Re: Ibiquity's "Gag Order" on engineers

David Eduardo wrote:

The main reason advertisers do not target 55+ customers is that the return on investment is low; it takes so much more advertising to convince older consumers that the cost of the sale is less than the profit on the sale.




You think that may have something to do with the way the sale is presented?

Those of us who've been around the block once or twice, don't fall prey to the marketing pap that younger demographics seem to swallow so readily. Maybe if you sold the steak instead of the sizzle, you may find that we're a lot more amenable to the message.

There's a story circulating around Radio Shacks in the Chicago area (and some areas of Louisiana, as well), about the guy who comes in, and when a saleshole asks if he can help, the guy says, "Yes, see that open space over by the Sprint display? Go stand there until my car has left the parking lot."

I can quote that accurately, because I'm the one who said it. And I've said it at Best Buy, Circuit City, Audio Consultants...or wherever someone with more attitude than knowledge tries to sell me something I don't want.

Truth is, I"m the easiest sell in the world. But don't come to me with more mouth than brains and expect me to turn loose of a dollar. I'll abandon a purchase I've already decided to make before I encourage that kind of crap by paying a commission for it. I'll buy somewhere else.

It's real simple. Tell the truth. Stop the hype, and just tell the truth. You'll find that there are a lot of us out there who will respond to that...and selling to us is easier than getting a morning erection.

If it's costing you more to make the sale than you can make on the sale, then change your pitch. It's not like we don't have the money. And it's not like we don't spend it. It's that we don't spend with people who open their mouths with hype, deception and misdirection.

Or as I also say to clerks who lead off with the wrong tack..."Don't come to me with a mouth full of bull*** and expect me to love your breath."

This principle has applications in our own conversations, David. I've been around the business as long as you have. I've heard all the noise. I've heard all the facts. I've been there. I've watched the industry grow from an exciting frontier to a mature product, to a commodity sold like tomatoes at Jerry's in Niles. I hear your statistics. I've seen them myself. I"ve even used them in my own career. But, and I've said this to every sales mangler, general mangler, OM, PD and corporate suit I've ever worked with, "You know what they say about statistics and liars." If you want to convince me, make an argument that doesn't rely on tautologically derived statistics. Talk to me like we're both human beings. With similar experiences, interests, passions and professional histories. Like the guy at Best Buy, you come to me with a lot of noise, but very little actual address of my questions and concerns.

You're more dismissive than conversational. You're better than that. And I don't deserve it.

Just like making a sale to 55+, you need to stop the hype, and just tell the truth. One on one. Person to person. Not suit to suit.

I had one professor at University who didn't for the first semester use one mathematical formula in my Physics class. He had a very compelling reason for that. He told us that Mathematics is a shorthand for English. It's a language. And that a formula is a sentence. And that there is nothing you can say mathematically that you can't say in English. But Mathematics is shorthand. You don't have to really know what you're doing to use it. So to ensure that he knew that we understood what we were exposed to, he forbade mathematics in class for the first semester. Even on tests. We had to say it in English. And still come up with the correct answers. But we had to write it, say it, express it without mathematical formulas.

If you want to convince us, here...and we're all passionate about Radio... say it in English. Talk to us like we're really here, really involved and really listeners. Sell us, without the hype. Without the statistics. Just tell the truth in plain English, as though you were speaking to a group of your friends at a Shakeys around two pitchers and an 18" Sweep-the-Kitchen.

You may find, like sales people all over the country, that we respond to that.

Put more simply: If you want to convince us to buy, don't sell like Herb Tarlek.

You don't impress me as a '75 Cordoba kind of guy, anyway.


Try taking this thinking to your advertisers. If you can convince them to monetize this demographic, with all it's disposable income....you'll be a hero. Retire wealthy beyond words, and leave a legacy with radio and it's listeners that's tacit goal of every broadcaster who ever sits behind a mic.

You'll also be responsible for reinvigorating Radio at a time when it's running off its listeners to alternatives who don't treat us like dog *** on the sole of their boots.






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