Page 38 - Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing - PDFDrive.com

Whether it is Phi Beta Kappa, Baker Scholars, or Marshall Scholarships, the
spoils go to the technically proficient: those who know their subject.

None of these institutions reward the human qualities that tests cannot
measure—and this is not to suggest they should. But college graduates learn
something: Knowing your stuff is what counts.

This lesson of college conflicts with the lesson we learned immediately
before it. Children and teenagers learn to value well-roundedness and traits that
are likable. A high school student in the 1960s and 1970s could learn that it was
an honor to “make” National Honor Society, but an even greater one to get into
Key Club, which stressed citizenship, integrity, and other issues of character.

College, then, seduces us with the notion that real life will be an oasis where
sheer talent is what counts. This misleading notion is what actress Meryl Streep
was reflecting on when a lucky interviewer got a moment with her.

“I really did think that life would be like college,” Streep told the interviewer,
“but it isn’t. Life is like high school.”

Life is like high school. Those things that made you popular start mattering
again. Hate it, fight it, march in the streets against it, but it is true. The
competent and likable solo consultant will attract far more business than the
brilliant but socially deficient expert.

In large part, service marketing is a popularity contest.

Voted Best Personality

Meryl Streep’s observation shows up again in another phenomenon in service
marketing: chemistry.

Time and again, we hear that Doe & Associates failed to get the account
because “the chemistry just wasn’t there.” And time and again, that explanation
is accurate.

But what is “chemistry”? And if the principle of business should be “Let the
best business win,” what does chemistry matter?

When many prospects choose a service firm, they are not buying the firm’s
credentials, reputation, or industry stature. Instead, like the high schoolers we
continue to be throughout our lives, these prospects buy the firm’s personality.

“I just liked them.”
“I had a good feel about them.”
“It just felt like a good fit.”
Notice carefully the prospect’s choice of verbs: “like,” “feel,” “felt.” The