Memorable,
visual
word
pictures
are
stickier
than
ordinary
words
and
phrases.
You
wouldn't
generally
mix
mules,
marketing
and
sales,
but
they
have
more
in
common
than
you
think,
when
explaining
the
need
for
action
vs.
analysis.
Many companies make the mistake of ignoring marketing. Rather than spending some time analyzing the 4 P's (Product, Price, Promotion and Place (distribution)), they focus instead on selling. These are generally organizations led by sales-oriented owners or CEOs.
Just as many companies (or sales people) get paralyzed, obsessed with "getting the marketing right", prior to any meaningful selling effort. They meet, discuss, tune, hone, study, revise collateral, etc., in some cases letting the window of opportunity pass before someone picks up a phone or a briefcase and goes out calling on some customers.
Reminds
me
of
a
friend
of
mine,
Joe
Trotter,
who
was
listening
to
a
(then)
young
Sales
Engineer
recite
the
litany
of
things
he
needed
to
make
sure
of
before
asking
a
customer
for
an
order.
Joe
looked
at
the
guy
and
said,
"George,
I
don't
want
you
worrying
about
the
mule
going
blind,
I
want
you
to
load
the
wagon."
A
20th-century
rural
southern
variation,
I
think,
on,
"Damn
the
torpedoes,
full
speed
ahead."
(David
Farragut,
Battle
of
Mobile
Bay,
1864).
There's a balance between analysis and action. If anything, according to Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence, excellent organizations have "a bias for action." If in doubt, do something and see what happens as a result. Actually, that's a reasonable part of a good marketing strategy. Run some "trial balloon" ideas out in the hands of sales people and see how they work. Listen to what comes back and adjust the P's accordingly.
This is particularly true in today's instant publishing world. The Internet marketing side of your message can, of course, be changed at the speed of light as you discover more about what works and what doesn't. You can build soft-copy web collateral as fast as you can type. And then you can measure its effectiveness with a variety of e-marketing tools.
What about printed collateral? If I were a commercial printer, I'd be shaking in my boots. Gone is the value of an 8- or 12-page 4-color, saddle-stitched brochure. There's usually one page of those that goes obsolete about 2 weeks after several thousand get delivered.
You'll be much better served with a well-designed pocket folder with a place for your business card, and pockets for "dealer's choice" inserts. Those can be single-sided, 2-sided or a 2-sided, 2 panel foldover (4 pages) for something that really requires a lot of real estate to tell the story. Much more durable than 8 or 12 pages of locked-in content.
Easily fully customizable, too. Besides the core product sheets and company overview, you can have a set of customizable "shells" (header, footer, etc.) -- templates where you can print custom content on the fly, in quantities of 2 or 2,000. Take customer references, for example. Print those on a shell that looks just like the rest of the packet, but the references include only customers similar to the prospect's business, or close by in geography. Want to try a new service offering? Design it, write the copy, print it on a shell, and go see a dozen or so customers to see how it plays.
There's a balance between study and action. Generally, though, action is what gets orders. The key to good marketing and good marketing materials is the ability to move the message with the market, and have a good feedback loop on how the message is working.
So, if in doubt, don't worry about perfecting the product or the message, go see some customers. Or if you have a hesitant sales person (who may actually be a marketer in the wrong job), try, as we say in the South, 'splaining it a different way, "I don't want you worrying about the mule going blind, I want you to load the wagon." Even if they don't get it instantly, they'll remember it. They probably already think you're nuts, anyway.
Many companies make the mistake of ignoring marketing. Rather than spending some time analyzing the 4 P's (Product, Price, Promotion and Place (distribution)), they focus instead on selling. These are generally organizations led by sales-oriented owners or CEOs.
Just as many companies (or sales people) get paralyzed, obsessed with "getting the marketing right", prior to any meaningful selling effort. They meet, discuss, tune, hone, study, revise collateral, etc., in some cases letting the window of opportunity pass before someone picks up a phone or a briefcase and goes out calling on some customers.
Reminds
me
of
a
friend
of
mine,
Joe
Trotter,
who
was
listening
to
a
(then)
young
Sales
Engineer
recite
the
litany
of
things
he
needed
to
make
sure
of
before
asking
a
customer
for
an
order.
Joe
looked
at
the
guy
and
said,
"George,
I
don't
want
you
worrying
about
the
mule
going
blind,
I
want
you
to
load
the
wagon."
A
20th-century
rural
southern
variation,
I
think,
on,
"Damn
the
torpedoes,
full
speed
ahead."
(David
Farragut,
Battle
of
Mobile
Bay,
1864).There's a balance between analysis and action. If anything, according to Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence, excellent organizations have "a bias for action." If in doubt, do something and see what happens as a result. Actually, that's a reasonable part of a good marketing strategy. Run some "trial balloon" ideas out in the hands of sales people and see how they work. Listen to what comes back and adjust the P's accordingly.
This is particularly true in today's instant publishing world. The Internet marketing side of your message can, of course, be changed at the speed of light as you discover more about what works and what doesn't. You can build soft-copy web collateral as fast as you can type. And then you can measure its effectiveness with a variety of e-marketing tools.
What about printed collateral? If I were a commercial printer, I'd be shaking in my boots. Gone is the value of an 8- or 12-page 4-color, saddle-stitched brochure. There's usually one page of those that goes obsolete about 2 weeks after several thousand get delivered.
You'll be much better served with a well-designed pocket folder with a place for your business card, and pockets for "dealer's choice" inserts. Those can be single-sided, 2-sided or a 2-sided, 2 panel foldover (4 pages) for something that really requires a lot of real estate to tell the story. Much more durable than 8 or 12 pages of locked-in content.
Easily fully customizable, too. Besides the core product sheets and company overview, you can have a set of customizable "shells" (header, footer, etc.) -- templates where you can print custom content on the fly, in quantities of 2 or 2,000. Take customer references, for example. Print those on a shell that looks just like the rest of the packet, but the references include only customers similar to the prospect's business, or close by in geography. Want to try a new service offering? Design it, write the copy, print it on a shell, and go see a dozen or so customers to see how it plays.
There's a balance between study and action. Generally, though, action is what gets orders. The key to good marketing and good marketing materials is the ability to move the message with the market, and have a good feedback loop on how the message is working.
So, if in doubt, don't worry about perfecting the product or the message, go see some customers. Or if you have a hesitant sales person (who may actually be a marketer in the wrong job), try, as we say in the South, 'splaining it a different way, "I don't want you worrying about the mule going blind, I want you to load the wagon." Even if they don't get it instantly, they'll remember it. They probably already think you're nuts, anyway.
