How to do Sales and Marketing

Penelope Trunk has written a book.

She has a blog too. Here is a recent post about how to get an agent's attention if you want to sell a book idea:

URL:A week of journalism: Seven ways to get an agent’s attention

The cool thing is, this is great marketing advice.

Marketing is NOT just about features and benefits...and yet, people still focus on that almost exclusively. If I here or see one more car commercial that lists off a bunch of stats...!!

Think about how this advice relates to your company...your product...your service.

Any questions?

Network Marketing...How Is Your Elevator Speech?

I had the pleasure of attending a well run, established referral group meeting yesterday.

Great lunch guys..thanks.

This is a group of people that are as varied as you can imagine, and this is a group that does not allow direct overlap of business descriptions in its membership.

I was struck by the friendliness and genuine desire to help others in order to help yourself attitude that is a huge part of this group's motto.

I was also struck by how the membership described what they did, and it got me thinking about the dreaded elevator speech.

We work with small and medium sized companies to help them put together marketing plans, website plans, sales plans, printed collateral, interactive plans.

I promise you that if I ever get to work with you, the first thing I will ask you to do is to describe your company and what you do.

Commonly, people start with their name, their company, and they tell me exactly what they do.

Occasionally, there is a silly lead in teaser...and then a repeat of the above.

What many people don't get is that the elevator pitch is NEVER about what you do...

It should always be about your customers, the kinds of things they deal with, their struggles, their challenges...

Too many people think of the 30 seconds or less description of what you do as a "pitch" or a "speech" or a "presentation"...

In reality it will only be memorable by being engaging.

Engage the person who is asking you "so, what do you do?"

Get them to ask you another question.

Get them to ask you to tell them more, "Oh, how do you do that?"

It has become such second nature to describe what you do from your own point of view...

When really what you should be doing is engaging people by describing what your customers say you do.

Got any questions?

Marketing vs. Offering

Seth Godin today posts about Offer World, a new and strange land where traditional marketers feel a little uncomfortable.

Seth once again points out the very obvious:

Marketing isn't about marketing...it's about a relationship. It is more successful when it is a long term relationship.

Now - whether that relationship is a one on one meeting in a coffee shop, or visitors coming into your store, or someone coming to your website, everyone still must do the things necessary to develop a relationship.

Now - in "Offer World" you develop an initial (and subsequent) interest through the use of offers. But the big point Seth is making is that it is what happens AFTER you make that offer that counts.

It is the "After Offer World" where you earn the trust, loyalty, interaction and repeat business.

If you send someone a postcard and they take the time to go to your website and fill out a form to get your offer, AND they give you permission to contact them...by all means, you better have something remarkable that is coming next. NOT some PR rehash, NOT the same info sheet that you linked from the website...something remarkable.

What do I mean by remarkable?

HERE is another link. It is Seth Godin's "Purple Cow" presentation from a few years ago. These are 17 minutes that will change the way you work. It is remarkable.

Why Would I Blog?

I have suggested to a few customers and friends that they should start a blog as a part of the overall marketing plan for their business.

These are people who know what they are doing when it comes to running their business, selling their services, and even doing some marketing.

With one exception, I have been met with blank stares and glazed eyeballs.

"Why Would I blog?"

"What would I do?"

"Who would read this?"

Blogging for your business should never include anything that sounds remotely like you are telling me about your cat, or why you haven't posted a rant in a while, or ANY kind of apology.

I don't want to know that Aunt Bessie dislocated her hip and so....

If I have found your blog, and I am reading it at all...I want to find something I haven't found before.

I want to find a way to interact with your company... and I want to discover how I can help you...and I want you to know that I know what you are talking about...and I want to be able to show my friends that I know what I am talking about...and I want my friends to start looking to me because I know this stuff...

you get the point?

There are entire communities of people out there that are talking to each other, learning about your service/product/store...STOP positioning your message...and START creating ways to be a part of that conversation.

You can't control the marketing message...and you should not.

This is WEB2.0...and you need to learn about it.

Search WEB 2.0 and do a little reading. There are MANY blogs on that subject. And the longer you wait to understand HOW Web 2.0 impacts the future of your marketing and your business, the farther you are behind.

By the way...Jerry is the customer who decided to blog. Please take a minute to go read THIS Blog. I promise it will bring you new insites on your business.

Context Matters..."I'd Ignore Him Too"

The Washington Post puts Joshua Bell, one of the great classical musicians in the world, in a subway station at rush hour to see what would happen.

The blog / internet response has been immense. Take a look at Seth Godin's take on this story URL: I'd Ignore Him Too

The point is that context does matter. Presentation and tone of voice and "the frame" (as mentioned in the story) DO matter.

This is the same concept that drives WHY we design a website and a marketing strategy and a sales system for our businesses. This is also why Web 2.0 is magic!

Blogs for a Cause...all over the world

Global Voices Online.

From the top of the website - Global Voices aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online – shining light on places and people other media often ignore.

I have to stop myself from reading every post.


URL: Global Voices

Thinking about Email marketing?

I detest lazy email marketing campaigns. I am even more disdainful of things that sort of look like a direct mail campaign but without any real point.

Check out THIS articleabout email marketing. Thinking about it?

Email me first! We have better ideas!

tobin@brain-bucket.com

Useless Marketing ... The hope strategy

Seth Godin points out a reference to useless marketing.

Useless Marketing

I was in a meeting last week where the potential customer said to me, "We really don't want to focus on any of that branding or marketing, we just want a website that shows our work."

Now, anyone and everyone in marketing has heard this refrain before. I politely reminded my potential customer that yesterday when we chatted in the hallway, he had mentioned that they were busy, but not with the kind of work they wished they had.

Who was it that said that hope is not a strategy?

I am about to go back to this client with a proposal that would dramatically reshape what they do. But, because of the previous comment, I am not at all sure of my ability to convince them that indeed, what they need is some of that branding and useless marketing.

Make Your Company Remark-able

Again with the Seth Godin reference! Shame on me.

Seth posts all the time about how marketing is about making something (could be anything!) remarkable...worth remarking about.

So here it is: What would it take for you to get onto Fast Company's "Companies That Care" list?

Fast Company - Companies That Care


What would you do to your company, (the one you run, not the other one that runs you), in order to make it a place that people sent their resumes to unsolicited?

How would you do that?

Hint: it has nothing to do with ping-pong tables, beer at lunch, or massages on Fridays.

Managing Marketing Expectations

I just had a great illustration of managed expectations and what that does in different situations.

A year ago I had a huge city project tear up my street for a total of 10 months. There was not one single piece of communication from the city about what this was, how long it would last, the sequence of events, what to expect...nothing.

The only thing we got in our mail box in 10 months was two notes from the construction crew about when the massive earth diggers and movers were going to be making getting into or out of my driveway impossible. Nice enough, but there was very little actual info in there. We lived each day for 10 months inside of a construction site that we know nothing about...even asking the crew wasn't helpful. Big surprise.

The entire neighborhood was hacked off. Our City council member got replaced this past year...largely because of that experience.

Now, one year later the same construction company is doing the same type of project adjacent to a condominium development that my family is a part of. The difference is that this project is much larger and more time consuming to complete.

The other difference is the level of communication from the city as well as the construction company. They have communicated well with everyone in the building, the surrounding neighborhood, the nearby shops, etc. We know what is going on, what is going to happen, when it is going to happen, and how long it is going to take, (18 months!).

The people aren't happy about the timeline, but it is an important project and everyone is approaching it with a sense of humor and understanding.

Same project...same company...different approach.

Seth Godin talks and posts and writes a lot about what little tiny things you need to do to make an experience move from bad to great.

I know this isn't a new idea. I know this is a simple idea. I know this is not a ground breaking concept.

But if it is so basic...how come so few companies actually do the little extra work to make it happen?