DISQUS

Thanks for the recommendation, Eric. It's appreciated

Like Glenda, I'm honored and gratified by your recommendation. It's really appreciated. david

"We don't care - we just want a buyer."

Now there's the central tragedy - and problem - of all people who are trying to sell something, whether it's Mr. & Mrs. Scoble or MEGACORP. Everybody's w-a-y to impatient, and wants to get to instant gratification too fast.

I've always believed that the key to understanding selling is to understand buying, and I'm pretty sure that's as true in WEB2.0land as it is in the rest of the universe.

And what we know about how you and I buy is that, unless it costs 99 cents, we shop around and go through a buying process, using ever finer filters. In the case of buying a service, it's something like:

a) Who's out there that can help?
b) Who's qualified for our situation?
c) Who's got references?
d) Who's earned enough of our trust to be chosen?

WEB2.0 businesses can add value any any stage of this process, but I suspect too few have thought about it as a series of stages, each requiring it's own approach. Helping sellers create awareness is a very different process than helping them provide refernces (the community) versus helping them convey and earn trust.

New-world marketers need to remember old-world buying!

Congratulations - it's going to be fascinating to see you do for (to?) podcasting what you did for blogs. This is going to be fun!

(I'll drop you an email anout the intersection of podcasting / PR and blogging.)

If we as consumers can instantly check