Why do we do what we do in the business of selling?

From business cards, to networking events, to newsletters the products that are “just get your name out there,” and etc., why do we do what we do? Are we doing it because it’s a template that affirms and establishes trust to those people that we say we want to purchase something from us? Are we doing it because it establishes some type of reputation that’s easy to grasp because there’s only so much time in the day and so many ways to connect with the different products and services that come along? Do we do it because there is some written or unwritten rule by some gatekeepers to the products and services that we would like them to procure?

There was a point in a previous entrepreneur effort when I lost all of the metrics behind the work. Visits, external links, comments, all of that went away. Data security has its way of proving what works and what doesn’t work. It was at that moment for that entrepreneur effort I decided those measures needed to no longer be the mark of what’s sold or what success looks like. I need to actually exercise knowledge of the space in order to sell the awareness and products of that effort.

Was it harder? Yes. It was a lot harder. However, because I was no longer bound by the metrics around those rules and business pieces of selling, I could take some chances. Was able to do some things with interactive technologies, reach out to obscure adjacent areas, and even explore topics that were somewhat taboo. It’s really neat how curiosity becomes a selling point…

At the closing of that effort, there were a few people who asked if I felt it was successful. And my answer was “yes, it was.“ Instead of focusing on the path that others took, I focused on what made the product and service unique, and leaned into that heavily. And while there is less tolerance for that these days because of the amount of metrics and bandwidth and customer centric sales funnels… it feels as if there is a place for unique and authentic expressions of service. Not because most of us in this space are not positioned in ourselves as some sort of authority to be the focus of someone’s wallet. But because there must be something uniquely humane and valuable about our experience and the interpretation of our perspective which makes it valuable enough for others to come to us uniquely. Not because of a template. Not because “this is the way things are done.”

These are my thoughts before departing for another one of those bike rides. Somewhere in this “life at 10 mph” journey, there may come another approach to moving forward that probably doesn’t look like the template of sales in business development as we have been given. Will I grab onto that instinctive approach, or filter it to sell to you/them in some path which was already deemed?

My Twitter/X bio says, “The best roads aren’t paved until someone follows the path you cut and puts down gravel.” Guess what choice happens next 😏