Volume punching should be left to machines

In boxing or stand-up fighting, there is a term used to describe a certain style: volume punching. A volume puncher basically punches a lot to overwhelm their opponent, hoping to create openings for a good strike. They do not give their opponents a chance to breathe or think. They just keep coming. If you watch boxing and don't like the volume punchers, then you'll like the power punchers. These guys are always looking for that one big punch to knock out their opponent.

In Street Fighter 2 terms, think Ryu vs Zangief. 

For the past few weeks, whenever I went out of my office for lunch or coffee, I'd be assailed by an insurance agent or two. They wait in the open lobby of a building, trying to strike up a conversation with anyone who they can convince to drop some money on one of their schemes.

These are volume punchers. I don't know who told them to go out and accumulate [[rejections]], but this is the old but outdated way of doing sales. Pounding (or punching) the pavement and getting refusals might be relevant a decade or two ago, but it is not so now.

You go online. You do market research and you find out about your target market. You formulate a strategy and you find your targeted audience, create content, engage with them, have a social media content strategy, and present yourself as a trusted personality with some authority in your field.

This beats going around chasing prospects and getting into conversations with people who might not even meet your requirements. It is better to find  your prospects online. Everyone is or can be profiled online. It is hard to profile people in real life. It is hard work to profile people unless you talk to them.

There is a certain breed of insurance agent or salesman, the kind who looks you up and down when they meet you. They are trying to get a bead on you based on your dressing, stance and looks.

But this was in the age of the industrial. When people with wealth would announce their wealth. And people with no wealth would inadvertently announce their lack of it.

Things are different now.

Some people still haven't realised it. They are stuck in the industrial mindset, where they think human beings are supposed to replicate machines, where sweat equals money, and the idea of scalability is known only by the select few. It may be a bit disheartening and even impersonal, but some of us still have to change the way we think. We have to do it to 

There should be no more volume punching in human interactions. In this current age of marketing, I think people should be miffed if they are targeted wrongly. After all, we contribute to our marketing profiles online.