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We were sitting in my backyard sharing a $600 bottle of wine he had brought.

He said, “I got all 250 of my employees together on a Zoom call and told them, ‘You can disagree passionately and share your opinion while we are in the discussion phase, but when a decision has been made, you need to commit to the successful implementation of that decision as though it had been your own. To disagree and work half-heartedly and receive a paycheck is not an option. To disagree and covertly sabotage the plan and receive a paycheck is not an option. To disagree and whisper behind closed doors and receive a paycheck is not an option. You can either recuse yourself by turning in your resignation, or you can disagree and commit. Those are your options.’”

My friend is strong, fair, and a marvelous employer. I have always admired him. Raised in a family with no money, he became stunningly successful by the time he was 40.

That conversation with my friend is what triggered last week’s Monday Morning Memo about “Those Glorious Creative Handcuffs.”

Ad writers like myself always believe we have the best answers and that people should listen to what we say. “But…” I tell my partners, “your client didn’t hire you to be CEO. They hired you to make their plan work. If you believe you can improve their plan, you need to communicate what you would change, why you would change it, and how you would implement that change. But once you’ve had your day in court, your job is to make their plan succeed brilliantly, even if it’s stupid.”

In 40 years of ad-writing I’ve chosen to walk away only twice. In both instances I knew the only way the decided-upon plan could end was with a large, smoking hole in the earth where their successful company used to be. In both of those cases I was right. In every other instance, “Those Glorious Creative Handcuffs” clamped on my wrists triggered some of the best creative work I’ve ever done.

“Disagree and Commit” works miraculously well, but only if you wash the memory of your ‘better plan’ from your mind. Never speak of it again. Never think about it again. When you’ve had your day in court, commit to the plan and make it a point of honor to make that plan succeed.

And then celebrate, celebrate, celebrate when it does.

This will make you a person that every employer wants to hire, and every brilliant person wants on their team.

Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads®, and we’ll hook you up.

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Immediately following my publishing of that comment, a client of my partner Ryan Chute asked him for any insights he might be able to provide about the Private Equity firms that were trying to buy his business. Another Wizard of Ads partner, Stephen Semple, has worked with almost 100 business owners who sold their businesses. Here is what Steve told Ryan:

“There are three problems I’ve seen over and over. The first problem is that there is a due diligence clause in every sales contract that professional business buyers regularly use to lower the price. Here is how it works: the closing is scheduled for Friday afternoon (yes, almost always a Friday.) At noon on Friday the buyer drops the price. They tell you they have come across something that says the price is now 20-30% lower.”

“These business buyers are banking on the owner having already sold the company in his heart. The champagne is on ice and the owner is not emotionally capable of walking away from the closing table. To fight this, the seller needs to remain ready to walk. Walking away is the only power the seller has.”

“The second problem I have seen is this: selling a business is a slow process and the closer it gets to the closing of the sale, the more the business owner mentally and emotionally disconnects from the business. They stop investing in the business, stop growing it. This is a dangerous thing to do because if the sale falls through, they have to get the momentum going again.”

“The third problem is that most business owners don’t actually know what their business is worth. Knowledge is power, and you desperately need the power of knowledge when you are preparing to sell your business.”

“Ryan, my best advice is that you tell your client to run their business like they are planning to own it for the next 20 years. Remind them that their business isn’t actually sold until the check is cashed.”

Ted Rogers owned a cable TV company.  When a buyer came along, Ted negotiated the price to be based on the number of subscribers he transferred to the buyer on closing day. Ted was now prepared to spend more per subscriber to acquire new subscribers than he had ever spent before. He ran promotions and offered bonuses to drive up his subscriber count. The buyer was now motivated to close the sale quickly because the price was going up every hour.

The technique that Ted Rogers employed can be used by any seller of any business. All you have to do is base the sales price on a metric that is within your control, not the buyer’s control. It can be top line sales in a rolling 12-month window, or gross profits in a rolling 12-month window, or you can negotiate the closing price to be adjusted up-or-down by the same percentage the company has grown or declined during the due diligence window. Pick a metric that you control.

And then start growing your business as you’ve never grown it before. By remaining fully engaged in your business, you have now stripped the buyer of his power to ambush you at the closing table.

Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads®, and let's create those mind-blowing ads.

Isaac Newton discovered that force – impact ­– is the result of mass x acceleration. This is why the impact of any statement you make = the size of the idea x the speed of successfully transferring it from your mind to the mind of your customer.

Newton also discovered, “For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction.” The faster an advertised offer produces big results, the less well it will work over time.

EXAMPLE: When a direct-response offer generates big money quickly, you can be certain that the longer you do it, the less well it will work. To gain attention, a thing must be new, surprising, and different. When it becomes old, predictable, and the-same-as-before, we turn our attention elsewhere.

You already know this.

Advertising is, in at least some aspects, a science. But systems-focused business owners are demanding that advertising become a science in all its aspects. They say, “Give us fast-acting, reliable advertising that drives ever-increasing sales opportunities,” and the sellers of advertising are saying, “You got it, boss! Coming right up!”

I am reminded of the quest for a perpetual motion machine.

The first documented claim of perpetual motion was made by Bhaskara of India in the 12th century. It has been followed by countless others. But not one of them has ever worked, and science has proven that none of them ever will.

In his book on the subject of Perpetual Motion, Henry Dircks wrote,

“A more self-willed, self-satisfied, or self-deluded class of the community, making at the same time pretension to superior knowledge, it would be impossible to imagine. They hope against hope, scorning all opposition with ridiculous vehemence, although centuries have not advanced them one step in the way of progress… The history of perpetual motion is a history of the fool-hardiness of either half-learned, or totally ignorant persons.”

When you spend all day, every day talking with enthusiastic young advertising professionals, you meet a lot of people who fit that description.

But I promised you a lesson on the Physics of Advertising. Here it is.

Newton’s first law of thermodynamics is a version of the law of Conservation of Energy, which tells us that energy can neither be created nor destroyed but can only be transformed from one form to another.

EXAMPLE: The chemical energy contained in gasoline can be transformed into kinetic energy, light energy, heat energy, and the percussive energy that you and I call sound, but those energies were there in the gasoline all along.

When it is expended, the energy stored in the gasoline is gone. You cannot burn the same gasoline twice.

Goodwill, reputation, share-of-mind, and other forms of “buying energy” can be stored in the mind of the customer in 3 different ways.

1. The Performance of your product or service.
   When you deliver or exceed what the customer expected, you store “buying energy” in the mind of your customer. If you fall short of their expectations, gasoline is burned.
2. A Referral from a friend or an online review.
   Word-of-mouth is when the buying energy stored in the mind of one customer is shared with another customer. When that word-of-mouth is negative, more gasoline is burned.
3. Stories told in Advertising and by salespeople.
   Relational energy is built in the mind of the customer when your beliefs are aligned with their beliefs. Some people call this “branding,” but I prefer to think of it as customer bonding. When you create urgency with a limited-time offer, you force your customer into acting “now or never” and gasoline is burned.

“Big Money Quickly” happens as the result of urgency; usually a shortage of time, or product, or opportunity. But shout “wolf” too often and the villagers no longer come running. Your gasoline has all been burned.

Do you now understand why the faster an advertised offer produces big results, the less well it will work over time? When you allow your short-term metrics to dictate your marketing decisions, you will soon be crying “wolf” with every breath you take.

But there is a healthy and sustainable time to harvest.

Advertising is like farming.
You cannot harvest what was never planted.

1. Planting a seed in the mind of the customer is where every good thing begins. The customer has to know you exist.
2. Nurturing that seed through the growing cycle is essential.
   Stories told in advertising, by salespeople, and by customers are the water and sunshine that require time to work their magic.
3. Harvest time is when it is.
   Every jeweler knows that Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Mother’s Day are predictable buying occasions, but no jeweler knows when a couple is about to get engaged or celebrate an important anniversary. And that’s where the big money is. Every air conditioning company knows more systems break down and need to be repaired during extreme weather conditions, but no one knows when a system is going to be replaced. And that’s where the big money is.

The goal of the intelligent advertiser is to store enough “buying energy” in the mind of the customer to become the provider the customer thinks of first, and feels the best about, when their “harvest time” finally occurs.

Quick-acting advertising works less and less well the longer you do it. But the continual storage of “buying energy” – (1.) performing what you promised, plus (2.) the stories told by your ads and your salespeople and your customers – are like eating right and exercising; they work better and better until you are finally operating at peak health and efficiency.

This is when all your metrics go through the roof.

Google is simply the new phone book. Online click-through and conversion rates measure your offline marketing and reputation-building as much as they measure your online efforts.

Never let anyone tell you that their special method of “metrics measurement and optimization” is going to “hold your ad budget accountable” and allow you to “constantly improve the efficiency of your marketing.”

They are trying to sell you a perpetual motion machine.

Unless you work with seasoned marketers with rich experience writing irresistible advertising, like Ryan Chute’s teams at Wizard of Ads®. Book a call.

A branded keyword is one in which the name of your company appears. When a customer types the name of your company into a search string, they are looking for you, they believe in you. A friend might have recommended you, but usually it was your advertising that won them over.

Either way, you have done well.

Unbranded keywords include phrases like “air conditioning repair” and “diamond engagement rings.” When a shopper types an unbranded keyword into a search engine, it is a clear signal that they have no preferred provider in your category. No one has won them over.

The best online marketers track their branded and unbranded keywords separately because they know that when you follow unbranded keywords all the way from the search string to the gross profit made on those sales, you will often find you spent more money on unbranded keywords than you made on the sales they brought in.

That’s when you should drop them like a hot rock.

Look at the case study at the top of this page. I have removed the name of the company, the category, and the cities, but the data is real, it is recent, and it is accurate.

We spent $37,398 in unbranded keywords in City 1 so that we might have the privilege of losing $8,299.

We spent $30,008 in unbranded keywords in City 2 so that we might have the privilege of losing $17,238.

We spent $6,273 in unbranded keywords in City 3 so that we might have the privilege of losing $6,409.

After losing $31,946 we grew tired of feeling privileged.

Meanwhile, in City 1 our investment of just $7,452 in branded keywords made us a gross profit of $49,480 after deducting the cost of our branded keywords.

In City 2 our investment of just $14,648 in branded keywords made us a gross profit of $62,976.

In City 3 our investment of just $2,998 in branded keywords made us a gross profit of $9,042.

But all the young digital weasels tell me I’m not looking at it correctly. They scold me for tracking branded and unbranded keywords separately, and smugly point out, “When you combine them into one big package, the return on investment is perfectly acceptable.”

Some of my closest friends are world-famous online marketing experts who know how to create campaigns that allow you to monetize all the customer enthusiasm that has been generated through your radio and TV and outdoor advertising.

None of my friends is young enough or smug enough to be a digital weasel.

Digital weasels always fail to deliver what they proudly promised. Back when I was a 14-year-old boy on the wrong side of a little Oklahoma town, I would have pulled these weasels aside, put my arm around their shoulders and whispered in their ears, “Be careful not to let your alligator mouth overload your mockingbird butt.”

But I have mellowed and matured.

Or at least I pretend I have.

Les Binet and Peter Field did what data scientists do; they monitored the advertising of more than 1,000 businesses for more than 15 years, then published the data.

Binet and Field are not digital weasels. I smile every time I listen to them.

Les Binet says, “If you build your business, or try to build your business, using short-term efficiency measures – cost per response, click-through rates, that kind of thing – you’re on a hiding to nothing. You’re going to run your business into the ground, we believe, because those are not the things that grow the business, long-term.”

Les Binet goes on to say, “You need to talk to people, not just who are in the market right now, but people who might come to market over the next two to three years. You need to engage them with things that are more humanly relevant, more general, more universal, and crucially, you need to engage them at the emotional level… So if you want really disproportionately large marketing effects, if you want big sales and big profits, aim for fame.”

Is it fame you want? I can give it to you with 3 simple bits of advice:

1. Make your radio and TV ads unpredictable and entertaining. Entertainment is the only currency with which you can purchase the time and attention of a too-busy public.
2. Work a tiny bit of information into your ads, but not so much that it makes your ads feel like ads.
3. Close at least half your ads with something new, surprising, and different; something that gives the customer a tiny, inward smile.

If you aren’t a showman or a storyteller, you’re still in good company. Wizard of Ads® can help you create the brand or marketing story you need to drive your user experience. Book a call.

Did you know that mood and mode share the same root word?

I point this out because you cannot take your customer where you want them to go until you first meet them where they are. And where they are is in one of two different moods, or modes of shopping: transactional mode and relational mode.

Each of us operates in both modes, but we tend to choose our mode according to the category. If the category in question is one which you (1.) have an interest, (2.) have no preferred provider, and (3.) are willing to spend time to save money, you will approach that purchase in transactional mode.

If the category in question is one which you (1.) have no interest, (2.) have a name in mind that you feel good about², and (3.) are willing to spend money to save time, you will approach that purchase in relational mode.

A customer in relational mode

1. Thinks long term.
2. Considers today’s transaction to be one in a series of many.
3. Does not enjoy comparison shopping or negotiating.
4. Fears only “making a poor choice.”
5. Hopes to find an expert they can trust.
6. Is willing to spend money to save time.
7. Desires a long-term solution provider.
8. Is likely to become a repeat customer.

A customer in transactional mode

1. Thinks short term.
2. Considers today’s transaction to be the end of the relationship.
3. Enjoys the process of shopping and negotiating.
4. Fears only “paying more than they had to pay.”
5. Considers themselves to be the expert.
6. Is willing to spend time to save money.
7. Desires a lower price.
8. Is a good source of word-of-mouth advertising.

Relational customers are High CAP:
High Conversion
High Average Sale
High Profit Margin

Transactional customers are Low CAP:
Low Conversion
Low Average Sale
Low Profit Margin

When you target High CAP customers in Relational Mode, you face these dangers.

1. You must create a company culture that causes your employees to take pride in delivering the experience that is expected by the customer in relational shopping mode.
2. If you disappoint the relational customer, they take it as a personal betrayal. You were their trusted provider and you let them down.

When you target Low CAP customers in Transactional Mode, you face these dangers:

1. Transactional customers have no loyalty to you. Your relationship ends when the transaction is complete.
2. Transactional customers who are attracted to you for reasons of price alone will abandon you for the same reason.
3. There is nothing that someone else cannot do a little worse and sell a little cheaper. This is why no business is secure when it targets customers in transactional shopping mode.

The words you use in your ads send signals to your customers. Do your word choices appeal to customers in relational mode, or do they speak to customers in transactional mode?

Give it some thought, because it really is a big deal.

To learn more about how we can help you, book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.

The ancient Greeks understood psychology a lot better than they understood science.

Hippocrates, the father of the Hippocratic Oath, believed that our information-gathering and decision-making processes are determined by an imbalance of 4 bodily fluids – red blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm – two of which have never existed in the form that Hippocrates theorized.

But the four basic temperaments that Hippocrates associated with these four fluids have lived on to be verified, codified, dignified and personified by screenwriters and novelists and social scientists* around the world. Hippocrates called these temperaments Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, and Phlegmatic.

More than 400 years ago, Shakespeare depicted the full range of human behaviors and character types by embracing the original theories of Hippocrates. The National Library of Medicine has an interesting online exhibit about it.

We see these four basic temperaments in ourselves, our family, our friends, and all the most interesting characters in every form of story-telling:

The Wizard of Oz
Lion (sanguine) Scarecrow (choleric) Dorothy (melancholic) and Tin Man (phlegmatic)

Archie Comics
Archie (sanguine) Veronica (choleric) Betty (melancholic) and Jughead (phlegmatic)

I Love Lucy
Ricky (sanguine) Lucy (choleric) Fred (melancholic) Ethel (phlegmatic)

Gilligan’s Island
Gilligan (sanguine) the Skipper (choleric) the Professor (melancholic) Mr. Howell (phlegmatic)

Star Trek
Captain Kirk (sanguine) Spock (choleric) Scotty (melancholic) Bones (phlegmatic)

Magnum P.I.
T.C. (sanguine) Tom (choleric) Higgins (melancholic), and Rick (phlegmatic)

Friends
Phoebe and Joey (sanguine) Monica (choleric) Ross (melancholic) Rachel and Chandler (phlegmatic)

Seinfeld
Kramer (sanguine) Elaine (choleric) George (melancholic) Jerry (phlegmatic)

Frasier
Roz (sanguine) Frasier (choleric) Niles (melancholic) Daphne (phlegmatic)

The Golden Girls
Blanche (sanguine) Sophia (choleric) Dorothy (melancholic) Rose (phlegmatic)

Sex and The City
Samantha (sanguine) Miranda (choleric) Charlotte (melancholic) Carrie (phlegmatic)

Schitt’s Creek
Moira (sanguine) Johnny (choleric) David (melancholic) Alexis (phlegmatic)

Desperate Housewives
Susan (sanguine) Gabrielle (choleric) Bree (melancholic) Lynette (phlegmatic)

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Kimmy (Sanguine) Jacqueline (Choleric) Titus (Melancholic) Lillian (Phlegmatic)

Big Bang Theory
Howard (sanguine) Sheldon (choleric) Raj (melancholic) Leonard (phlegmatic)

The Office
Michael (sanguine) Dwight (choleric) Pam (melancholic) Jim (phlegmatic)

Game of Thrones
Arya (sanguine) Sansa (choleric) Jon (melancholic) Bran (phlegmatic)

Entertainment is the only currency with which you can purchase the time and attention of a too-busy public.

An understanding of the predictable frictions between these four temperaments – and their deep and abiding need for one another – is the basis of every form of long-term entertainment. The novelists who win the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes know this. The screenwriters of all the hit TV series know this. And the ad writers who make a difference know this.

When you become intrigued with an interesting fictional character, you spend time with them, whether they are in a book, or a TV series, or in an ad campaign.

Most ad writing is transactional: “Give us money, and this is what we’ll give you in return.”

Transactional ads are about short-term “harvesting” but they work less and less well the more continuously you use them.

Relational ads are about long-term “customer bonding” and they work better and better the longer you use them.

Do you want your company to be the one that customers think of immediately and feel the best about? Create a long-term ad campaign that is 2/3 relational customer-bonding ads and 1/3 transactional sales-activation ads. These are the ad campaigns that create consistent year-over-year growth.

Think of it as seedtime and harvest.

Seedtime and harvest.

Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.