Articles
Six momentous marketing and sales opportunities
by John GrahamThere’s never a need for more opportunities to make sales. Never.
More than enough are always available. In fact, more opportunities than any
company can handle.
“Yeah, sure. If that’s true, then why are salespeople always looking
for leads and complaining that their company isn’t doing everything it
can to help them make more sales?”
The problem is that we’re not trained to see opportunities. Even if they
jumped up and smacked us in the face, we wouldn’t feel a thing. If they
fell in our lap, we couldn’t find them.
The problem is described in a trade association magazine article in which the
readers were invited to test their marketing IQ. The test kicked off this way:
The first step in developing an effective strategy is to leverage––
a. What you do most.
b. What you do best.
c. What you do best in related services.
d. What your competition does least effectively.
e. All of the above.
According to the test’s author, the correct answer is b: An effective strategy
will leverage what you do best; your core competency.
The answer seems to make sense. We want to believe what we do best is what the
customer wants. But that’s the mistake––focusing on the
company instead of the customer.
We spend time trying to get the customer to do what we want. We’re so enamored
by what we see in the mirror, we can’t see anything else. Just because
we’re the very best at something doesn’t mean someone needs, wants
or will pay for what we’re good at.
The job of marketing and sales is not to try get the customer to bow to our will,
but to offer what intrigues the customer. In other words, blinded by what
we want, we miss the myriad of opportunities that have the potential to increase
sales.
How can we turn it around and become customer focused?
1. Overcome complacency. Without question, complacency is the
business killer. It surrounds us. It affects how we think and what we do without
us even recognizing it. Professor Jagdish Sheth of Emory University’s Goizueta
Business School lays down the gauntlet when he says, “People end up believing
what they do will succeed forever, and then they become resistant to change.
They get locked into one paradigm or one way of life.”
When something works well, we want to believe that we have found the magic formula
and that it will work well forever. Perhaps there’s a not so subtle component
of ego mixed in with complacency.
Examples are everywhere, from the company president who must be the “expert”
on every aspect of business from selecting typefaces to toilet paper,
to the head of IBM who, in the 1970s, dismissed personal computers out
of hand because IBM’s business was mainframes.
Complacency blinds us to opportunity and kills business.
2. Never ignore inertia. Americans had a rude awakening when
they called toll-free help lines and found themselves speaking to someone with
an Indian accent. We were indignant that companies were exporting jobs.
This tsunami isn’t just about sending jobs to low-wage nations. It’s
about inertia. At the end of “It’s a Flat World, After All” (New
York Times Magazine,April 3, 2004), Thomas L. Friedman, refers to Bill Gates’ contention
that the U.S. is falling behind in education compared to the rest of the world,
with our students scoring near the bottom of industrialized nations.
Then Friedman drops the bomb. “When I was growing up, my parents used to
say to me, ‘Tom, finish your dinner––people in China are starving.’ But…I
am now telling my own daughters,
‘Girls, finish your homework––people in China and India
are starving for your jobs’.”
We like to believe we’re safe, that nothing can touch us. The problem isn’t
losing jobs, it’s that we fail to see that others are overtaking us, “eating
our lunch.” Friedman notes there are folks hidden away all over the world
armed with knowledge, laptops and wireless who are taking the business.
Here’s the marketing and sales message: We are never set; nothing stays
the same. Unless we actively market with a view to the future––two,
three and five years down the road––we’re in trouble. What’s
killing sales is inertia. We dawdle around looking for the ripe fruit, when we
should be cultivating the young trees.
3. Never look back. Businesspeople like to believe they’re
visionaries, but their behavior tells a different story. They’re
in love with the past. They get excited when they’re telling
war stories! And these heroic moments are all about past glories.
The prime example of what we can call “rearview mirror thinking”
is, of course, General Motors. As the once “world’s biggest
company” heads for the precipice, it continues to follow its founders
plan: let customers graduate from a Chevy or a Pontiac, to an Oldsmobile,
Buick or LaSalle, and then to a Cadillac. Once they get started, there’s
a GM vehicle throughout their lifecycle. LaSalle disappeared 65 years
ago, Olds is gone and Buick is waiting for the plug to be pulled.
Ford’s on a similar path. But not Kia and Hyundai from South Korea. Once
rejected by U.S. car buyers, they turned it around––fast. Today,
their products win quality honors and fly out the door with powerful guarantees
that are far more compelling incentives than GM and Ford’s deep discounts.
Looking forward beats looking backward. Learn from GM, Ford and others. Give
customers what they want and don’t hold back, or else the competition will
enjoy the fruits of your failure.
4. Create excitement. If customers today are looking
for one thing above all else, it’s excitement. That’s what
Expo and Victoria’s Secret are all about. How to be more than just
a little bit daring is the secret message. Chrysler’s PT Cruiser
continues to excite both men and women, particularly members of the Boomer
generation. “I may be getting gray but I can still act like a kid.”
Owners have genuine affection for their PT Cruisers. As one who rented
a garage for his new vehicle said in near reverential tones, “I’ve
got to take care of it.”
There’s even more of a symbiotic relationship between the Chrysler 300
owners and their vehicles, as sales exceed company projections. Once again, the
Boomers are busting down the dealership doors to get their hands on these rakish
sedans.
What’s going on here? At a time when we feel increased job pressure and
the stress of work, family, and conflicting demands, we want to lose ourselves
for awhile. These vehicles offer special excitement, letting us fantasize each
time we close the door.
Excitement sells. But as Pontiac has learned it must be more than a motto. If
you “build excitement,” you had better deliver on it.
5. Be real. When was the last time, you heard a CEO
say,
“I messed up” or “I sold the company because it was
a good deal for me.” The “no-spin zones” are few and
far between. Somewhere along the line, we decided that fabrication is
preferable to honesty. This is a dangerous sport, particularly since
there are people out there on the Internet who spend their time finding
ways to trip us up.
There’s no place to hide and no cover-ups, just the illusion of being able
to get away with it. Customers who feel they’ve been cheated or dealt with
unfairly head for the Internet, a far more potent threat than the Better Business
Bureau.
The pharmaceutical industry no longer delays in pulling products; they do it
even before the FDA demands it. Stonewalling and foot dragging only exacerbates
the pain.
Failure to deliver on promises and expectations damages and destroys marketing
and sales efforts.
6. Reduce risk. Successful marketing and sales strategies
are actually ways to help customers reduce risk. A few examples,
may help clarify the idea. If a woman is convinced a particular brand
of cosmetics will make her look younger and more alluring, she uses the
products to avoid the twin risks of aging and rejection.
In the same way, an older couple buys a home in a particular retirement community,
they do so to enjoy a certain lifestyle and to avoid the risk of missing out
on it. Finally, a 33-year old professional makes substantial contributions to
a 401(k) plan to avoid the risk of not being able to retire at age 55.
Good marketing and sales provides customers with a sense of security by giving
them what they believe is important and of value. In effect, they reduce risk.
They help us avoid what we view as negative consequences. It may be a pair of
shoes, a car, an insurance policy, or a cruise to nowhere. If it enhances security
by reducing risk, it’s the right buying decision.
All this leads to a particular conclusion. To succeed at marketing and sales,
we need to live inside the customer’s head, to think the customer’s
thoughts and to walk the customer’s path. What we think doesn’t count.
John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm. He is the author of The New Magnet Marketing and Break the Rules Selling, writes for a variety of business publications, and speaks on business, marketing and sales issues. Contact him at 40 Oval Road, Quincy, MA 02170; 617-328-0069; jgraham@grahamcomm.com.