| Free chapters of Marketing Outrageously. If you haven't read Marketing Outrageously, here's a couple of free chapters.
E-mail me.
On my c ell-phone, I say, "Leave your name and phone number and I'll get back to you within 24 hours." Always do. A lot of times, it's even quicker on email. So, email me. Let me know what you're thinking and how I can help.
What readers say. Read what other readers are saying about Marketing Outrageously. Add a comment or two yourself.
Free chapter from my book Success is Just One Wish Away.
Books that wow me. There are some marketing books that really had a big influence on me. I vow to read these every two years.
Left on the editor's floor. There were a couple chapters left on the editor's floor. Click here to read.
Free chapters from Ice to the Eskimos. If you haven't read my first book Ice to the Eskimos, here are a couple of free chapters. Enjoy.
Message Board. Need inspiration? Stop by and get some help from other readers, or share an idea of your own.
Outrageous marketing in the flesh. Interested in having me speak for your company? Click for details.
A crazy website I'm involved in. Aliens or baseball, you figure it out. |
|
 Ice to the Eskimos
How to Market a Product Nobody Wants
Chapter Nine continued...
We adopted a simple marketing rule when I was with the New Jersey Nets. It was the only marketing rule that we had. It was our key to Jump-Starting the business operations of the team.
OUR SIMPLE GOLDEN RULE, Part 1
| Only try to sell a product that the customer wants to buy |
|
OUR SIMPLE GOLDEN RULE, Part 2
| Try to sell the customer just a little bit more than what they want to buy. |
|
We translated this as:
- No crazy up-selling. This is opposite of The Golden Rule of many other companies. For example, if a person comes into a car dealership looking for the least expensive car, you know the sales person will make a pretty good effort in trying to get that person to buy a car that costs twice as much.
How about insurance? Or computers? Or TV sets? Or office equipment? Over-selling with these products seems to be their Golden Rule; it is their way of life. At the Nets, we didn't focus on over-selling.
If a fan could only afford a 7-game package, we didn't try to sell him or her a full season 41-game package.
Once we determined what they wanted—and could reasonably afford—we would try to ease that fan up to a slightly larger ticket package. It might be an additional 3-game package.
Did we leave money on the table? Probably. But, we were also selling satisfaction. If we had hammered a larger sale out of a buyer, let's say to a full season ticket, our chances for renewal the following season would be slim.
- Reasonable down-selling. Down-selling? Isn't this against the American ideal? What crazy talk is this?
Can you imagine a Toyota salesperson recommending not to buy the $35,000 Toyota 4-Runner and buy the $16,000 Tercel instead? If the sales manager found out about that, the salesperson would surely be fired. But, think back to our marketing Golden Rule: Only try to sell a product that the customer wants to buy.
What if the buyer really couldn't afford that $35,000 vehicle? Sure, the buyer might pass the credit check, but the reality of writing checks every month for a car that was too expensive might turn that buyer to hating that vehicle.
There was a method to our madness to reasonable down-selling. We wanted to retain customers. We were probably the only pro sports team that would mention to season ticketholders in the renewal mailing that they could downgrade.
The reason is simple. We knew that things change in this world, and that a big customer (full season ticketholder) might have to make a smaller investment in tickets. Most teams would look at the season ticketholder that wanted to downgrade as a traitor. Treating a customer as a traitor because they would like to downgrade their commitment usually resulted in losing the buyer altogether. We didn't want to lose the customer. If a season ticket holder wanted to buy less, we worked out a ticket package that was right for that buyer. It might have been a 21-game package. Just as we would upgrade people that wanted to go from a smaller ticket package to a full season ticket, we would be the co-architect with the fan to downgrade that customer's ticket commitment.
- No bait and switch. If a company only wanted to buy the scorer's table signage, we didn't try to sell them a radio sponsorship. When working with a sponsor, however, sometimes we could see where a combination sponsorship of scorer's table signage and radio would work better for that sponsor. We'd propose that.
Pretty basic stuff, eh? Except we've all been victims of companies that want to upsell us to something that we didn't want. Instead of this $400 17" color TV, I know you would really love this 40" $2,000 TV. Instead of this $17,000 car, I know you would really love this $40,000 car. Sometimes, salespeople are successful in selling a product that the customer doesn't really want. What happens then? The salesperson makes a bigger commission, the salesperson's boss is happy, and the company may have lost a customer forever for future purchases.
|