NEW MARKETING
WHEN THE BOSS SAYS
“NO!” TO NEW MARKETING
BY: DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT
I FREQUENTLY get emails and social media inquiries from people who
tell me that they’ve learned the ideas in The New Rules of Marketing and
PR or one of my other books and are eager to implement the strategies
and tactics, but somebody higher up in the organization says “no”. People
ask: “What can I do to convince the bosses?”
Here are some of the things I suggest to people for how they can
handle the situation. Depending on your position in the company and who
the higher-ups are, one or several of these strategies might help you. answers “yes” to these questions so you can just say that you want your
company to be in front of people when they are doing their research.
MOST OF THE NEGATIVE REACTION COMES FROM FEAR OF
THE UNKNOWN
Your first challenge will be to explain to your colleagues how the way
that people buy has changed. People go to Google and ask friends on
social media. Everyone already knows that of course, but many people
are fearful that since they don’t understand the ideas of new marketing
themselves, that they will look silly when you ask them to implement. So
your task is to gently explain, recognize that the negativity is based on
fear, and gain permission. WHAT TO DO IF YOU STILL FACE PUSHBACK
I tell people that if there is continued strong resistance, you have a
few choices to make. It’s up to you how to proceed, but do so by making a
conscious choice among the following:
1. You can stick with the status quo, don’t make any changes, and
keep collecting your paycheck.
2. You can quietly create content and implement social media
without permission and ask forgiveness later. If you’re successful
you might become a superstar in the company.
3. You can be a disruptive agent of change by continuing to push
back. This could quite possibly result in you getting fired. Or
perhaps you will bring the company down a new path of success
and get promoted as a result.
4. You could find a new company to work for that supports modern
sales and marketing strategies. Or you could start your own
venture. Here in the U.S. it is a strong economy as I write this and
there are many opportunities to move on.
Realize you have a choice. It’s up to you.
POINT OUT THAT CONTENT CREATION
AND SOCIAL NETWORKING IS FREE
Sometimes people assume that new marketing is just another
form of advertising and will require a big budget. Explain that
content creation can be done in-house using available resources.
ASK HOW THE NAYSAYER MAKES PURCHASING DECISIONS
One approach is to ask the person who is reluctant how they made
their last few big purchases for personal or professional use. Did they
go to Google and research that new car or vacation or set of golf clubs
or their child’s choices of university to attend? Did they ask colleagues
via email or on LinkedIn before
buying that software service for
your company? Nearly everybody
David Meerman Scott
David is best known for The New Rules of Marketing & PR. When first published in 2007, New Rules opened people’s eyes
to the new realities of marketing and public relations on the Web and was six months on the BusinessWeek best seller list.
He has regularly updated the book and it is now in a sixth edition with over 375,000 copies sold in English and availabile in
29 languages from Albanian to Vietnamese. New Rules continues to be a top seller and is now a modern business classic.
His other international best sellers include Real-Time Marketing & PR and Marketing
Lessons from the Grateful Dead (written with HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan).
His latest book is The New Rules of Sales and Service: How to Use Agile Selling, Real-Time Customer Engagement,
Big Data, Content, and Storytelling to Grow Your Business now in a new revised paperback edition.
davidmeermanscott.com
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