The good news: if you're selling digital advertising and marketing services today, you are in a position to make both a huge difference and a very good living. The bad news: it's a hell of a lot of work.
In digital sales workshops I teach sellers the research, strategy, critical thinking, patience and discipline that it takes to compete in our confusing, asymmetrical world - a world with no closing or air dates... a world of incomplete information... a world where people don't call you back or tell you why you didn't get the deal. I tell them how it often takes eight or nine quality messages to engage a decision maker. I tell them about the insight-driven, structured approach needed to run a successful meeting with a senior customer. I tell them about all the other budgets out there that don't have the words digital or media attached to them. And I tell them about how many people they'll need to generate the kinds of quality opportunities and long-term loyalty needed for long term success.
How they respond tells me a lot about who they are and how they'll do. They tend to fall into two camps.
The Expecters. This group tends to respond with a lot of whens and ifs. To them the future is a bunch of contingencies. When we have better tools. If the customer could only see the value. When measurement catches up. If I only had a better list. With every pivot toward expectation and deferral comes a new level of disempowerment. The market is too consolidated. The duopoly is too powerful. My company's management is not making the right moves. It is, of course, a self-fulfilling set of prophecies. At their best, the Expecters will be as good as reality -- when reality, itself, is really good.
The Engagers. These sellers lean much more into whys, hows and whats. Why does this customer need us? How can we do something great for them? What's the best place to start? To the Engager, there's no someday, only today. They don't allow themselves to get caught up in meaningless speculation about company politics or the horse-race of venture funding or bright shiny objects. As the name implies, their natural inclination is to engage: with the tools at hand...with the problem or opportunity... in the quest. If I need to do all that stuff and see all those people to be really good at this... well then, shit, I better get started.
There are probably many reasons why someone turns into an Engager or an Expecter. Life experiences, personal psychology, past work history and more. But I believe that it often comes down to something quite simple: a choice.
So choose. Decide if you are going to be an Expecter or an Engager. Then be what you decide.
