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Marketing Outrageously
How to Increase Your Revenue By Staggering Amounts!

Chapter 2 continued...

BEYOND THE QUESTION

Seven years later, as president of the New Jersey Nets, I found myself asking the same question. I had no voice in choosing the players — my expertise is raising revenue in staggering amounts to pay for these guys — but I thought I'd ask anyway.

At the time, the Nets were a hapless team with a hapless past and a hapless future. The team had won only thirty games the year before and lost fifty-two. So picture the reaction from Willis Reed, our general manager, when I asked, "What's it going to take to win a championship this year?"

Willis just stared at me. The fact that Willis is one of the five nicest men I've ever met probably saved me from having my head torn off. He probably wondered if I was on drugs or was just naturally crazy.

Finally, Willis said, "Sign Michael Jordan and Karl Malone and Shaquille O'Neal as free agents."

That answer, of course, was just as crazy as my question. But I persisted: "Really, what's it going to take to win the championship this year?"

"It's not possible," Willis said.

"I can accept that," I said. I knew our cast of characters. They had multiple-year contracts. Not even the master magician David Copperfield could have made them disappear in just a year. "Let me rephrase my question. What's it going to take to win the championship next year?"

There was some method to these crazy questions. Most player personnel people aim to improve a little bit each year. That's also the way most marketing managers think. Steady progress is good enough, they say.

Bunk, I say.

A team can always come up with legitimate-sounding reasons why it can't compete for a championship. Willis had one: "We don't have the money to make it next year, or the year after that, or the year after that."

MONEY, THE EASY SCAPEGOAT

Does this sound familiar? "We don't have the budget to be the best." Or "We don't have the budget to dramatically improve our market share." Or "We don't have the money to increase our revenue by staggering amounts."

Money. The reason for not competing for the championship or becoming the best company in the industry is always related to money. It's never "We don't think big enough." It's never "We don't have enough moxie." It's never "We don't have good enough ideas."

When I ask business people the "What's it gonna take?" question and get the money answer, I always ask, "How much money would you need to become the best?" The answer is usually a little vague. They've never really thought about it; they're usually focused on making their budget goals or improving a little bit. But they're also a little afraid. What if they did have enough money to become the best, and they still didn't make it? It's safer to be mediocre.

WHEN PIGS LEARN TO FLY

Becoming the best takes more than money; it takes thinking big from the start. When lack of money pops up, then it's time for some creative thinking. That's what marketing outrageously is all about — modest marketing budgets, big impact.

When Willis told me that money was the reason we couldn't compete for the NBA championship, I asked my stock question, "How much is it going to take?" Now that was a legitimate question. After all, that's what I did for a living — raise a team's revenues and profits.

Willis gave me an answer. It was more than just higher player salaries. It was a bigger scouting budget. It was a fancier private jet the team could use to travel to road games. It was a lot of things, adding up to five million dollars over budget.

The five million dollars was a stretch for us, I told Willis, but if that's what it took, we'd get the money. "Now," I said, "what's it gonna take to win a championship next year?"

"Well, we'll need two superstars," Willis said. "Chicago has Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippin, the Lakers have Magic and Abdul-Jabbar, the Celtics have Bird and McHale. We've got just one — Derrick Coleman — and he won't practice with the team."

Derrick Coleman was a very talented basketball player — six foot ten, 258 pounds of pure athlete. Unfortunately, he didn't like to compete and wouldn't practice. He didn't like basketball.

"Can we count Derrick as one of those superstars?" I asked. "There's no question about his talent, but does he have the character, the work ethic, the personality?"

"Maybe as he matures he'll develop those," Willis said.

"Let's go back to my original question. What's it going to take to win a championship next year? Do we have to wait and see if Derrick grows up?" Player personnel specialists can fool themselves into mediocrity. I wanted Willis to think about what could actually be done, given the player situation. I wanted to give him a sense of urgency. Would Derrick Coleman fit into the game plan for winning the championship? Maybe he could develop character and a work ethic, but it would be around the time that pigs learned to fly.

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