As the baseball season winds down, I’ve been watching quite a few Tampa Bay Rays games and of course all the TV commercials that come along for the ride. Recently I’ve noticed that our local electric company has been running a series of TV spots about window film – needless to say they got my attention, let alone the attention of thousands of people in the viewing area. 

The ad begins with a woman sitting in front of a sun-filled window while a voice explains how window film can reduce solar heat from entering the room through the glass. The voice goes on to display the benefits provided by window film, ultimately leading a viewer towards the punch line, which is that you’ll be more comfortable and save money on your electric bill if you install window film. The call to action was a cash rebate from the electric company to help pay for the window film installation. 

Now, being curious about how these ads may be affecting window film sales and how dealers may or may not be exploiting this free publicity, I called a couple tinting establishments asking questions specific to these ads and how they made me curious about having window film installed. My calls uncovered a variety of responses, although there were two standouts that will help make my point. 

In short order, one dealer sold himself right out of any chance of giving me an estimate because he was negative about program requirements, saying that it’s pretty difficult to qualify. On the other end of the spectrum, I found a very enthusiastic dealer who was cleverly exploiting calls generated by the program via a brilliant marketing twist, where he was matching the electric company’s rebate, with an additional “dealer rebate” saying it was available to me just for mentioning the advertisement.

Let’s review. 

In a time when we must fight for selling opportunities, a local electric company is running a significant TV advertising campaign designed to stir up interest in the product that we sell – a product so rich with consumer benefits some may think it’s too good to be true! The advertisements were designed to place window film top-of-mind, elevating product credibility, making phones ring and ultimately removing a hurdle or two from a dealer’s selling process. 

All that said, why would some dealers embrace and exploit consumer frenzy generated by free advertising while others sell themselves right out of any opportunity to make a sale? As with most things the differentiator is often about attitude, enthusiasm and passion for the products you sell. And no matter what you are selling, the reward will almost always go to those who place a positive spin on every selling opportunity presented and do so with passion and enthusiasm. 

So if you were a consumer, which one of these dealers would you invite over for an estimate? The one who said the program had too many restrictive qualification requirements, or the one who offered a matching rebate just for mentioning the TV advertisement? It’s most important to note that this is not an example about how to exploit an electric company’s rebate program, because we all know that they are not available in all markets, rather the moral of the story here is about how enthusiasm, passion and creative marketing applied to what you do will almost always be the determiner between success and … not exactly.