Mind The Gap.
Bringing you, your prospects and your CFO closer.

August 2003
By Tom Barnes

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As a marketer, don't you love it when someone in finance or operations (or even a neighbor) asks, "What is it you do again?"

A lot (in fact most) of effective modern marketing is about reducing the perception of risk around the purchase of a product or service. Now marketers are being called on to reduce the risk associated with the business impact of their work in a way they haven't before. That's really what the hubbub around R.O.I. is about.

We talk a lot about return in this business now, but very little about the associated risk. Risk and return are inextricably linked. Many of us are hurting because we don't sufficiently address the most acute pain of all. If we don't acknowledge risk, we're only looking at half a world. The half any CFO is most interested in.

In a famous, Nobel award winning (and I think historical) experiment, people demonstrated that they are twice as afraid of losing something, as they are optimistic about gaining something. It seems the fear of loss, as an emotion, is twice as strong as faith in gain.

So let's skip the Wanamaker quote and focus on reducing fear, uncertainly and doubt--or in a word--risk (more on this here).

The fear, uncertainty and doubt dilemma

Your sales manager is rolling her eyes right now. Reduce fear? She knows that fear is critical in the sales process. If she's smart, she'll use "fear of loss" as one of her most powerful tools to communicate value to her prospect.

When used effectively, fear is pitted against itself--like fighting fire with fire. Sometimes, you need an explosive to put out a raging oil fire. So, when defining and defending your business case, you have to demonstrate that the loss associated with not deploying your offering is twice as likely as the loss associated with doing nothing.

Ahh--doing nothing. Kinda sounds good in the summertime, doesn't it? For marketers-B2B or B2C--stasis is the enemy. Right now, doing nothing seems safe to your prospect. You know how tight your CFO is. Stasis is also at the root of our economic malaise. Fear is a great motivator and a great manipulator. So, it may be a useful tool, but it's not a solution. When in doubt, people simply freeze in fear.

Ultimately, marketing will reduce fear in the prospect, or it will fail. So while messaging and sales tactics may leverage fear, ultimately, to succeed marketers still have to do two things: demonstrate safety and engender trust around what they propose. These goals demand great customer relationships and credible messaging.

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