I suppose, business in a nutshell, can be boiled down to simply the exchange of value (usually money for goods or services). The question then, comes into play when we evaluate the true value of what we have to offer.

I have seen all kinds of people, as have you, trying to sell all kinds of things, and many of them just don't appeal to us or seem overpriced. We are obviously not their customers. But whose customers are we? We can learn a lot about marketing when we examine who we buy from and why and how and when, etc. It's a great exercise to play with and doesn't take long.

Get some scratch paper and list all of the purchases you've made in the last two weeks. Think about what was specifically purchased and break down each one into the good old Four Ps: Product, Price, Promotion and Placement. Then fill in each box for every item you purchased and begin to get an angle on how they navigated the four Ps to get you.

When you are finished, what you should have is an interesting list of criteria for suckering yourself in to buy something.

Now, who are your customers? I'd bet they are within a 20% variance of our own likes and dislikes, our own attitudes and assumptions. You may try using the criteria that gets you to purchase on your very own customers! Regardless, your marketing won't move forward unless you carve out time to spend on it and do the research.

Get going!