Yesterday, on my drive home from the office, I listened to a marketing podcast featuring an interview with a social media consultant and was absolutely dumbfounded by what I heard.   When asked his opinion of where businesses should invest their marketing efforts, of course he said “online” and then he added…wait for it… “unless your target market is older.”  

Ugh!  Where does this guy live?  On the corner of Dated Sterotypes and  Completely Out of Touch?  He’s supposedly a social media consultant and he doesn’t realize that in November 2009, almost 8 million Facebook members were 65 years old or older.  I guess that’s why he’s a consultant and not a specialist.

Perhaps his grandmother resembles Whistler’s mother and sits in a rocker staring at the wall.  Maybe his grandfather says “dagnabbit” and skips rocks on the lake for fun.   But that’s not the case in my family where the seniors are more than capable of navigating the internet. 

My mother, a very attractive 70-year-old, has done her share of online dating.  While it doesn’t thrill me to have her talking to strangers online, I did get a chuckle when she realized that a gentleman with the screen name LIKESKINKYLADIES actually liked Kinky Ladies and not Skinny Ladies.   Note to self: increase her monitor’s font size the next time I visit.  

My father-in-law recently stayed with us for an extended period.  He has no phone.  He Skypes.  For those who don’t know, Skype is software that allows you to make calls from your computer.  With his laptop and webcam, he placed Jetson-era video calls to his peers throughout the world.  FYI, not one of his friends wondered how my father-in-law got into their computer.

My family members are just a small percentage of the 17.5 million active online seniors.  They send me gifts purchased on eBay, share photos on Kodak Gallery, email links to YouTube videos, and last but not least friend requests on Facebook (yikes).   

My point is this.  The time you spend online has less to do with your age than it does with where you spend your time.  I have young friends whose careers do not place them at a desk all day.  They are the worst Facebook friends ever…unless they are still wrapping Christmas presents as their last status update says.  They rarely email.  Instead they send five-paragraph texts.  Am I supposed to reply to that?  Via text?!

Meanwhile, Mom continued to send that Facebook friend request every day.  As I reluctantly hit ACCEPT, I wondered if some senior could show me how to update my privacy settings.

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Since 22-year-old Rachel joined the Electrum Marketing team, our lunch time banter often takes a turn down memory lane where I typically end up spouting some advertising folklore that sounds eerily like my father’s tales of walking through miles of snow just to get to school.   I try and stop myself - realizing how ridiculous I must sound to her.  But, I feel compelled to 1) inform her of just how easy she has it today and 2) to keep the romance of a bygone era alive.

She probably thinks I worked in some “Mad Men” 1960s-era agency environment and, although it was the 80s, I admit there were a lot of similarities.   For instance, we all smoked at our desks and our kitchen had a bar so we could begin cocktailing after lunch.  Afternoon creative meetings often went astray of their purpose but we refused to ebb our creative juices.  We were artists.  At 22, I felt like I was in the writers’ office of the Alan Brady Show (please say you remember the Dick Van Dyke show) where everyone jockeyed to be the most creative and have their ideas selected.

Concepts were mocked-up as marker (as in magic markers) comps and took days to prepare before we presented them to clients.  If a concept was approved, a photo shoot was scheduled since there was no iStock.   Copy had to be typed on a typewriter (gasp!) and delivered to the typesetter who re-typed it and created the actual type for the ad layout.  The type then had to be picked-up and returned to the agency where it was cut and pasted onto the ad layout.  If there was a typo or a font size needed to change…you went back to the typesetter.   There was rarely client-approved copy since we did not have a fax machine so you had to hope they liked it or guess what….yes, back to the typesetter.

Radio and TV scripts were typed, read aloud and timed, and when you needed to edit or add copy to fit the time, the whole script had to be re-typed over and over until it was perfect.  I remember having to type one script 23 times one afternoon…perhaps we should have postponed cocktail hour that  day.

Media reps visited our office daily to woo our partners with free lunches, event tickets and even annual trips.  In exchange, we would purchase their media on behalf of our clients at a 15% agency discount.   What happened to that?

Today, as I sit at my desk, I give thanks that I have a fresh perspective to evaluate my experiences.  Although I can appreciate how easy technology has made our jobs, I will forever cling to my fond memories of my start in advertising and I hope that young Rachel will have similar feelings one day.  I glance up and see the ADDY awards I won my first year in the business and see the date.   1987!  I call up front, “Hey Rachel, when were you born?” 

"1987, why?”

Damn.  I am officially old.

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Yesterday, I accepted an in-person sales call from a rep I had no relationship with other than I had requested information from him six months ago for a potential project that never took off.  Hoping I might learn about a program that could benefit my clients and make me a hero, I sat down with open ears and an open mind.  That's the last thing I remember.  

He did not start by asking about my clients or their needs.  Instead, he dove right into a very detailed presentation that frankly was sometimes over my head.  If I don't understand it, how can I sell it to my client?  He rattled off feature after feature.  Where are the benefits for my clients?  

It's not shocking that this happened.  Bad sales calls happen every 30 seconds.*  Since you've been reading this 3 salespeople have gone down in flames.  What's shocking is that he was a senior representative of a very large well known company yet he lacked the most basic sales skills.  Needless to say, he did not get the sale...nor has he sent a follow up email as promised.  Surprise!

I'm tempted to send him my feedback although it wasn't requested.  Without feedback, he will never get better and the company will continue to suffer.  I’m a strong believer in mystery shopping and a structured customer feedback process and recommend it to my clients.  It helps identify specific weaknesses in the customer experience and provides businesses with the information needed to improve the customer experience, selling skills and ultimately, profitability.

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