Get Controversial Part 1

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Okay, this is a marketing concept I'm going to talk about. it also has a lot to do with positioning.  It starts with a story.  When I first was getting into marketing many years ago, one of the great marketing gurus is named Dan Kennedy - and I read everything I could get by Dan Kennedy.  But one of the things that Dan talked about that I never understood for quite a long time, was to get controversial, or be controversial. 

And I never understood that. I always thought it meant to be a jerk, and I didn't want to be a jerk, so I wasn't very controversial.  Over time I started to understand positioning a lot more and I began to understand what Dan meant when he said get controversial.

What he meant by controversial is the opposite of what we are all taught about marketing and positioning. We are all taught what my friend Dave Caplin calls the "Chameleon" approach to sales and marketing. In other words to "mirror and match" the prospects mannerisms and appear to be offering exactly what the prospect wants, exactly the way prospects want it.

Getting controversial means defining your service before you meet the prospects so as to polarize them as soon as possible into either a yes or no decision. 

Now that is a scary thought for us salespeople and here's why -- because we realize that no matter what position we take, it's going to turn off 80% of the world, and that's terrifying to folks.  I understand that, trust me.

Kennedy is talking about turning off the 80% of the folks or at least 50% of the folks that are least likely to do business with us so as to focus on the 20% who definitely will.  The 20% that are most likely to do business with you and most likely to be compatible with you, and who are exactly wired and geared for what you're offering, controversy frees you up to have those 20% be the ones that you're spending your time on.

Great in theory. But sounds dangerous in practice right? To make it work without crashing and burning in a dramatic fireball requires certain other elements to be in place too. I'll elaborate on my thoughts on that in the next post.

That's all for now.

Robert McBride
http://www.CommercialLeasingBasics.com