With all the new buzzwords and acronyms going around these days, it is more than a bit challenging to keep up with it all. From your best friend sending over a TTYL to the late advent of “educational” radio ads to help us learn the technical differences between LCD and Plasma televisions.

Do these marketers really expect me to learn what 1080p or 1080i means or what more or less “amazing” mirrors has to do with my Super Bowl watching experience in 30 seconds?

Apparently they do but I don’t think I am going to get it. It just makes it ever more clear to me that what used to be the most primitive and simple electronics in my house is not even understandable any more. You’d think TV just reached adolescence or something!

I think one mistake these marketers made in my case was not segmenting their audience and their message. Using KFI, the largest talk station in LA, to reach a wide audience with this very specific and esoteric information will likely yield many experiences like mine.

Earlier this month, Selling Power mag ran a story on “Market Segments” which were defined as “separation of customers into large groups who buy for essentially the same reason or in the same general way.” So it seems that I didn’t have a lot in common with the next guy who buys a television to read the manual and learn a new language.

I, and many companies like Enthusiast, certainly have a lot to learn from this recommendation. Certainly web marketing and all things Internet trump televisions in their complexity and confusion jargon. Beyond that, this segmentation or what I like to term “personalization” presents a great deal of opportunity to the sales and marketing team, especially when integrated into the web marketing process and web site.

• Pass The Time ThreshholdIn an earlier post, I talked about the “8 second rule” being cut in half to four seconds. By understanding who your viewers are, you can use a familiar voice through common terms and phrases that form the “DNA” of their conversation about the subject. This takes a bit of research into the audience and their descriptions and then the all important follow through on sales and marketing materials, the most important of them being the web site.
• Relationship SellsThere are many examples of the emerging buyer who would rather buy from someone she knows rather than a “faceless corporate” entity - even if the price is better! As we move into a customizable world spilling over with choices, people have less patience for generic information that requires them to make it relevant. They “why” question is as or more important that the “what” question. Telling me that the detailed and vibrant picture of an LCD TV will make my NBA Finals party the best on the block for years longer than the Plasma competitor gets across a lot - but it requires someone knowing that I like to have my friends and neighbors over and using that as part of the sales message.
• Win Big EarlyThe efficiency of a web site makes it simple to communicate a common message in many discrete forms with little cost. Imagine having 10 doors on the same house that each have a unique welcome sign, door mat, and doorbell chime that are familiar and inviting to the visitor. Each of the doors can lead to a common room as the visitor already knows from the entrance that you know something valuable about them and their desires. This can be done by setting up specific landing pages toward target buyer communities.

I love simple truths like these. I love them as I can validate them quickly in my own experience and behavior and I think they value people and their time. Sales is an interaction between people at its core and should learn from other interactions between people as they evolve. Marketing has often become an interaction between a faceless corporate message and people which runs against normal human behavior.

Wal-Mart provides us an example to learn from in one way. They are a huge company but avoid being faceless with local door greeters and a little southern charm.

Would a sales cycle improve if it started with online door greeters? I think so and it is totally doable.
Jon Cline

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 28th, 2006 at 12:09 pm and is filed under content publishing, sales, jon cline. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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