s it just me?

For a marketing and sales teacher, I seem to be remarkably intolerant of being marketed and sold to these days.

Thanks to Sky+ I fast-forward through the ads on TV. I close popups on websites on autopilot. I unlink from people who send me sales pitches or unsolicited “newsletters” on Linkedin. And don't get me started about people who call me up trying to sell me stuff.

Worst of all: people who seem to think that because we've gone to the same event it's their duty to tell me how brilliant their products and services are despite the fact I've indicated no interest in them.

Our attitudes, our client's attitudes, change all the time. And our marketing needs to change to reflect this.

I don't mean that we should abandon direct mail or referrals or other tried and tested marketing approaches in favour of newfangled, unproven technologies. Far from it.

But we need to use them in a different way.

Clients don't want to be bothered, interrupted, sold at. And these days they won't tolerate it – they'll go elsewhere.

So our marketing needs to be valuable, useful, entertaining.

If people tell you your marketing is so helpful to them you ought to charge for it, you know you're on the right track.

If your ideal clients think of your marketing as something they want to tune into, not switch off, then you're on the right track.

If they actively seek it out, subscribe to it, pay attention to it, learn from it, laugh at it. Then you've got marketing that can cut through any cynicism and reach even the most overworked, short-of-time client.

It's not rocket science. It's not costly. It just requires a different way of thinking.

Instead of trying to “persuade” people they should hire you, you prove you're the right choice by giving them value in advance of working with you.

And you know what? Not only is that sort of marketing better for your clients. Not only does it work better. It's more fun too.

Give it a go.