Challenging your own assumptions

I had a good chat with Ron from Buzzoodle yesterday and although I knew a little about how his business had come about, was surprised to learn that his initial concept for Buzzoodle was quite different from what we see today.

Coming from a technology background, when the idea for a structured approach to buzz marketing hit, Ron invisioned a tech solution - providing software for businesses to gauge and track the buzz their advocates created. This certainly got the ball rolling, but Ron was quick to realise that the concept had its limitations and has now gone on to become a prolific speaker, blogger and recent author on the topic. The move from technology to information made sense and is paying dividends.

This got me thinking about how our own pre-conceptions help colour the solutions and methods we envisage.

In a similar vein, the first concepts for FreeForm were to help change the way small businesses market themselves and to do this by providing new marketing tools - a decision coloured by my own background in B2B sales. But like Ron I was willing to take a good look at what the market really wanted - which wasn't what I was selling - so FreeForm has developed much more into a consultancy and training business over the last 6 months.

So how does this help you? Well simple, take a step back and re-examine the assumptions you made when starting your business or latest marketing effort. There's little point in trying to force a solution that isn't a natural fit - listen to your customers, and the ones you don't get, to see if there are other ways to deliver the purpose of your business (i.e. why you're in business in the first place).