Marketing Is Not Sales!

I live in a business community that "doesn't get it"!

Here in Las Vegas it seems like "Marketing" is just another word for "Sales". At the very best, many companies treat marketing as an additional virtue of a sales person.

SORRY!

Now, let me tell you why this is happening. I am sure you have heard the mantra of Reno, "the biggest little city in the U.S." The exact same is true of Las Vegas, only on steroids! There are two industries here. One is the casino/hotel industry .... here in grand scale. The other is 6,800 other businesses that grew out of supporting the growth of Las Vegas. There are a handful of nationwide companies here with satellite offices.

The casino/hotel business understand the difference between marketing and sales. In fact, they do a rather good job in database marketing. They know exactly who plays the slots vs. 21 and craps. They know exactly who to invite to a slot tournament vs. a poker tournament and have a very sophisticated direct marketing program in place.

But, they believe only the people who have worked in the hotel/casino business of marketing are the only people who know how to implement their marketing programs. Like the auto industry, they hire from within. Hence, their marketing innovations all seem to be the same. Little thinking "outside the box".

Now the "meat of this post".

Marketing is not sales.

Most of the other 6,800 companies here grew up from a daily laborer starting his or her own company. Once they began to grow, they hired "worker bees" to replace them as they began to manage their growing company. This two level company structure remains today. The owner at the top and everyone else is a "worker bee". When the owner wants more business, they look for people to find it for them. Hence, in the minds of the top management, sales people have blurred the lines between themselves and marketing as an attribute sales people should have.

WRONG.

Marketing is a function and discipline unique to itself. Yes, it supports all sales efforts, whether a company has a sales force or they sell direct to the buyer by catalog and e-commerce.

Put one of these owners in the middle of today's Direct Marketing Association convention (ending today) and they’d be lost. They come upon a session on the New SEO as essential to proper SEM

"Whazzat"?

I write this post for all of you looking for clients and/or job positions.

Be very careful top management gets the difference between marketing and sales. A great indication is the company structure and the town or city the company grew up in.

Company structure. Make sure there's a whole sophisticated level of top and middle management. Not just the company owners and everyone else works for me mentality. If the area where the company grew up is dominated by a certain industry like Las Vegas and Reno, make sure the company relies on business growth nationwide and even worldwide.

The one exception ..... and it's the way I grew up in this business .... if the company you are talking to started by selling their product or service directly to the end user. Hence Direct Marketing. These people "get it" in a big way. In fact, many of them are the reason there is a Direct Marketing Association in the first place.

Manhattan For $29 Worth Of Beads!

I am sure many of you have been to a Jay Abraham Seminar (if you could afford it) .... or read his many books. Jay and I are good friends. We worked together at two of the same companies some 35 years ago.

His pearls of wisdom are part of Direct Marketing Brainstormers.

In today's really tough marketplace, here's an important business exercise.

Start by making a list of all the products and services your business makes, sells or markets. Make special note of excess or surplus goods, materials, equipment, inventory, capacity, space, technology and access that your business no longer needs or doesn't fully use.

Write that list down the left-hand side of the sheet of paper. On the right-hand side create a list of all the vendors you regularly buy goods and services from. You want to see if any might be interested in directly trading with you for their products or services. Or, for a portion of the cost you pay for them.

Also, add the names of your current suppliers competitors. They might be even more eager to initially trade with you as a means to start a business relationship with you.

Below that list, start a third of companies with whom you might be able to "triangulate" for goods or services. See if there's any company to whom you'd like to start doing business with.

I call this Abraham piece of wisdom his "Winter Baseball Trading Procedure"!

Now go wild with the possibilities. Try putting small, easy trades together at first to get comfortable with it. Then, with time, keep expanding your level of trading.

Companies have made or saved millions through this form of "barter". Even Manhattan was purchased from the Indians for $29 worth of beads!

How Politicians Can Win In A Tight Race

Both Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina are in tight races in California. The following appears on Meg Whitman’s website. It’s a direct marketing idea we created for the 1984 George Deukmajian campaign from the distant past that worked like gangbusters.

Headlined …. “Learning From The Past”, it says:

TO: Meg Whitman

Study the campaign of George Deukmajian in 1984. He narrowly defeated Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley by some 55,000 votes. Bradley went on Good Morning America two days later saying what contributed to the defeat was a very clever California Republican Party mailing that included a personalized absentee ballot.

We were the one who produced that mailing. It was when Tirso del Junco was the Chairman of the California Republican Party. The challenge was they were afraid Bradley would win and they wanted to do something big to counteract the Democratic ground-swell. Our concept was ... voters are basically lazy. No matter how many times you plead with them to vote, they are lazy and don't .... especially in the era of Ronald Reagan who was up for reelection. So, we devised a very strong mailing asking for donations and providing an absentee ballot, personalized with the receiving California Republican's name and all the proper candidates for their district. The mailing was a howling success. Enough donations to more than pay for the mailing plus 65,000 absentee ballots sent in for Deukmejian.

Some new challenges: 1.) California may now have more stringent absentee ballot mailing regulations. In 1984 they had none, because no one ever did this type of mailing before. 2.) You need to do a lot of work on your database. The voting districts are not the same as the zip codes. Mailings are governed by zip codes. In 1984 we mailed 465,000 pieces a month before the election. We got a 14% response. That's unheard of!

Meg needs something spectacular like this for a final blow. Study the California Republican Party files for this mailing. Really, all you need to do is copy the concept. Need to coordinate all of this with Carly Fiorina and her campaign for the senate. You both are in tight races where this concept can be a great benefit.

We are happy to consult both of your campaigns if you need to have expert advice in pulling a mailing like this off.

The Key To Customer Marketing Success: A Great Database

To some this post may sound like Direct Marketing 101. Lately we have seen more emphesis on prospecting via mail and e-mail. And, little concern in reselling and/or up-selling to a customer database.

We want to use our auto manufacturing client as an example of what can be done with the use of a complete database.

The database being used is an auto dealership's service data records. Each customer entry contains the following fields: Name, Address, e-mail Address, Telephone Number,Vehicle Year, Vehicle Model, Vehicle VIN #, Mileage At Last Service, Service Performed, Future Service Required and if the vehicle was a Sale or Lease. This is not a unique database layout. It's typical of the Reynolds & Reynolds or ADP format.

Most auto dealerships do not realize their Service Database is the most valuable asset the dealership has. Here are the marketing opportunities they have:

1.) Sales source of leases coming due.
2.) Service Reminders based upon mileage.
3.) Tire & Brake Sales based on mileage.
4.) Warantee Extension based on mileage.
5.) New Vehicle Promotion based on year and/or milegae.
And ... many more opportunities!

Since there's a field for e-mail address and telephone number, both the sales and service department can easily make the selectivity they want and work the list every month.

It's important that you have a strategy session to discuss what information you should maintain in your database. For instance, you may want to maintain a customer's birth date. The Junior Golf of Southern Nevada Association maintains the young golfer's birthdate because they get a birthday gift of golf balls each year. This gift insures membership from year to year.

A very complete database is a big key to customer marketing success.

YOUR OFFER: 6 Ways To Turn A “No” Into A “Yes”.

The famous direct marketing copywriter, Claude Hopkins, once wrote: “The right offer should be so attractive that only a lunatic would say 'No'."

Selling is simply offering the right product to the right people at the right time in the right way. You aren't forcing your customer to say yes, you're taking away his reasons to say no."

Great selling does not have to be brilliant creative. It's not trickery. It's not even brute force. In fact, your customer - if you chose him right - wants to buy. The question at stake is whether or not he wants to buy from you.

**If your prospect says, "It's not for me..."

This might just mean you have a chance to target your message more carefully. Selling to the wrong audience wastes money. So does selling to the right audience with the wrong message.

Opportunity:

Show the reader testimonials from people like him. Or paint a picture of the person the prospect wants to be and show the idealized person using your product. Also, make sure your targeting a specific audience. Over-wide appeals fall flat.

** If your prospect says, "I don't have time to read your offer..."

The reader is really saying that he's bored. And he doesn't see enough immediate benefit to go on reading. But the truth is, we make time for interesting things. "War and Peace" has held many a reader.

Opportunity:

Find the hook. Open strong with a benefit or jump right into telling a story. When the going gets interesting, people hang on to find out how things end. Quizzes, checklists, and fresh news keep readers involved too.

** If your prospect says, "It's more than I'd like to spend..."

Remember, it's never about price. It's about value. When a reader says your prices are too high, he's really telling you that the value of your product sounds too low. It doesn't have enough benefit to get him to pay the asking price.

Opportunity:

Find services like yours that cost more and build a comparison. Sweeten the deal with better premiums. Put a value on the results of service and compare them more closely to the cost.

** If your prospect says, "I don't know who you are..."

He's really telling you he needs to trust you and wants to see your credentials. Testimonials and track record are obvious solutions. Here are some other ones...

Opportunity:

Try answering questions like these: Where do you do business and why? Who are your clients, especially your famous ones? Where did you get your training, learn your trade, and hone your craft? Give some success stories. Have you won awards or seals of
approval?

** If your prospect says, "I've heard all this before..."

He's telling you to fix your Unique Selling Proposition (U.S.P.). How do you stand out in a crowd? You need proof.

Opportunity:

Check out your competition. Compare offers and make yours stronger. Offer a stronger guarantee. Look for ways your service out paces, out builds, out races your
competitor's product or service. Here's something novel: Coin a new name for an industry-standard strategy. Everybody brewer says "cold-brewed" beer. But the first company to sell "Ice" brewed made a fortune.

** If your prospect says, "I'd rather take some time to think about it..."

Your prospect is not feeling the urgency of your offer.

Opportunity:

Small issue - layout. Bold colors like red and dark blue and bright yellow are more urgent than brown and orange and pastels. A much bigger issue - the wording
of your offer and close. Is there a deadline? Make one. Is the product scarce? Tell them. Is there a reward for early orders?

There are 6 ways to help you turn a “No” into a “Yes”.

Why You Should Have Mentors

Those of us who gather at the Direct Marketing Brainstormers conference table have been involved in the direct marketing business for many years. Our goal is to mentor those who read our blog and take part in our discussions.

A mentor teaches you faster than you can teach yourself. The stories, the wisdom, the guidance that they provide gives you the benefit of understanding the world before you've actually lived through it. And the emotional support and reassurance that somebody who has "been there, done that" can offer is comforting as you navigate your way through new experiences.

The Print Production Trap

Not too long ago the Direct Marketing Association conducted a survey asking what was the most important attribute considered when your company selected printing and lettershop vendors.

The response: 86% fast turn-around and only 14% capability. Further explanation of this response showed companies select their vendors based on how well their suppliers keep them out of trouble.

If you want to be successful, the production process can not be an afterthought driven by poor project management to make up for lost time. A lot of strategic planning must be done long before the electronic files are sent to the production house.

Capability is the most important attribute you should consider. On every project there is always some production function that controls the entire project. Sometimes it's budget. Sometimes it's timing. Sometimes it's design. Sometimes it's equipment. But, never, never should it be because you forgot or be because of bad internal project management. When selection of suppliers are reduced to these reasons, it's much too easy to select the wrong vendor.

Now you are faced with accepting a job that doesn't fit your specifications 100%. What's more, you are forced to accept the way a vendor does business and their corporate culture ... which may not match yours. Hardly this method allows you to have control over your success.

Here's what you should do. Make the Production job in your company the same level of management as your senior executives. Invite that person into each strategic and creative meeting you have. If your production function is handled by the purchasing department or at a support level, hire a consultant with a vast amount of production experience. Then, give that person the power to do their job. If you do this, make sure the charges for their services are directly linked to the service performed. For instance, with proper project management, we showed one client how to save over $350,000 annually in their printing requirements. Our yearly fee was far less than half of the money they saved.