Ah, yes. Yesterday I experienced two sides of the sales and marketing coin, one really great and the other really bad, and I can’t tell you the specifics here. Hence this really is a secret posting.
The details need to be clouded in murky mystery because the success relates to our current business operations and this is a rather public place to air our working practices. The failure is from a business we’ve known for years, but I never identify people or organizations in these pages negatively unless they give express permission and I doubt that the affected business would grant consent.
So I need to speak in a somewhat awkward code and cannot give the great written examples of good and bad here, both of which provide examples of what to do and what not to do.
However, I’ll try to explain what our potential supplier did wrong and what we did right.
First the bad.
I received an email from the potential business partner proposing:
“We can offer this value with out having you invest a single penny!
How can we provide this value? Well that’s what I’d like to discuss with you over a cup of coffee.
Are you available to meet in the near future and allow me to present our value proposition?”
Trouble is, I had enough background information to realize that the “value proposition” would sour long-standing and well-established relationships elsewhere. In grinding out cliches, the business owner had forgotten the importance of communications back channels.
The second example is more challenging because it touches on a go, no-go decision which I still need to make. An organization proposed a publishing project for us that is outside our primary scope and market focus. I instructed my staff to proceed cautiously and spend minimal hours on the idea but to treat the proposer with respect as other business could follow. The project appeared to be failing and our representative called the other organization to share the news. The partner organization asked us to give the project a final shot with an email letter. Our representative drafted a letter that creatively combined a totally soft and non-pushy message with an urgent last-chance deadline. Within 24 hours, he had received $4,000 in sales and I had one of those classic management headaches that make business ownership an eternally challenging and rewarding activity for those of us who enjoy uncertainty and surprise. The last-minute sales take this project right to the break-even point. One fall-through sale would cause rather uncomfortable losses on a peripheral project. However, our representative’s marketing letter is so good I’m tempted to proceed and hold my breath.
I think the lesson you can learn from these examples is that you should put your sales and marketing through the sales smell test. If it smells “selly” don’t do it. Stop and consider how the potential client will respond to your hackneyed missive or sales call. Think of used car dealers, time share representatives accosting you at airports and the like. Do you try to avoid them?
Conversely, if your initiatives and activities are founded on real and lasting relationships and you truly are respectful of the time and resources of your potential clients you can build in some urgency and really get people to say yes, sometimes with a simple letter that invites a call for action without any obvious pressure. Contradictory? Absolutely — but highly effective.
