![]() ![]() ![]() You can’t just complain and convince in order to reduce the amount of clipart in your client communications. How to curb the stench of unpleasant visuals We’ve prepared this (tongue-in-cheek) handout for you to use with your sales people to start the conversation. Would you engage in very intelligent pitch with clients, yet yell “HOO, HAH, BING, BANG, BONG! “ when advancing to every fifth slide in the deck? Because that’s what using clipart is like.Would you go to client meeting with a spaghetti sauce stain on your tie? Because that’s what using clipart is like.Would you wear a crisp business suit while sporting enormous red clown shoes when you meet with a customer? Because that’s what using clipart is like.You can ask your sales force these questions to show that use of clipart isn’t as harmless as they might think it is: Here are a few other analogous situations we’ve come up with. Clipart is not as harmless as you think it is Click to Enlarge Your salesperson (and brand) will forever have to work harder with that customer to move beyond that slight negative perception of you in order to win deals. But that doesn’t mean it’s an event without consequence that people will soon forget. If that sales person passes gas during a client meeting, no one on the client side of the table will stand up and shout “HEY YOU! WE DON’T WANT YOUR SOLUTION! GET OUT!” The client would simply ignore it and bear through it, because it’s polite business etiquette. The first step to curbing the use of clip art is to convince your company’s offenders that it’s not just an insignificant, forgettable moment in a brand relationship with a client. Or are we? Challenge the logic that we marketers are overreacting Using clip art is like passing gas in a business meeting So you and I are definitely overreacting. The last one seems to have clear logic and can be difficult to dispute: you can’t be perfect in relationships, and one silly or awkward moment isn’t going to eat away at a customer’s trust that has been built over hundreds of positive touch points. “I had to use something, and it’s just on this one slide, so what’s the big deal? You are totally overreacting.”.“One of the smartest and most successful companies ever, Google, lets millions of people every day find and use clipart and pictures easily.“Inserting clip art is a feature built into Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft has to be the foremost expert on how to make PowerPoint slides, so how could it be wrong?”.What’s a brand advocate to do? Prepare to hear rationalization from your company’s clipart enthusiasts We all agree, but for some reason all of our companies’ decks are chock full of clipart. Years of customer relationship building, brand management and creative strategy are just no match for the use of goofy cartoons, people icons that oddly have no faces and nonspecific renditions of technology and business concepts. ![]()
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