It’s with great sadness that the widely-known television commercial icon, Billy Mays, has left us this Sunday morning. In light of his passing, we wanted to reflect on the lessons that Mays shared with us in personal branding, marketing, sales and entrepreneurial talent during his time. A hero and legend to the marketing industry. I share with you five lessons I learned from Billy Mays.
Some of you probably recognize popular pitchman, Billy Mays, from his strong voice (even a bit too strong at times) where he proudly introduces himself before the product, “Hi, Billy Mays here!” and the product he was pitching. During his career, he’s had some challenges and made many great sacrifices during his life such as being on the road a lot. But he doesn’t regret it, as it was the life he lived so he could provide for his son, Billy Mays III.
With his numerous hours of pitching products to people like us, we’ve learned five things in how we market ourselves to prospects, especially cold prospects.
1. Verify the Product Works.
Billy Mays was not just any ol’ pitchman you could hire. He would have to vet and confirm that your product works exceptionally as designed. If it didn’t work, he wouldn’t endorse it. There’s a lot on the line and making sure the product holds up was one of his commitments. (Like many, I still use OxiClean today because it works. ‘Nuff said.)
2. Personal Brands Really Do Matter.
For those who argue that personal branding is fluff and doesn’t generate sales, they haven’t seen Billy Mays. Billy’s personal brand consisted of his style, ethics and commitment to helping families live better through products he pitched. A personal endorsement from Billy Mays resulted in millions of revenue and satisfied customers. His catchy brand makes it easier to open up to new products. To see why ShamWow is not being promoted, see what personal brand Vince did.
3. Value is King.
After watching several episodes of his hit show on Discovery, Pitchmen, it’s evident that he fights to provide value to viewers worldwide. Whether that’s in the form of price or a, “But wait, there’s more–” cheery outburst to compliment products he pitched, he truly advocated for delivering a lot of value in a little amount of time.
4. Demonstrate Products in Unthinkable, Believable Ways.
Billy’s remarkable way of testing products and demonstrating their instant gratification made his commercials stick. Showing the extremes of a product catches people, impresses them and lets them imagine. Sure, you probably wouldn’t cut a car in half, but you sure as heck explore possibilities when the DualSaw sliced through it like a hot knife through butter.
5. Be Human and Connect to Fans.
More recently in Billy’s career, he made an effort to connect and collaborate with others in the industry. After the passionate conflict between Vince Shlomi, Mays reached over the aisle and collaborated with rival Anthony ‘Sully’ Sullivan to open up and bring respect to the industry of direct response marketing. Here is a true story of Mays’ transparency and willingness to connect with fans: A fan (and friend) of Billy Mays, Mark Herman, initially created Mays’ Twitter account. What may normally be met with legal threats and Twitter staff suspending the account, was actually a great way for Billy Mays to learn Twitter with the and connect with his son and thousands of fans on there. That takes character and true interest and stake in one’s fans.
These lessons are merely five of many lessons that Billy has shared with us. What we do with these is up to us. Even if all he was to you was ‘that guy’ for OxiClean, he delivered a great pitch and believed in his products. Be it print, TV, radio, PPC, graphical, email advertising – these are important lessons if they expect people to believe in the products themselves and to dig in to their wallet for that $19.95. The call to action here is for marketers to adapt from what Billy Mays has done and remember him as a great pitchman who helped rebuild the reputation into the core of the televised infomercial industry.
As we remember Billy Mays, I ask you to share what moment, memory or lesson you may have learned in the comments below.
Rest in Peace, Billy Mays.
–Joe
Joe – Excellent post and tribute to Billy Mays. This is a huge loss to the direct marketing/sales world – we’ve lost a legend. Personally, I was looking forward to many episodes of Pitchmen and using them in my ongoing education as a direct marketer/sales geek. I wish the best to his family & friends.
Condolences to the family and friends of Billy Mays. It is so sad that he died at a very early stage. Whatever the reason of his death, we all hope that he is already in peace now and further investigations will be made.
Another “celebrity” who was 50 just died. He had a lot going for him.
May Billy Mays rest in peace despite some of the negative things people say.
I completely agree with your observations of Billy. I was so upset to learn of his death, because I loved the show, and I was really getting to see him for who he was, a good dude. I'll be missing him.
Dylan
P.S. He really made me hate Vince
Billy Mays was certainly a man who knew how to get in touch with his audience. This post really sums up what it was that he spent his life doing. Great job!
Billy Mays was certainly a man who knew how to get in touch with his audience. This post really sums up what it was that he spent his life doing. Great job!