Wishful Marketing Vs. Core Business Enlargment

Surprise



A few days back, I discovered an interesting phenomenon.

But before I tell you about it, I wish to ask you a question.



{did you know? a psychological bias called "hindsight bias" causes
people to find any "fact" they are first confronted with as obvious,
even if the "facts" are contradicting. A good way to prevent this,
is to pose the information as questions and then show that there
is more than just one obvious answer}

What would you expect would be the link between the total sales of salesmen and the number of emails they send?

What I discovered was a reverse link (or negative correlation). The more sales, the less emails.

I was surprised. does this mean that good salesmen make more phone calls and less emails? or maybe they just ask their secretaries to write emails for them?
Another explanation, that has more "stamina" is that maybe the good salesman manages to focus better than others

I don't have an answer. maybe one of you knows a research about it?

anyhow, it brings me to the next issue: what needs to be focused on in your marketing strategy- new areas in which you aren't strong (which i'll refer to as wishful marketing) or the areas in which you are strong - trying to focus on the core business?

There are arguments to both sides:

New areas are where the biggest potential to grow exists, percentage-wise. It is much more exciting, new customers involved etc. focusing attention on new areas may uncover huge fields where the company may advance to, and even change the whole focus of the company. It is rumored thatonly one company lasted in the stock market for more than 2 centuries - this company constantly changed.

On the other hand, in areas in which you are strong, there is a good chance that you do something right- your product / service is better/cheaper etc. So maybe your marketing just needs to emphasize the areas in which you are already doing your core business.

This is not a theoretical question: it should define how much and which trade shows you go to, who do you target with your advertising campaigns, who do you visit more often, how you build your website and many other questions.