It’s National Salesperson Day
When I was in college, I bought a book that changed my life. It was called “Confessions of an Advertising Man” by David Ogilvy. It was $1.95. I believe I bought it in 1978, and I still reference it today.
One of Mr. O’s premises is that the goal of creating ads is not to show how witty or clever you are. “Your role is to sell, don’t let anything distract you from the sole purpose of advertising.” Advertising, marketing, fundraising are all sales jobs. In fact, most jobs are sales jobs. One of my questions to potential employees is “Do you like sales?” If you don’t, marketing, advertising, fundraising, graphic design, web design or digital advertising is the wrong business. We do work that is intended to move people, and that takes persuasion.
Good advertising sells the product without drawing attention to itself. Marketing is the connector between a product, service or idea and an audience. No matter how “creative” it is, if it didn’t sell, then it didn’t work.
Also, in 1963 Mr. Ogilvy wrote: “What really decides if consumers will buy or not buy is the content of your advertising, not your form.” He was a content marketer more than 55 years ago.
Happy National Salesperson Day. To all salespeople, I salute you.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.
