I don't want this blog to get too technical about online marketing, so I try to draw attention to more conceptual marketing thinkpieces as often as I do to ones which talk about search engine optimisation or pay-per-click advertising. When it comes to making you think, one of my favourite blogs is from the American writer Seth Godin, and in the latest entry on Seth's Blog he once again gives us a worthwhile coffee-time read.

In The statesman, the lawyer and the marketer, Seth asks why as marketers, we act more like lawyers (taking one side and arguing it) than like statesmen (saying what we see, whoever's interest it may be in). Perhaps, he suggests, there's mileage in telling the truth – or at least not fighting reality. The best salesmen I've ever worked with are the ones who occasionally walk away from a customer, saying: "Do you know what? My competitor's product is more appropriate for you this time".

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