Tag: sales

  • We Need A Villain

    We Need A Villain

    We need a villain.
    Finally, someone has said it.

    Not because we enjoy conflict, but because without contrast, meaning dissolves. We don’t decide who we are in isolation. We decide by drawing a line and saying, “We are this, not that.” When a brand names a clear enemy, ambiguity disappears. Choice becomes simpler. Meaning sharpens. Belonging becomes possible.

    At its best, the enemy is not a person. It’s a problem people are already tired of carrying. Complexity. Noise. Waste. Empty promises. Stand against something specific and you sound like you know what you’re doing. The right people feel relief. “Finally,” they think. “Someone gets it.”

    But this mechanism has a dark edge.

    History shows us what happens when the enemy becomes human. In Rwanda, extremist propaganda framed Hutu as rightful insiders and Tutsi as dangerous outsiders (cockroahes). Complexity collapsed into a moral binary. Fear hardened into identity. Violence was reframed as self-defence.

    Donald Trump’s immigration rhetoric uses a structurally similar mechanism. Citizens are positioned as legitimate insiders, undocumented migrants as threatening outsiders. Complexity is reduced. Boundaries are moralised. Enforcement is framed as protection rather than policy. The mechanism is the same. The consequences are not.

    This is why enemy-based positioning matters for marketing and salesmanship.

    These psychological levers are powerful:

    • Us versus them framing

    • Fear as motivation

    • Identity over evidence

    • Repetition over truth

    In business, these levers can create loyalty.
    In politics, they can consolidate power.
    Unchecked, they can create catastrophe (genocide).

    So there has to be a rule.

    Make the enemy an idea, not a person.

    Brand-safe contrast targets behaviours, beliefs, systems, and ways of working. Never people.

    Unsafe: “We’re better than traditional agencies.”
    Safe: “We don’t believe in bloated retainers and endless decks.”

    The enemy is waste, not agencies.

    Done well, this kind of positioning doesn’t feel aggressive. It feels calm. Grounded. Almost generous. As Seth Godin would say:

    We’re for people who care about doing work that matters, not work that merely looks busy. People who value clarity over noise, progress over posturing, and trust over tactics. This isn’t for everyone. It’s for people like us.

    By the way, this is one of the ideas we’ll be pulling apart properly at my How To Persuade Anybody To Do Almost Anything in-person workshop on 18 February at The Tryst, Kramerville. Find out more.

  • The World Needs You

    The World Needs You

    There are two types of people that drive the world: ᴄʀᴇᴀᴛᴏʀꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ᴘʀᴏᴍᴏᴛᴇʀꜱ.

    These people are the star actors, and the rest are the supporting cast. All other roles are subordinate to them. They’re the trees that supply us with oxygen.

    There’s a pecking order between these two stars, however. There’s a notion that being a creator is sexy. Being a promoter, not so much.

    Creators are ‘artists’ that don’t want to sell out by resorting to marketing and sales.

    They’re kinda like Ray Kinsella in Field of Dreams: “Build it, and he will come.”

    For mere mortals like us, if we don’t embrace promotion, “He’s not coming.”

    If you’re a creator, and you actively market and sell, be proud because this is noble work.

    There are people that need what you have, but don’t know how to get it (you). Who are you to deny them that privilege?

    If you feel uncomfortable about promotion, consider this. There’s not one dominant religion, philosophy, product or service that hasn’t thrived because of marketing and sales.

    Imagine if Nikola Tesla had great promoters, we’d have more than a car, wouldn’t we? We’d have a dominant ecosystem that would have been good for us and the planet.

    Thomas Edison had better promotion and fewer scruples, and now we sit with that mess.

    If you work for a company, pop into your marketing and sales departments, and shake their hands. They feed you and me. After all, nothing happens without a sale.

    If you work for yourself and haven’t embraced marketing and sales, think again.

    You are valuable, and there are people that need what you are selling. Don’t deny them.

    The world needs you. Don’t deny it YOU.

  • Meet the mathematician that believes in randomness

    Meet the mathematician that believes in randomness

    I’ve been a fan of networking ever since I joined Business Network International some 15 years ago.

    I never really understood the power of networking until I read the statistical mathematician, Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book, Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder.

    He posed a question around why some entrepreneurs are successful and why others end up in the graveyard of failure.

    He mentioned those individuals who are considered “successful” in society … Gates, Branson et al. There are people that have had more opportunity, are better qualified, are smarter and started with more money than those that we view as the epitome of business success. Yet they never reached the heights of these titans.

    He distilled the difference between success and failure in business (and, perhaps, in life) into one word.

    Randomness.

    For someone like me who used to believe that effort = reward, that was a hard pill to swallow. Seriously, our success hinges on a bit of luck?

    The irony is not lost on me that a mathematician believes in a bit of luck ;-).

    According to Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers: The Story of Success, luck happens when knowledge (specifically, 10,000 hours of it) and opportunity dissect.

    I like that definition of luck. There’s a distinct Fortuna Eruditis Favet vibe to it. Fortune (and randomness) favours the prepared.

    So, if you buy Taleb and Gladwell’s construct (and I do), then you have to see the value of networking.

    It stands to reason that the more people and experiences we expose ourselves to, the more chance we have of getting lucky.

    I’ll unpack the power of networking in a discourse called “Connect For Success” at the Eagle Canyon Golf Estate Business Breakfast in Roodepoort on Wednesday, September 13.

    Come network with business owners and sales professionals just like you, and enjoy a bang-up breakfast. Who knows, this random event may just change the trajectory of your life.

    You can book your spot here.

    You’re the Job.

    Jacques

    PS. Since this is being held at a golf estate, I leave you with this quote which I think is appropriate to this endeavour: “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” Gary Player.

  • Why you really don’t need more customers

    Why you really don’t need more customers

    You really don’t need more customers, seriously. What you need are more clients.

    On the face of it, customer/consumer/client means the same, doesn’t it?

    But there’s a nuance, and that can make all the difference to how you attract the right business to you.

    Right off the bat, I hate the word consumer in anything. We’re fucking the planet up enough by consuming everything. Consumers remind me of locusts … and there’s nothing redeeming about locusts.

    Now that I’ve got that off my chest, let’s focus on the nuance between customers and clients.

    In my view, a customer is someone who buys a product or service from your company. A client is someone who is under your protection.

    When we see customers:

    • We have predatory attention. We’re hunting them.
    • We don’t look at them as human but as data on an Excel spreadsheet. How many units did we sell this month. How near are we to our targets.
    • Customers are a means to our end. Turnover. Profits. This is what we’re taught in business schools aren’t we … a business is there to make a profit for its owners and shareholders.These are the same business schools that teach us the employees are a resource to get a result. No wonder most employees are disengaged from the work they do. Seriously, how would you feel if someone called you a resource to get a result. A resource implies that it can be used up. How does it feel to be used up and discarded. I think it feels shit and I wouldn’t be keen to work for a company that uses me for its own ends. I want to feel that I’m important and a human being in the whole equation and that I’m cared for and safe.
    • When we look at customers, often we focus on doing things right, not on doing the right things.
    • When we have customers, it is about us and our needs, and not theirs.

    When we see clients:

    • We have receptive attention – we listen to what they need and figure out if we can really help them.
    • We do the right things all the time for the clients’ highest good (even if it means referring them to a competitor because that is in their best interest).
    • We don’t talk about reaching targets. We talk about reaching hearts. “How many clients can we reach today so that we can make their lives better?” I think that’s a more congruent and heart-centred way to deal with clients.
    • We’re heart-centred, kind, compassionate and caring
    • We protect our clients and give them a safe pair of hands to help them over the finish line.

    I think it is more helpful to use the word client than customer. Bring in a culture of heart-centredness. Give your client a safe pair of hands. If you do this, you’ll be able to build the hardest thing to get from any client: TRUST.

    I’m facilitating a workshop called The Courage To Be Visible which speaks to this article and a whole lot more. Check it out.