When you sell shoes, it’s obvious that you should advertise. So long as you have the budget, good advertising (with smart media planning) will pay for itself.

But what if you sell mining equipment? Or welding services? Can advertising help? Or should you stick with a strong salespeople approach?

Although generalizing, there are a few key points that every industrial advertiser should consider when developing their marketing plan.

1. It’s all about sales.

No one signs multi-million dollar contracts on the basis of advertising alone. If you have a limited budget, focus on finding great sales people first and foremost. The best advertising in the world won’t help you without a great sales team.

2. Great sales people can be made better with a little support.

Let’s say you have a small sales team of 3 people. When all costs are factored in, it’s probably fairly conservative of me to say they’re costing you at least $200,000 a year. Don’t you want to help them be as effective as humanly possible? That’s just smart. Protect your investment.

The first thing to do to support your team is to train them. (Kinda obvious isn’t it?) I’m going to assume you’re already doing that.

3. Sales collateral

The second thing to do is to give them great sales material. Brochures, customer testimonials (on video if possible!), case studies, price schedules… don’t send them empty handed. Your material should be so good that even if a sales person lost the ability to speak, they could hand the material over the prospect, smile, and wait for them to close the sale themselves.

4. When does the sales process begin?

Answer: Before you make the first call, if you’re smart.

To this, the best argument is this classic ad from McGraw-Hill:

What makes for great industrial advertising? That’s a topic for my next post.

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QUIT INDIA - Gandhi inspired a nation to fight for its independence not with arms but through non-violent disobedience. His simple ideas, such as the spinning wheel, were heard around the world and inspired the end of apartheid in South Africa, the civil rights movement in America, and countless other democratic movements around the world.

In 1989, an unknown man stood up to an entire army and showed the world that freedom is worth fighting for, no matter what the odds.

WE CHOOSE THE MOON - Quote: We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.

YES WE CAN - A more recent example, we're all familiar with the ways President Obama used Big yet simple Ideas to become the first black president in the history of the United States.

JUST WATCH ME - Ever quotable, Pierre Trudeau rallied a nation to do what needed to be done to combat domestic terrorism. Was it right? Does it even matter? All I know is things might have gone differently if, instead of spurting out those three famous words, the man had issued a 500 page policy document on the usage of the War Measures Act.

The Awesome Power of Ideas

Take a second look at the examples above. Heck, take a look at any major historical movement. What you’ll find at the heart of each is a Big Idea - an idea so big it changed the world.

Pretty impressive achievements for something that lives only in the mind, wouldn’t you say?

Perhaps what Margaret Mead should have said was: “Never doubt that something so intangible as an idea can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Untapped Potential

Ask a sampling of people what’s wrong with the business world, and you’ll get all sorts of responses: Greed, corruption, government bail-outs… the list could go on for some time.

The biggest issue facing businesses today, in my humble opinion, is a failure to think big enough. Oh sure, plenty of ambitious executives can think big in terms of more stores, more sales, more markets, etc. But how often do we stop to think about the true impact of our work?

We often get in the rut of thinking we “just” do XYZ. Maybe you “just” manufacture mining equipment. Or maybe you “just” run a restaurant. Or you “just” operate a clothing retail.

But that’s not true, is it? The manufacturer of mining equipment is enabling advances in technology and society, creating jobs, and making it safer for the people who work underground. The restaurant owner is feeding people, creating a space for social interaction, and again creating jobs. The clothing retailer is helping people to feel good in their skin by providing clothes that looks good on their bodies and reflects the self-image they wish to project.

Where would we be without these common everyday businesses?

If advertising could accomplish just one thing, it would be to help everyone see the Big Ideas that lie just below the surface of every day things.

Think that’s crazy? Take a look at some of these advertising campaigns that dared to go big.

The ad that proves there's no such thing as a boring product - only boring copywriters.

Head over heels in DOVE - This classic Ogilvy ad positioned what was otherwise just another bar of soap into a product that promises to cream and moisturize your skin. This concept is still running strong.

Disarming Honesty - The crux of any great ad from Doyle Dane Bernbach was the novel concept of simply telling the truth in an interesting way.

One in a long series of extremely successful ads, this campaign was based on the simple but powerful understanding that reading the Economist meant you were drastically better informed about the world than most people, and would therefor more likely find success in life. (Please click the ad to see the larger version if you can

Exactly how mad is she? This ad for florists has been done several time, and demonstrates perfectly what a Big Idea is all about.

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