DISQUS

brem · 3 years ago

This is unrelated, but one thing I never understood is how some advertising companies hold on to their ads branding copyright laws when they are being copied and distributed. That's the basis for viral marketing. Why should they care that the most people see their ads? For free.

Grokodile · 3 years ago

While I see your point I do think it is difficult (read: costly) to have an individual conversation in advance with every potential customer.

All a company that is doing advertising cares is that they get a certain percentage of people by trying to talk to people that are in their market.

I'm very leery of the language of "getting it" since business realities are driven by profitability, or math. At some point things either work or they don't and getting it may not be part of the equation.

Aaron Brazell · 3 years ago

We'll agree to disagree. I know what you're saying about converting a percentage of pitches, but the reality is that this is not a one way dynamic. Advertisers need to provide us something effective that makes sense. Blanket pitching isn't really very effective.

brem · 3 years ago

Both type of salesmen are needed. You need to do blind advertising, and without knowing what a potential customer needs, suggesting can sometimes pop ideas in the customer's head. However, I believe, like Aaron says, that for more straightforward type of entrepreneurs, it's not the best approach.

Like in anything, one size certainly doesn't fits all.

Grokodile · 3 years ago

I can certainly agree that I don't like it if I get a sales pitch for something that I don't want. Perhaps my head is stuck in a point of view based on having a product in one hand and a telephone in the other hand?

Perhaps part of the problem arises due to forging a new path?

I mean, the issues faced by collaborative blog networks within a period of rapidly changing advertising models are probably still at the point of needing customized solutions.

Anyway, certainly not trying to be disagreeable, but maybe there simply is no market yet? Perhaps you could get in touch with product development, instead of sales, and twist their ears for a while.

Brad Shorr · 3 years ago

We used to call this one-way sales approach an "info-dump". In my experience, it was not effective at all in B2B. Only extremely analytical people reach a buying decision by poring over spreadsheets of comparative product features. The only exception I can think of is if you have a product feature so revolutionary, so captivating, and so broad in appeal that people will stand in line to hear you sing its praises.

Jeremy Wright · 3 years ago

This'd probably be better if there was a quick way to categorize companies, and then send them email based on what they're looking for.

I'll be honest, I'll listen to real partner opportunities and real income generating opportunities (where it doesn't take me 20 emailsto figure out how it works) all day long.

But I dont' really care about the latest web 2.0 startup's "industry redefining" product.