Monday, October 24, 2011

Do We Have "Ivory-Tower-Itis"?

A conversation with a local business owner the other day prompted this whole thought pattern and THIS is what came out.

Don, a 2nd generation business owner and a pretty good offline marketer, asked this question almost word for word...

"Do I need one of them "Bee Logs" I see you writing about all the time?" It took a second, but inadvertently Don had hammered home something that I had been taking for granted for quite a while.

Most business owners, heck, most people in general, don't know things that I take for granted! Like what a "Bee Log" is and what it can do for a business as a part of its marketing efforts.

In national politics, I'm always railing against "eggheads" that talk down to us common citizens about economics, trade and all those fancy topics from high atop their ivory towers.

Don didn't mean to, by any stretch of the imagination, but he DID throw it right in my face that I was being just as bad as those "eggheads"!

All of those 5 paragraphs, 166 words took place in my mind while I was trying to come up with a brilliant answer for Don.

What I did say was, "Don, I appreciate you for being so patient with me. I haven't done a very good job of talking about things in a way that you can use right here in your business. I'll do better, I can promise you that!"

We then went on to discuss what a blog is and if it would be an asset for his business. It ended up that Don thought a bee log would be a good addition to his marketing. But, all the while, I was feeling like a real dummy for taking for granted that Don knew what a blog is and how it could be used in his business.

I've always prided myself on being able to discuss things with people in a very down-to-earth manner which I thought was very effective...now I'd have to say MAYBE NOT!

In the end, the same person who had started all these recriminations in my mind...good old Don...put a lot of my worries to rest when he said, "Hey man, don't beat yourself up. You don't know what the knapp of a carpet is or how to work with it, but I do. I can talk about knapps all day long and you'd have the same blank look I have when you talk about blogs. I just have to make sure you're following along enough to be able to choose which knapp you want and BUY a carpet that's right for YOUR home! That's my whole job."

Good old Don!

I'd be willing to bet that a lot of us have a pretty good case of "Ivory-Tower-itis".

Just remember good old Don and make sure your target audience is following along and understands enough to choose the right strategy or tool to get the job that THEY want done completed.

Thanks Don!

If you enjoyed this article and would like to read more, just go to http://www.tourismlearningcenter.com where you'll find over 400 articles like this one.

By Dennis Lively

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