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Business Rule #45:
Beat the Clock
March 6, 2006
(PAGE 2 of 2)
Despite all that, it was most likely the issue of time management that determined the outcome of this task. The Gold Rush team was up and out the door by 6:30 AM. The Synergy team was still in bed, slumbering away, while Gold Rush was out soliciting people to send their text message. It was noon before Synergy finally started approaching people. They literally slept through their opportunity to win.
Gold Rush made a good choice. They focused on people waiting in line to buy theater tickets. They were a captive audience for Gold Rush’s pitch to text Gillette. “Hey, you’re not doing anything right now. Why not send a text message while you’re waiting?”
Over on the Synergy team, poor Stacy also had picked Time Square as their location. She looked for the spot where the most people would pass through in a day. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what most people did: pass through. Synergy had difficulty getting the public to stop long enough to hear their pitch.
Refining the target audience for the product or service you sell is a crucial ongoing part of marketing. The question is always, “Who else has a need for what we offer?” While consulting for a printing house with a pricy new digital printing press, I was continually looking for areas of business that might need what this new technology could offer. The digital press had the remarkable capability to customize each page individually in a run. Sounds great, but identifying clients who needed this feature wasn’t obvious at first. Then we found our first phone card company. After that, there were gym membership cards, and other businesses that require a unique number on each imprint in the run. Once you have a target, it’s just a matter of taking aim.
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Gold Rush got up and jumped on the task—and Synergy slept in, dillied and dallied, and got called into the boardroom. Brent’s odd behavior may have been disruptive in team meetings, but when Synergy needed to get people to stop long enough to hear their pitch, it was his nutty bathrobe dance that did the trick. Okay, it also inspired his teammates to take up the question of his mental health—but Brent’s sense of the theatrical was an asset when it came to capturing the attention of a busy public.
Stacy’s poor choice of the location was her downfall—and because he was at the helm of this wreck, much of the blame fell on Pepi. So guess what? Trump fired them both.
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Once you have a target, it’s just a matter of taking aim.
