Accidental Hard Sells

Last night a friend introduced me to a site she uses to stream shows. She even gave a quick demo, glossing over the flaws as they appeared. Most of the videos are hosted on Megavideo, which makes you wait 50 minutes after watching 72 minutes of footage; and the quality isn't great, but this is for hardcore show-watchers that follow for plot, not pretty. Despite the misgivings, I was sold on her enthusiasm and the idea of the site's consistency. I'm down to try it.

The curious thing about being a user: When we're super into something, and we discover someone we know could use it, we become hardcore evangelists. And an evangelist powers through the pitch, however glaring the drawbacks might be.

It's a real-life sales job -- one most of us wouldn't wanna be paid to do, but one we readily slip into anyway when the conviction arises. That's a huge thing: we won't take a 40% commission to sell cars to survive, but we'll punt our favourite whatever to a friend for free, in the best contextual moment, out of the kindness of our hearts...?

This isn't going to turn into a sermon about the power of WOM, you know all that already. My big walkaway was, hey brands, put your spontaneous salespeople in a good position. WOM isn't just about chatting a product or service up; when the opportunity's there, people wanna give demos too. And it's the worst feeling in the world when you're all in the middle of demonstrating how awesome X is, and something sucky happens that you have to hastily explain away.

Oddly enough, once you've found yourself in this inadvertent sales position, it's really hard to say "forget it, never mind" until you've wrapped up the pitch. So keep the road smooth for the hard sellers you don't know are there. You don't have to part water or anything; just be reliable.

About the image: This saucy little ad features Miss Chiquita Banana, created by BBDO in 1944. Off-topic: where did all the nifty mascots go?