 I was a radio marketing and sales guy for a long time. I didn't know anything about Sales when I started selling radio advertising in 2004. Most of the training out there is terrible, too. If they say this, you say that. If they say that, you say this. I didn't buy it. From the very beginning, I wasn't comfortable being a typical salesperson. I just wanted to help businesses grow with better advertising. And I knew I could do it. So, I never pushed or "sold" people. I just talked to people. I didn't do presentations, I did conversations. When I started my own marketing company, I had to start being the point of contact for my clients who had other media people to deal with. I had no idea they were all this bad. Even when they KNOW that I have been eating, drinking, sleeping MARKETING since 2004... they still try to SELL me. Like the cheesy, old-school salesperson kind of SELL. It's annoying and ridiculous. A billboard rep emailed me the other day with a spiel about how billboards are basically the best kind of advertising in the world. I nicely told her my client's budget didn't allow for us to add any new advertising at this time, but feel free to contact me in 6 months. She replied with more rambling about the brilliance of billboards and proceeded to tell me that my client would likely keep getting terrible return on advertising investment unless I bought billboards from her. That made me a little angry. Instead of saying, "Ok, thank you for your time, I'll reach out in 6 months"... she decided to go the rude and slimy route. NO WONDER BUSINESS OWNERS DON'T LIKE and DON'T TRUST MARKETING & ADVERTISING PEOPLE! In my sales and marketing career, I was "brought up" to be a helper, not a seller. And even when management did push for more sales from the team, I never swayed from just being a servant to those who need me. But here's what I see from so many media reps and ad agencies... False claims, puffery, irrelevant statistics, fear-based selling, more puffery, and they're all sellers - not marketers. Not one of them ever talks about how to make the advertising actually work. (Hint: It's not about the media you choose) Now, as I'm growing my little marketing company, I still remain the one who just wants to help. I'll help with all things marketing. Most I can do myself, other things I can't. But I can always tell the kind of advertising that can work or not work. Some of my clients just want someone they can trust to handle their marketing. They get bombarded by so many people trying to sell them some form of advertising, they're tired of it. They need me to help them navigate all of it, be an advisor, be their "front person" to deal with all of these people, create their ads, be a director of creative, make sure they're showing up towards the top of Google, find online leads, keep up with their Social Media, etc. I chose "9 Yards Marketing" as the name of my marketing company because of the "whole 9 yards" story. Here's a quick explanation of where the saying came from... The bullets for the machine guns used in American combat planes of World War 2 were in chains twenty-seven feet in length. And if a pilot was able to fire all his bullets off at one target, he was said to have given his adversary, 'the full nine yards'. When it comes to my experience and capabilities, I can give you the whole 9 yards. When it comes to service and dependability, I want to give you the whole 9 yards. Here are a few reasons you might need me:
If you find it hard to trust marketing and advertising sellers and companies because of how they treated you in the past... but you know you need to advertise to maintain or grow market share... let's sit down and discuss your situation. You and I could be a very nice fit. Thank you! Have a groovy day! Duane Christensen 9 Yards Marketing 605-940-7984 duane@9yards-marketing.com  Comments are closed.
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