The Farmer Potatoes and Direct Marketing
The Farmer Potatoes & Marketing The farmer picked his potatoes. Line by line, field by field, acre by acre through he thick, wet, black mud he picked them, packed them and now arrived his time to sell them.
If he didn’t sell them his family wouldn’t eat and his workers wouldn’t get paid. So off he went, down to the market place to sell them.
There are two markets near to his farm. Both have good reputations but the problems are both have farmers, lots of farmers selling lots of potatoes.
So this week he makes a decision to drive a little further into the hills. He has had an idea based on the ground. He knows in the hills it’s almost impossible to grow potatoes. Yes they can grow all kinds of vegetables and crops but not potatoes.
Yet he also knows that every household travels to buy potatoes. So his idea is really simply…
Avoid the markets that are saturated Go to a market that has high demand and little supply
That’s what he does. He loads up his van, drives 37 miles rather than his regular 4-mile trip. Gets to the market place early, opens up his van ready to sell his potatoes. By the way he loves his potatoes and so he should.
It has taken 5 months or hard work, loving care and attention to bring his crop to where he is now. That’s 5 months with no pay! Now his is time to reap his well-earned reward.
SOLD-OUT… yes just two hours into his 10-hour day he has sold-out, his van is empty, he has a bag full of cash and a huge smile across his face.
He then stops at a pub on the way home to sit and drink cider whilst eating cheese and bread. An hour turned into four but who really cares when you have a sell-out day!
You see marketing isn’t hard, it’s easy, and it always has been. It has become hard because man has made it hard when it isn’t and can never be hard.
All you have to do is
Have a great product that is tested and market hungry
Find a buyers market
Go and place yourself in front of the market place.
Just recently I had a client to my home. He wanted advice on one of his products. He came to my office and revealed his numbers (or lack of them) from over two years that frankly shocked me.
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His problem was one (he refused to accept) and it was this. He was trying to sell a low demand product to an audience that clearly had no interest in his product. Yet… He still thought it was a good idea, still felt people needed it, still made no money and yet insisted that despite the evidence, the numbers written on paper in front of him, he believed that eventually it would do well.
I have to say it certainly looked like a great product but after two years if a buyer’s market place could be found is there really any point?
I had another client come to me not that long ago and had invested into a new business the number of £60,000. He already had a number of businesses that were taking great amounts of cash and profits. His question was simple, should I keep this new business going as it really isn’t making any money?
We looked at the details and the answer was simple, the marketplace was over saturated. The only real way to make a huge amount of cash and profits would be to be the market leaser. To do that would take an investment of millions a large corporate structure and time he didn’t have.
In the end he decided to close this new business after six months and focus on his existing businesses that had already made him a millionaire. The lesson for him wasn’t to hard but still a throw away of £60,000.
The farmer above was smart. He understood something really simple and that was there is demand and there is high-demand. He went to the place where demand was high but competition was almost zero.
So here are a couple of things to think about for your own business.
Have you researched in full the demand for your product?
Have you researched the supply?
How you positioned your product fully?
Have you created a great brand to go with your product?
Have you created new direct marketing materials?
Have you got the professional team together to do this for you?
Are you using tested marketing tactics?
How many ways to market your business are built into your marketing schedule?
If you have worked as hard as the farmer over 5 months to reap a reward you need it to work, its really that simple. If it doesn’t work … get advice or close it down.
I hope this helps you. Direct Marketing Consultant, Alan Forrest Smith
If you’d like to work with Alan or find out more, click here.