A while ago I visited inlaws, and on packout left the charger for my Panasonic digital camera. Do you have any idea how hard it is to track down, much less purchase a replacement? Try. The camera is a Panasonic DMC-FZ5. I was that lonely farmer looking for someone to take my money so I could take possession of a new charger. Look at how hard the marketing and sales players in most American businesses have made it for me the eager (and demand laden) consumer to do business with them.

Real demand presents itself in the mind of the buyer at 3 a.m. on some lonely, clear-headed night. Real demand is largely ignored in the marketplace. Heck, Roger Rueff wrote an excellent play about how no marketing rep ought to go to a sales conference in Wichita and merely talk to a potential buyer to get to know what he needs. Sales talk in Wichita is about manipulating the conversation to create demand and close the deal.

That is backward, short-term thinking at best.

Mad Men is about a mid-size, Madison avenue advertising agency in the early 1960's. The lead character “Donald Draper” seems quite gifted in this technique of creating perceived demand. It seems to be his forte. Time and again he creates campaigns, and then convinces the client that it is what they want – and then forcefully ushers them to a signed contract. But you have to look closely and listen closely to the excellent writing. Mr. Draper does not create demand. To the contrary, he is an excellent student of human needs and wants – and rather than create demand, he identifies it before the buyer even knows they have it. And that, Hugh, is the core of marketing and sales and closing deals.

A while ago I visited inlaws, and on packout left the charger for my Panasonic digital camera. Do you have any idea how hard it is to track down, much less purchase a replacement? Try. The camera is a Panasonic DMC-FZ5. I was that lonely farmer looking for someone to take my money so I could take possession of a new charger. Look at how hard the marketing and sales players in most American businesses have made it for me the eager (and demand ladden) consumer to do business with them.

Real demand presents itself in the mind of the buyer at 3 a.m. on some lonely, clear-headed night. Real demand is largely ignored in the marketplace. Heck, they write plays about how no marketing rep ought to go to a sales conference in Wichita and merely talk to a potential buyer to get to know what he needs. Sales talk in Wichita is about manipulating the conversation to create demand and close the deal.

It just seems backward to me.

A while ago I visited inlaws, and on packout left the charger for my Panasonic digital camera. Do you have any idea how hard it is to track down, much less purchase a replacement? Try. The camera is a Panasonic DMC-FZ5. I was that lonely farmer looking for someone to take my money so I could take possession of a new charger. Look at how hard the marketing and sales players in most American businesses have made it for me the eager (and demand laden) consumer to do business with them.

Real demand presents itself in the mind of the buyer at 3 a.m. on some lonely, clear-headed night. Real demand is largely ignored in the marketplace. Heck, Roger Rueff wrote an excellent play about how no marketing rep ought to go to a sales conference in Wichita and merely talk to a potential buyer to get to know what he needs. Sales talk in Wichita is about manipulating the conversation to create demand and close the deal.

That is backward, short-term thinking at best.