Light Bulbs or Accounts Receivable
The prevalence of promotion and the absence of attraction in modern marketing of financial services, and how to spot the difference
I have a few questions for you. In each, pretend that you are the one doing the buying.
- Suppose you’re out of touch for a long weekend vacation with the family. How intensely do you look forward to sifting through the spammy sales emails in your inbox upon your return?
- It’s the middle of the week. Monday was hell and your boss has been on your case ever since. You’ve managed to get out of the office on time for once. Your phone rings. It’s a “warm call” from a college friend you lost touch with not long after graduation. He’s got access to a new mutual fund and wants you to buy into it. How excited are you to hear his pitch?
- Congratulations! You’re getting married! You and your spouse decide its time to implement a financial plan for you and your future little ones. You made the mistake of verbalizing these ideas so now Facebook and Google inundate you with auto-started video ads pushing a “free” e-book that explains how so-and-so will solve your problem. How many of these “lead magnets” will you download and study (not read — study)?
My business partner and mentor James Neathery taught me a distinction that I will never forget. There are essentially two methodologies of marketing: promotion and attraction.
The salesmen in the scenarios above practice the former. We’ll call them the promoters (this is not to be confused with Ludwig von Mises’ idea of the promoter, if you’re aware of that. If not, don’t worry about it.). If you know what to look for, you can spot the promotion methodology fairly quickly.
A promoter is actively engaged in positioning him or herself within your field of awareness in order to convince you purchase from him. I once heard internet-marketing promoter par excellence Grant Cardone tell Jordan “the Wolf of Wall Street” Belfort that even “no interest” constitutes a level of interest. That is, if Cardone offers a product to Bob Smith and Bob tells Cardone, “look I’m not interested,” Cardone thinks, “not so fast.”
At least Bob knows about Cardone. For the promoter, any level of consumer awareness — be it good, bad, or indifferent — is a step in the right direction, a step toward an eventual sale.
Trump is another example. He may have been trashed by the media in the 2016 election, but he was still the subject of conversation — the centerpiece of the narrative, however ugly it may have been. For the promoter, it’s better to be seen and hated than ignored and loved. As Roger Stone reminds us, “no publicity is bad publicity.”
Once the promoter has established some level of recognition in the mind of his consumer, it’s time work the consumer into the “sales funnel.” A sales funnel — including it’s modern version, the “click funnel” — is a system of tiered purchase possibilities. The first level of a sales funnel usually consists of some sort of free product, nowadays called a “lead magnet.” It’s the entry-point of the sales funnel.
Everyone knows that when they sign up for (most) free books, reports, papers, newsletters, etc. that they’ll eventually hear a sales pitch. Accepting the offer to purchase shifts you one level further down the funnel. Disregarding the offer keeps you at the same position in the funnel. Unsubscribing from the “free” email chain, or otherwise backing out of the interaction with this particular businessperson constitutes removing yourself from the funnel.
For the promoter, marketing is a numbers game, hence the explosion of bubble-like interest in “big data.” The relatively microscopic cost to collect, store, and analyze consumer data in terms of both money and time is a boon to the promotional marketer. In terms of the sales funnel, the marginal cost of adding one new prospect — a potential consumer — is almost nothing. It’s never been easier and more affordable to “cast a wide net” while fishing for business.
Needless to say, this is the dominant method of marketing throughout the economy, and financial services is no exception.
I’ve been caught up in my feelings recently due to the pervasiveness of this marketing methodology within the Infinite Banking world, so I feel like sharing some of them. Promotional marketing appeals well to some consumers. I have never met them. But it must work, because so many practice it. Right?
I am not one of those consumers. I have unsubscribed from more sales-copy-disguised-as-”newsletters” than I can count. Nothing turns me off from a potential purchase more than the scent of a scripted sales pitch designed ahead of time to engineer a specific outcome.
That pitch can take many forms, too. Let’s make an important distinction. We’re talking here about marketing methodology — not method. A method is how you go about doing something. A methodology is the rationale for the method. It’s why you execute according to a given method. The method is seen. The methodology is unseen. For example, a marketing method may consist of a series of automated emails over a period of time, whereas the marketing methodology is, e.g., to convert 3% of readers into consumers of one or more of the products in the first paid tier of the sales funnel.
The methodology is the strategy. The method is the set of activities by which the salesperson implements the methodology.
Well, if it’s the method that we see, and not the methodology, how can we spot the promotional style? Is it like pornography? You can’t describe it, but you know it when you see it?
I don’t think so. I think we can detect methodology. In fact, I think we’re so good at detecting promotional sales methodology, that we don’t even know that we do it. It’s like potential prey’s response to a predator. If there’s a bear lurking around your camp site at night, you respond alright, but exactly how and why may be difficult to articulate.
The key method for detecting methodology (see what I did there…) is to focus your attention on the language in the given sales tool, be it an email, a flyer, a video, or a conversation. Remember, promotional marketing is a numbers game, so the promotional method is deployed in large quantities. Consequently, the language must be concise, precise, and memorable for efficient, effective use in the field. (I wonder if it’s a coincidence that the vocabulary of war so helpfully illustrates the promotional methodology…)
It might even be scripted.
Look, I have nothing against concise, precise language. This blog blunders around in the dark hoping to stumble upon exactly that. However, we’re not as concerned with the method (the specific words) as we are with the methodology (why those words are chosen).
Have you ever been talking to someone and you get the feeling, “man, his heart is just not in this”? It’s difficult to describe. It’s not so much the particular words (the building blocks of language) but the tone in which they’re verbalized (how those blocks are arranged). There’s a hollowness to it, or worse, an over-enthusiasm to compensate for the lack of spontaneous conviction. In other words, promotional marketing is performance. The actor might like the character he’s playing, or he might not. He is acting nonetheless.
Promotional marketing, or at least it’s less skillfully implemented forms (consider the ratio of bad actors to good in film), is why most people are skeptical of financial services agents. And why wouldn’t they be? A financial asset purchase decision could determine the outcome of an entire family’s financial future. What to buy and how to manage one’s finances is right up there with who to marry, where to live, and who to pray to.
I have a personal policy that says, “assume angelic intentions.” In other words, start from the position that the subject of the analysis has angel-like intentions for all involved. And in the financial world, it may not even be a heroic assumption! Many in the business are in the business to do good for others. They’re going about their business the way they were taught, and they (usually) genuinely believe in the validity of the proposed solutions.
Yet, well-intended as the promotional marketer is in his attempt to position himself prominently in the prospect’s field of view, it can still rub us the wrong way.
Why?
To answer that, we need to discuss the alternative sales methodology that James taught me (and which I instantly adopted): attraction.
In contrast to promotion, the attraction methodology does not prioritize positioning oneself with respect to the prospect. The goal is not to persuade anyone to do anything whatsoever. Since there is no pre-determined, preferred outcome, there is no sales funnel (sometimes called a “pipeline”). Since there’s no funnel or pipeline, there is no specific bundle of words (sometimes called an “elevator pitch” — a proposal you could give in the span of an elevator ride) designed to fill these contraptions.
One wonders if it occurs to the promoters of the promotion methodology that what goes in pipelines and funnels are commodities. In my experience, people don’t like being treated like inanimate objects — especially immediately prior to major life decisions.
Without an elevator pitch, there’s no need for a lead magnet by which a marketer would otherwise attempt to efficiently deliver it. Since there’s no lead magnet, there’s dramatically less need for “big data” to determine to whom and in what manner to present it. Without much use for big data, there’s dramatically less demand for the cottage industry of online marketing consultants, nor their breath-taking hourly billing rates.
You might be wondering, “well what’s left for the marketer to do?!”
Answer: very little. And that’s sort of the point.
I asked James once, “how do you approach marketing?” His answer: “I just tell people who I am and what I do.” He might have added: “…if they ask.”
The closest thing I can think of to the idea of the attraction methodology is education. And I don’t mean promotional marketing disguised as education. I mean the legitimate attempt to teach people something regardless of the outcome of the interaction.
It wasn’t until I thought further through this distinction that I finally felt like I understood Matthew 6:24:
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
This is the core of the methodological distinction between promotion and attraction. Either business is about making money, or its about service to a cause.
I know what the first objection will be: “well isn’t that convenient, Ryan. Sure sounds like you’re claiming the moral high ground while condemning the rest of us who are just trying to make a living.”
If only that were the case — life would be much simpler. No, in order to practice the attraction methodology, in order to sustain oneself in business doing so, I have learned that the marketer’s own attraction to the idea he teaches cannot be voluntary.
Let that sink in.
Carl Jung said (I’m paraphrasing) that people don’t have ideas. Ideas have people.
To successfully practice attraction-style marketing, the marketer can’t have the idea. The idea must have the marketer. Put differently, the marketer’s own attraction to the idea must be more of an obsession. No, not just an obsession.
An addiction.
The attraction-style marketer must derive joy from the very act of educating others specifically about the particular business subject. The reward he derives must be sufficiently intense so that the outcome of the given agent-prospect interaction is essentially beside the point. If the interaction results in business (and therefore income), great. If not, also great. If this is not the case — if the psychic reward from higher income is worth more to the businessman than that of engaging in the educational enterprise per se — then the businessman will not be in business for long.
Why would that be the case? Because laboring away under the pursuit of those elusive “light-bulb moments” when a student’s eyes widen, and his head tilts back ever so slightly as though a weight formerly crushing his spine has just been lifted, can be a slog. And by the way, flipping the proverbial switch and seeing “the light turn on” doesn’t pay. The attraction-style businessman/educator has the opposite problem of the promoter. It isn’t “too few prospects in the pipeline,” it’s too many prospects with too many questions all of which the educator-marketer feels obligated to answer, whether the inquirers are likely future paying customers or not.
Before you get the idea that this is a pity plea, rest assured the attraction methodology offers its own unique set of benefits. Allegiance to a mission — to a cause — is a ridiculous source of motivation, confidence, and energy. Not only can the attraction methodology sustain the salesman, it can dramatically boost his sense of fulfillment and purpose. In economics, we say this sort of psychic reward is “non-exchangeable.” Since it can’t be traded (I can’t exchange five units of confidence for a tank of gas), it sits outside the realm of the market, and therefore, of prices. Put differently, you literally cannot put a price on the value of the benefits derived from practicing attraction-style marketing.
Let’s return to our question. Why are some put off by the promotion methodology?
Well, would you rather be a prospect, or a student? Would you rather do business with someone who wants to teach you something, or someone who wants to sell you something? Put yourself back in the scenarios presented at the beginning of this blog. Would you, in your capacity as consumer, rather be treated like a commodity in a pipeline, or the source of something literally priceless? Do you want to be the object of exchange — a means to the end of income generation — or the necessary ingredient to the generation of non-exchangeable meaning?
Hopefully you see my point.
I’ll state the otherwise implied disclaimer here, because I imagine this blog post could ruffle some feathers. I’m not saying that one particular methodology is superior to another. This is about what I prefer, and what my opinion of the state of contemporary marketing in financial services. Some will be drawn to the style of promotion and some to the style of attraction.
I just happen to fall in the latter.
