Sales & Marketing

There are times when getting it right means doing it wrong. Yes, flat-out going against the accepted wisdom. For example, some investors wait to buy stocks until the market tanks. Others follow a strategy of purchasing only out-of-favor market segments.

Then, there’s sales. Most sales techniques aim at “capturing” customers by identifying what appear to be the “likely buyers” and then going after them in the most persuasive manner. Others seek to get lucky through cold calling, particularly when business is slow or they are new to selling.

Only a few salespeople use a strategy of wooing customers and constantly working to pull them closer and closer so that when a need arises, they have a “top of the mind” position with prospects. Such contrarian, against-the-grain, thinking applies to marketing, as well.

Here is a series of “do it backwards” marketing concepts aimed at helping companies take a different approach to marketing, one that fits the times and provides the needed extra energy to drive sales forward:

1. Advertise when others pull back. In a slower economy, there are far fewer ads. According to studies, advertising was down as much as 30 percent in 2001. Significant opportunities are available when advertising revenues are off. Along with much better pricing, you can negotiate preferential positioning for your ads in publications and on the air.

But what’s more important than either price or position, is less ad clutter. Newspapers “stack” ads and use most of the page for advertising. The old 70/30 rule still stands –– except that it is now 70 percent advertising and 30 percent editorial. Fewer ads translates into greater visibility.

2. Use direct mail when everyone is on the Internet. E-mail is quick and cheap, so why not take advantage of it? Broadcast faxing is quick and cheap, so why not use it? If quick and cheap is the goal then go to it. If the objective is to position your company and make an impression on the recipients, then most e-mail and broadcast faxes fall in the “junk” category. Yes, along with so-called “junk mail.” Junk by any other name is still junk!

While there is so much activity using e-mail and broadcast faxing, the time is right to take advantage of highly segmented, carefully crafted, and highly appealing direct mail. But this takes planning, coordination, and effort. Happily, this is what pays off.

3. Be direct, not clever or cute. Don’t make people work to get your message. They are far too busy to spend time trying to figure out what you are trying to say. Today, the eye avoids cute headlines in ads, brochures and other marketing communication. Be direct. It shows you are businesslike. Even more importantly, get to the point fast or you’ll lose your reader.

In other words, be direct and be clear. A recent ad for Lincoln cars makes the point: “Elite vehicles. Everyday pricing.” An IBM headline does it very well: “Introducing the xSeries 300. It stacks up. Your bills won’t.”

4. Write longer — sometimes much longer— letters. Forget everything you’ve heard about what is known as the “one page business letter.” Who said a letter should never be more than a page? Readers toss both long and short letters if they are poorly written.

The length of the letter isn’t the problem –– it’s the message! Start with what’s in it for the customer. Don’t start a letter by saying, “We’re proud to be a new member of the XYZ Chamber of Commerce….” Who cares?

Begin with the customer’s problems and then indicate you have a solution.

The point is to engage the customer. If the message takes one page, fine. If it takes three pages to tell a good customer-oriented story, then do it.

5. Stop making irritating (and useless) follow-up phone calls. Stop plaguing customers with irritating phone calls and voicemail messages: “I just want to make sure you got our mailing…” or “Our vice president, Rick Jones, is going to be in your area later this week…,” or “What did you think about the proposal we sent you….” On and on it goes.

Grabbing the customer or forcing your foot in the door isn’t the marketing goal. That was yesterday’s approach. Take steps to pull the customer to you so they want to hear what you have to say.

6. Get glued to prospects. Many companies let business get away without even realizing it’s there. Everyone is so focused on “making sales.” Make it a priority to build prospect databases.

Salespeople lurch from one call to the next, hoping to get an order. There is no prospect strategy or planning. They make a call and then follow up a couple of times. If there’s no order, they give up, failing to recognize that decisions aren’t made instantly today.

The job is to stay glued to prospects. Management has a responsibility to develop strategies for cultivating prospects carefully and appropriately for as long as it takes. That’s right –– for as long as it takes.

7. Take the longer view. This is a tough one. Everyone is so engaged in dealing with this week, this month and this quarter, there is no time or focus on the future. That spells trouble down the road. If the company doesn’t know where it is going and it doesn’t have a strategy for getting there, it gets sidetracked by attractive activities that divert it away from its primary mission.

Not even Snapple’s initial success or the consumer swing to water broke through Coca-Cola’s in-the-face focus on selling more Coke. Having a clear vision of the future helps avoid what can turn out to be disastrous mistakes.

8. Focus on what you can do for your customers. Too often, marketing and sales consider only what they can do to a customer, not what they can do for a customer. Everyone says they are there to “help.” But look a little closer, and it is easy to see that “help” carries little credibility because making the sale is all that really counts. Customers can see through such subterfuge.

When Agway, the largest feed producer in the Northeast, recognized that its 500 bagged feed dealers, all small business owners, could benefit from learning how to grow and market their businesses, it established an extensive support system for the dealer network. The objective was to win dealer interest in Agway by making a genuine, concerted effort to help them run more successful store operations.

9. Don’t delay; act now. The skeptics will be doubtful about doing it backwards. “Sure, all this sounds good, but we need sales now. We can’t wait,” they say. But the statement proves the point: unless a company is willing to make a fundamental change in its marketing and sales approach, it will continue to lurch from one sales crisis to the next, wasting valuable sales time trying to find the next customer, and failing to position itself as the dealer, retailer, manufacturer or distributor of choice.

“All I do is call on one kitchen and bath store after another,” reports one salesperson. And then he adds, “As I see it, first we shave pennies, then nickels and dimes, and finally dollars, to get the deal. That’s no way to operate.” Unless a company decides enough is enough, it will continue to experience more of the same.

10. Stay the course. The major failure in marketing and sales is failing to stay on track. As one program gets underway, management kills it and comes out with another. After a while, “the next one” is nothing more than a variation of the last one. No one pays attention –– nothing really works because there is no follow-through.

Of course, changes should be made if the strategy is flawed. And many times, constant switching from one campaign to another is an indication that a program was poorly conceived. But the Ford experience illustrates the right way to approach a marketing and sales issue: once you get it right, stay with it so it can work.

Taking a contrarian position lets a company break old patterns and move in a new direction. While the rest of the pack are trying to outdo each other, contrarians move forward by doing it backwards.

John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing services consulting firm in Quincy, Mass. He has been published frequently in the area of sales and marketing.