Coffee Is for Closers! Ogilvy's "World's Greatest Salesperson" Contest Was Rigged, Say Losers
OgilvyOne's selection of three winners in its "World's Greatest Salesperson" contest has sparked a backlash amongst losing contenders who believe the ad agency changed the rules of the competition as it went along, to the disadvantage of those who were actually trying to demonstrate their sales skills.
The competition was an amusing one: In an effort to get back to good, old-fashioned salesmanship, contestants were asked to submit a YouTube video of themselves demonstrating how they would sell a common, household brick. Crucially, the instructions for the contest required sellers to demonstrate that they had measurable results among consumers (through Facebook visits, Twitter followers or even actual sales). Ever the cynic, I predicted at the time:
Entrants should be aware going in that the winner will be the most entertaining sales video maker -- and not, in fact, the world's greatest salesperson.Unsurprisingly, Ogilvy (whose clients include IBM, American Express, and Cisco) picked three jokey videos as winners, and not three videos from people who successfully demonstrated brick-selling potential. Yong Lee Abbas' video riffs on a brick used as a handbag; it had only 236 views at the time she was selected. Eric Polin actually made a web site to sell "lucky" red bricks at 99 cents each. And Todd Herman did a well-observed satire of Tony Robbins-style self-empowerment gurus (although judging by his brick-selling site and his professional site, he may actually be serious).
On Ogilvy's YouTube page, one contestant complained about changes to the contest midway in the process:
RichDunn51: To be hoenst from what i have seen, the only ones not going through from the original list, are the ones that are DIRECT sales, and this is supposed to be a direct sales contest. So nothing really makes sence at all here.Ogilvy responded:
ogilvy: We're amazed at the outstanding response the Search for the World's Greatest Salesperson contest has received from the YouTube Community! We really appreciate all of the time and effort that went into the creation of each video. In light of recent comments, we wanted to note that everyone who entered was treated fairly and equally in accordance with the Contest Rules. We've received tons of positive feedback and comments and are truly sorry to hear if anyone had a negative experience. ... ultimately we feel that we found those users who could potentially best represent what we're looking for in the World's Greatest Salesperson.If you look through the comments thread -- there are about 11 pages of griping about Ogilvy's lack of communication with people who went to the trouble of entering -- you can see that some contestants believed they did not make the final cut because they obeyed Ogilvy's own rules:
giehwan: i wish we had all known about the changes, i think most of us tried very hard to stick to the contest rules and not breach any guidelines so it would be a shame if the judging was changed as well.
dlnovak: wow... 2 of 3 finalist videos broke the rules by going over 2 minutes. This is in clear violation of the stated rules. Real fair Ogilvy, we expected more.Of course, Ogilvy has an excuse. Like Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross (below), it's teaching these people what the sales world is really like: Coffee is for closers! Second prize is a set of steak knives! Third prize is you're fired! And if you can't play in the man's game then go home and tell your wife your troubles.
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