Last weekend the Culture51 team was in NYC leading a workshop. So Sam and I, being avid jazz fans, went to Greenwich Village to hear some live music. We had the great fortune of hearing a group of up-and-coming musicians, led by drummer and composer EJ Strickland, at Smalls Jazz Club.

This sextet absolutely blew us away. Their creativity, passion, expressiveness, and virtuosity were something to behold (and sitting a mere 3-4 feet away from the band didn't hurt either :). Everyone in that packed club knew that we were in the midst of something remarkable. 

As for the marketing lesson, Sam and I noticed that EJ was using a few fundamentals of selling during the show. Several times, as he was speaking about the band and introducing the tunes, EJ mentioned that they have CDs for sale at the door, said that it's the band's debut album, and said how much they cost. As the show went on and the band displayed their consistent mastery and artistry, the desire in the audience for that CD continued to grow. We had to have it, because the product (their music) had such a powerfully positive effect. They started the evening with a whole box of CDs, by the end of the night they were sold out.

So looking at what actually took place there, you can see that the band created desire by offering something truly remarkable, then gave a clear call to action ("buy our CD") and made it easy for people to act. Since the CDs were being sold at the door on their way out, everyone had the opportunity to choose to buy.

One other marketing lesson from this evening, is that EJ was selling to a crowd that had already bought. Mark Joyner's "Great Formula" for sales success is that you find a thirsty crowd, sell them a drink, then sell them another. The CDs were the "another" part of that formula, because everyone in that room had already spent $20 to hear the music live. What better crowd to buy a CD than people who will already spend money on music?

I hope you don't find this example degrading to the beauty and power of what these musicians were doing. I was inspired to write about it on this blog--which is about how idealists can also be successful in business and commerce--precisely because of the fact that EJ was doing both. There was no compromise either artistically or commercially, and that is something worth noting.