Would you buy a banana at a hardware store?

My guess is no. You wouldn’t seek one out there either, right?

Why not?

It’s the complete wrong context! People at the hardware store are looking for nails, tools, paint, not fresh produce.

Even if you sourced the world’s finest, most delectable bananas in the world, my guess is you would not move very many because everybody’s reaction is going to be “what the heck…”.

Selling the greatest product in the wrong context is the exact same thing.

I’ve done this same thing. I have tried to sell websites to plumbers (they don’t care about websites and you can’t make them care).

I’ve tried selling SEO services in the first cold email to a business (this is like going door-to-door, painful and full of rejection).

I didn’t understand this fully until I banged my head against the wall enough to learn that I had work to do.

Sell hammers instead.

You could brute force your way in and be determined to keep your produce market running inside the hardware store, but why do that when there’s an easier path?

Do what is already working, where it is working.

Is your offer tailored to the market? 2 ways

• Is anyone else selling this successfully? What can you learn?
• Have you asked your market what they need?

Other examples of wrong contexts that you can only know by testing & research:

• 👎 Facebook Ads services for real estate agents

• 👎 Big SEO packages for restaurants

Making sure your offer matches the context and the market is critically important to being successful in your sales efforts.

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