If you grew up in the 1980s like me, you no doubt were a huge Star Wars fan and loved to play with the action figures. Of course, you probably had no idea that the massive success of the Star Wars toys caused a huge problem for other toy companies and even changed the original plan for the film.
Every other toy company was trying to figure out how to come up with the Star Wars toy killer. Mattel did come close to toppling Kenner’s success, but in the process of wooing retailers, they demonstrated an amazing sales technique that MSPs should apply to their IT marketing. Continue reading to discover this slick sales tactic.
You see, the Mattel team knew they needed to come up with something to compete with the Star Wars action figures, so they assigned a team to the project. Of course, they looked around at all the broken ideas and parts from other toys that failed, robbed Peter to pay Paul, then added some of their own ideas in the melting pot and came up with some radical plans. They based everything on prior research they had done, which illustrated a child’s inherent desire to be in control, and came up with the He-Man concept to emphasize the superhero dreams of children. These action figures were significantly taller than the Star Wars action figures and appeared to have larger muscles.
Since Mattel believed in their heart that they had a hero on their hands, they lined up meetings with retailers like Toys-R-Us. However, during their meetings, the prospective buyers asked some very penetrating questions that blindsided the Mattel sales team. Their observation was that the He-Man toys might not be able to compete with Star Wars action figures because there was no action-packed movie behind them to sell the kids on the concept. However, one of the rock star sales guys on the Mattel team was able to think fast on his feet and mentioned that they planned to have a comic book series to sell the toys.
While that off-the-cuff and inspired idea satisfied the first prospect, the bigger toy stores were not impressed and they pressed for more proof that when you get the He-Man idea into the heads of children, these action figures will perform just as well as the Star Wars movie toys. Once again, this superstar salesperson rolled out a brainchild idea in a casual manner by acting like they forgot to tell the big toy chain that they had a feature cartoon series planned to sell the new toy franchise. This concept was enough to persuade nearly all the toy retailers to place orders and dedicate shelf space for the new He-Man toys.
Of course, the He-Man team hadn’t planned a comic book series or a cartoon series to help promote the toy line, but rather the salesman was just trying to close the deal. This “fake-it-’til-you-make-it” story had a happy ending because Mattel was able to deliver on both the comics and the cartoon series, both of which became extremely popular and drove enough sales to compete with the mighty Star Wars toys.
MSPs should take a page from the Mattel team and make sure they are thinking outside the box when they have closing meetings with IT marketing prospects. If you have to add to your model or beef up your SLA to help close a deal, then go for it. But just make sure that you can deliver on your fake-it-’til-you-make-it promises, because if you fail, then this gesture is nothing more than a fib.
