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SALT LAKE CITY — Recently, I was listening to the great sports writer John Feinstein interview sports broadcasting pioneer Lesley Visser on the radio. I was intrigued to learn specifically what Visser attributes as the driving factor for a young girl growing up in the 1960's to become interested in pursuing a career in the world of sports.
She readily acknowledged she was an unusual girl in her neighborhood. While most girls her age dressed as princesses for Halloween, she knocked doors as Sam Jones (her favorite Boston Celtics player). She said, from early on, sports had a driving appeal to her. "I loved the drama of the games of course, but what has always appealed to me was the absolute meritocracy of sports. If you were good, if you were better than the next guy or the other team, then you won."
Anyone who has played sports can appreciate that statement. And between the lines of athletic competitions, it is mostly true. There may be life lessons to be found here and there are also lessons for business - large and small - in the notion of meritocracy.
It's possible that there is no greater vote of merit than when someone purchases - and more importantly repurchases - a product or service. They literally, as they say, vote with their wallet. As someone who advises people every day on how to better market their businesses I have four suggestions for how to sell more of whatever it is you are selling:
1. Ask yourself; is my product really worth it?
I can tell, with a high degree of certainty, within three minutes if the product is really worth the purchase to a potential customer. And you don't need focus groups to find this out.
I've done this dozens of times with prospective clients. You'd think it would be a question that could take hours to ascertain the correctness of the answer. It doesn't. I can tell, with a high degree of certainty, within three minutes if the product is really worth the purchase to a potential customer. And you don't need focus groups to find this out. Usually the folks running the business know, if they're being honest with themselves.
2. Put more of your energy on creating something really valuable than on marketing and selling.
This may sound like a dumb thing for someone who owns a marketing firm to say, but it's true and I wish I'd have said it more during my career. If you have something that's really remarkable, the selling and marketing becomes much, much easier. Just ask Apple. If you want to sell more, then burn more calories improving what you're trying to sell and less time preparing sales pitches.
3. Recognize that perception is a disproportionate portion of value.
This is where selling and marketing might look different from sports. After all, isn't a yellow Mercedes in the United States a status symbol, while in Germany it's just a taxi cab? How "fair" is it to sell unsuspecting Americans a drastically overpriced taxi? It turns out, how you feel and perceive products and services constitute a large portion - in fact a disproportionate portion - of the value equation. Perception can, in fact, make it "worth it."
I'm frequently shocked by how many business - even those with products that are genuinely "worth it" - fail miserably when it comes to inviting people to the party.
4. Tell people about it.
Now, this is more like what you expected from a guy who owns a marketing firm, right?!
I'm frequently shocked by how many business - even those with products that are genuinely "worth it" - fail miserably when it comes to inviting people to the party. My advice for creating and extending the invite? Make the actual communications "worth it" to as many people as you can afford to tell. Providing you've already achieved steps 1-3 above, your communications will be more "worth it" if they are interesting and intriguing.
My experience, both as a client of 15 years and as an agency owner, is when you turn this task to professionals with experience you get more from your efforts. You'll improve your chances for choosing the right media, you'll secure that media at better prices and you'll deliver your message in more compelling ways.
In the end, when you ask people to pull out their wallet and "vote" they only do it when the merits point to getting what they expect or more from your products or services. Because in marketing, as in sports, most of the time, the better team wins.
Todd Wolfenbarger, partner/president of The Summit Group Communications, a full-service advertising, PR and digital services agency in downtown Salt Lake City.
