This morning, I’m driving up to visit my parents in Birmingham.  I haven’t had breakfast.  I’m really, really, really hungry.  I stop at the petrol station and at look the array of flaccid 2-day-old sandwiches on offer.  I’m not that hungry.

I get back in the car and resign myself to a 2 hour drive with hunger gnawing away at me the whole time.

Not fun.

Suddenly, I spot a little trailer by the roadside.  Is it? I can’t quite make it out.   I slow down hopefully.    It can’t be.  Wait.  Yes, yes, it is!  A bacon butty bar! A shining oasis in the tarmac desert of the A41.  I can’t believe my luck.

I bring the car to a swift stop and head over. All my hopes are fulfilled. They even have nice sausages and crusty bread. Freshly cooked, and less than half the price of petrol station ‘food’.  I’m overjoyed.  It’s going to be a great day.

Whilst I’m waiting for my order, the owner asks me what I do. “I help business owners win more clients”.  At this stage, people either change the subject, or tell me they wish someone would help them win more clients.  She does the latter. “I wish I could get more customers.  I don’t want to make a fortune out of this place, but it’s a struggle.”

What’s changed?

I’m confused.  “You have a great product”, I say.  “You’re serving a market which needs what you sell”. I presume I’m not the only stale-sandwich-avoiding person who drives along the A41 with an empty stomach,

“Has it always been this tough?”

“No” she replies.   “But things have changed.” (My heart sinks.  I know what’s coming next).  “The economy…”

Wow.  The economy is worse than I thought.  Have people stopped eating now?

It transpires she’s convinced herself that yes, people have stopped eating.  Either that or they’re getting up extra early in the morning to replace their dose of saturated-fatty-delight with a bowl of value cornflakes.  I have my doubts.

“What would you suggest?” She looks hopeful.  Normally, I’m against giving free advice (apart from to you lovely people who read my blog), because people rarely act on it, but she’s got food, and I’m hungry.

“Have you tried advertising?  Flyers?  Signs?  You’re kind of difficult to see here.”

“I had signage before I changed my trailer, but I haven’t bothered to put it back up.”

“You changed your trailer?  Was this just before economy took a dip?”

“Yes, it was.  I shouldn’t have done it.”

There’s the problem.  Right there.

A false connection of cause and effect.  She took her signs down, business got worse, she blamed the economy and then, in her own words “got lazy” Thing carried on downhill from there.  I urged her to put signs back up (“Missed breakfast?  Stop here.” would be a good start), and I really hope she does.

I’m not relating this story to single out this sandwich bar owner for blame.  Blaming the outside world for things going wrong, and then giving up is very, very easy to do.  Even when you’ve promised yourself you’re not going to do it.  If you catch yourself being lazy or half-hearted in any aspect of your marketing or sales, take a moment.  Is that what’s happening?

Here’s another way to look at it, and I have to thank Marcus Cauchi for this:

Because the owner had “given up” on advertising, if it weren’t for blind luck, I wouldn’t have spotted the little trailer. I’d have spent the rest of my car journey hungry. How miserable would that be?  You see, not putting yourself out there because ‘there’s a recession on’ is hurting others who really need what you have.

It doesn’t matter how great your product is. It doesn’t matter how much care you put into what you do.  If you give up like that, and stop promoting yourself properly, not even those who really, really need what you offer are going to be able to buy from you.

Which means not only will you be poorer, but your prospect will be too. And they’ll have to make do with stale sandwiches.