It didn’t take long for the list in the “Botching Marketing and Sales” computer file to fill up. It seemed to happen overnight, almost. Looking through the various items, it became clear why companies wait for a rising economic tide to lift their sales. If left to their own devices, things would go straight downhill.

A case can be built for the view that we’re more proficient at destroying sales than we are in making them — more effective at sending the wrong messages to customers and prospects than the right ones.

Here’s how to botch an organization’s marketing and sales efforts. Each example comes from “the real world.” How many marketing mistakes does it take to sink the ship? In some cases, only one. In others, a combination of three or four is necessary before the bow disappears beneath the waves.

Keep everything to yourself. Most B2B advertising is all about products, products, products. Is this what customers are looking for? One company ran ads featuring the expertise of individual salespeople. It was called “Champions in the Field.”

Even competitors were talking about the ads and the impact on customers was direct and dramatic. The ads weren’t about relationships based on ball games and golf outings. They focused on the value the company’s salespeople bring to meeting customer objectives. Lesson: customers should demand salespeople who know something, not who hand out freebies.

Tell it all. The more desperate we are to make sales, the more words we use. We load up e-mail bulletins, e-mail, ads, and direct mail with as many words as we can jam into the space.

Yet, each of us knows that we flip right past ads, e-mails and direct mail that are word heavy. Simple, clear and direct wins. Keep it simple.

Ignore stupidity. Stupid ideas seem to have a life of their own. Here’s an example: “No letter should be longer than one page” is at the top of the list. How many times have we heard this mantra? Who said so? Where’s the evidence? A great letter is as long as it needs to be to tell the story. If it takes eight pages, so be it. If it takes three paragraphs, that’s the right length. Is it so difficult to understand that what you say and how you say it is more important than the length?

Use down-the-hall decision-making. There’s a difference between collegiality and being gutless. Collegiality suggests that you listen to a variety of ideas and suggestions and then make a decision that best meets your objectives. Gutless means walking down the hall getting everyone’s “opinion” and then coming up with a compromise that keeps colleagues happy but emasculates the program.

Keep ‘em in the dark. Nothing is perfect. This goes for products and services (as well as people). For some reason, we think that customers will turn us down if we tell the truth. They won’t buy what we’re selling if we admit to flaws. How stupid. Every product and service is evaluated to death on some website somewhere. Why not be up front and admit to limitations and then emphasize where the product or service excels? Customers are more likely to believe the latter if you include the former. Revealing the dark side can let in a little light.

Be too serious. A little humor doesn’t diminish what you do or sell. Flip through most business publications and the ads are painfully dour and quite depressing. Then ask yourself, “Which consumer ads get my attention?” The answer is obvious –– those with humor. Business is serious enough these days without acting so serious about everything. Perhaps a sales pitch with a little ham might help make a few more sales.

Avoid the facts at all cost. Businesses can be quite efficient at ignoring facts. Marketers are forced to fight for market research dollars. They know that what you don’t know can hurt you.

Those who assume they know how to hit the target generally wind up shooting themselves in the foot or someplace a little higher.

Don’t worry about the outcome. What’s missing in most sales contests, PR programs, promotions, direct mail campaigns and just about everything else we dream up? It’s the outcome.

We start with what we think is a fantastically clever little idea and get so excited about it that we ignore what it can accomplish. For example, we wonder why a six-month sales contest with a great payoff for the winners peters out in six weeks. Why didn’t we bother to ask the sales staff what they would get behind? We don’t want to do that. Then it wouldn’t be our idea.

Play ‘follow the ignorant.’ From all indications, we’re terrified by new ideas. We run from them. But we are quick to pick up on what others are doing –– even though there’s no proof that they work.

For example, what do companies say makes them great? “Our people and our service.” That’s interesting since we are laying off the former and cutting back on the latter.

The need today is to be smart enough to know what’s going to give the customer the edge. That takes brains.

Stay wimpy. Experience is a terrible teacher when it comes to expressing ideas. We learn to shut up, lest someone takes offense. Then we learn to equivocate. Someone must offer courses in “How to Say Nothing Successfully.”

Don’t hide behind hedging. The ability to put your ideas on the line, clearly and accurately, is a necessity. Asking questions that challenge the status quo is a necessity for survival today.

After World War II, history reveals that the Ford Motor Company was near death. Old Henry had surrounded himself with a coterie of self-serving sycophants. They all just about went over the edge together. Is this what happened with the Challenger?

Deceive whenever possible. We may be enigmas to ourselves, but not to others. They figure us out. The company executive who mouths “quality customer service” but who cuts service budgets is only kidding himself.

When it comes to selling, it’s time to get rid of the phony titles: Customer Consultant, Systems Engineer, Financial Advisor and all the other euphemisms we dream up to try to cover up the fact that we’re selling something. Why be bashful about being a salesperson? If you’re good at it, it won’t matter. If you’re not, it won’t help.

Thinking makes it so. No wonder we can’t think. Our minds get clogged with all sorts of junk. Ultra-popular self-help books are a good place to start. What we really need to do is help ourselves. Yet, that’s exactly what we avoid. For example, we are told to say, “I’m wonderful.” “I can do it.” “There’s nothing stopping me.” “I am the best.” This isn’t just nonsense; it’s a lie. Do I become an educated person by saying, “I’m educated”? Do I become competent by listening to a tape? The joke’s on me.

The truth is simple: The solution to just about any problem is hard work, extra hours, doing more, sticking with it, taking on challenges, coming up with creative ideas.

We’re not wearing clothes, either. Are the decisions we make and what we do really for the customer’s benefit? We install the latest telecommunications equipment. Why? To make it easier for customers or for our operation? For their convenience or ours?

While we can try to convince ourselves that it’s all about the customer and wrap the package in a term such as “customer care,” the customer isn’t deceived. The strategy is painfully transparent to everyone but ourselves.

Stay all wrapped up in yourself. It’s difficult to be sure –– so difficult in fact that most of us never make it. Perhaps one way to define brilliance is being able to escape from self-captivity. An experienced marketer can tell who wrote a letter, ad, brochure, e-mail bulletin or just about any other form of communication. “How so?” you ask. It’s simple, actually.

If the focus is on “What we can do for you,” or “How great we are,” or “How fabulous is our product,” guess who wrote the copy? That’s right. Chances are a letter or press release with the words “We’re excited to announce…” was written by someone who has never figured out that the only acceptable goal is to get the customer excited. Simply put, it’s not about us; it’s about them. Get un-wrapped because no one cares if either you or your company is excited.

John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm in Quincy, Mass. He can be contacted by telephone at 617-328-0069; by fax at 617-471-1504.




POSTED ON: 9/1/2003