There's an old joke about the guy who asks a New York cab driver, "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?" The driver answers: "Practice. Practice. Practice."

Good advice. Perseverance and persistence can help you accomplish a tremendous amount. Even get you to Carnegie Hall.

Obvious? Perhaps. But not everybody gets the message. Let me give you an example. Over the years I have helped a number of friends get newsletters off the ground. They are always enthusiastic at first, but drop out after publishing a few issues.

Why don't they stick with it? There are probably many reasons. They don't have the time. They don't like writing. They don't get an immediate response from prospects. Whatever.

The point is, had they been persistent and kept on mailing their newsletters month after month, year after year, I am convinced that these folks would have won big.

I say this for two reasons:

TV commercials and print ads don't run once. As you know all too well, they are repeated over and over again. Big advertisers understand that we are bombarded by
messages all the time and that the only way to cut through the clutter is to be there often.

That's why you need to be persistent and keep your message in front of your target audience on a regular basis. Therefore it follows that:

* If you're advertising in print, make sure your frequency is high enough to get you noticed.

* If you're using postal direct mail, don't call it quits after the first mailing. Keep on re-mailing non-responders until the campaign stops paying for itself. (You may be surprised to find you're still making money on the third mailing!)

* Same thing if you're an opt-in e-mailer!

2. You never know when your prospect will need your product or service.

Let's say you're in the business of translating software, collateral, manuals, etc. into Spanish. You advertise in the software trades hoping that publishers will give you a call to find out what you have to offer.

If a software publisher is marketing only in his or her country, and has no interest in selling abroad, your ads will be invisible. Prospects will flip right past them.

But if a given publisher decides that it's time to start selling software to the Spanish-speaking market worldwide, suddenly your ads, mailings, seminars, etc., become tremendously relevant and you start getting a close reading. Soon your phone starts ringing. Next, your CASH REGISTER starts ringing!

What happened, of course, is that when the publisher suddenly entered the market for localization services, he or she instantly became a super-hot prospect.

The bottom line? When you're selling anything that isn't a commodity, YOU NEVER KNOW WHO IS ENTERING THE MARKET OR WHEN. Which is why you have to constantly get your name out and engage in an ongoing, persistent marketing effort.

My advice? Stick with your marketing plan and don't give up. Success goes to those marketers who are out there pitching, day in, day out.

The take-away message this month? I'll let John D. Rockefeller say it. (This quote of his is on my wall over my desk and helps keep me focused and motivated.)

"I do not think there is any quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything. Even nature."