Each new generation of human
beings seems to team up with each new generation of technology in mysterious
ways that change human behavior.
Take communication, for
example. From telegraph to telephone to television to telecommunications, we
have come to communicate faster and faster. Though some say that true
human-to-human contact has diminished in the process, it’s hard to argue that
our “faster” communication isn’t also “better,” especially from a business
point of view.
Take selling. The backwoods
peddler sold one on one to individual families carrying his goods on a horse.
The traveling “snake-oil” salesman went more efficiently from town to town,
huckstering groups from a ramshackle platform on the village square. Direct
mail and calling campaigns have sold all sorts of products and services to all
sorts of people at all sorts of hours. And, of course, we all know how
mass-marketing blitzes inspire millions of us to line up for “great deals” at 4
a.m. in the dark and, sometimes, stormy night.
Smart Business spoke to Philip S. Krone at Productive Strategies, Inc.
about micro-marketing and bringing the personalized element back into the sales
process.
Where are we today?
Today, in addition to other
approaches, we are communicating via ‘micro-marketing,’ or trying to. Considered
a new method by some marketers, micro-marketing essentially targets small
segments or even individuals with tailored products or services.
Social media have in fact
opened up a whole new channel for getting face to face with individual
prospects and customers without actually being face to face in the same office
or meeting room. But mom-and-pop businesses have long been micro-marketing to
prospects and customers in their immediate geographic areas.
While we find the new social
media channel valuable, we also find that a longstanding social,
micro-marketing medium still gives us solid results: the occasional letter
delivered in an envelope with a stamp or even just metered.
One of our largest and
longest running accounts came to us in exactly that way. A comment in the
newspaper (yes, newspaper, and it wasn’t all that long ago either) prompted me
to write a snail-mail letter to a high-level executive at a major utility
company. He responded with an invitation to talk, and we taught their
salespeople consultative selling for five years as a result.
