Oddly enough, it seems rather foreign to people with a sales/marketing background. The folks I talked to did not know what to do without a $100,000+ ad campaign

Oddly enough, it seems rather foreign to people with a sales/marketing background. The folks I talked to did not know what to do without a $100,000+ ad campaign to help them push or a structure refined enough to be the sales equivalent of a Mcdonald's frier. Sales is hard. What helped me the most so far, in retail, is networking with a lot of people who are most likely to increase my luck surface area. Here and there I find a great win/win business deal that seems to fall into my lap. I use those successes to pay for the seemingly less successful but more standard approach.