6Feb/0729

So SalesGenie’s Super Bowl Commercial Missed The Boat…Or Did It?

The SalesGenie.com ad on the Super Bowl finished dead last in USA TODAY's Super Bowl Ad Meter. That’s no surprise. Most of the vast millions watching the Super Bowl had no interest, no need and no urgency to learn about getting more or better sales leads. The truth is most of them are interested in beer, beef, snack food or some consumer product.

So at first glance, it might appear that the ad was poorly placed – that it wasn’t shown in front of the right, targeted audience. Before drawing a conclusion, I would like to know how many leads converted to sales versus the huge price tag associated with advertising to such a large audience.

I have no idea of their conversion, but I’ll bet it could be profitable. Let’s just look at the numbers: With 86 million Super Bowl viewers, Sales Genie might hope to get just 1% of them to inquire about their offer of 100 free leads. Out of those 1% who inquire and try the service for free, let’s say just one tenth of them decide to purchase leads from Sales Genie.

With just one tenth of 1 percent of those leads converting to sales, Sales Genie wins big. They’d end up with 86,000 new subscribers.

And there’s already evidence that Sales Genie’s gamble paid off. USA Today reports that Sales Genie had generated more than 10,000 new customer subscriptions by late Monday.

If you’re in sales, you may have been offended by the ad. It’s was little insulting to all the successful salespeople who know that working hard AND smart is required to stay ahead of the competition. It could also be argued that it was far less offensive than many other Super Bowl ads due to the subtlety that only salespeople would understand. Even more importantly, I found it confusing at best. That’s not the point. Did it work?

According to CEO Vin Gupta, “Our ad wasn’t supposed to be funny or clever. It was supposed to bring in subscribers, and it’s been successful beyond our wildest dreams. We’re already working on next year’s ad.”

Here’s another interesting example, one of our clients, Volvo Trucks, defied convention when they decided to spend $2.7 million on a Super Bowl promotion for the 1998 Super Bowl. While the Super Bowl might not be an obvious target audience for the commercial trucking industry, Volvo had done their research.

According to Vice President of Marketing, Mike Delaney, "We were confident that our research would prove correct.”

Volvo learned that the Super Bowl was one television event that truck drivers just wouldn’t miss – even when they were out on the road. Not only was their target audience watching the Super Bowl; many of them were watching in truck stops where Volvo was ready to reinforce their message.

"Immediately following the commercial, truckers couldn't wait to climb inside the Volvo 770s we had at 40 truckstops," said Delaney. "When I saw a line of drivers waiting to see the trucks at 11:30 that night, I knew we'd nailed it."

Here’s the bottom line, if you’ve got a lot of money and some research behind you, you might be in a position to roll the dice. If that’s not the case, a tightly-targeted message might be the way to go. I guess what budget you have really defines how much of a risk you can take. In the case of Sales Genie and Volvo Trucks, a little bit of a lot is a whole lot better than nothing from a little bit.

But back to this Year’s Sales Genie commercial for a moment. This company sells data. They have a lot of data and according to their clients, it’s extremely accurate and it proves very useful for things like direct mail and cold calling. Data is ENORMOUSLY valuable in selling. But data is not necessarily the same as a strongly qualified lead.

A name is a name. A qualified lead is something very different. For example: Is there a need? A want? A sense of urgency? A level of authority and ability that enables that name to buy? A level of trust? A willingness to listen?

Check out Sales Techniques for more practical advice on finding, attracting and reaching qualified prospects. You’ll notice that close to half of the book is devoted to what salespeople need to do BEFORE they ever get in front of a prospect.

That’s because the number one reason that salespeople fail is a lack of qualified prospects. Getting your hands on names and addresses is only the first step in prospecting. That’s just gathering “suspects.” The second step requires careful research and diligent work.

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  2. Bob Schreiber
    February 6th, 2007 - 16:30

    As a salesperson, I was not offended that they were attempting to reach me as their target audience. What did bother me was how sales people were portrayed to the non-salesperson general public, or the 99% that we sell too.

    It showed a disproportionate number of salespeople not meeting their goals and not driving a nice car or being invited to the boss’s house for dinner or being deified by all of his peers.

    This commercial reinforced the negative feeling that most people have against salespeople. By that I mean that they are afraid that the sales goal is what’s important to the salesperson and not meeting the true need.

    I believe the message could have been delivered more effectively and made the necessary impression without alienating the 99%.

  3. Bill Gelderman
    February 6th, 2007 - 16:30

    Hi Bill,

    As I watched the Sales Genie ad on Sunday, my first thought was “I’ll bet this is a homerun”. Not because I thought they had a better mousetrap, or that the ad was particularly captivating.

    Unfortunately, my reaction was – I’ll bet a bunch a lazy, or rookie, salespeople sign right up looking for that easy way to the stairway to Sales-Heaven.

  4. Dan Seidman
    February 6th, 2007 - 16:42

    It was a below medicore quality commercial; no creativity in the message, no humor, nothing memorable. It was boring. In fact, this reflects the problem most salespeople have today – distinguishing themselves from all the other messages screaming for attention in the marketplace.

    Good for them if they got a return on their investment. Shame on them for missing the opportunity of a lifetime to create a spectacular, memorable moment in advertising. A unique, special 30 second spot would have had more than just sales authority Bill Brooks talking about it.

  5. Hugo Chavez-Rey
    February 6th, 2007 - 16:59

    I agree that the ad could have shown a more positive side of sales professionals. Not every sales person is of the “used car variety”; and I’m speaking of the vulture types not the ones who truly do a good job for the customer.

    Overall I would give the ad a C- grade because of the negative connotations towards sales professionals.

  6. Kay Fletcher
    February 6th, 2007 - 17:09

    It may be an oversimplification, but my impression was–sales people simply need to get 100 leads from Sales Genie and become a success. IMPACT selling tells me that it isn’t the volume of leads, it is quality vs. quantity. On the other hand, for Sales Genie, it’s all about the quantity.

    As for the ad itself, I felt it was an unflattering portrayal of sales professionals. They certainly didn’t sell me. I’ll stick with the Brooks Group for advice.

  7. Hope Allen
    February 6th, 2007 - 17:19

    Disappointing! Is that why we are all in Sales? To drive hot red cars? Have Dinner at the bosses house and to have other peers look at us as if all we had to do was to havce worked 100leads that we too could have that type of style? Sales people always get the short end of the “reputation stick”!

    Sales is not about all the TOYS one can have but it is to be a problem solver – provide solutions and to be looked upon as a “True Go To Person/Company” when a product, process or a need is needed to be filled based off of how we service and sell to our customer base.

    Wasn’t offended but disappointed!

  8. Chris
    February 6th, 2007 - 17:22

    I wasn’t insulted to be honest. I found it humorous, in that
    infomercial ‘Who would FALL for that?!?!’ kind of way. But, I also
    don’t feel it was not targeted at Salespeople.

    I think it was targeted at ‘Order Takers’.

    Real salespeople know how to prospect, generate revenue, and sell their product to core clientèle by focusing on the features that benefit them the most. They don’t need a prospect generator – Order Takers do. They are force fed information about a product, given a phone book and cold call random people with the hope of selling their merchandise to a few people in the process. SalesGenie seems great for Order Takers because it looks like it pairs down the phonebook for them (so to speak).

    Now, couple this with the fact that Order Takers are typically
    stereotyped as in at 9am, out at 5pm, Monday-Friday, “Don’t ask me to
    work on a weekend” type of people, having the ad during the Super Bowl probably hit quite a few prospects in the demographic they were
    targeting.

    Of course – none of this even takes into account how many beers said
    Order Taker might have already consumed when they saw that ‘GREAT
    commercial with such an amazing opportunity’
    :-)

    Sincerely,
    Chris

  9. Paul Bilodeau
    February 6th, 2007 - 17:30

    It’s about the results folks. It was not the most creative…who cares. It was not that compelling…who cares. It may have painted salespeople with yet another negative brush…who cares. If the ad generated enough leads which converted to enough margin (considering the lifetime value of their clients)to more than cover the cost of the ad, it was definitely a wise investment.

    I’m sure they tightened up the production costs of the ad to ensure they could afford the spot. The best thing for them would be to gain greater exposure by being the ‘Worst Superbowl Commercial’. They did the research, calculated the ROI and actually took action…sounds pretty smart to me.

  10. Curt Tueffert
    February 6th, 2007 - 17:31

    It was a gamble that paid off. Do the math… 10,000 new subscribers…. if they really know how to manage emails and members, and underpromise and over deliver, they will be a huge success.

  11. Dan Evans
    February 6th, 2007 - 17:40

    Good add, I “hate” Budwiser so their adds were wasted on me. I use to “love” Snickers, but I don’t know if I will be able to eat another one. The Coke adds were also good.

    Concerning Sales Genie, my thought was, “I wonder if they have the type of leads for my specific business?” I was not offended because I see salespeople everyday who are succesful that do not appear to be working as hard as those around them. I would take one “smart worker” as opposed to 4 “hard workers”.

    I have not contacted them yet as I have just sold my company and I am in between “careers” but once I know what I will be selling, I will check them out.

  12. Alan Leming
    February 6th, 2007 - 17:47

    Chris hit the nail on the the head! That ad was directed towards order takers which I can find at the local Mc Donalds for a lot less money. But it is true that a real sales professional will leave leave not only there co-workers in awe, but also their competition.
    Keep up the good work Brooks!
    Determine, determine detrmine…

    Alan

  13. Bill Wayland
    February 6th, 2007 - 17:49

    I’d forgotten it till i watched again. My reaction was based on previous experience with outfits like this, maybe good for somebody’s business but not my business, never. And I had the impression it was either written and produced by someone who never was in sales, or it was aimed at someone who had never been in sales, poor sucker.
    I got up and fetched a “Bud Light”.

  14. James Gingerich
    February 6th, 2007 - 17:54

    I found the commercial itself to be entertaining. Don’t you feel kind of flattered that the sales profession is finally deemed worthy enough to be vertically targeted with a Super Bowl ad? Does this mean we’ve now arrived?

    The real value or learning from this commercial wasn’t realized until I read the analysis from Bill Brooks. Knowing about Bill’s football background I can only imagine how much more insight could have been gained from the not just the game itself but sales in general had I only had the opportunity of watching the whole Super Bowl with him!

    Keep up the great work Bill!

    James Gingerich

  15. Rickie Bradshaw
    February 6th, 2007 - 17:59

    I felt sleazy after the commercial. I keep fighting against that kind of impression some in our profession give to the public. I immediately questioned the quality of their leads by the poor quality of their commercial. I was surprised to see an ad from our profession during the Super Bowl. I think Mr. Brooks could run an ad next year and blow them all out of the water.

  16. Michael
    February 6th, 2007 - 18:06

    showed the stereotypical view of the sales profession. It cemented the stereotypes that exist – sales is easy money…

  17. Cindy Jennings
    February 6th, 2007 - 18:56

    I thought it was a cartoonish portrayal of salespeople. That being said, the purpose of the ad was to drive up subscriptions and it worked! While people may not like it, it ended up accomplishing the goal. Think back about the fun little commercial about the “nose mitten”. Everyone loved it, but no one seems to remember what product it was promoting. Popular but with no results.

  18. Daniel R. Sweet
    February 6th, 2007 - 18:57

    First of all, I think the ad hit its target – underperforming salespeople who believe that they have the hustle it takes, but just need the number of someone ready to buy.

    In other words, most salespeople.

    As a salesperson, the thing I was most offended by was that they would call what is in all actuality a list (and not a particularly good one) a “lead”.

    And, having used InfoUSA’s information in the past for a mailing, I also know that 25% of the data is going to be incorrect. Which isn’t bad for free, but ain’t so hot once you’re paying for the lists.

    Dan

  19. Wayne
    February 6th, 2007 - 20:21

    Looks like any other ad for diet pills. I am somewhat familiar with InfoUSA they are way overstating the value or their leads. Most of which can be found in the yellow pages. Plus the lead is just one part of a sale as we all know.

  20. John Kuzmier
    February 6th, 2007 - 20:42

    What a great hook! A great looking car, good looking woman and successful, well dressed people making a lot of money without having to work hard. Sales Genie will sell a lot of subscriptions.

    As for the success of the salespeople who buy it…who knows?

  21. Peter C
    February 6th, 2007 - 20:51

    If you need leads its a good start then see what it brings and work it for all it’s worth. Not my style I only sell when there is a need
    Peter

  22. Ron McFarland
    February 7th, 2007 - 09:42

    Sales leads are just one exercising in the selling process as you know. If it can be streamlines, great, but to be successful, all sales people must work hard both physically and mentally.

    The selling process is a series of skills that continually have to be used. When used, the skills get better. When not used, the skills get worse. The fools are the ones that don’t work hard.

    Most people judge success as having achieved something. If a machine achieves it, how successful can you feel?

    That is my feelings.

  23. Jack
    February 7th, 2007 - 09:51

    Actually when I saw the ad I was surprised, mostly due to the cost of a Super Bowl ad. However when you look at it it makes sense. A few years ago I was the Marketing Mgr. for a large Canadian Co. in the
    home renovation business. I regularly sent out sent out several million direct mail advertising pieces nationally. Even though the response rate was very small this was our biggest and least expensive source of leads.

    It does work.

  24. Tom Lloyd
    February 7th, 2007 - 11:50

    For financial professionals who are seeking referrals for new clients, nothing is better than a potential client asking for a phone call. Our community service organization has millions of referrals for financial professionals who will commit to make the calls.

    Cost, FREE for those who work them.

  25. Devendra
    February 7th, 2007 - 14:16

    Dear sir,

    It is very good. i am great admirer of Mr. Brooks.

  26. Lee Wroten
    February 9th, 2007 - 14:14

    If they generated 10,000 new subscribers, with a 12 month subscription at the “promo” rate, salesgenie generated a $21,600,000.00 sale to be realized over the next 12 months. People have to realize everything is made to sell. The seller has to create a desire and convince the purchaser that they need it. On that front the ad campaign was a success.

  27. Todd
    February 9th, 2007 - 21:09

    Maybe the audience they were targeting liked it – and that is all that matters, right?

  28. Adam UK
    February 11th, 2007 - 06:58

    The ad got results. There’s no denying that. However, is 86,000 sales monkeys looking for a quick buck really better than,say, 8,600 sales “professionals” willing to put in the hours of working and training to really get to the top? I cringed when I saw the ad. How stereotypical can you get? The “red ferrari” the “hot blonde” the “invitation to dinner by the boss” the “dude,how do you do it?”. Brooks had a chance to portray the “sales professional” as someone worthy of respect. Instead we saw the image everyone has of salesmen, a t***er. Well done Mr Brooks, the perfect opportunity to seriously improve the image of the sales professional and you wasted it. The whole ad was living in the 80′s and that’s exactly were it should be. Mr Brooks sales advice is always bang on the money but this was so cheesey you could make a fondue for the 86,000 new subscribers.

  29. Bill Ryan
    February 11th, 2007 - 14:37

    Hey, Guys and & Gals – especially those of you who were offended – I understand, but the ad – well, it worked! And isn’t this a sign for our times? There is a new generation of sales people and buyers out there – generations Y or Z or whatever label the sociology majors have concocted for them … these are people born into a somewhat less-personal shorter attention span required world. Its a “give it to me NOW” mind set which seems to prevade the market. New attitudes – and if they are to be approached and engaged successfully – they may require some new approaches.
    Such are my thoughts, anyway.


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