Telemarketing is not dead.  I have proof. Well, I have proof people are still trying it at least.

Of course there are still common sense uses for telemarketing, but with the onset of digital messaging, I see its use and utility becoming a little like that of the FAX machine. I still have a FAX number on my business card, but really couldn’t pinpoint the last time it was used.

So, that brings me to today’s little post. While I was at lunch with some close friends, I saw a call come in on my cell phone that I didn’t recognize. Generally, and I’m sorry to those I’ve screened, I don’t answer calls from numbers I don’t readily identify as “friendly.” That may be due to the fact that I used to be the director of a loan collection telemarketing center, or it may simply be that I live in Iowa, where every 4-years-or-so, we become the political solicitation call capital of the world. In any case, if you’ve gone my to voice-mail once and left a “friendly” message, I can guarantee you probably won’t again (unless I’m too busy for real.)

So, I finished lunch and got back to the office to check my messages and I’m assaulted with the following:

Yeah, right?

So, let me smack this poor guy around a little…

1. The company (or guy) did a Google search for “Social Media” — maybe even as specific as “Social Media Marketing, Des Moines” and found my Website. BIG DEAL
2. He’s reading from a poorly written script. YAWN
3. His pitch was vague, broad and unappealing. CLICK
4. There was no tangible call-to-action. FAIL
5. There was no research or qualification to the call. DUH And
6. HE SURE AS HELL KNEW MY NAME IS ANDREW…  (he said it 9 times in less than 90 seconds! GOOD LORD! I’m vain, but that’s uncalled for!)

So, what are my takeaways from this little solicitation? Telemarketing can work if you approach it logically.

1. Don’t be a robot.  If I were to answer, I can only assume this guy would have, without taking a breath, given me the :90 seconds you just heard without engaging me for a second. If you’re going from a script, memorize it and interject sales points and benefits as the conversation progresses. Don’t read to me!
2. Be prepared. Sure a Google search and some skimming of a company website may give you the gist of who you’re calling, but with a little deeper dive (LinkedIn, Twitter search, etc.) he could have personalized some of the pitch to make me feel more comfortable that he was stalking me.
3. Don’t bury your lead. It took well over :50 seconds (of :90 total) for the “Hook” to be presented. If you want to get someone’s attention, you don’t have time for chit-chat, especially in this day of “Immediate Gratification.” I’ve seen his business model as a start-up happen in less time than it took him to tell me about it. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!
4. Finally, Leave ‘Em Hangin’… Don’t reveal the hook when leaving a voice-mail… Even when I was collecting student loans, I would leave messages that would make people think they should call back. Not by being deceptive or dishonest, but by feeding enough information to them that calling for the “punch line” seems logical.

Like I said, telemarketing can work, but it has to be used the right way.

Let me know your thoughts. Would YOU have taken this call? Would you have even listened to the enitre message before hitting DELETE?

Food for thought.

Keep Cooking,
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

“When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”

— Alexander Graham Bell

This is for those of you out there that dwell just a little too long on the word “No.” (And this includes yours truly) Yeah, it sucks, BAD, but after the initial sting of the response, there are two simple decisions you can make:

1) Stand there with your heart in your hand and stare longingly, wishing you could bury your head in a bucket of cement, OR

2) Brush the dirt from the poor scuffed up little blob and put it back from whence it came, vowing to learn from the experience.

I’m not the Motivational Marketing Tooth-fairy or some kind of Communications Cheerleader that’s here to give you a shot to the arm when you’re feeling down. On the contrary, I’ve been there more times than I can count. I’ve been slapped down my defeat. I’ve wallowed with the best of the “wallowers,” and I’ll tell you one thing…

IT’S VERY UNPRODUCTIVE.

While unproductive as “Feeling Defeated” is, it does more than just give you the blues. “Defeatism” is a psychological sand trap that not even Arnold Palmer has the right club to get out of. Swing as you may, without taking the experience objectively and learning from it, you’d simply dig and dig deeper into the hell that is the blues bogey monster.

Defeatism, depression, insecurity, fear… whatever you want to call it, it’s a powerful foe. You can’t fight it alone. You can’t focus on “it” solely. It’s the bully of the psychological playground and will kick your ass as soon as look at you.

I write this today, because I had someone say “no” to me – a proposal for work. I was pissed. I was despondent, but, instead of bowing my head and accepting defeat, I decided to fight back.  I asked the prospect this simple question:

“What was it that made your decision NOT to use our services?”

His answer?

“Well, while your proposal was very thorough and addressed our questions, we’ve just decided to go another direction.”

Loosely interpreted, “It’s not you, it’s me.” 

I was never going to win that fight, so I thanked him for his time, reminded him of the services we offer and graciously hung up the phone.

Was I still pissed? Yes, but I had another meeting to go to and didn’t have time to focus on the “no-ish” explanation.

I packed up my bag and went on to my meeting where I was GIVEN the entire marketing and communications strategy for 2012 (easily 3x the previous proposal) of a client that I didn’t expect to get more than some simple WordPress updates and FaceBook monitoring.

KER-SMACK…  Another door opened.

Had I been focused on the previous door, would I have seen the cues in the meeting that lead to this new business? Probably not. I would have been sullen and retracted my marketing and sales arms. But without hesitation, I noticed the opportunity and walked through the door, SLAMMING IT RIGHT IN THE FACE OF DEFEAT!

BOOO-YAH …  I JUST GAVE THE SMACK DOWN TO DEFEAT.

So, next time you get “No” for an answer, and we ALL will, take a step back, try to derive a lesson from it, and move on. If you have an opportunity to learn from your mistakes, then you can never consider them actual mistakes.

Rah-Rah-SIS-BOOM-BAH…  That’s as much cheer leading I do. I’d rather keep cooking… 

How do you handle rejection and the feelings that accompany it? Is there a process? Is there a plan to learn from it?  I’d LOVE to hear your stories about kicking “Defeat” in its ARSE!

Until next time…

Keep Cooking (positive mental momentum)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

I have to give it to the spammers out there. They are starting to get a little more clever.  I receive BUCKETS of spam every day. Everything from “Male Enhancement” solutions to “The BEST BUSINESS INVESTMENT SOLUTION IN THE WORLD.” sure…  don’t we all

Lately, though, I’ve been receiving an email from someone that has actually done a little homework. Or at least they “seem” to have done their homework…  Check out the email below:

Immediately, the subject line, “Are you a chef?” caught my eye. Thinking to myself, “Hey, I call myself ‘The Brand Chef,’ so maybe they have some relevance to me. Maybe I should read on.”

Then, I get into the body of the email and it says they may have “job leads for chefs.”  Of course, this is where I start thinking to myself, “But I don’t need a job as a chef; I want marketing communications leads.”

But wait…  They said “after checking out {my} website…” Well, that gives me hope that they truly know who I am and what I need… so I read on. Only to be disappointed.

Now, let’s see what they might have done wrong…

First off, they didn’t actually address it to me…  I would have accepted “Andrew, Mr. Clark, Chef Clark” or anything that might have signaled that they actually KNEW who they were talking to.  That information is easy to find, even for spam bots. OH, and let’s not forget the fact that I’M NOT AN ACTUAL CHEF! I only play one on the interwebs… 

So, Why Not Delete The SPAM And Go On With Life?

The real reason I write this is that YES, spammers are getting more sophisticated. Instead of blasting emails to anyone and everyone, they have research and demographic focus and they’re starting (scratching the surface) to use it quite well.

I post this because I actually had a client that received the SAME email (of course addressed to THEIR online brand), and they forwarded it on to me asking if they should respond because, “it sounds like a pretty legit offer…”

Sorry, client. By clicking through and even looking at their site, the spammers won. It may have been a very small victory, but they received a “click-through;” a measurable sign that what they are doing is working.

Sure there is the obvious spam that you just delete before finishing the subject line, but as I mentioned above, they’re getting pretty clever.

So, my warning to my client (and to all of you) : “Please read thoroughly, ALL emails that come across your monitor, phone, whatever, for signs that it’s spam BEFORE you click through to their site – or to some executable virus or worse…”

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef*

While I try not to mix business, personal life and my public persona with ANYTHING remotely political, I usually refrain from posting content such as this. But in this election season started by the Iowa Straw Polls this week and destined to continue on through the next 18 months and beyond, I had the urge to voice my perspective on our current economic state. Do I think this will “turn on the light or make the issues clearer to the candidates? No.

Maybe this will give some of my readers some perspective on how to address the trouble our economy is in.

Democrat? Republican? I don’t care. I think this issue is RELEVANT to us all.

The 12-Step Evolution of a Down Economy (Or… how to rape the economy and propagate slums in our suburbs):

Step1: Residents tire of rural congestion and discover beautiful, virgin territory

Step 2: Residents settle and develop land for suitable family living (“modernize”)
Step 3: Residents draw “new” residents on  shiny object & new opportunities
Step 4: “Community” develops retail and consumer tax base
Step 5: This entices residents into comfort and disillusionment with commercialism and retail tax abatements
Step 6:  Retail and consumer base offer incentives to “stay and grow” in the area with credit and superficial community amenities (that no one really uses)
Step 7:  Big Retail and Consumer tax base lulls residents into lethargic, numb zombie-like state of ignorance about economic cycles and surge growth detriments
Step 8: Zombies extend credit with little or NO reasonable cognitive control
Step 9: Retail and commercial base default on credit as corporate office search “New opportunities” in other beautiful, virgin territories.
Step 10:  Retail and commercial base close down / move away taking job and retail tax base with.
Step 11: Residents default on credit foreclose and lose job opportunities… look for the next shiny object.
Step 12: Original beautiful, virgin territory is left — unkempt, uncared for, unmarketable, uninhabitable and is sold or leased to those that will take ANYTHING to call their own, because that’s the American Dream

Are you living the “American Dream?”

Keep Cooking (TRUE Community – not the one we’re being SOLD)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

I have to give it up to those that have jumped into the Google + social media platform with such gusto. People I admire GREATLY like Robert Scoble, Steve Woodruff and Chris Brogan were some of the first people I added to circles and I see them streaming their content religiously through G+. I’ve seen some local adaptation for Google +, but a much more limited display. Why?

I wonder if missing my friends’ posts and content is just because of the volume of content that is generated by those like Scoble and Brogan or if there has been some kind of fissure in the connection between Google+ and the platforms my “Local Circles” produce content on. I have been dedicated to platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for a number of years now, simply because I started and built those networks up from my own social media infancy to a rewarding presence over the past 5 years. But like many I have talked to, I find that Google + is just more noise in the landscape that we’re all trying to understand.

A good local social media friend of mine, Laura Gaulke (@allauremkt on Twitter), posted on the Des Moines Business Mixer, a super aricle link from Mari Smith. Where even Mari questions the validity and application of another social media platform to compete with the likes of Facebook and Twitter. It’s evident, that like many of us, Mari is still waiting for the BIG TA-DA moment from G+ to make the complete switch over:

For now, I highly doubt we’re going to see any kind of mass exodus of Facebook users to Google+. For many people, it can feel like a foreign land and foreign language to have to learn a whole new social network. Many users on Facebook are still getting to grips with the (constantly changing) features on the platform. Besides, if the average user on Facebook uses the site to connect with family around the world and to play games, they will stay there so long as they can still reach their loved ones and play their games.

Google certainly has the power to create a behemoth of a social media network, but my questions is, “Should they?”

I’ve simply resisted adaptation for G+ to my social media strategy for a couple of reasons.

1. I just don’t have the time to manage another outpost for myself or my clients, and
2. I’m not seeing G+ as friendly when it comes to integrating my other social media tools

Until I can alleviate that pain, the utility and convenience of Google + remains a distant tangible. I will stay tuned, stay connected, monitor growth and play on the beachfront; but I probably won’t be diving in the deep end until I know HOW DEEP IT ACTUALLY IS.

So what do YOU think? Has Google+ added to your social media strategy or is it just more noise in the mix. I want to get this discussion started. Post below and share with your circles …(ha ha)…

KEEP COOKING!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Image Credit: http://popherald.com/google-plus-invite-open-again/7944