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Friday with Phil - ROE #47 Sell Soft, Market Hard

Way back in the introductory chapter, I defined marketing as the act of motivating someone to take action. Marketing means getting people to want to buy, whereas selling is a manipulative process to close the deal quickly so you can move on to the next prospect. Selling focuses on the transaction, whereas marketing focuses on building relationships that will result in a long-term series of transactions.

Rainmakers do not sell. Never. They create an environment and a multidimensional dialogue in which the client can visualize and experience the benefits of the particular product or service. Most importantly, rainmaker-style marketing is about proffering advice and helping to guide the client through his or her personal decision tree. And they accomplish this not by a series of self-serving statements, but rather by asking well-targeted and increasingly specific questions. Statements let people know what you’re thinking; questions elicit what others are thinking.

I recently experienced a perfect example of how soft-selling and hard-marketing can make a big difference in both perception and reality. My business partner and I were looking for new office space. We wanted to move quickly and were willing to pay market rates. You would think that this presented a prime opportunity that real estate brokers would jump all over. The reality, however, was quite the opposite. Brokers did not return phone calls, could not answer the most basic questions regarding the properties they showed us, and disregarded the key features we were looking for. They didn’t listen and they didn’t seem to care. And then we found Jay Blacker of the Denenberg Realty Group. We had responded to a simple ad he had placed on CraigsList.com. The first time I called, he was about to step into a meeting and said he would call back within twenty minutes, which he did. He asked a few basic questions and asked if he could meet with us at our temporary office space. I knew immediately that Jay approached his career differently than the other brokers we had dealt with. No one else had even hinted of meeting with us prior to showing us properties. When Jay visited our office, he used it as an opportunity to better assess what we were looking for in terms of what we liked and didn’t like about our current space. He asked questions to help gauge the relative importance of such variables as windowed offices vs. inside offices, our need for conference rooms and kitchens, lease duration, and parking availability. He wanted to know how often clients would visit and how large a reception area we would need. These all sound like commonsense questions, but none of Jay’s competitors asked them. After his initial fact-finding, Jay explained how he worked with clients and gave us a list of references of local business owners he had helped. And rather than showing us just the one property we had inquired about, he suggested we schedule a block of time the following week to look at a half-dozen properties that fit our requirements so we could make side-by-side comparisons.  When the day came, he prepped us with key information before we entered each space, and pointed out the pros and cons of each option as we toured the sites. He never tried to sway us towards one property over another; rather, he genuinely wanted us to find space that suited our needs. And we did, and Jay walked beside us through the proposal process and the leasing contract. He didn’t close the sale; he facilitated the buy.

The last place you would ever expect to see soft-selling and hard-marketing is in retail.

And that’s especially true in regard to furniture stores. Most furniture stores are mom-and-pop regional operations, and they rely heavily on print and television ads that scream at the viewer and pretty much insult the intelligence of anyone over the age of eleven. Price would appear to be the key differentiator and “one-day sales,” “massive markdowns,” and “lowest prices of the season” are the norm. Except for Jordan’s Furniture. Jordan’s, which is now owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway holding company, traces its heritage back to 1918 and is still run by the grandsons of the founder. The Jordan brothers, Eliot and Barry, are the savviest marketers I’ve ever had the pleasure of observing as a consumer. They cast aside all the traditional approaches to furniture selling and created a phenomenon that sells more furniture per square foot than any other furniture retailer in the country. Jordan’s never has a sale. Instead, they feature “under pricing”—the same low price every day—and offer a price match guarantee. The Jordan’s sales team is knowledgeable and professional. They don’t lie in wait to pounce as you enter the store. They offer assistance as- and when-needed. They are no commission and no pressure. What really distinguishes Jordan’s is that they have accomplished the near impossible. They have turned their stores into destinations—family-oriented, themed destinations. It all started when Jordan’s began staying open late on Saturday nights and promoting itself as a date-night destination. Furniture shopping didn’t have to be an ordeal; it could be fun. Growing from that simple concept, Jordan’s stores now feature IMAX theaters screening first-run movies, MOM (Motion Odyssey Movie) virtual roller coasters, themed restaurants, and huge reception areas—without a trace of furniture—modeled after New Orleans’ Bourbon Street and featuring music, lights, and special effects that delight young and old. Of all their innovative marketing campaigns, none was more brilliant than the “Monster Deal” they ran in the spring of 2007. Named after Fenway Park’s “Green Monster” leftfield wall, Jordan’s promised to refund the price of mattresses, dining tables, sofas or beds purchased between March 7 and April 16 if the Red Sox won the World Series. The citizens of Red Sox Nation came out in full force and placed about 30,000 orders during the promotion. Then, as it looked like the Sox would make it to the Series and even win it, Jordan’s took out print and television ads reminding people of the promotion and rooting the Sox to victory. Once the Red Sox completed the sweep of the Rockies, Jordan’s made it very easy for customers to complete and submit rebate forms. The promotion was a classic rainmaker homerun. The cost to Jordan’s was small, limited to the cost of an insurance policy; but the benefits were huge. Jordan’s converted 30,000 customers into lifelong evangelists, won the affection of Red Sox fans throughout New England, and received millions of dollars worth of free publicity in local and national newspapers and broadcast news programs.

Jay Blacker and Jordan’s Furniture have approached business in distinctive ways that suit their individual personalities and industries. The universal truth in their approach revolves around engaging customers and clients in a mutually beneficial relationship wherein marketing both makes the introduction and closes the deal with no selling required.

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Phil Fragasso is the author of the engaging new book Marketing for Rainmakers: 52 Rules of Engagement to Attract and Retain Customers for Life, and a good friend.  Phil has over 25 years of marketing experience in high-tech and financial services, and now serves as President of I-Pension LLC, an innovative investment advisory firm. Prior to his current position, Phil was chief marketing officer for Rydex Investments and Columbia Funds.  His marketing career began in the computer industry working at Honeywell and Wang.  Here are links to Phils' web site and to his book on Amazon.com.

Posted August 29, 2008
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