The Hypocritical Marketer
This 💩 really intrigues me. It baffles me that such smart people do such dumb shit in business.
Why do “we” (not me) market & communicate to people the way we hate being marketed & communicated to?
True story – peep this:
While cleaning out old emails in Outlook last night, I came across an email from the VP of Marketing of a client of ours – he wrote (pertaining to cold calls): “Mark, I disagree with you. Every no gets us closer to a yes and it is an easy way to sell things to people.” (Not thinking of what all the damaging NO’S are doing to the business)
I almost threw up while reading that.
71% of Americans signed up for the Do Not Call list in 2014 (and that number has grown) – I presume the other 29% didn’t know they could.
And this brings me to our next outbreak of hypocrisy…
Not too long ago, I had lunch with a (really good) friend & colleague that works in Sales – he’s an executive. And he’s one of those executives that talks a TON about not doing things the “old way”, but does everything – yes, you guessed it – the “old way.”
While eating at Lure, his phone rang 3-4 times in a row; and he ignored each with anger & alacrity. A few minutes passed, and his phone rang again, and this time he answered it and exclaimed, “please stop calling & emailing me; I’m not interested.” And he hung up! It was someone cold calling him, you know, a tele-spammer. (If you work in this industry, you suck!)
Here’s where it gets good.
We finished lunch and he mentioned that he had to leave and make some calls to a few potential clients he’s trying to snag. I asked if he had contacts there, and he said his company provided him a lead list and that he leverages LinkedIn to find decision makers to call/email/DM.
I stated in laughter, “sooooo, you’re going to cold call people, right?!” “No, these people are in the market, need our services, and could really use us – they need to hear what I have to say,” he answered.
I smiled.
Why do smart business people do such dumb things when they’re in job mode?! Why do they go to work, put on that hat, and go full-dumbass suddenly?!
Why?! I really want to hear your thoughts – PLEASE.
