The 101 Premise is so 1994
 

Hi,

See, this is what I keep saying about internet marketing being like face-to-face selling, not like mailorder.

And... No one will listen!

For example, in the last Entrepreneur's Hotsheet an article by Gil was cited called "Selling hard goods online is like mail order...."

While I like and respect Mike, Dien and Gil, I respectfully differ.

You wrote [describing the 101 premise]:
> Find the right people FIRST.

Now that we have the internet, you should let people find you, rather than trying to find them.

You wrote:
> NEW Marketing Paradigm as presented by Roy
> Williams (The Wizard of Ads) and others
> (perhaps even me)...says:

> WORDS.

Exactly!!! Words as in "How to present a sales pitch." Words like Don Alm uses when he's talking to a real estate agent.

As a side note, words can be written, they don't have to be spoken. Don could close a sale by preparing a bunch of cards, and holding up one or several and asking prospects to point at the one they like the best. I can close a sale by putting up a page that has three benefits on it, and nothing else, and forcing surfers to either click on the one they like the best or close the page. And if they close the page I pop up a little page that says essentially "Please take our catalog with you and come back soon." If they click one of my benefits they've started to target themselves, and I then take them to a page where I try to target them even more. Basic face to face salesmanship, but done with web pages.

You wrote:
> Join the debate, if there is one, which do
> you find most important to your successful
> efforts.

> Finding the RIGHT people? (And how do you do
> that?)

Why would I want to bother trying? It's like I'm in the woods with my wife, and she goes off to pee behind a tree and gets lost. Do I run through the woods looking behind every tree or do I send up a lot of smoke, put a flag high up in a tree, yell through a megaphone and let her find me?

You wrote:
> Or, SAYING the right words to the people who
> find you? (And what might they be?)

I'd find out what they're looking for and offer it to them.

You wrote:
> The 101 premise says that you must first
> find people who WANT what you have and you
> simply present a compelling and well
> structured offer that they can't resist.

YIKES, good luck!

> NEW premise says it is what you SAY to the
> people in front of you.

I hope my agreement with the New premise is clear by now.

Hope this was helpful or interesting or both.

Best,

- Boyd