The 80/20 Rule in 2012
You are about to hear and read a lot of predictions for 2012. Predictions about the future are entertaining, but seldom accurate.
I recall attending a cable convention in the late 1970s where it was ‘predicted’ that supermarkets would not exist past 1990. The keynote speaker suggested we would be shopping virtually on our TVs as robotic cameras scanned the grocery warehouse aisles and we clicked on desired items for home delivery.
I once archived a tape of a speech from ‘futurist’ Faith Popcorn (what a great promotional name!) only to check back on it ten years later and discover that less than 5% of her forecasts became reality.
I’d like to entertain you with my predictions for 2012. No rocket science here, as these wheels are already in motion so my ‘predictions’ are pretty safe;
1.) Everything will fragment. And I mean ‘everything’; from media to the number of business competitors in every field; from technologies to audiences; and from political parties to arts and entertainment. The subsequent difference between number one and number two in a cluttered more-competitive world will be insignificant. Having the best salespeople will trump any minor product differences.
2.) Mass audiences will be replaced by smaller tribes or gangs as marketers’ targets. The account executives who learn how to capture the highest per capita results from smaller audiences will be the winners.
3.) Big box stores, online shopping, mobile technology, social media and daily deal sites will put downward pressure on profit margins and subsequently reduce advertising’s share of marketing budgets.
4.) Faced with more choices and tighter budgets, consumers and business decision-makers will resist being ‘sold’ anything. Instead, they will seek tools, resources and salespeople who help them learn to buy more intelligently.
5.) Advertisers will gradually change their accountability frames-of-reference, as campaigns like the Pepsi Refresh social media effort create a lot of online ‘noise’ but fail to increase market share. Measuring hits, page views, likes, responses and click-throughs, will be replaced with targeting profitable sales increases.
6.) Some discounters will discount themselves into bankruptcy.
7.) The focus on CSR (corporate social responsibility) as a competitive tie-breaker will grow. Successful marketers will pay more than lip service to being socially responsible and will engage in measurably improving the environment, the economies, and the general health and welfare of the communities they serve.
8.) Cherishing values and experiences will become more prominent than cherishing ownership and consumption.
9.) The 80/20 rule will hit all salespeople. Eighty percent of salespeople will see their incomes stagnate or shrink or they will switch careers. All of the growth and lucrative incomes will go to the twenty percent who learn how to strategically target in the new world I’ve predicted.
10.) Radio and TV will be ‘old news’ and all of the ‘new’ media will continue to take the spot light at advertisers’ trade conferences, in their trade publications and in the business news they hear and read. Decision-makers overwhelmed by ever-increasing choices will favor account executives who can help them sort through the new media/traditional media mix.
11.) Media sales ‘relationships’ and ‘value added’ won’t win in a highly fragmented, competitive world cluttered with critical and bewildering choices. In 2012 and beyond, selling will be teaching. The wins will go to knowledgeable marketing and communications professionals who understand and can teach advertisers why their particular media deserve a strategic place in advertisers’ 2013 marketing plans. (Yes, I said ‘2013’…the horse is almost out of the barn for 2012.)
12.) Regardless what happens to the economy, the brightest and hardest- working among us will have our best year ever.
Are you committed to being in the top twenty percent to benefit from teaching your clients why your stations are a perfect strategic fit with their plans for 2012 and beyond?
Click here to arrange a free online demo of how our SoundADvice and Guided Discovery Selling can help your salespeople master the eight core elements of teaching as selling in 2012.