Curly’s Law of Marketing
In the movie “City Slickers”, when they’re talking about the key to happiness, Jack Palance’s character (Curly) holds up one finger, and tells Billy Crystal’s character (Mitch) that the key to happiness is “one thing”. It was up to Mitch to find his ‘one thing’.
Good marketing is a lot like that. 
Too often companies make the mistake of trying to be all things to all people. The most obvious example of this is when companies try to list everything they do in their ads, emails, and conversations with prospects.
Guess what? They don’t care.
Potential customers don’t have the time, interest, or energy to learn your life story. They’re just interested in that ‘one thing’. It could be innovation, customer service, or even price. But, it’s just one thing.
Good marketing isn’t about ‘you’, it’s about your prospect.
The next time you’re tempted to rattle off a laundry list of every possible reason someone might want to do business with you, take a minute and try to determine what you do that is most important to them.
Then, be that ‘one thing’.
I once had the chance to share some drinks with David Martin, Founder of the Martin Agency, and he told me the same thing.
After hours of my discussing with him ALL of my core competencies, he asked for my business card, turned it over and wrote something on it before handing it back.
Later when I read it the note simply said, “What’s you ONE thing?” Simply put, I made it too hard for him to even understand what I was all about. Great lesson.
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by spoke_marketing: Don’t tell your customers everything you do – find that ‘one thing’ instead (new post) – http://cot.ag/dDxs7g...
Thanks for the comment, Nate. Maybe Spoke will be as successful as The Martin Agency someday (here’s hoping, anyway!)?