I recently had the privilege to address FreemanXP’s creative staff in a Hangout. Creative Director John Jaeger and I mused on the topic of selling ideas, and how important this skill is for creative staff at marketing agencies.
Imagine me, at 17 years old, pulling in to the parking lot at work: a local Tex-Mex restaurant. I leap out of my Chevy Blazer (complete with subwoofer, of course), frantically tying my apron around my waist as I dash into the daily team meeting. (The meeting started at 10:00 am. I slept 'til 9:53.) In these meetings, sales techniques and results were common discussions, as it's when we learned of the restaurant's "daily specials," a.k.a. fish that needed to be cooked before we had to waste it.
"Man, you guys shoulda seen Nathan yesterday. He coulda sold a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves," boasts our shift manager.
We live in a world of distractions. Studies show the average person spends more than five hours a day on mobile devices, and there are more than 2.7 billion smartphone users across the globe. In addition to the proliferation of digital technology, we now also live in a world full of artificial intelligence — a thing that used to seem like the stuff of science fiction movies. In fact, by 2025, experts believe the AI market will be worth more than $100 billion.