Aspirin or Vitamins?

August 27, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - APRIL 06:  An advertisement fo...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

There’s a saying that it’s far easier to sell aspirin than vitamins.

People will pay to have pain alleviated much more often than they will to have the intangible “better.”

I was thinking about this the other day when my friend, Nelson Lee, sent me some sample supplements of his new products for Kidney Stone Relief and Urinary Tract Relief.

Now, fortunately, at this moment, I don’t have any problems that require this type of pain relief so, taking them, would, as Nelson say, “help keep  you from getting these problems.”

I’m all for that, but it got me thinking: “How do I know if it’s working?”

And, “if I don’t know, would I buy it again (or the first time)?”

This is the problem with vitamins. We, who sell them, KNOW that our products/services, etc. can and WILL make the lives of our potential customers better.

But, they don’t have a pain at that moment.

So, you’re better off selling the same thing as aspirin, if you can.

UNLESS..you take one other road.

The road of “the only people I care about are those who WANT to take vitamins and who believe in them already.”

I think about this with my clients. The clients that I want are those who say “I want and must innovate as a marketer. I want to get pushed. I’m not afraid of making mistakes. The status quo and doing what everyone else does isn’t going to work for me.”

Lesson: Decide if you are selling aspirin or vitamins. Then, talk to the worldview of those people.




Get Never Stop Marketing by email.
Subscribe here

blog comments powered by Disqus