The grammatically unsound, yet catchy saying has been popular with African-American pastors for quite a while. They often use variations of it to motivate members to do more — more evangelizing, giving, ministry work, etc.
In over 25 years in the advertising/marketing/communications business, I have never seen a time when the warning entailed in the aforementioned catchphrase was so applicable to businesses and their marketing strategies.
These are indeed challenging times for so many companies. One would think that savvy marketers would be more receptive to some different ideas and strategies for thriving and survival. Maybe they would consider an extra “ace in the hole” for the battle ahead.
Not so, in the case of our company. My recent experiences (which are subjective and personal) show that even struggling companies are content to continue doing what they have always done. Even if what they’re getting is disappointing.
Please bear with me as I tell our story.
I run a little advertising agency that once did big work for some gigantic clients. Admittedly, we’re now struggling mightily. We believe that changes in our country’s international trade culture (namely foreign sourcing) are the underlying cause for our challenges. We had been successful in business for nearly a dozen years, when our customer base eroded. We’re seeking to “carve a new niche’” in other fields.
Our services are straightforward, economical and proven to be effective. Although we embrace and utilize technology, we’re an old-fashioned, hard-working, “brick-and-mortar” print agency. We’re no fly-by-night “cyber” operation or “virtual” agency. Our clients and associates from the past are ready to testify about our impeccable track record, enthusiastic work ethic and reputation for efficiency.
For the past three years we have directly contacted several hundred companies to openly pitch our wares. We have spent tens of thousands of marketing dollars on trade-publication ads. We developed an innovative and well-received (if not fruitful) direct-contact, incremental marketing campaign. We have done hundreds of mailouts with requisite follow-up phone calls. We have used the web, trade shows, press releases and other tools to build our brand.
All this effort has produced no significant advertising work, to date.
ONE MAN’S EXPERIENCE
Don’t get me wrong. This little discourse isn’t as much a rambling diatribe garnished with sour grapes as one man’s personal observation of the current business climate. We surely expected significant challenges in convincing prospective new clients to at least consider us. But some of our encounters with contacts have been marked by inexplicable hostility, vitriol, arrogance and even deceit.
Whether by business-hours calls, email (with advance notice, via phone), mail, delivery services, after-hours voicemails or office visits, all our correspondence was proper business-to-business communication. But the response was sometimes surprising. We identified our target contacts as Top Executive Decision Makers or TEDs.
I can understand those who did not even find the time to respond to our appeals. I guess if we have become so busy, we have to constantly hold phone conversations while driving, we certainly don’t have a few moments to chat with an “unsolicited vendor”. The responses that baffled me were from the TEDs that treated us like we were telemarketers calling them at home…at dinner time! They seemed to resent our having the unmitigated gall to even call on them. Their responses can be kind of mean spirited and amazingly personal. One TED seemed to take great pleasure in telling me “I wasn’t impressed by your stuff.” After further discussion, I realized he hadn’t even opened our package. I asked him about a distinctive element of the pitch and he had no idea of what I spoke. Why was he so quick to dismiss us?
A TED in the hospitality industry took our call as an affront to her in-house staff. Even after attempting to explain our “add-on-service” business model, she became increasingly surly. It was like I somehow implied that her “crack” staff wasn’t doing a good job. I certainly did nothing of the sort. I wonder why she was so touchy?
I’ve observed another interesting phenomenon. Some other contacts have taken a bit of time to talk with us. But they used nearly all of that time to dissuade and discourage us. Why?
I get many leads from reading trade publications. I recently saw an article in a Home Furnishings trade magazine. The article included an interview with the marketing TED of a major manufacturer. She mentioned seeking additional marketing tools (our “niche”) and outside agencies. “What a great fit!” I thought. In the past, we had done some super-successful print inserts that included her company’s products. I called for TED and was forwarded to her assistant. I quickly and cordially let the assistant know why I was calling. Although, I didn’t initially mention it, I had the trade article before me. I began a point-by-point illustration of how our services could boost her company’s bottom line. The assistant shot each point down like they were clay pigeons and she was the world’s best skeet shooter. With formidable force, she told me that they don’t do any of that stuff and if they did, their world-class in-house staff and big ‘ol agency of record would handle it. She said our chances of getting any work out of them were slim to none. Then she said something like “Just make that NONE!” As I began to slink away, with my tail securely tucked, I “turned” to make one last, feeble attempt to salvage any hope to be found. I softly mentioned that my call was prompted by the quotes in her boss’s interview. My proclamation was greeted by some deep sighs of frustration (while she valiantly fought the urge to hang up on me) as she begrudgingly suggested I send some info. She just had to qualify that suggestion with the fact that it too will be an exercise in futility.
I realize that part of her duty as a good assistant might include screening TED’s vendor calls. But is such thorough flogging part of the job description?
I find a quantum of solace in our struggles. Our services must be relevant and viable. For, at least a couple of prospects have proven so by ripping off our ideas. Unfortunately, the nature of our business requires us to produce comps or spec work. A few companies have expressed interest in our concepts and challenged us to show them how it’s done. I know the big agencies have legal contracts to help prevent unscrupulous companies from pirating their intellectual property during the brainstorming process. But, although we have dealt with gigantic companies, we pride ourselves in having the integrity to abide by the old-fashioned handshake agreement. We begin prospect relationships with a confidentiality agreement to assure our clients we value discretion with their information.
A couple of big companies found our Vertically Integrated Funded (VIF) Magalog concept intriguing. One retailer picked our collective brain for insight and went on to produce a bastardized in-house version of our Magalog concept. Their failure to implement some of the key elements likely resulted in the piece being a colossal flop.
A couple of years ago, a TED at a large Automotive-products manufacturer asked us to produce a comp of a VIF Magalog with their brands. During the development, I had regular conversations with TED. Once we submitted the work, I never heard back from him. I left voicemail messages, tried to have him paged and spoke with whoever would answer a phone for two months. There was no response. I understand TED is still with that company and in the same position. I wonder why I haven’t heard from him?
One of the most disheartening incidents involved a big resort out West. We had paid for costly annual stays there for ten years straight. We receive their direct-marketing mailers throughout the year. Before our eleventh annual stay, we pitched a comprehensive package to their TED, the Director or Marketing. We had hundreds of hours into comps for TED. The spec work included an innovative idea for their key-card holders, a magnificent digitally printed custom postcard/sweepstakes promotion with Personalized URLs (PURLs) and an occupancy-driving version of our print partner’s 6PAC mailer. After submission of the material, our TED at the resort went incommunicado also. On this year’s stay, our twelfth, I was greeted with an obvious altered version of our key-card holder idea. Later in the year, we received the closest thing they could produce to the patented 6PAC mailer.
I can imagine how this happened. The Marketing Director did let us know that she would review the concepts with her staff. I can imagine the conversation went something like “Yeah boss, that’s a great idea. But why send that money to Texas. We can change that up a little, design it in-house and have our friends at the local printer run ‘em.”
It was nonetheless a sickening experience. But maybe it’s all just a sign of the times and an indication of the current business climate.
LYING ON A NAIL
Another relevant tale I heard at my local church involved a fellow member, Willie. He visited a friend down in the Louisiana bayou. The friend’s home had one of those big, wood-slat porches. Willie says that he talked with the guy for hours out on the porch. He noticed that, during this entire time, his pal’s old hound dog was lying in a single spot, making a constant, low groaning sound. As the afternoon heat intensified, the pal invited Willie in the house to continue the visit. After a while, as he was leaving, Willie noticed the dog again. He was still in the same spot, still groaning. Willie asked his buddy, “Hey man, what’s wrong with your dog?” The friend said “That old dog’s lying on a nail.” “Why doesn’t he move off the nail?” Willie asked. The owner’s answer was “It doesn’t hurt him enough to get up and move, so I guess he just lays there and whines.”
Maybe that’s what we’re facing, too. Many businesses are willing to lie on the nail and groan about their situation. Our low-cost opportunity for them to rise up and move may fall on deaf ears. Maybe they’re just not hurting enough?
WE KNEW THE ROW WAS TOUGH WHEN WE CHOSE TO HOE IT
Now, I see the news and regularly read business publications. I understand that many marketing decision makers are often overworked, understaffed for assistance and overwhelmed by cold calls from wannabe vendors. Not too very long ago, I was one of them. In my last position as the Advertising Manager for a gigantic manufacturer, I sometime fielded up to 225 business-related phone calls, daily. Somehow, my name and work phone number ended up on contact lists for the print industry. My voicemail box seemed to always be filled with calls. Our 3-person department (with two or three outside creative contractors) produced over 300 jobs and nearly half a billion printed advertising pieces annually. Despite a tremendous workload, I made a point to return all phone calls by week’s end. This process usually took only a couple of hours a week. I did it after hours, when necessary. I never treated even the most persistent callers with disrespect, disdain or shortness. If our operations were not compatible with their company and programs, I politely told them so. I would usually invite them to send info about their services. The material wasn’t deposited in “File 13”, but actually placed in our “Vendor Info” file that was purged every five years or so.
Maybe what I deemed as simple, common courtesy could be labeled “Old School” inefficiency and an obsolete concept in today’s business climate. But I’m glad I applied yet another principal gleaned from the traditional African-American church. My late pastor used to say, “Be careful of whom you step over on your way up the ladder. You’re likely to see the same folks on the way down.”
Many of those same cold-calling vendors later provided significant work and solid leads after our staff at the now-defunct manufacturer formed our current company.
THE THING THAT WOULD NOT GO AWAY
True story: We call this the tale of “The Thing That Would Not Go Away”. At the manufacturing company, there was a time when we produced hundreds of millions of pieces of only a particular type of printed material. One afternoon, a gangly vendor rep. from upstate showed up. After somehow weaseling his way past the company receptionist and our department secretary he ended up in the advertising department. I invited him for some brief “face time”. He worked hard to convince me that his company’s mainstay product was an ideal and economical fit for us. After hearing his “pitch” for another kind of printed material, I informed him that we were not currently doing that stuff. I told him we could consider it for future programs and thanked him for his time. He asked had I had lunch? I hadn’t and he offered to buy. I was pretty busy and told the persistent Yankee that I wouldn’t be available until after quitting time. He offered to wait…there in my office! I called his “bluff” and sarcastically told him he could sit there and watch me work quietly for the next two or three hours. Then, we could maybe grab a quick bite and discuss his product. This guy actually sat in a not-so-comfortable office chair across from my desk for hours. He silently jotted down notes, while I busily worked the phones and computer. More than once, my boss called me out of my office and pointedly told me to “get rid of that greasy sales guy, now!”
I didn’t and the boss was later glad about it.
Months later, after much research, I added The Yankee’s services. I didn’t seek to replace our current vendor, but just chose to try something else too. Our purchasing executives were extremely put off when I invited The Yankee, along with the executives from our other print vendor to a simultaneous meeting. The purchasing VP told me, in no uncertain terms, that my plan simply was “not the way things were done”. But I ran the program and insisted on the meeting. I wanted to forego the standard purchasing procedure of pitting vendors against each other, for the lowest possible price. I had a new vision for the program and doing what we always did was not acceptable. The new vision worked! The added program complemented our existing operations. It was a tremendous boon to the company. It made and saved the manufacturer millions.
Some twelve years or so later, the persistent, “greasy sales guy” is my business partner and a great friend. He is largely responsible for our success and millions more in revenue. The manufacturer no longer exists, a victim of bankruptcy liquidation. The company for which The Yankee worked during our first encounter has since met the same fate. They’re long gone. (Incidentally, so is the other good print vendor).
The Yankee or Mike, is now at a great, solid, 100+-year-old company. We’re all still together and finding work where we can. We’re still applying those same “Old School” principles — common business courtesy, honesty, efficiency, hard work and loyalty. I still believe we can help good companies grow business.
Now, all we have to do is find at least one good client who expects that kind of service.
