Seth Godin Explains the Importance of Taking Risks

Defying the Limits: You’re one of the original gurus of permission marketing. Can you explain why consumers are so reluctant to give permission?

Seth Godin: Consumers are reluctant because marketers are lying, cheating scum. They make promises, but they don’t keep them. They rent and sell and improvise, but they don’t do what they say they would do. You know, I got 175,000 emails to my offer of a free third of my book Permission Marketing (write to free@permission.com) and I only mailed each and every person one time. When I tell this to marketers, they’re astonished.

DTL: What can be done to win the trust of consumers?

SG: Tell the truth. Go slow. Keep your promises.

DTL: What do you think of thought leadership as a marketing strategy?

SG: I think there are some business-to-business consumers who respond to thought leaders. They’re the early adopters with a new idea - otaku. They read Fast Company and care about new ideas. The challenge is to make those ideas easy to spread. The second challenge is to turn that awareness into a sale.

DTL: In your new book, Purple Cow, you've said you want to make it clear that it’s safer to be risky. Will that advice work for today's CXOs in the global 2000?

SG: It will work better for them than for anyone else. The vast majority of Global 2000 companies are withering away. The things that made them big and profitable have changed - usually NOT in their favor. This is pretty simple math, really. And now that you’re big and your competitors have nothing to lose by going after you, what choice do you have?

DTL: Using your concept of an “ideavirus,” how could senior executives push their initiatives through to adoption by the rank and file?

SG: You can’t push an initiative any more than you can push a piece of wet spaghetti. The alternative is to make it clear what’s in it for the employee and make it easy to spread the word. Anything else is just marketing talk.

DTL: What would you say is the No. 1 key strategy for gaining market share in today’s business environment?

SG: Realize that you’re not in charge. Realize that no one cares about you other than you. It’s really about them, not you. CRM is not about consultants or systems or processes or measurement. It’s about allowing the customer to manage the relationship. The easier you make it for them to do that, the more powerful your message becomes.