I’m a salesman’s kid, and my heart has a soft spot for those brave individuals who go out and try to convince other people to buy something or choose one product or service over another.
The advertising world draws a particularly effective breed of salespeople who work hard to convince companies that the medium or product they offer deserves a healthy chunk of the company’s advertising budget.
Some of the most persuasive go beyond asking for that chunk. No, they want the whole thing. And to get it, they try to convince companies that what they offer eliminates the need for everything else. (I know this happens, because after they talk to my clients, my clients send them to me.)
Sorry. What you’re selling may be cool, and your pitch is most persuasive, but I’ve yet to see a magic bullet that outdoes everything else. In fact, if I’ve learned one thing in my decades in this business, it’s that tried-and-true approaches nearly always outperform dazzling new ideas. Sure, it doesn’t hurt to try adding new things to the mix, but don’t do it at the expense of your ongoing efforts. If the new efforts prove to be successful, add them to what you’ve been doing it – don’t use them to supplant it.