What's next?

Love him or hate him, it’s hard to ignore the success that Jeff Bezos has achieved with Amazon. I recently read a quote from him that has great application for those of us in the advertising/marketing/business consulting world. Bezos said:

"Nobody pays for a product or service; they pay for satisfaction."

This is also consistent with our number one rule of advertising – people do not buy products and services; they buy what the product or service does for them. Having spent last week at the Borrell Conference in Miami, we were all challenged to think about what we are offering now and asked will it be enough in the future. The world of marketing is changing almost hourly, if not daily. It can feel hard to keep up. Bezos goes on to say:

"You can't stop at what you're good at, you have to ask: what do your customers need or want? And no matter how difficult it is, you better get good at those things."

Bring this home to our world. Our advertisers want fully integrated marketing strategies and solutions. Being a "radio" seller, a "TV" seller, or a "newspaper rep" is no longer enough. As difficult as it is, we must get better and expand our knowledge in all forms of advertising — all platforms and tactics.

As we head into the weekend, ask yourself these questions:

What do my customers want that I'm not now providing?

What will they want in the future, and how will I be prepared?

Managers, these would also be great questions to ask as part of any sales meeting.

If you're not planning and learning for the future, it will be here before you know it. If you're not prepared, you'll be part of the past. Obsolete is an ugly word. Continuously asking what's next and learning what's next is the only way to avoid being obsolete.

Happy Friday!

Jeff Schmidt is SVP-Professional Development at the Radio Advertising Bureau. You can reach Jeff at jeff.Schmidt@Rab.com or follow him on social media: Twitter, LinkedIn.