Many years ago when I got my first account management role in the big consulting firm I was working for it became my job to call potential clients up to try to set up sales meetings for me and others within our organisation.

As you can imagine, I hated it.

I went from being a consultant whose opinion was valued by clients and whose calls were anticipated to someone who called trying to sell them stuff.

And after a while, my calls started getting answered an awful lot less than before.

And because I found it so painful, I didn't call as often as I should have.

So I didn't get many meetings. And I didn't get many sales.

I was well on my way to being shown the door when I noticed something a bit weird.

Whenever my firm published some research that I thought my clients might find interesting – I had no hesitation then to call them to offer them a copy.

Of if we were organising an executive dinner with a good speaker, I'd be happy to call them up with an invite.

And even more importantly – my clients liked it too.

The research was useful to them. The dinners and talks were fun and valuable.

They started taking my calls again.

I discovered that by (pretty much) only calling when I had something useful to offer, I re-established myself as a valuable resource for them.

They started talking to me about the research. We chatted at the dinners. I began to find out what was important to them and where they were struggling. I earned “permission” to suggest some of our services to them.

And every now and then they would call me to discuss something we might be able to help with.

The secret was that all the marketing I was doing wasn't seen by them as marketing. It was seen as “useful stuff” and I was seen as a valuable resource they could trust.

All of a sudden the calls I hated became calls I enjoyed – or at the very least, didn't mind making.

And so I made more and more of them. Even to people I didn't know, because I had something valuable to offer them.

And, of course, that led to more sales (and me keeping my job!).

So here's the lesson:

If you don't enjoy the marketing you're doing, there's probably a decent reason.

And you may well find, like me, that by finding a way to make your marketing more useful to your clients in and of itself, you'll enjoy it a lot more.

And they'll pay a lot more attention to it.

And they'll buy a lot more.

That can't be bad.