I don’t need my cup of extra-strong coffee to get going this morning. If you’re in sales, you won’t either.
Just read about this Ogilvy & Mather-led contest that insults the intelligence of sales professionals, managers and executives everywhere. Selling a red brick to a panel of “executives” from Ogilvy & Mather, OgilvyOne, IBM and Salesforce.com is proof of sales skills??? I think not.
For the contestants, it’s a demonstration of cutesy manipulative skills. For the panel, it’s a public declaration of being clueless about how to succeed in sales.
The fundamental goal of sales is to help a customer make and/or save money. The process begins with identifying & clearly defining a customer problem and/or objective, and ends with the successful, ROI-producing implementation of a new customer process. It does not start with the product. Hello!!! Is this news? Could you possibly caricature a noble profession in a more demeaning fashion?
Why yes you can. And you did! You tell me your goal is “recreating the noble art of ka-ching.” I’m not kidding. That’s a quote from the vice chairman for the British operations of Ogilvy & Mather. It’s all about me, me, me? As long as I get my commission check, all’s right with the world? Delivering value to the customer has no place in your dopey contest?
Shame on you, Ogilvy & Mather, IBM and Salesforce.com!
I for one intend to contact all three firms to complain about being publicly insulted. I think you should click on the links above and do the same.
Todd,
Maybe there is a correlation between the brick and the panel’s intelligence?
Rick – Did you just insult the brick?