>> From a man who died 92 years ago.
Have you noticed how so many people seem blissfully – but rather catastrophically – unaware of this:
Everything you do boils down to that critical moment when someone either buys or doesn’t.
Unless they do, no one gets paid.
So if you like getting paid, and paying other people so you can work less, this will be useful.
The man who died was John E Kennedy. I told this story in one of the very first emails I sent out to this list.
It’s about Albert Lasker who built the world’s largest advertising agency back in the 1900s – and who was very curious.
The other thing that still applies is that most people in marketing, advertising and business don’t understand (or value) salesmanship.
If you don’t ask questions you don’t get answers and if you don’t get the right answers you end up going in the wrong direction.
Lasker had just joined an advertising agency in Chicago.
His office was – appropriately for an ad agency – above a bar.
One day he got a note saying “I hear you want to know what advertising is. I’m in the bar. Send this note back and I’ll come up and tell you.”
So Lasker sent it back. Kennedy, a tall moustachioed figure came up and said “Advertising is salesmanship in print.”
Nowadays there are many more media than print but it’s still true.
The other thing that still applies is that most people in marketing or advertising – whichever you call it – is that people don’t understand salesmanship.
And as the Chairman of IBM noted about 80 years ago “Nothing happens in business till something gets sold.”
Simon Casson, a 3rd generation salesman, has sold enough to be able to run his business in the sun in Portugal.
He sent me an email two weeks ago which I scanned but didn’t read properly.
Lazy me. I’ve now done so, and it’s full of little gems.
Let me quote them to you. Every one bears thinking about.
If you don’t agree, God help you, because no one else will.
Everything he said relates to success.
One reason I became a copywriter, I suspect, is because I don’t have the quality that can survive constant rejection.
Salesmen do that all the time, which brings me to some of the things Simon said.
They are all simple and valid. I recommend every one
- He quoted his old mentor which I’m rephrasing slightly. Successes do things failures don’t like to do. I sometimes think I was lucky to go broke when young, because I then spent seven years doing a great many things I hated. And I was very bad at most – like selling swimming pool franchises in France, Germany, and Australia. Or investments in malt whisky on the phone.
- The harder you work, the luckier you get. Though the version I’ve heard many times is different. I find the more I study the luckier I get.
- Do you have a value proposition, i.e. why people should use you? Or a unique selling proposition, which is much better because it says you offer something nobody else does
- Do you tell people what problems you solve, what opportunities you make possible?
- Optimistic sales people sell 37% more; so optimism pays.
- Many people quit early or after a limited effort. You need endurance. Champions work smarter, harder, longer, better. They learn new tricks and techniques – and they practice. .
- People deal with people they like. So be modest, conscientious, agreeable, open, positive, calm, and helpful.
- Keep going. Keep prospecting, phone calling, developing business and selling any way and anywhere you can. (When the COVID disaster struck, I reacted the way I react to practically everything that goes wrong, blind panic. So if you ever feel panic-stricken, join the club.)
- When a recession hits, competition goes down. A lot of people give up, and I bet you a lot of people have given up during this period. Your odds are better.
- Most firms in a recession cut all their marketing activities, their PR, their advertising and so on and get rid of people. But as he puts it, “Winners never stop.”
- Have precise targets: don’t say we must do more of this or that. More is not enough. How much more is what matters. When my partners and I started our agency which I sold for a lot of money I had a weekly income target.
- Your existing clients are your best prospects. 3 to 8 times more likely to buy, I believe, than identical people who are not clients. So keep communicating with them, ask them for referrals.
- Lost clients are some of your best prospects. You must court them. Tell them about changes and improvements and benefits. New services you now offer that you didn’t before.
- Old prospects are also potential clients.
- Do you have a value proposition, i.e. why people should use you. Or a unique selling proposition, which is much better because it says you offer something nobody else does.
- Do you tell people what problems you solve, what opportunities you make possible.
- You must constantly look for ways to lower costs or get more done in the same time.
- Use testimonials, case studies, white papers and performance data, which validate your business.
- Build relationships and trust. Educate people – which I try to do.
- Don’t give up.
Here’s a statistic I hadn’t seen before. Only 7% of salespeople try more than six times to get an order. The best never, ever give up.
So there you are, advice from someone else, which I was relieved to see echoes almost all the advice I give.
And a final thought for you.
After nearly 60 years selling almost everything you imagine, I know more than most about what works and what doesn’t.
That means I can give you better advice about what works and what doesn’t.
And my partner, Gerald, who was a marketing manager before we met and he became a victimized copywriter, also understands business.
So if you feel you’d be better off with people who understand business and its realities than people who tell you how creative they are, why not drop me a line?
Best,
Drayton
P.S. Know anyone who’d appreciate my Bird Droppings? Tell them to sign up to my mailing list here.
