In an age where knowledge is available at our fingertips, it can be hard to believe that there are things we still don’t know about our customers.

We spend countless hours planning our marketing messages, honing our pitch and finding the right medium to intersect, attract and gain the attention of our audience, based on what we know. Our sales meetings and marketing presentations are geared to discovering what we don’t know about the needs and wants of our customers. But there is much more to our relationships than needs and wants.

The only way to discover important information in this area is to become skilled at asking the right questions.

Thanks to those who dove right in to our previous challenges. This week we share the experiences of those brave souls, who gave their corporate marketing plan the test of customer scrutiny and introduce your challenge for next week.

We've added a new section this week, "Keeping it Real." It can be easy to lose ourselves in our roles, our titles, our level of income and seeming importance in the business world.

Each week we’ll present you with a new article or interview to help you find and maintain a balance of individuality and passion in the work you do. If you would like to be interviewed on the subject, feel free to contact Yvonne Bailey at 604-231-7343.

My sincerest hope for each of you is that you do the work you love each day and genuinely love the work you do.

Jim Schaffer shares his top 10 tips for achieving greater success in 2004. His list is exactly the opposite of what you might expect.

Bring the Un-Marketing Challenge In-house

The Un-Marketing Challenge is now available in syndication. Add our popular weekly column to your client, trade or business newsletter or publication.