| Sandlot
Lessons and Sales Craig A. Steffen
Recently a friend, knowing I’m an avid baseball
fan, recommended that I rent the video The Sandlot.
It is a wonderful and entertaining film about friendship, growing up,
baseball and adventure. I loved it. But within this film was a very important business
lesson. Here’s how –
The
several pre-adolescent members of this rag-tag sandlot baseball team would often lose a
baseball into the back yard of a mysterious recluse. The back yard itself was home
to a slobbering behemoth canine the size of a horse. Legend had it that any kid
venturing into that yard would never return. Every kid was convinced that the dog
had already eaten several brave but unwise lads who had dared to enter the dreaded yard
littered with bones and scores of lost baseballs.
A good portion of the movie is
devoted to the team’s elaborate attempts to retrieve a baseball autographed by Babe
Ruth which had been put into play through ignorance and inadvertently knocked over the 10
foot high steel-paneled wall into the backyard patrolled by the demon dog. They
built contraption after contraption and used technique after technique but each failed
when lives were threatened and the dog toyed with their juvenile attempts to recover the
treasured autographed ball.
Finally, after an unlikely chase
scene, the ball is retrieved but the dog is injured in the process. Overcome by
compassion and responsibility, the boys rescue the dog, befriending the beast in the
process. They finally lead the dog to the front door of the mysterious recluse and
with great angst knock; not knowing what wrath they will encounter. The hulking gent
who answers the door turns out to be a gentle giant who is also a fan of the grand old
game of baseball. Crisis averted!
All throughout the movie these
kids use incredible means and wonderful creativity to try to accomplish their goal of
retrieving their prized ball. An amazing amount of energy is expended but without
the desired result. Sound familiar? Many of our businesses do the same.
We are very creative, we think outside-the-box, we are incredibly busy. Action is
the plan of the day. Yet we find that our goals are illusive.
In working with companies to help
them discover and become the kinds of businesses they really want to be, I often find that
they are taking the sandlot approach to getting new business – lots of activity and
creativity, very few results. Like the Sandlot boys, they focus on indirect
approaches to acquiring new customers and building their businesses. They create and
execute creative ad campaigns and produce beautiful literature. But what they do not
do is identify specific potential customers and directly ask them for their business.
If you cannot identify specific
potential customers by name, you’re taking an indirect approach to reaching your
goals. ALWAYS take the most direct approach to acquiring business first. Only
after exhausting direct approaches should you venture into the world of the indirect.
In simple terms, here’s the hierarchy of contact:
- A
personal visit
- A
personal phone call
- An
e-mail directly to the decision-maker
- A
direct mail piece addressed to the person you intend to reach
- A
mailer addressed only to the company you targeted
- Print
ads in targeted publications that you know your customers read
- General
print ads in non-targeted publications
- Mass
media ads
The rule of thumb is this;
do first things first. Don’t move to number 2 until you’ve exhausted your
opportunities with number one. Don’t move to 3, until you’ve done all you
can with 2 – and so on.
If you follow this strategy,
you’ll see better results faster for less money.
The key reason for the failure of
these Sandlot boys was that they ignored the most obvious and direct solution to the
problem. When they eventually told their story of woe to the mysterious recluse he
made this startling proclamation “why didn’t you just knock, I’d have
gotten your ball for you!”
D’oh!
Paraclete
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