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Broken Window Sales Theory
As I’ve caught up on my reading this summer, I become fascinated by the Broken Window theory of crime prevention. The theory starts from a premise that crime increases or decreases 
as a result of the perception of disorder. If a broken window is left unrepaired, then the people who see it will start to assume that no one cares and the sense of disorder spreads. This theory is supposed to explain the rise and fall of New York City crime in the 80’s and 90’s. When New York’s finest got around to cleaning up subway cars and cracking down on petty crime, then the viral spread of anarchy was halted and reversed.
Malcolm Gladwell credits the visibility of the authorities’ actions as a causal part of the tipping point towards law and order. Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner in their book, Freakonomics, think that the theory is overrated. They each have good arguments, and I am not wading into the middle of those giants. The Broken Window theory did get me thinking, though, about a similar theory for sales.
Start with the idea that every little detail matters. Every aspect of your sales efforts is a windowpane into your image.
- If your window is customer service, then prompt callbacks are important. Getting the order right is important. Sending somebody to a competitor to find a different product is important because you CARE.
- If your window is sealed with knowledge, then where are your energy leaks? Can your customers feel the wind and wonder about your veracity?
- Is your website an open window to see into your house? Is it inviting for everyone in your customer niche or just for the ones who take the trouble to look hard enough to find you?
The metaphor can be stretched too far, and my sincere hope is that it hasn’t reached that point. Pick your window of opportunity and give your customers and unblemished view of what you have to offer.
Start with the Customer
Direct sellers often have trouble finding unique and yet accurate ways to describe their products. Since I work across companies, I get to hear representatives from lots of companies describe their products and their opportunities. What lots of them don’t realize is that they sound just like their competitors.
If you don’t believe me, conduct a little experiment. Write down the words and phrases you use to describe your products. Now go to three competitors’ websites and check them out. Any bets as to how many of your “key” descriptors are being used by them? Let’s try a double or nothing bet. Write down the important things you have to say when trying to get someone to join you in your business. Yep, you will find them in use by others as well.
I once tried to have a discussion with a friend about this. Her unflappable answer was, “But I’m being honest. ________ is just trying to sell you something.” She couldn’t see that if I was to have the conversation with her competitor, the competitor would be telling me the same thing. Neither one of these people is lying, they have just been caught by a marketer’s folly. You want to find bigger, better, and universal superlatives that will make your product more appealing that somebody else’s. This is folly. There is always a better word. I think there is a way around this trap.
Start from a different place and you will end up at a different destination. Start with your potential customers, not your products. Your words, on your blog or website or marketing materials, are often the start of a virtual relationship. What are your customers looking to find? What are their problems? Their needs? What is the core of your expertise they need to believe? Start by building a relationship, and the rest will follow without all of the hyperbole.
PostSecret
Why have I never heard of PostSecret before? I saw a recent video in my nephew’s blog and then two days later it shows up as a top YouTube video. If you want to know more about it, the Wikipedia article tells nearly all. It doesn’t mention that PostSecret is the largest advertisement free blog on the web with over 92 million viewers. Don’t we all want to know secrets? Maybe it’s just a way of affirming that our secrets are okay.
Tagclouds
If you read blogs, you have encountered tagclouds. Tagclouds basically represent the categories of topics that you blog, and the size of the words in the tagcloud show the focus of your blog. I saw them as fluff. I couldn’t understand why they were important.
I was reading a friend’s blog this morning, and his insights on Tagclouds were a grab for a brass ring. I had an opportunity to work with Brett Duncan and I heartily recommend reading his blog for some key marketing insights. My bad. I never saw Tagclouds are a way of visually representing your focus. Anyone can glance at the tagcloud and see if you are talking on the topics you claim to cover. More importantly, it’s a great metaphor for your business. If you claim to be providing “customized comfort,” would your tagcloud show that as your focus? If you say that your main goal is to help people start their own successful home based business, would your tagcloud demonstrate that you are spending your time and words on doing just that?
I am definitely getting my own cloud.
A Real Connector
I think I encountered a real Connector this last week. A Connector with a capital “C” is a special kind of person described by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, The Tipping Point. A Connector is one of the few people who makes a difference in whether some change reaches the tipping point or not. For Gladwell, the paradigmatic Connector was Paul Revere. Revere is described as gregarious and intensely social, active, member of several select social clubs, a doer, and “blessed with an uncanny genius for being at the center of event.” These were not traits that Revere had to work to maintain, they are part of his core, his being, and he couldn’t be any other way.
As I mentioned in an earlier entry, Dana and I had a chance to meet with Nicki Keohohou in early August. Nicki is one of the co-founders of the Direct Selling Women’s Alliance (www.mydswa.org). Over the course of our two hour meeting, Nicki mentioned calls, emails, contacts, meetings, speaking engagements, training seminars, and friendships with everyone from movers and shakers to foot soldiers in the direct selling profession. A couple of days later, I had the opportunity to participate in a local DSWA Chapter meeting which Nicki led. As we went around and introduced ourselves, I marveled at her ability to mention something special about everyone in the room that usually included their first meeting and some personal information. If Nicki Keohohou isn’t a Connector, then I have missed the point of Gladwell’s book.
Virtual Communities
I came to one of those gob smacked insights this last weekend about virtual business when I started reflecting on my own situation.
- I live in the Dallas, Texas area.
- I am writing a book with Lyn Christian, who lives in Salt Lake City.
- Our publisher, Gilles Dana of Gildan Media, lives in New York (www.gildanmedia.com).
- Our editor, Diane Strack, lives in New York.
- Our copywriter, Julie Waldman of Text Dimensions (www.textdimensions.com) lives in
Israel.
These thoughts were just coming to fruition when Dana and I had the opportunity to spend some time with Nicki Keohohou this past week. Nicki is one of the co-founders of the Direct Selling Women’s Alliance (www.mydswa.org). The entire organization is virtual. There is no headquarters. They all work from home.
Come to think of it, direct sellers don’t work from a headquarters. They work from home and associate with a company and the people in it’s headquarters. That sound’s pretty virtual to me.
The point of all of this is that we don’t have to be face-to-face with people to develop a business relationship with them. We are certainly capable of developing the same type of relationship even when we don’t see them very often (perhaps never). A relationship is more of a state of mind that a physical presence. We may find it easier to operate in one particular setting over another, but the setting is not a necessary condition for the relationship.
Weekend Reading, August 24-26…
Great links I hit over the weekend:
Look Up During Your Sermons: Thanks to Brian for his take on this ProBlogger post. Excellent way of looking at the “stick-to-it-tive-ness” needed to blog successfully. A Change In Perspective: Believe…
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