What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack

Author:Mark McCormack
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Profile Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

9

Stratagems

Placing

People often underestimate the importance of a conducive sales atmosphere. Just as there is a right time to make a sale there is usually a right place for it as well. The worst place may be the buyer’s office. It can’t compare to over lunch, after a tennis game, on a golf course, or anywhere where his receptivity is likely to be up and his guard is likely to be down.

I know of a producer who received a commitment for sixty-five hours of family television programming on the basis of a half-hour pilot. He screened the pilot on a Saturday at the television executive’s home, in his den, on his giant TV screen, with the executive’s wife and two kids, while they all ate popcorn. What could the executive say: ‘I don’t like it. Give me back my popcorn and get out of my house’?

One of our most effective services is directed towards helping our corporate clients ‘place’ their sales effort. We arrange, for instance, annual ski outings for Time magazine and annual golf outings for Newsweek for the purpose of entertaining the CEOs of their key advertisers. The settings are invariably spectacular, and if you are a skier or golfer where would you rather talk business – in your office, or at a ski lodge in Sun Valley or at the clubhouse at St Andrews? (It also gives these magazines a direct link to the top if anything goes wrong at the ad level.)

A chance encounter at a non-business location can also present an opportunity. Have you ever unexpectedly run into a strictly business associate at a beach or tennis club? Some awkwardness usually accompanies the experience because both parties want to avoid ‘talking business’ like the plague. Bring it up anyway. Not only will it diffuse the awkwardness, it can set certain wheels in motion that can be followed up back at the office.

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