Standing Out In An Over Communicated Society

I recently read a book called “Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind. How to Be Seen and Heard in an Overcrowded Marketplace.” Thanks to Jeff Schmidt for suggesting it. The book identifies America as the first over communicated society due to all of its media options. The book was written in 1981 and other than a dated OJ Simpson endorsement reference, all the lessons have aged very well! If overcommunication was a problem in America in 1981, it is now exponentially worse. 

 Over time the job of sales and marketing professionals has become increasingly tougher because of all the media and marketing options. In America today marketers have an unlimited amount of options of where to put their messages and consumers (in both B to C and B to B world) have an increased amount of options of brands to purchase with an insane amount of options of how and where to purchase them. This holds true whether you’re buying a car, a cheeseburger or deciding on which actuarial services to use for your fortune 500 company.  

The uncharted waters of 2020 have made these decisions even more chaotic and difficult for all of your customers. Josh Yudin states that in sales, our job is to bring order out of that chaos for our customers. This is more true now than at any previous time in history. Thus, if we bring order out of chaos effectively, we will set ourselves up for a successful 2021. How do we do this?  

 We focus our message on these things to our customers:

1. Benefits
2. Benefits
3. Benefits

I like to call it the WIFM (what’s in it for me). When we’re mass marketing a product we want our customers to understand why they will be happy with the purchase and not what the widget actually does. When you’re selling a business product or service to someone, make sure the benefits of your product or service directly align with the business objectives of the potential customer – and explain how they are related. This will allow you to be the one to bring order to the uncharted waters your customers are trying to navigate and put you and your customers in a better position to win. 

About the Author  

Sam Pines is a Vice President, Partner and Thought Leader at Good Karma Brands (GKB), which is primarily a media and marketing company with expertise in leveraging the power of sports to build brands. GKB utilizes their partnership with ESPN with radio affiliates across the country and as a digital advertising liaison to bring local advertisers customized solutions within and around the best brand in sports. Sam began his career at GKB in 2000, joining founder and CEO Craig Karmazin and four other partners of GKB, after leaving his career at accounting firm Arthur Andersen. He moved to Cleveland in 2006, and now spends his day managing the ESPN Cleveland team, brainstorming GKB’s next big move, serving as a board member on Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, Milestones Autism Resources, Autism Speaks and Folds of Honor (just to name a few), and spending time with his wife Deborah and daughters Ellie and Zoey.   

The Story of Time to Win  

What began as a brief email, Time to Win has developed into a thought-provoking newsletter that touches on the principles of sales, management and business leadership. When it hits teammates’ inbox early Monday morning as they sip their coffee and prep for the week, it inspires them with stories, advice, and tasks of how they can win today and every day moving forward — and we hope it does the same for you. Winning at GKB isn’t about our success, it’s about our advertising partners, fans and teammates achieving success. To read past Time to Win’s: https://goodkarmabrands.com/time-to-win/”