Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Academics who haven't been in the outside world do get a bit full of themselves. Think of the ego trip, everyday students file in -- looking for their words of wisdom. But just as there are good teachers and bad-- I wouldn't lump all in the same basket. And two opinions do not mean a whole lot.

But, as an aside-- a simple salutation is just good manners. And you always want to write on the level of the reader. This doesn't mean 50cent words-- but they respect intelligent communication.

Just go for it. You can easily find yourself in "analysis paralysis" listening to a couple critics. My daughter just graduated from Fiance (suma cum laude) and she had teachers that had her in tears-- and those she walk thru hot coals to be at class. But lose the word "pitch" that is for baseball.

It may be a hard sell, after all these profs feel they are overworked and add the big ego. But if I understand this, it sounds to me like a real project that can give the student a leg up over competition for a job. For example, my daugther headed a group that got to invest, and report to the dean a $100K grant. That practical experience got her into a job quicker than many of her cohorts. It may take awhile, but find a champion -- maybe thru a student? After all they are the ones who'll benefit.

Instead of blasting another message, have you tailored the message to their department? If you haven't, then you will come across as just another sales message to be ignored. If instead, you understand the teachers' needs in the department (and those of their students), you have a chance to communicate effectively with them.

The salutation may be important for some people (if you haven't split-tested your copy, now's a good time to do so), but focus your message on the clear benefit that they will get (i.e., get to the point).

And an inherent belief in form and vocabulary usually make them susceptible to every snake-oil salesman in the circuit as long as he starts his address with Dear Dr - or Dear Professor -

Next come the questions which attract suitably involved answers. All you have to do is understand them. Next come the leading questions which follow like a tedious argument of insidious intent to lead you to an overwhelming question - - (You could finish for them but let them do the clever bit - it’s better the words come from their own mouths. – Its “Oh, do not ask what is it. Let us go and make our visit.”

Then it’s the trial close, neatly trapping them by their own answers and finally the close. Bang! One more gallon of snake-oil for the department, the same as last year.

Then there is that academic terminology which makes a paper about nothing appear to look like a paper about very little, but at least its one with a long title. You can ask them about that and by repeating the twaddle which heads the abstract. You will be assumed to understand exactly what they are on about. Encore, more questions, more trial closes and more closes.

Why on earth do you think that University science departments are stocked with equipment which ranges from trash unfit for purpose to that which is so over specified as to have a couple of redundant decimal places in it’s accuracy?

It is because the sales people who closed the deals asked the appropriate questions, let the academics show off a bit and then closed them as they would have closed a hard bitten production manager (Who is also a graduate but earns 100 times as much!)

Don’t lose the sales plot – it applies in academe. I’m on the general council of my University and can attest first hand to the susceptibility of academics to sales psychology.

Steve Alker
Xspirt

Michael,
Strange. I have a different experience when marketing to them. I follow more along the lines of what Jay says. They are very targeted, very personalized and very time consuming. BUT, the results are good.

Once you're past that, my experience is that they drop all the snootiness and become human beings.

Michael

Dear Michael,

I feel your pain. I've worked with the "real-world" challenged of the super educated elite for 25 years.

I have no masters. No MBA. No doctorate. Nor do I have an axe to grind, although I will say this: academicas are, on the whole split into two camps—good and bad.

The good?

They're sublime to work with. They get it.

I once had the pleasure of working with (albeit briefly), the British naturalist and TV presenter, Sir David Attenborough, brother of the famous movie director.

David was a gem! The NICEST guy. Even now, 14 years later, the memories STILL make me BEAM.

Then, there are the black lords. Oh Christ. Give me strength!

How do you sell to these people?

Use peer pressure. Get testimonials from OTHER academics who HAVE signed up. Use people in the same field, from better schools. This will drive these nongs INSANE!

(Marcus, I'm a Brit living in the US. Never heard the word NONG before today. Looked it up. I agree. TOTAL NONGS! Love it!).

Or, be direct. Tell them this is what you've got, this is what ti does, this is what it's FOR, and this is what it will take or cost to make it happen.

Facts. Just the facts. Your sales copy? Strip it to its BARE BONES.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Gosh – having two Michaels is somewhat confusing!

My experience with academics has been across the board but mainly with researchers in pharmacology, toxicology, biochemistry, genetics and psychology. Once you’ve identified who you want to pitch too, they are rather easier to close than commercial or industrial clients namely because they also work as logically as any 6 questions / trial close / close / sale salesperson does.

The reason why I said that they are susceptible to good sales technique is because they are not looking to be evasive and are usually not trained in the art of buying as a science - they just want to get on with their work and if anything tend to accept a sales close somewhat earlier than they should – hence the trashy or over expensive equipment.

There’s another advantage in selling to academe – namely they nearly all have personal websites which are hosted on their University’s rather magnificent website so if you are wanting to sell one-to-one, you can research your target before-hand quite easily. The reason why I found many of them gullible was because once I had read up on their current work; I could talk to them about it. One of my sales people was just as effective without understanding much more than about 10% of their subjects because he quoted their latest papers and then told them that it was beyond his pay scale to make sense of it but that he could certainly see where his equipment might fit into their research plans.

And yes, they are proud of having got a Masters or a PhD or a Professorship and like you to use the correct title. PhD’s are easy because you never make a gender mistake or offend a woman over her marital status. Professors appear in the ration of 100 of the others to every professor (In the UK they do) and if you are writing to them, its worth your while researching their preferred title.

As far as “esteemed colleague is concerned” – as Marcus said, it is both factually incorrect and Dickensian – it is however quite popular in ex-British colonies such as India or Pakistan. Maybe the same applies to the USA!

For this project, I would capitalise on the fact that you can identify with ease the people you need to reach out to and then do it in whatever language you like. I put over 700 academics onto our company’s database by using a life-science intern to look them all up. They were great but the biggest barrier to them buying anything as not anything I chose to call them but the restrictions on their budget. I foresaw that and used them as a doorway to their commercial collaborators in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries who were very hard to identify but had oodles of money to buy all the equipment they wanted. Felt a bit like a marriage broker after that year!

Your not alone in having colleagues who don't get the sale side of the story - my boss was always castigating me for networking at breakfast at symposia and actually selling things to people off our stand!


Steve Alker

50 years experience and no working knowledge of spell check. Makes me happy to be a dummy!

Thanks for the update!