What do rock climbing and marketing have in common?
I just went with my girlfriend to Camelback Mountain in Phoenix for the first time today. Let me say that you don’t “hike” camelback mountain; you “climb” Camelback mountain. How does this relate to marketing?
When I was younger, I sometimes looked down on sales, marketing, and PR to some degree as a necessary evil….Like “I’m too smart for that”. I used to think that if the steak was good enough, sizzle wasn’t needed. I’m sure experienced marketers get a chuckle out of this.
My life experiences have taught me otherwise. I’ve understood more about marketing and sales in the last two years than I have in 33 years.
I remember walking into consulting assignments that a sales person sold, beginning implementation, and having the client tell me that he couldn’t do the things we were talking about….it was too much work. Then he reminded me that the sales person who sold the job “assured him” that this assignment wouldn’t be any extra work for him. I suppose that was the only way he could sell the job to this client…promise that he would save lots of money without doing any work….it was an uphill battle from there to create lasting change with a client conditioned in this way.
Today, while heading up the mountain with my brave and beautiful girlfriend, she kept asking “How much further” and everyone kept saying “Just 2-3 more minutes”. We were on the border of turning around every time, but “Just 2-3 minutes” wasn’t that bad. Well it WASN’T 2-3 minutes EVER, but we kept going with that hope.
1/2 hour later we reached the top and saw the most amazing view of Phoenix I’ve ever seen. And I’m grateful to those people who told us “2-3 Minutes” knowing full well that this wasn’t the case.
On the way DOWN, some people asked us, “How much farther until the top”. Without thinking, I told them candidly “About 30 minutes”. To my amazement the “leaders” of the group were upset with me because some in the party now wanted to turn around and didn’t want to fulfill their initial goal.
Looking back, I see that many in sales and marketing take this approach as well. If a person wants to change, and you really care about this person, sometimes you have to “Wrap the medicine in Candy” as a brilliant marketing guru once told me.
I’m still a bit unsure of how I would have answered this again in the future. I’ve heard people say that you need to sell people “What they Want” in order to start them on the path of getting “what they need”. Otherwise they’ll waste their time and money buying “quick fix” solutions that leave them in places they don’t want to be.
My client ended up in a great place after putting in the extra effort and hours needed to grow his business. His business has thrived in the current depression as a result. While I cursed my salesperson at the time, I now look back in gratitude at his intuitive understanding of human motivation.
