The presentation talks about five lessons on sales and marketing one can derive from movies

1. AAyuja © 2013
Disclaimer: This presentation and the information provided here is indicative in nature and
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5 Sales and Marketing Lessons from Horror
Movies
Meet Goals, Beat Competition, Exceed Expectations
* Via our friends from fileboard

2. In online marketing, it’s easy to get caught up in the myopic treadmill of more sales,
more sales, more sale but look also at what types of customers you’re attracting
and where you want your business to go. Do not make the deadly mistake of painting
yourself into a corner by investing your efforts too far into one strategy with no exit
plan (i.e. – we need a huge active Facebook following next month, and nothing else
matters as much until then!). Finding the perfect mix of your audience’s online touch
points takes a lot of trial and error, and if run too far in one direction you might find
yourself searching for a window to jump out.
Never Run Upstairs
One of the most hopeless mistakes a victim
trapped in a killer’s house can make is to flee
upstairs. This is almost always a death
trap, because you have nowhere left to run as
soon as your aggressor follows you to the
second story. Jumping out a window will break
your legs, and hiding in a room is little more
than a doomed waiting game.
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3. AAyuja Internal and Confidential © 2012
Okay, maybe it’s a stretch to say your competitors are as bad as a child killing dream
demon, but if you watch what they have traditionally done in social media and online
marketing, you can avoid making the same painful mistakes they have no doubt lost
money and time making before you. For example, if they put together a big push on
Pinterest and your audience just wasn’t there to care, you’ll know that the network is
of low priority to you. At the same time, your audiences are similar enough that an
analysis of their strengths can give you successful ideas on how to out do them at
their own game. In horror and sales, knowledge is power!
Discover What You Can About Your
Nemesis
One of the most beloved Halloween horror
classics is A Nightmare On Elm Street III:
Dream Warriors. Until this film, most attempts
to fight back against the gloved madman
ended in a kitschy catch phrase from Freddy
and a ghastly death. But in Dream Warriors,
the kids discovered a winning mindset that
works equally well in sales.
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4. AAyuja Internal and Confidential © 2012
If you are going to succeed, you need to understand the landscape and culture of
each lead generation tool you add to your sales and marketing plan. The people who
hang out on Twitter are not the same breed as the Reddit crowd, the audience of one
guest post blog is likely quite different than the next, and SEO audiences need to be
more narrowly defined than your SEM targets. Without taking the time to thoroughly
explore the environment you will be spending time in, you’re as good as monster
bait.
Learn Your Environment Inside and
Out
Have you ever wondered what gave Laurie
(Jamie Lee Curtis) the edge to
survive six editions of Halloween flicks? It’s
because for the majority of the franchise,
Michael Myers stalked her in her own home
town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Contrast that
with the group of friends in The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre who found themselves
marooned on a farm far from home.
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5. AAyuja Internal and Confidential © 2012
In sales, you might not get lost in a literal forest, but sometimes its easy to lose your
way in the thick brush of online audiences. Those who forget the exact people they
are targeting in their marketing campaign wind up as lost as the Blair Witch Project
kids who tossed their map into a river. The characteristics of your core audience must
guide everything you do, from the tone of your blog to the networks you post on.
They are your map, your compass, and your walkie talkie. Never lose sight of your
audience and you’ll never be truly lost.
Don’t Get Lost In The Woods
In nearly every horror movie imaginable,
getting lost in the woods is a recipe for grave
misfortune. There are untold horrors awaiting
you, from formidable foes such as Jason
Vorhees, demented freaks living in the hills,
and even flesh eating viruses that can
consume your entire group. Every victim who
couldn’t find his way through the trees surely
wishes he never set foot down the trail the
first-place.
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6. AAyuja Internal and Confidential © 2012
Not having a plan in online sales can have consequences just as gory. An Adwords
account with no budget limit can bankrupt a small business. An involved social media
campaign with no lead generation goals will waste hundreds of man-hours without a
return. Instead of running around like a clueless college kid hoping to stumble your
way to safety, be like Ripley in Alien and develop a savvy plan your team understands
and will stick to. It’s the only way to make it to the ending credits.
Make A Plan And Stick To It
One of the great Cardinal sins of horror
movies is not having a plan for survival, or
diverging from the perfectly good one you
have already made. We see this error
committed in nearly every slasher movie ever
shot — the group that decides to stick
together only to split-up a few scenes later.
Naturally, these situations typically lead to
gruesome slaughters at hands of the
demented knife wielding psycho of the film.
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