cannot go for bigger prey (more meat) like the zebra or even larger antelopes.

You now fully understand why the lion cannot wake up one morning and decide that since it admires the cheetah's sheer speed, it wants to hunt like a cheetah - or vice versa.

That should be obvious, should it not be?

Then why is it that businesses make this mistake every day?

The type of selling system (it's actually a hunting system you know) you choose will depend a lot on what you are. Are you an agile, small young business with no bureaucracy or long-decision making process, not unlike the cheetah? Or are you that larger recently-prosperous-business struggling to maintain enough sales growth to sustain your cash-guzzling overheads, not unlike the lion?

This lesson came down hard on me a few years ago when I created a selling system that surpassed all expectations and grew a small magazine from a circulation of less than 500 copies to 120,000 copies weekly, in a few short months. The simple system employed the use of teaser flyers.

The mistake I made was that whilst basking in the glory of sweet, sensational success, I did not realize that the business had dramatically changed in size and therefore urgently required a NEW drastically different selling system. It was a classic case of the cheetah that grew into a lion but still wanted to hunt like a cheetah.

What system is best suited for your business right now is a critical question you will have to ask and answer if you hope to implement a successful selling system that will make a difference in your business.
Even before you get into something as detailed as a selling system, just looking at popular traditional marketing methods proves that one has to know what is appropriate for them. I have seen many small businesses reap mediocre results from an expensive television advertisement run during prime time. Where the same slot for a larger business would probably have broken the bank.

This is a lesson that's easy to forget. The remedy? Every time it looks like you are forgetting, just find a way to watch the different wild cats of Africa hunting.