“Most people think telling a sales story about your technological edge or competitive product benefit makes great sense,” says Allan Gorman. “But in the age of the internet, those old-fashioned sales arguments just aren’t as effective as they used to be.”

Promoting a theory he calls: Selling to non-buyers, Gorman explains that marketers who try to affect sales through the promotion of price or technology alone are limiting their perspective to only those few who might actively be in the market... a relatively small audience at any given time.

"Talk to non-buyers instead," he suggests, "by crafting a story about what working with you will be like, and what kind of beneficial results they will get. You’ll begin to create a new business model that will transcend the way customers think about your category. The only way winners win is by providing an experience audiences just can’t get anywhere else and, in the process, transforming perceptions about them from just commonplace into way cool."

A thirty-year-plus veteran of Madison Avenue and leader of Brandspa, a northern New Jersey advertising and brand marketing agency, Gorman is a 2006 inductee into the New Jersey Advertising Hall of Fame and the recipient of over 400 industry awards for creative excellence. Designer, writer, painter and improv actor, Gorman presents his branding and leadership messages in essays, keynote talks, workshops and the delightful book: Briefs for Building Better Brands—Tips, Parables and Insights for Market Leaders.