One of the most entertaining scenes in any detective drama is the interrogation of a suspect by adopting one of 2 approaches: good cop, or bad cop. It’s just fun to watch who will be effective. First you have Good Cop who just can’t help but empathize with the situation. It’s just an unfortunate situation for the suspect. And it’s not really their fault entirely. Just a bad set of circumstances. So the dialogue is directed at helping the suspect show that they have some good in them; and they can be a somewhat better person. And then there is Bad Cop. There is nothing friendly about this character. And so the dialogue is all about the disdain for the suspect. If the suspect will not co-operate, the maximum amount of pain and suffering will be brought to bear on them. No mercy. It is all about creating fear.
In watching these dramas, it is interesting to watch the behind the scenes planning. Often two interrogators will discuss and agree who will be Good Cop, and who will be Bad Cop. Who will start first? When will they switch tactics? The situations are always different. There is no one way with which it is always best to proceed. It always depends on the specifics of the situation, and the nature of the suspect who is going to be interrogated. Human nature and all its complexities. And the tag team of good-cop/bad-cop, are only effective if they can find a way to navigate the complexities of that human nature.
When it comes to demand generation, the situation is not that different. Potential buyers always start out as suspects who you may know little or nothing about. But whatever interactions occur, they must be managed in way that will move things forward. Just like good-cop/bad-cop, it is necessary for you to have a working theory with which to start. From there, you must develop your own script and screen play. There will not be one set of tactics that will work in all situations. Rather, there will be some combination of tactics that are dynamically strung together, all being driven by how the reality TV version of things plays out.
If it was just one suspect that you are dealing with one-on-one, you can expect to get pretty good at things. But the true reality is that you are dealing with an aggregated set of suspects or prospective buyers at any one time. And this is where it can get hairy and just plain unmanageable. In a multi touch-point world, there are suspects and prospects interacting with your brand constantly and irregularly. In order for you to “break them”, you need to devise processes to both track them, and reach out to them. And this is where it becomes useful to incorporate tools that will facilitate the effort.
When it comes to marketing in the internet age, it is no longer about message broadcasting alone. You must be able to effectively bring the suspect in for questioning. You must figure out the correct good-cop/bad-cop combination of tactics. And you must narrow in on whether you have the right suspect or not. Otherwise, they are all going to get away.