In order to sell what your company provides I don’t need to have done it before. In fact, I doubt I’d have needed to have heard of your business before… or your craft. Let me explain why.
A lesson in selling
I learned a valuable lesson 20 years ago. During the long summer months at university I worked in a sports shop. I was one of two sales assistants recruited during the summer. I loved my sports. The other sales recruit didn’t. In fact, he had no interest in sports. He knew how to sell.
Not because he’d had previous sales experience, but because he knew what people really wanted. When somebody came in to buy a new pair of running shoes he sold them the best. Why? Because he made that person believe that they needed the best. Not through the art of sales manipulation, but because he asked the right questions. He challenged their running ambitions. He left them with a point to prove. He made them feel like they deserved to buy the best shoe. He didn’t need to sell.
You looked at this guy and knew that he didn’t run. He just knew how to get people to believe in themselves and knew how to place the right product in their hands. For the good of the business, that product usually had the highest price tag attached.
He never sold the wrong product. Why? Because of his immense knowledge of the industry? His knowledge of pronating running styles, of gel in-soles? of product durability? No. Because of the vision he sold alongside the product. The story not yet told.
It was masterful.
Selling ice to an eskimo
Just like the salesman, the marketers job isn’t to understand the ins and outs of your business proposition. It’s to understand the ins and outs of the consumers desire. Technical knowledge is advantageous. It’s not essential. I won’t buy a product from you because you can read out, verbatim, the specifications or what your product does. I’ll buy from you because you’ll let me know how that product will make me feel owning it. You’ll get me, rather than get the product.
An eskimo won’t be sold a replacement block of ice unless you empathise with his family. It’s not the crack in the ice that needs to be fixed. You fix the gap that lets the freezing air blast through during the cold dark nights. You’re selling warmth, not ice.
The right experience
I’ve got a good record helping clients recruit the right marketing people. Not from reading CVs, but from researching experience. Pinpointing creativity. Where have they shown endeavour? Winning hearts. Selling shoes. Selling ice.
The same approach through the interview process. Don’t tell us how great our company is, or you are… give us examples of the way you’ve changed customer perception. Ideas for how you can bring that experience to our business. Whatever that industry may be.
Is industry experience really necessary?
Prior to writing this article I researched 20+ job specifications.
Marketing agencies requiring agency experience?
I’ve worked on both sides of the fence. Yes, client-side you work within a narrower field of product offering. Does that really imply you can’t work to deadlines, sell your services or pamper to the needs of the client? Don’t worry about agency or client-side experience. Worry if this person can sell to people. That’s what we do.
Paid search agencies requiring a degree in mathematics?
Wow, the art of selling has now been overtaken by the art of computation? Give me somebody with a fine-tuned skill of creating excellent ad copy over the ability to extrapolate data any day.
Travel companies requiring marketers where travel industry experience is essential?
Wouldn’t you prefer a marketer that has experience of travelling rather than somebody who knows the ins and outs of hotel rack rates?
So why do we demand experience from within our own industry?
I get that with experience comes a healthy contact base.
I get that it looks great to your industry peers when you recruit from a competitor.
I get that it’s an easy way to filter the volume of CVs that are about to pop into your inbox.
I once owned a guitar shop. My best salesman by far wasn’t blessed with finger dexterity. But, wow, did he know how to make somebody feel good when they picked up a guitar. He used to be our courier.
That’s what your next marketing employee needs to show you. Their CV doesn’t need to present a footprint of industry experience. Just let them show you they can walk in the shoes of your consumer.
Good sales people are good sales people. Good marketers are good marketers. Whatever industry they thrive within. Don’t close the door on good people.
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