I would, if only my head weren’t about to explode

Follow up is key to all good marketing, especially in the 1:1 environment of expos. As you know, my company is an exhibitor at some events, but we also attend the same conferences so we appear on the attendee list as well.

I returned and waited a few days before dropping a line to anyone let alone picking up the phone. I assumed that my new contacts, like myself, were up to their teeth in unchecked email, telephone messages, and sticky notes from their bosses.

Meantime, in a single week I’ve been deluged with prospecting emails from companies I did not meet, along with (God bless the list trade industry) dozens of invitations to exhibit yet somewhere else totally irrelevant, because I do after all exhibit. Maybe I do so without any plan at all!  The marketing director seems to hope.

Whether it’s because I am a marketer, so always curious about other people’s tactics, or because I am an optimist who believes there are even more good ideas out there than I can carry in my head…I dutifully open every email, letter, and prospectus. Sometimes I chuckle and toss or hit delete. Other times, the company proposition sounds really interesting.

And I would respond, if only my head weren’t about to explode.

This is an important thing for sales people to understand. In Mark Kuta’s excellent book, Think Like A CEO, he describes the process of getting into the minds of business leaders in order to close a sale. Understand their problems. Position yourself to solve them. Do you really have the answer to a business problem? If you don’t, find someone else and stop bothering me. This is the answer for reaching decision-makers of every level.

Of course if you’re busy my company can help. But you need to have time to breathe and think about what you want to have done. We understand that. A salesman who jumps in the moment you’re back in the office…now-that-we’ve-met (if we did) let’s-talk-about-my-product…is missing the big picture.  

The big picture is a working relationship.

Not sometimes, but always.

Think of dating. Are you picking up a chick or looking for a mate? Chances are, the person you’re trying to pick up is looking for a mate, and is considering the hundreds of options closely, right? So with sales.

I would recommend anyone, in any type of sales–whether it is for conference management, advertising sales, trade association membership, electron microscopes, or automobiles– read (over and over) Jeffrey Gitomer’s excellent series of Little Books. The Little Black Book of Connections will probably do even more for your sales than The Little Red Book of Selling.

Gitomer emphasizes the giving side of the sales relationship: learning, understanding, sharing information, building friendships, getting into the head of this other person whom you hope is going to buy a car or a house or a software subscription from you. This is different from a drip email campaign that says the same thing to everyone…like the one from Ford that lies and says they’ve been trying to call me about the car I emailed about (no calls received). “We’d like to know what you’re looking for” it pleads, even though I visited the sales person onsite and told him exactly what I wanted. Subject: unsubscribe.

This is also different from the organization that I asked about sponsorship opportunities, which immediately offered me an advertising buy. There were no sponsorships for the event I was interested in. However, I knew (because I’m good at this, after 25 years) that a space ad would be the lowest possible return on my investment…that’s why, despite receiving their journal every month for years, I have never wanted to run an ad. The ad would reach thousands of professionals, about 20% of whom are my prospects. Those 20%, like me, are too damn busy to rip open the polybag and read the journal on 6 months out of 12. So why would I pay 10k to reach 2M people at the outside, who have barely time to skim the pages and then run out to the next deadline? (Yes, I know my prospects are that busy. When I email them at 10 p.m. they reply. I think they should unionize.)

By contrast, I can pull together even a fairly pricy direct mail package and reach the exact same people…the list is commercially available…for half the cost of advertising. And I can personalize and segment my message in a way that space advertising cannot. Ah, yes, that is why I love direct mail even after spending my first career in advertising. What I am looking for is my business solution: How to reach key targets in a practical, cost-effective way. I will hear out the salespeople who can show me the solutions, not the product.

This sales message is just as important for nonprofits. Don’t think Major Gift cultivation is not selling…it most certainly is. If you do it right, you are giving people an opportunity to buy back their own souls. Likewise, you may be selling membership in a trade organization: Are you not offering them a golden road to their own better future? Nobody wants a membership. They want a better future.

And that is the most important thing to remember when selling, whether in person or by campaign: People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want. If you don’t believe me, go to the city where you’ll find people who can’t pay their rent, but they have tattoos and order pizzas. Tattoos are a decoration; take-out anything is a luxury, when for under $2.50 in most of America you can make a modest meal for 4 (eggs and toast–a nod to the American Egg Board for promoting what is still the best nutritional value on earth). This, to me, is living proof that people will buy what they want, not what they need.

So getting back to my in box: How about an email that says, “Let’s touch base when the dust settles. I’d love to hear more about what you do. Maybe there is even a way we can work together. But most of all, it was great to meet you.”  Because what I want right now is time to breathe before I decide.  If you give me that courtesy, I might like your brand just a little better than the next one.

DMAW-AFP Bridge Conference

The “Bridge” between marketing and fundraising started here in DC just a few years ago. This year about 700 nonprofit professionals poured into the event (www.dmaw.org) to engage in 8 or 9 education tracks ranging from associations to the arts to social media and then some. Participants reported a high value in creative ideas, political impact assessment, and social media ideas. The speaker lineup was terrific and I can only imagine the challenge faced by the committees with such high quality material to choose from. I spoke to a number of nonprofit professionals from early career to the deeply experienced and sensed high satisfaction in their day’s experience. Well done, DMAW and AFP!

One of my more satisfactory conversations was this evening’s contact with Parie Kadir of The Global Fund for Children and Showleh Tolbert of Girls Incorporated of Orange County, CA. Their passion for their work and its impact on the world just glows from them, and reminds me all over again of why I work with nonprofits. We exchange business cards as I promise to connect Parie to the speaker she missed and Showleh to a client who may collaborate with them…and the world seems a little smaller and more hopeful for the moment.

Afterward, I had the opportunity to chat a few minutes to NBC journalist Reggie Johnson who has been pursuing stories on the economic challenges facing our nonprofits…from postage increases to general recession. I can’t wait to see his reports based on the interviews I heard about!

Managing your marketing firm? Here’s what to do.

We sometimes encounter people, in businesses of every size, who are new to the marketing function and need to learn how to manage relationships. This can be especially tricky when the relationship is with an in-house marketing department.

We all read and consume advertisements and marketing daily. This leads most people to feel that they are qualified to direct creative work. And maybe they are: maybe their intuitions and tastes perfectly match those of their target audience. But such is not always the case.

When I started work at the American Diabetes Association, I was not new to marketing, only to ADA. The membership control package was hideous. I mean, really ugly, and the teaser was awful. I didn’t like it, and I’m sure my predecessor didn’t. That did not stop the package from winning dozens of tests over the years.

When I did finally beat the control, I tested a 4c litho package down to a 4c flexo (remember flexo?) version and from there to 2c. Each cheaper, uglier version won over the last, until finally my control had reduced costs by $250k…which we promptly spent to mail more, growing the society 35% during my tenure.

So, as many nonprofits know, sometimes ugly works.

Now, back to managing your agency, whether internal or external. If you love everything they put out, terrific. But once in a while you may see something that you don’t like. Here’s how to react.

Rule #1:

Remember that your writers, artists, production managers, etc. are real human beings. If you don’t like their work, or you don’t like them, or you can’t think of any other reason such as the Golden Rule, remember that one day one of them may have to make the decision of whether to save you from a burning building, or they may be in a position to help you get a nice new job/raise/whatever. Make the emotional investment. When you don’t like something, be civilized in how you express it. It’s hard to get good work from someone you continually berate.

I knew a copy chief once who would walk into a writer’s office and ask, Whattaya, stupid? Such charm. Not promotable, either. Don’t be that person. 

Rule #2

There is an infinite number of ways to skin a cat. If you don’t like concept A, then don’t just ask for something different or you can get B to the 97th power of more things you don’t like. What didn’t you like? What do you feel you need? How do you feel it is ineffective? Listen, also, to what your people explain. I have challenged some talented people in my day just by saying I’m not sure how something will be perceived. Then I listen. When I hear the thought process and multiple people concur, I have to let go. I’ve held my breath during the release, but I haven’t been wrong yet.

Rule #3

An hour of planning together will pay off in eliminating weeks of revisions. If you feel strongly about directing creative work yourself, all you need to do is say so and plan a brainstorming session in which you hear and approve ideas first. Planning is one area that too few clients take time with; in fact their lack of time is often why they hire us to begin with.

Spending even a half hour in conversation will help you either to have a comfort level with the creative team’s ideas, or be able to express where you see things going. It will save you countless headaches when you are coming up on deadline, and a fortune in revision fees.

As a corollary to this: When you just need a line or two changed because it doesn’t sit right with you, just change it. Sending people back for 100 ways to rewrite 12 words is just silly. We once had a client rewrite a single paragraph postcard several times…it’s 5 sentences, but as the six sentences blog has proven, there is still an infinite number of ways to write it…right or wrong.

As a young copywriter, I discovered that every week our store would have a new dress shirt on sale for men. Every week. 52 shirt ads a year. I discovered ways to differentiate: I counted threads per inch, inspected the buttons for evidence of being made of real shell, was it oxford cloth or broadcloth, buttondown or spread collar? Not only did I write 52 ads a year, and 52 more the next, and the next, but so did 10,000 other writers for 10,000 other stores and catalogs. There is an infinite number of ways to say something.

Your agency expects you to edit their copy, not just send it back to be rewritten, reread, and resent back for more rewrites. Remember, you’re paying for their expertise…when you’ve written your edits, they can polish the wording for you.

Rule #4

Let go. Letting go is a difficult thing for anyone with a revenue stream responsibility. It’s even harder for someone with a lot of background…whether design or copy or product management…to let go; we are accountable for the results or the brand, and we don’t want to let go.  It’s ok to be nervous when you’re doing something new…just recognize it, take a deep breath, get some neutral (NEUTRAL) opinions, or just walk away for an hour or a day and look at it freshly tomorrow.

I distinctly remember the first time I had heart problems. I was moving a million piece mailing to a new control. Gulp! Why am I nervous, I asked myself? I listed all the reasons why I had made the decision, listed all the pros and the cons, and made the decision all over again. I have had to do this twice…once I reversed my decision on press (ouch) due to updated reports on the previous test; the second time, I stuck with the change and it was the best decision I ever made…our average response rates popped up over 5%.

Rule #5

Lead. Don’t do. You’re in charge. Remember that a true leader hires people who know what they are doing, and then lets them do it. Just because you would do it differently doesn’t mean that your way is better.  If you allow your team to take initiative, they just may make you look like a hero.

All my best,

Leigh