ABC

Forgot to include this with the last post I made. Amazing monologue by Alec Baldwin that i'm sure most salesman have seen.



What will our generation's Glengarry Glen Ross a-typical salesperson look/act like?

Will salesmen Always Be Closing?

I finished reading Chris Anderson's Free a few weeks back and although the book wasn't quite as great a read as I was hoping for it did the job of making my brain whirr away with thoughts and started me thinking on many spinoffs of "Free".

One of the chief thoughts that has been swirling around in my head over the last little while is "What does the future hold for salespeople?"

This thought has been percolating because as is noted in the book, there are so many sources of free information these days and this dearth of info is only getting larger and larger as the internet continues to increase in popularity and more and more people have access to it. You combine that with a younger generation that grows up online reading forums, wikis, and interacting with discussion groups and online friends and you start to see why salesperson could be an interesting occupation to watch the development of down the road. What is a salesperson possibly going to tell people that they haven't already been able to find out on their own or from someone else online?

I, in fact, am a perfect example of this. If i'm looking for something specifically the first thing I will do is go online to try to find it. I'll check out specs, prices, and shop around. One such purchase I made recently was a portable sound dock for an ipod player. I search Future Shop, Best Buy, and London Drugs' websites comparing prices and features, reading the odd review that I could find on products that matched my needs. Once I had finished this part of the purchase cycle, I merely walked into the store, grabbed the product and marched up to the counter. In and out in 2 minutes.

But electronic retail stores aren't the only example of a possible death of the salesman. On the evening news last night they ran a story on how more and more people are using online stock trading tools to do their trading for them instead of using a stock broker. Will this effect the industry? I should think so. Granted stock traders provide a lot more value than people probably give them credit for as they research deep into potential companies to invest in, talk to the owners, and provide personalized recommendations to match your investing style. But more and more people are going to be doing their own research and using eTrade or another online brokerage to make their trades. Some people may not have much luck using this method and therefore end up back in the arms of an awaiting broker, but those that do have success could greatly influence the movement of the stock market as opposed to the traditional powers of brokerages to provide upward and downward momentum on specific stocks based on what they put their word/clients into. Somewhere down the road instead of seeing "Cannacord Capital forecasts targets of $30.00 per share for so and so corp" you may see "Facebook member ChunkyMonkey53 forecasts an increase of $1 per share by the end of the year according to their status update".

At the same time, if you've ever been on the BullBoards on Stockhouse you will realize how much crap there is out there and how it can be tough to trust the majority of information you read on some of these sites. Hence the role of a broker to de-crapify this information and make sure you get the appropriate facts you need.

Recently I even purchased a pre-sale condominium and to be honest, aside from writing up the contract, I'm not sure what the salesperson did to sell me. I found out all the information online, I looked through their display suite on my own, I talked to the bank on my own. So how much value are they really providing to be getting a major cut of the money that the company is getting off me.

Well now that this is seemingly spinning into a rant i'll close off here. My brother is a salesperson, and i've been a salesperson in the past, but I don't know if I would encourage my children to get into the profession in the future. It could be one of those things a few generations down the road that our great grandchildren miss out on, just like stamps, home phones, and paperback books.

Dear (you),.....

There is something to be said for customization and personalization of marketing pieces these days. Especially for companies that you are currently a customer with who have no excuse to not personalize something.

This rings true for TD Canada Trust. I do most of my banking with them and I have for a while. They are great. They have friendly staff when I go in to a branch and their online banking system hasn't given me any problems so far. I also have a Visa card through them, a rewards card to be more exact....a travel rewards card (TD Infinite Visa Rewards Travel Card I believe is the longwinded title of it). I love it, and they have a pretty good Travel Rewards website that lets you book travel, research flights, etc. All signs point to great. In fact, I just booked a flight and car rental through them recently.

Then this morning I got an email newsletter from them, I hadn't opted in to receive it but no big deal, they are technically my travel agent after all and if they have deals then i'll look at them of course.

Jamaica for $500 + taxes! What a deal!

Oh it's only leaving from Toronto. Next.

Mayan Riviera for $430 + taxes! Wow, another great deal!

Wait, it leaves from Calgary. Useless.

I live in Vancouver, and if anyone knows this it is my bank and my credit card company. They know my address, they know the exact apartment I live in. I know they know this because they send me bills and statements. So why would you waste your time and mine showing off amazing deals that fly out of cities i'm nowhere near???

That just comes down to bad marketing execution and bad use of your database resources. And we had such a good thing going!

Beer companies do brilliant marketing

It never ceases to amaze me some of the marketing/advertising strategies that come out of beer companies and their agencies. From the original patriotic inspiring Joe Canadian rant, the now popular Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World, to a simple Kokanee radio commercial I remember from about 12 years ago that made a poke at Molson for always handing out free t-shirts:

Announcer: Everybody loves winning, and now in every 18 bottle case of Kokanee glacier beer you will find a special prize.
Person rattling and opening a box
Male Voice: It's a box.....and there's beer inside!!!! (cheering noises)

Well, I just saw an ad on TV the other day for a brilliant new Molson Canadian campaign that is perfectly timed and i'm guaranteeing it will be adding to their sales numbers for the next while as it runs.

The Give'R campaign offers people a chance to buy specially marked boxes of their beer and on the box is a pin code that you can enter online. Now traditionally companies use the pin code system as a way for people to enter their contest, then the company gets that person's data, etc. This time Molson threw in a wrinkle because everytime you enter one of those codes Molson donates $5 to Canadian olympic and paralympic athletes. Genius. It makes the consumer feel even better about drinking their product and allows them to feel like they have helped contribute to their country's athletes. What a great way to sell a whole bunch of product, portray a patriotic, charitable brand image, AND get valuable information on every consumer to add to your growing database. Pure genius, and the person behind the campaign should be given a serious bonus.

I predict big things as a result of this campaign, way better than just giving away a t-shirt or offering the chance to win something.

Salesperson Species

Every once in a while I have the joy of dealing with a salesperson coming into my company's office and pitching me a new service/product/business. As a result I have been able to determine two major species of salesperson.

Professional Rex

This person will show up dressed sharp. Whether it is the more relaxed salesperson look of jeans with a sharp shirt and blazer or a full out suit this person reeks of someone who is successful at their job. They realize that this life is their profession and your first impression of them is an important part of moving you to a sale. This person will also have done some research on your company, probably by visiting your website. That being said, they typically haven't gone too in depth into your company and can't really talk the talk with you.

Stereotypicus Salespernicus

This guy arrives at your office in a somewhat professional outfit and typically rolls in with a coffee in their hand. They reek.......of smoke, you can smell it from across the boardroom table, seriously. It happens again and again to me. It's shocking and immediately gives off the aura of them being one level below the professional salesperson. Now this isn't to mean that this salesperson is any worse at their job than the Professional Rex, but they have to do a lot more work to do the sale. Also they are usually much less prepared, including not having a business card and choosing to wing the appointment which becomes obvious immediately.

Now there are various categories of salesperson that fall below each species, but that is for another time when i've thought about the various people. I just find it interesting that you can lump the majority of salespeople into these two species. And for reference, if I can smell the smoke on a salesperson from across the table I immediately start to become questionable about the product/service they are selling.

My favourite new tv ad

Without a doubt the new "Scents for gents" Old Spice commercial is one of the best i've seen on tv lately.



It's a rather brash commercial but seems to be taking up the steam that was created by the Dos Equis "Most Interesting Man in the World". These style of advertisements target the male ego and show off the bravado/confidence that every man dreams of possessing. Very well done in my opinion. Any other thoughts?

Non-personalized can work too

Often you hear that everything should be as personalized as possible to make customers feel like you are talking directly with them. But that might not always be the case.

99.3 CFOX is a local rock station in Vancouver and easily has the wittiest and sharpest morning show in the province, if not the nation. They have established a brand for the Jeff O'Neill Show that never veers from its true character. They know when they will get in trouble from the lawyers, execs, and government agencies and they will do whatever they feel like anyways.

So, what would you expect from them when you submit an email comment to the show? A standard autoresponse personalized with your name? Nope...something more like this.

A well thought out and pretty hilarious way of telling people that you got their email and you are interested in what they wrote. Works with their brand and leaves a smile on their consumers faces. I wonder how many times this has been forwarded to people's friends.