Ad Sales Blog

Push vs. pull

As I enthusiastically pitched the latest, coolest, online marketing product my client cut me short, "I sell a dull product. Nobody will click on a banner to read more about it. People buy it because they need it, and when they don’t need it they don’t want to know anything more about it."
The core benefit on online media is engagement. But what happens when your client is selling a dull product and true engagement unlikely?

For many, there is another category of dull products getting a lot of attention these days, presidential candidates. With many contests extremely close it is often not the engaged, well informed voter who decides elections, rather the undecided, unengaged swing voter who might see all candidates as very dull.

That is why we see a curious pattern of media spending.  While all candidates are using the Internet to raise money and engage their base of voters, the vast bulk of the outgoing media spend is on television because it is a "push" media.

According to eMarketer on those undecided voters...

"Generally speaking these are the typical targets who are difficult to reach using the Internet. That’s why in this political season, 50-80% of ad budgets are going into television, whereas only 1-2% of political ad budgets are spent online. It’s not to say the candidates are not using the Internet to their huge advantage, Barack Obama’s amazing online funding machine has proved to be the key advantage to his success. But when it comes to reaching out towards the uninterested, the uninvolved, and the even bored participants, very often traditional media there’s a big advantage over the newer online ones.”

On a call.
If your advertiser’s product is very dull, put the  "engagement" talk on the back burner and talk about the virtues of “push” media. Push media succeeds in these situations because viewing the ads is not voluntary. When you are selling very dull products forget about "permission marketing" you need to recommend "push." Now share the story, stated above, about the presidential race. Now sell the push media you have, Print media, television, and radio are "push media." For online media sell e-blasts, which “push” a message to a target audience's inbox.  

Estimates as to how much has been spent so far this year online on political campaigns (not much):        

 

Barack Vs. Hillary: the online media buy

Looking for a way to dramatize the importance of using online media on your next sales call? Talk about the Barack Vs. Hillary media buy!

It has been widely publicized how Obama has used the Internet to gain advantage both in raising money and awareness in his pursuit of the Democratic Presidential nomination. The numbers speak for themselves; according to the Washington Post, Obama raised $91 million online in January and February of 2008 versus only $37 million raised by Clinton. How did he do it?

Obama out spent Clinton in online media and did so by paying far less on traditional media advice. Here is the spend from January to March 2008 for both candidates:    

Spending Category        Barack Obama   Hillary Clinton
Google                          $1,000,000             $67,000
Yahoo Web Ads                  $99,341               $9,186
Yahoo Search Ads               $58,000                     $0
Facebook                             $4,900                     $0
Web Consultants                 $93,162                    $0
Ad Consultant                       n/a               $997,000
Media Consultant                  n/a            $2,540,000

Obama spent far more on the web media itself and hired a relatively inexpensive web consultant. Clinton spent far more on traditional ad and media consultants. On these reported media expenses Clinton out spent Obama 3 to 1, but Obama's online presence has performed far better.

Hey, this online stuff seems to work! 

Read about this on WebGuild

Flipping the fear card

Sales lessons from the campaign trail #4

In response to my last post that showed how  Hilary Clinton's "Red Phone" ad is based on a common media sales technique, I got a question, "What should I do when I am on the receiving end of the "fear card" or similar attack?"

When a competitor attacks...say. "Thank you!" Often they have handed you a gun to shoot them with. Whether the attack is the "fear card" or another approach the steps to respond are they same. The bigger and grander the attack, the bigger the advantage has been handed to you.   

First, get a document of the attack; a promotional brochure, email, web post etc. You will need it so you can go line by line as you counter it.

Second, Initially, you need to react emotionally. Why emotionally? Because if the "fear card" is emotional, and you cannot rationalized emotion away. If you respond without feeling, on some emotional level you are saying the fear or criticism is OK.

Also, at the heart of every successful media sale is the passion for what you sell. No passion, no sale. If you are passionate about your media and someone takes a shot at it, if you stay completely calm how genuine does that passion look? Don't display any anger that feels unnatural. Your reaction needs to be genuine you, no forced hysterics. I use a simple, "They said WHAT? Do you know how CRAZY that is? I can't believe they would tell you that!"

From the campaign trail, Bill Clinton has recently been ridiculed in the press for his "angry red faced finger wagging" responses to perceived attacks. He may look odd on on the news clips but his technique is sound. I fear that Barack Obama's cool response to some of Clinton's early attacks may not serve him well long term.

Third: ask about the damage. Ask if the "fear card" or criticism changed their attitude or raised concerns about your product. The "fear card" only sticks where they are doubts. Ask your client to share those doubts. Now, counter them.

Fourth: Now, respond to the doubts rationally. Take the print out of the attack and go line by line and show your side of the argument. You need to win over your client or, at the very least, prove that your side has at equal merit.

Fifth: Now, go offensive. Label your competitors approach as "sales technique" designed to manipulate feelings. No buyer likes to feel manipulated or played for a fool. Raise questions as to why a competitor might do this; desperation? Disrespect for the intelligence of the media buyer?

Sixth: Now, depending how well you have turned this around, see if you can't build some emotional resentment in your client from the attack. If you really have won over your client, ask, "Now that you can see the other point of view you can see how manipulative this was. (With a smile) How dumb to they think you must be to fall for this?"

No buyer likes to think of them selves as having been "had" by a manipulative sales attack. If you can win them back they will often harbor resentment for the competitor who initiated the attack and be suspicious of them for a long time.

Playing the fear card

Sales lessons from the campaign trail #3

Many credit Hilary Clinton's Presidential Primary wins in Ohio and Texas to her controversial "Red Phone" ad designed to raise doubts about Barack Obama's experience on national security.

Despicable sleaze? Clever politics? Love the ad or or hate it, what I saw was a common sales tactic that every media sales rep uses at some time in their career.

When you sell a product where the outcome cannot be predicted, like a presidential candidate or a media buy, raising doubts about your competition, aka "playing the fear card," is an effective way to win business.

On your next sales call

If you are in a competitive sell where you have the more established, better known, or widely accepted product you can ask "what if" questions to raise doubts about your competition in the mind of your media buyer. Clinton's ad raised asked "what if" an inexperienced president got a 3 AM Red Phone crisis dropped in his lap.

Media questions you can use to raise doubts about competition:

"What if your ad campaign fails because you did not cover a key demographic (that my media covers better)?"

"What if your ad campaign fails because you bought the cheaper media whose circulation is poor?"

"What if you ad campaign fails because you bought the cheaper media upstart instead of the media with the proven track recored?"

And if the media buy is very high profile...

"This is an important media buy. If it fails a lot of people could get hurt. Hey, remember the old saying from the 80's computer industry , "No one gets fired for buying IBM."

Don't push too hard. If your "sales technique" shows you will be branded as a manipulative huckster. To play the fear card you stoke the latent anxieties of your buyer but never overtly say the anxiety is totally justified. After you leave their office you just want them to worry about their media buy if it isn't with you. 

See Clinton's Red Phone ad

Larry "Curb Your Enthusiasm" David's funny post on the Red Phone ad

Why being "likeable" counts

Sales lesson from the campaign trail #2:

Hilary Clinton, behind in delegates and the polls for the Democratic Presidential nomination is taking the offensive. Shown here today taking to task a Barack Obama campaign brochure she claims spreads misinformation about her health care program.

How will voters react?

Voters will react as they always do; ignoring criticism about people they like and embracing it against people they don't.

It is easy to forget that few American Presidents were more widely criticized than Ronald Reagan, but it all just slid off the likable "Teflon President" without a scratch. The minimally funded Swift Boat attacks of the 2004 Presidential election stuck to John Kerry like glue who many demonized having criticized American Vietnam policy, and seemingly to many, the troops as well.

Hilary's case will stick not on merit, but on how likable voters perceive her Vs. Obama to be. Judging by how well her campaign's "plagiarism" criticism stuck last week I would guess not well.

On your next sales call you may think that being likable is not so important, after all we now sell in the measurable world of digital media. Aren't results more important than everything? Think again. On the surface your clients are rational business people, but when criticism flies people are more likely to evaluate on the emotional side. They will ask, "Do I like them, do I trust them?" The next time something goes wrong (and something always does) how much will stick to you will depend on how well liked you and your organization are.   

Paul Simon said it all in the Lyrics to his 1968 song "The Boxer" when he wrote,

"All lies and jest. Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."

Predicting the next President...by sales skills

Sales lessons from the campaign trail #1

As a student of sales, I love Presidential elections!

I have a theory that has successfully predicted the winner of the Presidential election for the past 30 years.

.

My formula is simple:

Forget the polls

Forget the platforms

Forget the issues

Forget the political parties...

if you objectively evaluate the selling skills of the candidates...

the better salesperson won every election.

.

Skeptical?

Here is my proof:

2004 Bush wins over Kerry

2000 Bush wins over Gore

1996 Clinton wins over Dole

1992 Clinton wins over Bush Sr.

1988 Bush Sr. wins over Dukakis

1984 Reagan wins over Mondale

1980 Reagan wins over Carter

1976 Carter wins over Ford

.

I didn't vote for all of the winners but, in my opinion, the better salesperson won every contest.

Think about it on your next sales call!