I heard an ad on the radio the other day from a fellow selling a real estate investment program. One of the things that really stood out was how he emphasized just before giving the 1-800 number to call, ”You can make big money in rental property, and you don’t have to be a handyman.” This is undoubtedly counter to the frequent “Yeah, but if you own rental property you have to get up and go fix the tenant’s toilet at 2 A.M.” or “You’ll go broke doing all the repairs that come with rental property” objections that accompany this type of investment.

Typically, the best time to address an issue, concern, or objection in the marketing or selling process is when it arises. However, if we know in advance that there is an ongoing concern, or that the customer’s perceptions of our brand are based on inaccurate information, and that a specific objection is likely, it’s not a bad idea to bring those to the forefront and address them before they are even raised. In come cases, this gets the objection out of the way so our relationship with the customer can begin.

In fact, sometimes handling a “negative” up front can be turned into a benefit! In the classic The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, the authors praised Avis Car Rental for their “We’re #2, So We Try Harder” campaign. After striving to be number one, they realized they weren’t going to get there, so they said, “You know what, forget about being number one in the market, let’s be number one with our customers. Let’s focus on what we can ultimately do value-wise for the customer, not on what we want to achieve.” The campaign immediately struck a chord and their sales increased. No, they never took the #1 spot away from Hertz, but they increased their profits incredibly. Listerine enjoyed similar success with its “The Taste You Hate Twice A Day” campaign which is also showcased in the book.

If you have a good rebuttal to a negative (objection), and we KNOW (because we did our RESEARCH) that it’s going to come up, don’t be shy about using it. Experiment with using it in your copy or presentation BEFORE the target audience raises the concern and see how that works. By getting your ”bad news” now, you may be surprised at how much sooner profits show up! 

Marketing Legend Theodore Levitt coined the often-used phrase, “Marketing Myopia,” as a way to describe how sometimes a short-sighted vision can short-change an organization. Most people may not be as familiar with the term, Marketing Myopia, as they are the well-used example of how the railroad industry defined themselves as being in the railroad industry instead of the transportation industry, and thus lost many passengers/customers to the emerging airline industry by overlooking how to incorporate new technology into their ultimate mission. 

The famous 101 Ranch suffered a similar fate. They once offered the most celebrated wild west show around. They attracted the biggest name talent of the day, and provided their audiences with a return on their entertainment dollar many times their investment. They had an amazing run, but failed to notice how a new entertainment delivery system, motion pictures, was using them as a proving ground from which to scout future talent for their movies. Just about as soon as a star demonstrated exceptional talent and crowd appeal, they’d wind up with a lucrative film contract and a train ticket to Hollywood.

World Wrestling Entertainment (the WWE), learned a similar lesson. After a few of its big stars like The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, left at the peak of their wrestling fame to go into the movie business, WWE President Vince McMahon (who deserves his own place in the marketing hall of fame) decided they would expand their reach. Instead of just being in the wrestling business, they are now in the talent business. When a wrestler comes on board with the WWE, they essentially become WWE property. The wrestler becomes talent owned by the WWE, who will basically be able to capitalize on them as an asset from that time on. If a star wants to go into the movies, fine. The talent brokerage division of the WWE will be happy to negotiate that relationship and serve as the agent for the star throughout his or her career. They even have their own production company in which to create the features in which to showcase their stars. Problem solved, profits realized.

Maximization should include not only all our delivery systems, but also in how we view what business we’re in. We need to always look for additional profit centers and how to best incorporate them in our business models. This may mean acquisition, or it may mean the formation of strategic alliances, but we have to make sure we heed the enduring words of Theodore Levitt and not get myopic in our marketing vision!

A question that keeps cropping up as we weather these challenging economic times is, “What should we do during the downturn?” If you find yourself with more time than business on your hands, that may actually be a blessing rather than a curse.

Time is the most precious resource all of us have either in our business or personal lives. We can always make more money, but we can’t make more time. Taking the slack time some of us are faced with currently to work on the business and its systems rather than just working in the business can be an investment of our time that will later pay huge dividends. Often, in the “good times,” we’re so busy taking care of customers, meeting deadlines, and juggling growth that we ultimately don’t operate at our most efficient levels. We are effective in terms of getting the job done, but not optimally efficient in how we manage our resources. A slower time gives us the opportunity to study our business intently, work to fix what needs to be fixed, and rally the entire team around developing strategies that can be implemented as soon as the market cooperates. Or better yet, figure out a way to get the market to meet us on our own terms as soon as possible. By working on the entire system, we can fine tune it so we maximize every resource and take full advantage of every opportunity.

Larry Bossidy, former CEO of Honeywell and a former GE executive all-star, was on CNBC earlier this week with an optimistic outlook for the end of the year. He noted several companies who were using these slower times to invest in R&D, in the improvement of overall operations, and in gearing up with new product offerings to be ready to hit the market when times are more favorable. Click here to see for yourself. His book, Execution, is worth a look, too.

Don’t get me wrong, I certainly prefer boom times to bust, but a slower time isn’t the end of the world, either, if we remember that our job as leaders is to maximize our resources in every economic climate. Let the other guys waste time fretting, we’ll get busy fixing!