Can Right Brain Driven Clients Succeed With Direct Marketing?

Written By Ted Grigg

Can Right Brain Driven Clients Cannot Succeed With Direct Marketing? The short answer is no.

I have come to the conclusion that some clients cannot succeed using the direct marketing discipline.

They may be smart, driven and even successful at what they do. But if they are genetically right brain dominant and leading the company's marketing efforts, they do not have what it takes to succeed using direct response strategies.

Why is that so you may ask.

Before answering this, let's establish the characteristics of the two basic types.

DMCG Results

Left Brain:

-Logical

-Sequential

-Rational

-Analytical

-Objective

-Looks at parts

Right Brain:

-Random

-Intuitive

-Holistic

-Synthesizing

-Subjective

-Looks at wholes

They both have value. But imbalance either way is deadly.

Most clients fit some where in between. So bear in mind my headline refers to clients who rate between a 9 or 10 on a scale of 10 as extreme right brained individuals.

As you know, we are direct marketers and our strategies depend heavily on left-brain activity. And respect for analytics and relational databases eludes the extreme right brained decision makers.

Ideally, direct marketers want and need clients with a mix of both the left and right brain. An extreme either way will limit company growth.

But if I had to pick between the two extremes, I would select the right brain clients because direct marketers support recommendations with data and analytics. This is something left brainers relish.

On the downside, the right brain leader can suffer from analysis paralysis. In addition, the creative process often bores such a leader to tears. As any knowledgeable direct marketer knows, creative that does not speak to the prospect's emotions will not generate the needed response.

Overall, however, I have observed that the clients who appreciate the power of direct marketing have a strong focus on data analysis. These are the left brain types.

As for pure right brain clients, I walk away from them. There is too much DISCIPLINE and analysis required by the direct marketing discipline to make these clients happy.

Do you have an experience that either refutes or supports my observations? Please comment on it. I'd love to hear your perspective.

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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