Once a shrewd marketer… always a shrewd marketer…

Today’s tip is the story of a very successful entrepreneur who’s not afraid to go out on a limb and be completely unconventional.

There’s this 63 year-old ex-Vietnam veteran out in Texas named Herb Vest. In 2001, Herb sold his last company, H. D. Vest, to Wells Fargo for $121 Million bucks — not chump change by anyone’s standards.

H.D. Vest changed the landscape of business by passing legislation which allowed CPA’s to get paid for selling financial products and securities, and of course, Vest was the broker dealer who offered all the products to these accountants.

Smart man, and now it seems like he’s stumbled onto something just as smart and unconventional.

Vest knows the best way to overcome a weakness — or a perceived marketing weakness — is to turn it around and position yourself and the weakness, as your particular strength in the marketplace, and that’s what Vest has done again, with a company called True.com, that he started in 2004.

True is an online dating site that requires it’s registrants to undergo background checks to make sure they aren’t either married or criminals, which is probably good criteria for single folks looking to find their soulmates, no?

And now Vest is pushing legislation to make ALL dating sites require their members to get background checks. Instead of being the odd one out, he’s taking his difference and trying to re-create it as the standard.

VERY smart.

Of course, True has received NOTHING but criticism from all the established dating sites — they are saying these background checks are evasive and don’t prove anything… they’re upset because they can’t compete with True because Vest is outspending them in Google adwords… and in general, they don’t like True’s tactics and the pictures of scantily-clad women they use in their marketing. (Like they’re the first ones to do this, right?)

What’s Vest’s take on this?

He could care less. He knows when your competition is criticizing you, it means you’re eating away at their business (another valuable lesson for you, if you are the subject of criticism from time-to-time) and making them stretch for a change.

Valuable lessons indeed.

On page 5 of this month’s offline Seductive Selling Newsletter, you’ll discover how one VERY motivated and persistent individual took advantage of resources available to almost everyone, and created some very serious marketing (along with a real LIVE example of what he did). Test drive it FREE at http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Don’t forget to listen to my radio show this Thursday at 1pm Eastern time. The Seductive Selling Marketing Hour For Entrepreneurs at http://www.kingofcopy.com/radio

P.P.S. Check out all the King’s products at http://www.kingofcopy.com/products