Exactly. There is often such a push to try something new (hence the Shiny Object Syndrome) that businesses often fail to turn that focus inwards, and see how to leverage what they already have in place.

You've got great examples there, especially that last one - it's subtle, but so true.

My favorite example is a chiropractor I was working with. At one point, he complains about how he was convinced to spend around $5k to publish an article of his in some medical information magazine that would be distributed across the city - and saw zero return from it.

But when I dug into his sales approach, it turned out that he had no idea how to handle the calls, couldn't take it when people poured out their life story on the phone instead of just booking a session, and reached the point where he wasn't even picking up the phone. What is the point of spending a fortune in marketing if you can't respond well to the leads that call?!