Marketing for Rainmakers

To those of us in Boston, “benchmocking” is the proper pronunciation for “benchmarking.”  To those of us in the rainmaker-marketing business, benchmocking is a realization that good ideas rarely come from case studies, best-practice reports, customer surveys, and similar backward-looking analyses of what others are doing. Truly inspired entrepreneurial rainmakers use benchmarking to identify what not to do.

It is somewhat counterintuitive, but your customers and competitors are the least likely sources of breakthrough thinking. They are all stuck in their individual ruts of what they know, what they do, and what they believe is possible. Henry Ford said it best: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” He might also have added, “if I asked my competitors what they wanted, they would have said a better harness or more efficient axles and wheels.”

In a world where every mom-and-pop and Fortune 500 company espouses “putting the customer first,” it is anathema to suggest that today’s customers should not be the tail that wags the dog. Nonetheless, that is the case. The marketer’s focus should be on understanding the needs of tomorrow’s customers — and benchmarking what is being done today against the goal of meeting those future needs. Anything less constitutes a black mock against your business.

Rainmakers have several key traits:
• They’re focused but never obsessive
• They’re self-confident but never arrogant
• They’re driven to succeed but never cut corners
• They always look forward and — while learning from it — never fixate on the past

It’s an admirable combination of attributes that leads to success in business and in sports. Tom Brady, who has just led the Patriots to an unprecedented 18 consecutive wins, represents the quintessential character of the successful rainmaker. And it has nothing to do with his record-breaking stats, boyish charm, or supermodel-attracting looks. Rather it has everything to do with the way he comports himself.

Suspend your disbelief for a moment, and consider this scenario. Brady enters a huddle with a new team for the very first time. None of the other players know him or recognize him. How long do you think it would take before they would embrace him with total confidence? Probably before he took the first snap or threw his first pass. Brady’s character shines through, and people want to be on his team.

Rainmaking is all about relationships. Rainmakers make the people around them perform better and feel better about themselves. It’s a symbiotic relationship similar to love — we love those who make us feel good about ourselves.

Do people feel good when they’re in your presence? Do you lead with your inner character? Is your integrity unquestioned? Are you the Tom Brady of your organization?

Phil Fragasso — January 21, 2008

It would be hard to imagine a more indecipherable and pointless series of ads than Bank of America’s current IRA campaign. Wasting three full pages of newsprint in the major media, the ads ask the reader to choose the correct response to inane questions like “The A in IRA stand for…” The multiple-choice answers are equally stupefying: “(a) Account, (b) Antacid, or (c) Astrophysics.” The campaign is stodgy, humorless, and totally lacking in any attribute that would engage the audience. The sad thing is that some advertising genius got paid big bucks to create the campaign and the bank is spending even bigger bucks to blanket their non-message in tier-one publications.

A true rainmaking enterprise would know better. Marketing — whether it be advertising, public relations, websites, or literature — has to make a quantifiable difference. It must have a well-defined goal, enhance the brand, and engage people to want to learn more. Teaching customers that the “R” in IRA does not stand for “Ron from Accounting” distracts rather than attracts.

Rainmaking marketers view every dollar they spend as their own. They spend money to grow their business not to massage an inflated ego. And they never assume that an ad agency knows more about their business than they do. If the $5 million or so that BofA is spending on this campaign came out of a senior executive’s personal savings, the ads would never have run.

If you don’t think about the money you spend as your own money, then you don’t think of the company as your company, and you are not a rainmaker and never will be.

And regarding the IRA acronym in the BofA context, it stands for “Incredibly Ridiculous Advertising.

There is no force in marketing more powerful than a story. Stories involve and engage. They help clients and prospects visualize what you’re selling and the benefits they will receive. But just as Seinfeld introduced the concept of “good naked” and “bad naked,” stories can be overdone and diminished in power because they don’t know when to stop.

In “Marketing for Rainmakers” (Wiley, 2008), I discuss the different “fund-raising” approaches and results of two beggars. The first simply holds a sign that says, “I am blind.” The second, standing alongside the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., holds a sign that says, “It’s cherry blossom time and I am blind.” The story-line of the second beggar is substantially enhanced due to the specificity of time and place.

The factual underpinnings of a story greatly impact its effectiveness. You do, however, need to be careful. Facts can also overwhelm and make a compelling story lose its power. Let’s use another beggar as an example. During my commute from the suburbs into Boston, I frequently see beggars standing near busy traffic lights. When the light turns red, they walk between the cars holding a cardboard sign that details their plight. (Interestingly, all these people seem to have the exact same handwriting, which would lead the more jaded of us to think there might be a homeless franchise at work - but that’s a blog for another day.) There’s one particular man I frequently see begging for contributions on a ramp leading to Boston’s Southeast Expressway. He has a tattered old sign that reads as follows: “Widowed homeless vet, with AIDS, three kids, no insurance, and a sick mother.” To paraphrase Renée Zellweger’s classic quote from “Jerry Maguire,” he had me at “widowed homeless vet.” The AIDS reference can probably also stay because of the sheer horror of that disease; but beyond that it’s starts sounding like a caricature — the “Downer Debbie” of the homeless set.

Maybe it’s me, but if I think about these three beggars I see three distinct approaches to relationship-building. The first beggar is selling; the second is marketing; and the third is begging.

Rainmakers don’t sell and they don’t beg. They market.

Phil Fragasso — January 16, 2008

The Lake Wobegon Effect is at it again. This time folks are delightfully deluded about their ability to discern fine wine from the dregs of the barrel.

Seems that the geniuses at CalTech wanted to see if price affected people’s perception of different wines. A test group of 20 people sampled several wines while undergoing MRIs of their brain activity. They believed they were taste-testing five different Cabernets; in reality they were tasting only three different wines — with two of them being tested twice with different price tags.

To the surprise of no one outside of CalTech, the testers’ brains took greater pleasure in the supposedly higher priced wine. Kind of like how we take greater pleasure in a Jaguar or Range Rover that breaks down every other week than we do in driving a reliably dull Hyundai.

What’s most interesting about the CalTech study was that — when no price comparisons were provided — the cheapest wine (at a measly $5 a bottle) was rated the best tasting. Notwithstanding what that says about the testers’ taste buds, it clearly demonstrates what savvy marketers have long understood — people equate price with quality and value. And in the absence of a stated (or implied) quality, they’ll assign a value on their own.

That, of course, is what you never want to have happen. Because, as with the $5 wine, most people will gravitate towards the lowest common denominator. And once your product or service is perceived as a $5 dollar wine, you’ll have a hard time moving it out of the bargain bin.

The trick is to assign a value to your offerings — and make sure it is clear, relevant, and understood by clients and prospects. People don’t mind paying for quality - but sometimes they have to be reminded that that is exactly what they are doing.

Phil Fragasso — January 14, 2008