The Mechanical Marketing Wheel

It turns and turns. It's the center of the mechanical business model and the force that makes the business move. Most businesses subscribe to the philosophy that without sales and marketing you have no clients to service, no operations to manage, and no need for processes to follow. Why then, would you allow the most critical piece of your business model to be sabotaged by "blast marketing" campaigns? I call them marketing assaults, targeted at the very client you wish to reach. Have you lost your sense of reason? Do you really believe that human behavior will be influenced by the lack of personal emotion created by a mass marketing campaign that's packaged and sold by the companies that host our websites? The virtual marketing guns are being loaded every day by companies like Go Daddy, who serve it up like a side dish at an arsenal picnic.


I ask this question because I just received an email addressed to Sarah, from a company not even based in the United States. A company who baits it's prey with the alluring misuse of the familiar KBG acronym. Those of you who know me personally, or have had an opportunity to research me, know that my name is not Sarah. Nor has it ever been Sarah! "Mr. Jones" (we will call him), has my company name correct and it has clearly missed the junk mail box, so I continue to read. "Jones" proceeds to explain all of the benefits of a business appraisal. Luring me in with the sexy appeal of selling my business to one of the "many large M&A" companies that are lusting after it. I begin to daydream about fabulous vacations to lavish places; I can almost taste the ocean when all of the sudden...I wake up and smell my Starbucks! I own a consulting company. The only thing of value is me, and I already know my worth. "Jones" hasn't researched me at all and I am a victim.


Marketing is easy. Selling is tough! If you make marketing personal, selling will be easy. You see, it's not likely that I would have engaged in business with "Mr. Jones"; however, as a business consultant, it's my job to make recommendations to hundreds of companies. It's VERY likely that, had "Jones" picked up the phone or met me in person to establish a relationship, he would have had an opportunity to work with one of my clients instead of being the bad example on my blog. "People do business with People" my boss told me (when I was a mere guppy in a pond of alligators) and he was right! 'Jones', if you're out there this is for you! I hope you'll read my letter and feel my passion.


Dear "Mr. Jones",


Live by these basic rules of selling and you too can be a success.


1) If the best sales pitch you have ever made landed you this job then you aren't cut out to sell.


2) Relationships sell.the best lead is a warm lead, a referral; if you deliver you will receive.


3) Don't wait for others to come to you. GET UP AND DO SOMETHING (blast faxing doesn't count)!!


4) Fear doesn't get you paid so let it go. The worst thing they will say is no.


5) Read! You don't know what you have not learned. Try a book called Permission Marketing, by Seth Godin or subscribe to the Harvard Business Review, where they publish actual and factual data on marketing campaigns.


Last, if you're going to be one of those "network" sales people; reciprocate (tune in, this might be my next topic).


Regards,


Michelle (not Sarah)



Michelle Petersen is the President of Strategic Learning Solutions, an international company focused on the development of human capital.