Page 136 - Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing - PDFDrive.com

Q FUICK IXES

Manage the Tiny Things

I recently interviewed three people to subcontract for a client’s project.
I already had decided that each person was skilled enough. That’s why I

called each one.
Choosing the best candidate was easy. I hired the person who wrote back

after the interviews first.
So often, and more often than we imagine, that is the difference in a sale. Not

superior knowledge. Not superior talent or years of experience. Just something
tiny. Like a short thoughtful letter.

Sweat the smallest stuff.

One Ring

Fallon McElligott sells very creative advertising. That means that it sells its
creative people. And creative people are difficult. Egos. They’ll be done
whenever. And so what if it costs lots of money?

That’s the stereotype, anyway.
Several summers ago, I decided that my three-on-three basketball team really
needed Jamie Barrett, a 6′ 5″ forward/copywriter at Fallon McElligott. So during
my recruiting campaign, and later during our season, I often called Jamie at
work.
I would reach Fallon’s receptionist in one ring, and Jamie one ring and a split
second later. It could be the world’s fastest phone system. The first three times I
tapped into it I wasn’t ready to talk. I didn’t expect Jamie to answer so suddenly.
Those calls left an amazing impression.
Those three seconds in three different phone calls convinced me that Fallon
really delivered service, that Fallon made you feel respected and wanted, which
is critical for a service. Those calls told me that Fallon wasn’t an undisciplined,
arrogant, screw-service-it’s-beneath-us bunch after all.