Don’t you find it amazing that in 2010, people are still using the 1980’s sales and marketing model of pestering and pursuing people?
Here’s the problem with that approach: People hate being pestered and pursued.
For example, I received an email last week, whilst I was on holiday with my wife and 4 year old son. The email started with the line; “I know you are on holiday with your family but…” then he hit me with a sales pitch. He showed me zero respect and instantly alienated me. The same guy then emailed me again today with the same pitch and said he hoped I “respected his professional persistence.” There’s nothing professional about what he did. In fact, the message he gave me was; “Yes, I know you are on holiday but I really don’t give a shit about you – buy this now!”
Permission marketing & professional marketing
For over 2 decades, I have successfully used and advocated the use of, what some people today call permission marketing. Back then, we simply called it professional marketing.
Professional marketing is about treating the marketplace with respect.
It’s about operating with class.
It’s about building a strong, professional reputation.
It’s about building relationships.
It’s about trust.
It’s about professionally researching your marketplace.
It’s about considering the person behind the “sale” and not just thinking of everyone as a number.
It’s about engaging with people, who have a genuine, potential need for whatever you are offering and who have given you permission to market to them.
That’s how to build a very successful marketing function!
It’s ironic when you consider the example I gave earlier of a pushy marketer, but email marketing is one of my favourite forms of marketing. That’s because it lends itself beautifully to the professional marketing model. When used correctly, it can be super-effective and generate incredible results. Of course, very few people use email marketing correctly – choosing instead to buy lists or copy them from websites, and then pester people with unwanted sales pitches. They may get 1 person in 5,000 to place an order, but they will have just sent what felt like spam to the other 4,999!
A company using that approach for long enough, will actually make their prospective customer base smaller and smaller, with each unwanted email they send.
Have you been pestered by pursuit marketers? How does it make you feel about the people behind those tactics? Let us know!
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