Just Salesmanship

The father of Scientific Advertising, Claude Hopkins, said…

“To properly understand advertising, or to learn even its rudiments one must start with the right conception.”

What he means is, you gotta think about it the right way. His very next comment was

John E. Kennedy, many years before our hero Hopkins, described advertising as “Salesmanship in Print.”

The most profound lesson I learned about writing the words that sell – was when I found out the only purpose of advertising is to make sales. Not for general effect or brand awareness. It’s not even to assist your sales team.

Treat it as a salesman, force it to justify itself.

You see, advertising is a multiplied sales force. It can do the work of thousands of salesman. And because an advertisement – in any form – is a salesman, it’s limited and freed by the same principles as any salesman.

I’m sure you’re keenly aware any attempt to sell creates corresponding resistance. Like when you get a representative from a telecommunications company who wants to sell you a new phone plan without even asking if you need one. You hate it. I hate it. I wish they’d all sod off.

A good sales man is your friend first. Interested in you winning at what is important to you. Written promotions are the same. Good advertising has the interests of the reader at heart. It gives important information to help the reader in their life.

How many times have you read a book or magazine article written by someone trying very hard to impress you with how many big words they know? And how much of that did you actually understand?

Plain speakers make great salesmen. Fancy speakers rarely do. Advertising needs to be easy to understand. Not dumbed down mind you. Treat your customers as intelligent people. Just speak plainly. Einstein was a master of expressing very complex ideas in very simple terms.

When you turn on the television today you’ll see so many ads created to please the creative department at the advertising agency. One particular phone company has been running ads with animals playing in a band (can you tell I’m a little shirty with phone companies). Oddly enough I have not left my current mobile network provider to join the zoo they run there.

To get a basic idea if your print or even video advertising is worth sending out, ask if you would do it in person. For example. Would you…

• rattle off slogans to a customer standing in front of you?
• Confine a salesman to a limited number of words?
• Shout?
• Wear flashy designer outfits?
• Send out a juggler and a trapeze act?

Who would buy from a salesman who dresses strangely… shouts a slogan… and pulls a rabbit out of his hat before producing the order form and winks as he says “Sign here”?

And yet its the kind of advertising we see everywhere.

The most successful sales men and women find people they know their product will benefit. Treat those people like an intelligent friend and give them information they need to make their lives better.

They treat different groups of people differently. They measure their results and test those results against different strategies. They listen to objections and treat those concerns with respect and care.

Your advertising is a salesman who can multiply himself one thousand fold. And more. Treat it as such. If you wouldn’t do it in person. Don’t do it in print.

Stay Awesome

Scott Junner
The Unlikely Ad Man