What I Learned About Sales and Marketing From “Better Call Saul”
Now that “Better Call Saul” has finally concluded its 6th and final season, I have started binge-watching the entire series and much like the drugs distributed through Gus Fring’s restaurant (Los Pollos Hermanos) throughout the series, I am addicted to this show. I really enjoyed “Breaking Bad” and find this show to be just as enjoyable, but in a different way.
This is much more of a day-to-day telling of a story about interpersonal relationships and how people arrived to the person they ultimately will be in life. But one other aspect of Jimmy McGill’s, a.k.a. Saul Goodman’s, story has stood out to me. While he is many things ranging from a criminal, a con man, a lawyer, a caring brother, and even a loving and selfless significant other. These roles and all the other parts he plays from one scene to the next have one thing in common – he is a salesman.
There are usually one of two reactions when you hear the word “sales”; you either cringe at the thought of having to “sell something” or you get excited by the adrenaline rush that often accompanies making a big sale. No matter what career path we have chosen in life, at some point we are selling something. Whether it’s selling an idea, service, or product; to simply selling ourselves in a job interview to a potential employer. We’ve all had experience in sales.
WARNING: There may be a few minor Better Call Saul spoilers below. You have been warned!
Don’t Be Afraid to Sell: What Can We Learn from Jimmy McGill About Sales?
In one example of sales, Jimmy has prepaid for airtime to run 10 local commercials at roughly $400 per spot. Due to his suspension from being a lawyer he is unable to run his own commercials and he is not allowed to sell the airtime either. So what does he do in this situation? Instead of selling the airtime he decides to create commercials for other local businesses in which he would be paid for the creation of the ad, but give them the airtime for free. Brilliant! He could’ve have simply eaten the cost of the airtime totaling roughly $4000, but instead he figured out a way to not only make that money back but also turn a profit.
How many times have you felt like a victim in your own business, but took the necessary action to create a better outcome? We’ve all been there, whether it’s early in the startup phase or seasonal businesses that have to deal with slow times when things are a bit more quiet around the office. What do we do in these hard times? We can either sit next to the phone waiting for it to ring or we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps like ol’ Jimmy and figure out a way to make some money.
Know Your Audience: What Can We Learn from Jimmy McGill About Marketing?
In another turn of events, poor Jimmy decides it’s time to get a job while his law license is still suspended, so he goes to work for a cell phone store. There are literally no customers coming into this store and we see many scenes of Jimmy bouncing a ball against the windows and walls in pure boredom. At some point after work, Jimmy gets the idea that people are concerned with privacy, so he starts marketing to customers that pre-paid phones will give them the privacy they seek from “the man.”
We all love our privacy, but the customers that are buying these “drop phones” are more of a criminal type and buying them in bulk. Jimmy knows that when he gets back his license to practice law as an attorney that these drop phone customers will be perfect clients for his law firm. He is counting on them to screw up and need his services.
Again, this is another fictitious scenario from a popular TV show, but Jimmy McGill’s slow transition into alter ego Saul Goodman, the master at finding a need, creating a solution for that need, and then reaching his target audience using scrappy, bootstrapping techniques is admirable. In this case, his target audience didn’t really understand there was a need for privacy until he explained it to them. Once they understood it, they were happy to hand over their money.
What Does Your Saul Goodman Alter Ego Look Like?
In your company, do your potential customers know what problems they face with marketing? I’ve worked with many clients in the past who are new to video marketing. Not only do they not know what makes a good video, but they don’t know what exactly to do with it. At Stories With Purpose we often say that you could have the best video in the world, but that doesn’t mean people are going to see it. The distribution of that video is just as important as the video itself. After we’ve created the video ad we can help guide you to success by reaching your target audience.
