Remember the good old days of selling: “Hi there, let me show you the latest widget with all these wonderful features and how many do you want?”
Okay, it was never quite that easy. One really should have asked the customer what their needs were and shown them the widget that actually fit those needs.
Well today marketing has really, really changed.
Today the consumer is experiencing a marketing overdose to the point of decision paralysis. Fifteen years ago, how many marketing pieces did you see in a day? Sure you got some flyers and a few ads in the newspaper and perhaps you almost believed that you had won the Reader’s Digest million-dollar sweepstakes. But today while I’m sitting here with 92,000 unread e-mails, most of them are marketing spam. Did I ask to get 1,000 Viagra ads? Actually how did they know, are they profiling my age group? Well the point being that the consumer is so shell shocked with this overabundance of marketing that it is actually paralyzing decision making. An interesting study that flew by my face indicated that 43% of consumers consult a friend before purchasing. Another study ..before deciding whether to purchase recommended products or services, (81%) will go online to verify those recommendations..WOW talk about distrust! source
Bottom line? The consumer DOES NOT TRUST TRADITIONAL MARKETING!
In fact, I have concluded that some of my best high gloss traditional print marketing actually creates major red flag resistance to the consumer that I have no relationship with. If I am not getting introduced then I actually wonder if the non-threatening salesman posture and the marketing material would be better off in a manila envelope with a dog-eared piece of lined paper.
What is the CRM function of today?
Today the consumer does not want to be overwhelmed by client retention marketing so you need to back off and provide the answers to their questions when they’re ready to consume.
When they come looking you need to have the solution and be easy to find.
Posted on December 22, 2010
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