As you know if you're a regular reader of my blog, I've made my living since 1972 in some kind of marketing area. For those of you who thing marketing and sales are interchangeable works, let me point out a few of the differences. Marketing is sort of the "umbrella" that hangs over sales. It's the marketing area that decides on products, or creates campaigns for advertising, or packaging or products, or image for a company...all these things come under marketing. Sales on the other hand takes it's Q's from marketing. Sales takes the products, and tries to get them into stores, or catalogs, or direct to consumers. The work on numbers and goals. For some reason being a "salesman" gives people a bad feeling, so most Salespersons will tell you they're in Marketing...but they're really not! Their job is to sell 60 cell phone packages per month, or 15 new and 10 used cars, or 12 life insurance contracts. Also this would be a good time to explain what a "CSR" or customer service representative is.
So many times I've put out an ad to hire a SALESMAN, and mostly I get people applying who think they are salesmen, but are really just CSR's. They know how to smile and act pleasant and answer questions and make suggestions to the customer to buy a little larger product, or a little more of something, but the person was ALREADY sold on buying a certain product and from a certain place, they only moved the sale along a little bit and fulfilled the customers direct need. A real and true salesman finds someone who at the beginning of the process either didn't realize they had a need for that particular product, or if they had an inkling of a need, sure didn't know they were going to purchase that product at this particular moment from this particular company and from this particular guy! That's what a salesman can do that a customer service representative CANNOT!
But let's get back to marketing. If you're really and truly into marketing, you're able to be a dreamer first and foremost, BUT the big difference is that you can take your dreams, and those borrowed from others and make them into actual, fullfillable plans, products, packaging, delivery, commercial ads, sales sheets, the works. All this came up as I was in a marketing meeting this morning and I remembered back to the 70's and a sporting goods store in Grand Forks North Dakota. I was actually a DJ, a country music record spinner at KRAD radio in East Grand Forks, and the ad salesman came to me and wanted a favor. He had a sporting goods store in Grand Forks that really was down to just the owner doing everything. You could shoot a bowling ball down the aisles most anytime during the day and it would not hit a single person. He pretty much lived on the start of each season, hockey being the big one, when folks had to bring in their sporters and get outfitted for the new year. The rest of the time, things were pretty slow. Could I come up with a commercial that would do 2 things. 1.Get some more people in the store, and get some business happening in the "off seasons" which were a lot longer than the the busy times. 2.Convince the store owner that he should continue with radio spots from our station. So I really worked on it, and came with a commercial that I thought was really RIGHT ON in calling people to action. It had sound effects, I wrestled with word for days and finally got it just right. So the ad started to run in a busy rotation (meaning many times a day) on a Tuesday. I remember it so well 'cause when I got to my regular shift at 10am I played it right away and then again before noon and then again in the noon news hour. At about two o'clock that afternoon the owner called practically screaming at the front desk receptionist. "TAKE THAT D$%# COMMERCIAL OFF THE AIR!" "I've had people in here all day telling me how much they hate that commercial!"
HMMM. Well as you can see, the marketing department did it's job. It got actual human beings into a dead store. I'm thinking that this wasn't that big a deal that someone got in their car, drove across town, parked on the street, walked to his store and just said, "I HATE the commercial playing on the country station!" and then walked out. The sales force DIDN'T do their job! They didn't prepare him for that fact that the goal was to get folks into the store, it was then his job to sell them. Even to commiserate with them on what a bad commercial it was as he was SMILING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK. BUT NO! He'd rather be alone and wondering how he was going to pay the rent, than to have customers complaining WHILE they were buying something. Marketing, I'll never actually figure it out! OH by the way, that store is long out of business, but I'm LIVIN' LARGE. GO figure.
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