UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging

Chapter 7. Pull and Stay

AFTER THE COLD-CALLING episode, the other event that pushed me over the edge into the UnMarketing world was an event called "Art by the Lake" in my hometown. Artists gather down by our shoreline and set up in tents, displaying their paintings, sculptures, and photographs. It's well attended and looks like a great success, but I noticed a problem.

The problem was not with the attendees. They were great— enjoying themselves walking into each artist's tent, admiring the work, making comments, and giving compliments. The artists, unfortunately, were not nearly as engaging. Most were sitting in lawn chairs, halfheartedly thanking people for their kindness, but you could just tell they were secretly saying to themselves, "If you like it, why don't you buy it?!?"

The ratio of lookers to buyers was at least 100 to 1. The artists were doing the old-school method of sales, which I like to call "push and pray marketing." Push something out there and pray people buy it. People are there to look at all these great art pieces; they were even saying to the artists that they might be interested in buying from them eventually. The most I saw any of the artists do was to hand them a card and say "Let me know!" and then, nothing. With that, the crowd of potential customers would move on to the next tent.

What were the artists hoping these people were going to do? Go home, realize they had a perfect spot in their living room for one of their paintings or sculptures and try to ...