The Technology of Advertising

Where are Tomorrow’s Customers?

It’s not unusual for a company manager to feel, “I’ve appointed a good rep in that territory…so why should I spend money on advertising too?”

But there’s really no good reason to feel that way. Most direct sales people and reps earn their living by servicing known prospects or projects that are noticeably “active”, not by missionary work. They’re like doctors who deal only with today’s visible symptoms, not with what might happen with other folks in town six months from now.

One of our account executives developed a new business program of advertising, direct mail and publicity that accounted for finding over 50 percent of all new customers for a manufacturer in Florida. How does he know? Because he evaluated all new customers and asked where they learned about the products. Their reps found 4 percent.

A similar study for a business service client shows his promotional programs linked to $11.5 million in proposals over the past three years.

None of this means that advertising is in any way a substitute for a sales force, or that the sales force is not doing its job. It does mean that if you expect a busy sales force to hunt for new business while servicing existing customers, you tend to end up with a customer base that barely changes year to year. And with new product launches that don’t.

We see first hand the power of business and industrial advertising to introduce a new product, expand into new markets, and deliver excellent new prospects to the sales force. Advertising is simply a method of doing those tasks, but it’s commonly misunderstood and, therefore, widely misused.