Access TCA is an Outcome Communications™ company that creates value for our clients by delivering to their desired business outcomes in everything we do. We create value in our discovery process, then we deliver with a comprehensive product offering that includes communications planning, event and exhibit production, creative and media products, and support services. Contact Us
With the holidays over and huge banks of snow crowding city sidewalks, the days of winter can be downright dreary. But this year, those days bristled with excitement over a Mega Millions jackpot that ballooned to $380 million before the final drawing last month.
People who never buy lottery tickets, and that’s most of us, found the lure of such riches irresistible, risking a dollar on the dream of hundreds of millions. Dreamers in 42 states bought $170 million worth of tickets on the last day. When two lucky souls in Washington and Idaho won, it only proved that next time, it really could be us.
The enormous prize with its attendant media coverage cast the magic spell that drove us to the “quicky” mart and drove the jackpot up $90 million in four days.
When we bought our tickets, it wasn’t the money that pulled us in. It was the right to dream about the life it could buy us. We saw our boss’s startled face on our last day of work, our daughter’s joyful face on her perfect wedding day, our own contented face on a remote beach. That was a lot for a dollar. It seemed crazy NOT to play.
Emotions – triumph, love, security – motivate the act of buying. A successful sales person knows that and builds his communication on benefits, not features. A great sales person adds another dimension: she cares about her customers. She cares enough to discover their heart’s desire and help them achieve it.
Access TCA’s Charlie Sylvia understands what it means to sell that way.
One of his treasured career moments was selling a luxury motor home to a retired plumber a few years back.
“This vehicle had the best of everything: heated marble floors, fabulous entertainment system, gourmet kitchen. But that’s not what this man wanted. What he really wanted was to take his grandchildren to Disney. We went over that home stem to stern, but I never let the features obscure the vision of his grandchildren on their road trip,” said Charlie.
He loves to think about that plumber driving down I-95 with the kids on the lookout for the next fast food restaurant. They’ve made the trip five times.
After a winning sales career, Charlie is teaching a new generation to sell what he calls “cathedrals of commerce,” the exhibits that help businesses reach their customers.
He’s teaching the young account reps that clients don’t really want exhibits. They want the thrill of new sales, the pride of being a hero at work and the satisfaction of using time and resources efficiently.
As marketers, we can move from successful to great if we listen to Charlie. That means listening to our customers and figuring out how to give them what they really want. It takes research and thinking time, the very things we tend to cut short when faced with a long to-do list.
But if we invest the time, everything else on the list gets a lot easier. When we know what our customers want and we care about delivering it, we avoid all the blind alleys that used to make execution so time-consuming.
And that’s when we’ve really hit the jackpot.
Mega Millions sells mega dreams – and we can too
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