The bottom line is what it’s all about, isn’t it? That’s what the management cares about – probably because that is what the shareholders care about as well.
As a marketer, if you subscribe to this line of prejudiced thinking, then either you are working in a business with a poor unique selling proposition, operating in a highly competitive market. Or, the management commentary of your firm leaves something to be desired for (to put it delicately).
Leaving the legality of it aside, consider how a drug dealer operates. Using foot soldiers within a hub-and-spoke model, these drug dealers offer a product that exceeds its users’ expectations at an unbeatable price. It is precisely what their target audience wants, even if it means pouring a destructive substance into their own body.
Many solopreneurs use this model. These hustlers make a product (ebooks, films, podcasts, courses, comics, etc.), catering to their users’ exceptionally niche requirements. They supplement this product with colorful descriptions and get independent affiliates to sell their product in exchange for a cut. Only this time, it is legal, and the collaboration usually comes up with a net positive.
Marketers have no reason to subscribe to this frame of mind – only empathize with it. A marketer’s job is to dissect at the bottom of the iceberg – where the geomorphologic markers of glaciations tell the story of climate change.
Get it? The story of climate change! And why only marketers? Magicians, politicians, con artists drink the same kool-aid. The stories they tell seemingly hypnotize and convert ordinary people into eager believers and followers. But they cannot do it alone. Take any charismatic leader, magnetic speaker, or even a criminally successful con artist. They all need an accomplice – you!
So which one is it? Should a marketer believe in the gospel of revenue and the bottom line as the true redeemer and savior of marketing? Or is it some long haul pursuit of gathering followers and believers. The answer lies at the dead center of it all – preaching to the nearly converted people.
Convert people on the fringes, and don’t waste time on skeptics. It is easier to upsell at the cash register than to get people to enter the store. Have you ever seen a tempo traveler advertisement trying to convince you why you need to buy a tempo traveler?
Successful marketers empathize with their customers on such a deep level that their narrative blindsight’s the customer in believing the purchase was their own idea in the first place. Great marketers make their customers spend on pure emotion, but justify their purchase to others, with logic.
Authored by Shobhit Dixit, Author, Brand Consultant, Startup expert & Entrepreneur.
