Imagine you’re a superhero and could choose your superpower
What Cocktail Parties Taught Me About Prospect Profiling
“Imagine you’re a superhero and could choose your superpower: What would it be?”
That question is more than just a conversation starter for cocktail parties. It’s a strategic probe for assessing and profiling your clients and prospects. In fact, it’s been one of the first questions I asked in every new client discovery session for at least the past decade.
Why? For one thing, it helps relax and amuse almost everyone on the client’s executive team, so they’re not dreading the next few hours together. More importantly, each participant’s ideal superpower tells us much more about their personal values and professional motivation than I’d ever get them to share by asking directly.
A client who wishes they could see the future or read other people’s minds is a very different person than one who wishes they could perform at superspeed. But all three answers provide keen insight into how to position the benefits of your services most persuasively to each of these prospects.
The trick, of course, is to really listen; to move beyond the words they speak and interpret what they’re really saying (and, thus, really want).
This is probably a good time to confess I never earned a degree in Marketing. Or in Advertising. Or even in Communications. My undergrad work was all in Psychology and Sociology. Marketing just seemed like the most practical application of that knowledge by an analytical guy who’s not really a people person (and can’t imagine asking anyone “So, how does that make you feel?”).
And while I wish I could claim I invented this “superhero” approach to prospect profiling, I also have to confess that I stole it outright from my friend and fellow marketer, Nick Tietz – who probably borrowed it from someone else. Which brings me to the real point of this blogpost.
Batman. Iron Man. Bumblebee. Green Hornet. These superheroes have no innate superpowers. None. Any powers they possess come strictly from applied technology.
Do you want to read minds? See around corners? Perform at superspeed? Today’s programmatic media platforms – like Modern Impact’s Intelligent Pixel® – leverage proprietary technology, real-time analysis and cognitive algorithms to interpret consumer attitudes, predict future behaviors and build market-expanding look-alike audiences that accelerate sales growth. All without violating data privacy guidelines or making your best prospects feel like they’re being stalked by Lex Luthor.
So, if you were intent on becoming a marketing superhero and could choose your superpower, what would it be? Regardless of your answer, Modern Impact can help you create the technology and team necessary to make your marketing invincible.
