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Advanced Tool For Great Sales Presentations

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

As you develop your sales stories and presentations, one factor you’ll want to give consideration to is what’s referred to as the “arc”. This is more than simply the length of the story, although “long arc” stories are, as one might surmise, longer than short arc ones.

Stories are usually told in self-contained units. “Here’s the beginning. Here’s the middle. Here’s how it wraps up.” Certainly nothing wrong with that, and from a practical perspective most of your stories will be in this self-contained, short arc format.

However, some of the most successful sales stories, especially those that are used in presentations are in a long arc form. What this means is that the story is introduced early in the presentation. However the speaker or writer may leave the story periodically only to return to it later on. The long arc story provides bookends for the entire story although there may be shorter stories that are interspersed within the overall presentation.

The long arc story traces its roots to television. Historically TV episodes were self contained units. In the space of 30 or 60 minutes an entire story was told from beginning to end. The next week a brand new story was told. Aside from the main characters, there was little continuity from week to week.

The television show “Wise Guys” in the 1980s is largely credited with introducing the concept of the long-arc series. The season opener introduced a plot line that was not resolved until season end. Some individual shows made no reference to the long-arc plot line, while other episodes advanced the long-arc plot incrementally. It was a tribute to the writers that they were able to maintain audience interest for an entire season, while also including numerous single-show plot lines that were entertaining for the casual viewer. This long-arc format is now successfully used by many shows.

But what makes this particularly interesting is the application to sales presentations and other speeches you might give.

Let me share an example.

In my presentation on Unique Sales Stories that I deliver to groups, one of the key points I want to make is that people remember stories, they don’t remember facts. It’s my belief that one of the reasons why people don’t get as many referrals as they ideally would like is that they aren’t top of mind. When they describe what they do, it isn’t memorable.

Why?

One of the main culprits is that they use facts to describe what they do rather than telling stories. Thus if you want more referrals you need to tell more unique sales stories.

OK, simple enough.

One way I could get that message across is to simply communicate it as I just did. That would probably work OK, but since I’m advocating using sales stories as a tool for getting more referrals, I ought to do exactly just that. Thus to make this point, I use a long arc story.

I start the presentation by saying, “I went to Washington University in St. Louis.” Pause. “Fun fact to know and tell.” Longer pause.

I then go into my presentation during which I share that as the son of a university professor when it came time to apply to colleges, that was a big deal in the Satterfield household.

I applied to three schools. Since I always loved to read and write, one of them was Princeton University which was the school of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Plus, if you’ve ever visited it, Princeton looks exactly like what you would imagine, ivy covered walls, a university straight out of central casting.

I also applied to UCLA, the University of California at Los Angeles. Growing up in New England in the late 1960s, I wasn’t too much different from most other guys. If you couldn’t be James Bond, you wanted to be a really cool surfer dude. Thus, the appeal of UCLA.

I also applied to Washington University in St. Louis (you always have to describe it that way since there are so many schools with the name “Washington” in them.) Dad was from St. Louis, which is how it originally got on my radar screen, but what was most appealing to me was that it offered co-ed dorms. Quite the cutting edge in dormitory living circa 1973.

Anyway, Princeton sent me a very nice letter, “In the effect that hell does freeze over, we would be more than happy to reconsider your application.” However both UCLA and Washington University in St. Louis let me in. That led to a short conversation with Dad (who was financing this experiment in higher education) who said to me that he thought that if I went to UCLA I would probably become a pretty good surfer and flunk out my sophomore year. (Apparently he hadn’t noticed the mention of co-ed dorms in the Washington University materials.) Thus off I went in May of 1973 to St. Louis.

At this point in the presentation I stop and ask the audience to take out a pen and piece of paper. I ask them to write down the name of the school I went to and then the names of the two schools I applied to but did not go to. I then ask them to turn the paper over and tell them that we’ll return to it a bit later on.

My presentation then goes on to talk about other applications for using Unique Sales Stories. At one point I mention again that it’s my premise that people don’t remember facts, they remember stories and that we’ll find out if that is really true shortly. What I’m doing here is seeding and reminding the audience about the long-arc story which is about where I went to college.

I’m now about to wrap up the presentation so I ask the audience to find the piece of paper that they wrote down the answers to where I applied to school, but not to turn the piece of paper over. I ask them to write down on the back of the paper the name of the school that I went to. I then ask them to write down the names of the other two schools. Finally, I ask them to compare what they’ve written down on the back of the paper to what they wrote down on the front.

Here’s what typically happens.

Virtually everyone gets the names of the schools right the first time I ask them to write them down. That’s to be expected. But here’s what’s very interesting. Typically 85-90% of the audience gets the answers correct the second time as well. This is the tangible proof that people remember stories.

If I had simply said that I went to Washington University in St. Louis and by the way, I also applied to Princeton and UCLA, 10 minutes later no one would remember. (And I’ve actually tried this and the recall results are pretty depressing.) By telling a story, people remembered what they would otherwise likely forget.

This story is introduced very early in my presentation, referred to briefly in the middle and then concluded at the end. It’s one of my signature long-arc stories and does an outstanding job of making the specific point that if you want to be remembered, you need to tell stories.

Since I make the cryptic statement of “We’ll see if I’m right a bit later on”, interest and curiosity increases. That’s one of the benefits of the long arc story.

Granted a long-arc sales story requires a bit of time. Thus it’s ideally suited if you’re preparing a speech or a sales presentation. Naturally, if I can be of assistance to you in developing one, please let me know.

Talk soon,
Mark

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Getting Known By Those Who Matter. The Brand Of You.

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

I’m fascinated by branding. Perhaps it’s because I worked for two large consumer goods companies, Pepsi & Kraft Foods, where brands are what they live and die for.

But, branding in the world of consumer goods is very different than what you or I should do to build the brand of “You”.

A good to place to start, if we’re going to create a branding strategy, is to define what we mean by “branding”.

Here’s how Entrepreneur.com defines it: “Your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from that of your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.”

That last sentence is particularly important and underscores one of the primary reasons why so many branding strategies just don’t gain much momentum.

People focus on the wrong stuff.

Here’s what I mean.

If the goal of the branding strategy is to become very well known by those who can hire you or refer you business, then the name of your company, your logo, website banner, the colors you choose for your marketing materials, becomes secondary.

What? The name of my company is “Secondary”? Bear with me-I’m not saying it doesn’t have value, I’m merely suggesting that you need to focus your efforts elsewhere.

Quite frankly, you just don’t have the marketing muscle and the financial resources to imprint a new name, or a logo onto the consciousness of your market. The last company to do that was Accenture, and estimates are that they spent over $200 million to do so. (Plus they had you-know-who as their celebrity endorser.)

So does that mean that attempting to brand yourself and your company (and I’m using the separate terms “yourself” and “your company” deliberately) is a fool’s errand? Not at all.

Rather, what I’m suggesting is that you approach branding from a different perspective. Remember the last sentence of the definition: “Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.”

A branding strategy has two distinct components. The story about the company and the story about the person behind the company. It’s the stories that get remembered, not the logo, not the name, not the font…the stories.

It’s a two-pronged strategy.

First are the stories about your company. These would include the stories about the problems you solve. Your case studies. Your successes. IMPORTANT… Remember that these need to be actual stories. Not three paragraphs which give a bare bones problem/result summary. Nobody’s going to remember those. And that’s what branding is all about-getting remembered by those who matter.

Flesh them out. Tell them in an interesting way. Make the reader or listener want to know what happened. If you engage me, not only will I remember you, but I’m also likely to tell your story to others.

Ted Irwin is a financial planner in St. Louis. He told me that his referrals went from 3 a month, to over a dozen. For him, that’s a huge jump. What did he do differently?

First, I’ll tell you what wasn’t responsible.

It wasn’t any new system, software, social media or marketing method. Ted gets almost all his business from speaking.

The change was that Ted shifted from telling audiences what he did, to sharing stories about his clients. Their hopes. Fears. Frustrations. How he helped. That got him remembered. That got his name passed along. That’s what quintupled his referrals rate.

That’s branding.

But it’s only the first part.

Back once again to the definition, “Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be”.

The second area (and personally I think that this is the most important) is creating a brand around you. How you got into the business, how you experienced the pain your clients face, what you’re like as a person.

Judy McDonald is a HR consultant outside of Los Angeles. She’s been in business for 12 years and had by her own admission a practice that was, “OK, but not great.”

Her best year was 2009.

2009? Wasn’t that the year all the financial implosion occurred? When the unemployment rate went through the roof? When companies cut back on spending on anything deemed non-essential?

That was her best year?

It turns out that Judy made a shift in her marketing and branding strategy. She says, “I remember one thing you told me that you can’t out-McKinsey, McKinsey. If you’re not a big firm there’s no point in trying to be perceived as something you’re not. So I decided to take the opposite approach. I embraced my ‘smallness’ which meant that I started telling the Judy McDonald story.”

“Turns out that it resonated with people. HR executives at some very large companies liked my eclectic background as a former troubled teen, social worker and eventual leadership coach. It’s a unique story, that only I can tell, and it breaks through the clutter of all the ‘me-too’ solution providers that I compete against.”

“You wouldn’t think that a multi-billion dollar aerospace company would select me and my programs when they had the pick of all the large mega-firms in my space. But they did. And when I asked them why, they simply responded, ‘At the end of the day, we hire a person not a company.’”

Branding doesn’t need to be complex nor does it have to be expensive. If we remember that ultimately it’s all about being remembered by those who matter, then the strategy shifts from logos, fonts and image; to stories.

Well told stories about both your company and yourself.

That’s what gets you known. That’s what builds your brand.

Food for thought.
Mark

Related Links
Coaching on Developing your Stories

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What Prospects Are Saying About Your Selling Skills

Friday, August 20th, 2010

According to IDC’s 2010 Customer Experience Survey of 213 senior level buyers, most people are not as effective selling one-on-one as they think they are.

This comes in stark contrast to the perception of most business owners, consultants and sales professionals who tend to adopt the attitude of “get me in front of a prospect and I’ll close the deal.”

According to behavioral psychologist John Crandall, this overly optimistic assessment of sales skills comes from the fact that for many people, the only face-to-face selling they engage in is with friendly prospects who are referred directly to them.

Crandall explains, “Although referrals are terrific, they can give one a false sense of prowess regarding their ability to sell. What I call ‘friendly referrals’ will usually be extremely polite and seldom brush off or overtly dismiss the sales presentation from a person who got into their office as a result of relationship with someone they respect and trust.”

“Thus, the meetings tend to be very pleasant and the business owner or consultant is left with the distinct feeling that a business relationship is likely to happen. Unfortunately, in the majority of cases that doesn’t occur, although the consultant will hold onto the ‘positive belief’ that a deal is imminent for months or sometimes even years.”

According to the IDC survey, 64% of the key decision makers found sales presentations to be extremely ineffective. A chief culprit? According to Eduardo Conrado, SVP & CMO, enterprise mobility solutions at Motorola Inc., “Doing a straight product pitch without relating it to the specific needs that I have.”

Crandall concurs. “It’s amazing to me that although anyone selling for any extended period of time knows about advanced preparation, and communicating benefits rather than facts and features, so few people actually do this when they are in a live selling situation. There is a huge disconnect between what people intellectually know they should do, and what they actually are doing.”

So what’s the solution? What should business owners and consultants do differently when they are in front of a prospect?

Dr. Crandall says, “The reality is that most consultants and entrepreneurs just don’t get that many times at bat. That’s a huge disadvantage because face-to-face persuasion is a skill that gets better the more you do it. However, when one relies on referrals or cold calling as your primary means for getting meetings, you’re just not going to have a lot of opportunities. This is, to a certain extent, a game of numbers, so you need to first fix the process by which you get opportunities to meet.”

But what about when you’re in the meeting, what can make people more effective in that situation? Motorola’s Contrado has one specific suggestion.

“If they talk about case studies and how they have helped companies with similar challenges-that kind of approach gets my brain going about how they can help me.”

In other words, it’s the stories you tell.

Dr. Crandall cautions, “Stories, case studies, call them what you will, are undoubtedly the most effective method for getting your prospect to visualize the benefits that a company can provide. But again there’s a disconnect. Most people think they are much more effective raconteurs than they are in fact. There’s a huge difference between telling a story in a bar to your buddy, and imperceptibly weaving an effective story into a sales presentation.”

“That requires planning, forethought and practice. Unfortunately very few people seem to be willing to take the time to actually develop a series of stories in advance that they can then draw upon when they are needed.”

Mark Wilson, VP at Sybase Inc. concurs, “The most effective sales presentations are those in which the person has a number of case studies and they pick them intelligently for companies that face the same problems as us.”

What struck me about this article, and the comments of Dr. Crandall, was this disconnect between what we understand intellectually and what we do in action. As anyone knows who has sold anything, the face-to-face selling situation is accompanied with a fair amount of tension. What this means is that unless your case studies and stories are developed and rehearsed in advance, it’s most likely that you’ll either fail to use them in the meeting, or that what is communicated doesn’t represent your best effort.

And that’s a shame. Especially if you don’t get a lot of “times at bat”.

I realize that this is extremely self serving, but one of the practical applications for my Gentle Rain Coaching sessions is to help you develop, practice and get feedback on the sales stories you want to communicate. Individual sessions are $250 and discounts are available for longer commitments.

If you would like to receive additional information please email me at mark@gentleraimarketing.com

Good food for thought. Talk with you soon
Mark
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My Beliefs About Attracting New Clients

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

I have a couple of beliefs when it comes to marketing your services and attracting new clients.

So, why should you care?

For one thing, (and since it’s completely self-serving), I thought I’d share with you what Tom Winchester, who’s owned 3 companies (two of which he sold for astro-bucks) was kind enough to say, “Adopting these beliefs was the single most important change I’ve made to my business in the last 20 years.”

So what are they?

My first belief is that that attracting as many new clients as your business can handle is all about the story you tell.

Yes, having a client attraction system is important.

Yes, technology is helpful

But…at the end of the proverbial day…what really separates you from the competition…what makes you memorable, so that people refer you business…what enables you to get prospects to visualize the benefits of working with you, are…

The Stories That You Tell.

So, what I’d suggest is take a minute and go to your website. Take a look at what you’re communicating.

Are you sharing interesting stories about you, your clients and their successes? If not, perhaps we should talk.

Secondly, I believe that WE MAKE MARKETING WAY TOO COMPLICATED.

And, again, I have a theory as to why.

I blame it on Google.

I Googled “marketing advice” this morning and guess what?

There’s only 99,300,000 results.

Now suppose I wake up one morning and say to myself, “Myself, we really need to get off our butt and start to do some marketing. Wonder if there’s any information that will be helpful?”

So off I go to Google. And what happens?

It’s not that there’s a lack of information (some of it actually quite good-especially my stuff). The problem is that there’s (obviously) too much information.

So why is this important?

Because if one takes even a modest dip into the pool of advice, it’s amazingly easy to get overwhelmed. And unfortunately when we get overwhelmed, we tend to resort to a default position: WE DO NOTHING. Which of course just makes matters worse.

I’m a firm believer that we make marketing far too hard. Way too complex.

It’s one thing to have a multi-step marketing system after you’ve put in place the basics. But if you attempt to go from having no marketing system, to one with 18 steps…well it’s no wonder why so many people give up in frustration.

It’s a bit like golf. My instructor tells me about cocking my wrists, keeping the club shaft parallel to the ground, body weight transfer…my mind goes numb with all the advice. While the reality is that my golf shot will pretty much do what I want it to do if I just…KEEP MY FREAKING HEAD DOWN and quit looking up to see where the ball is going.

The point is…when we keep things simple-good stuff happens. True in golf. True in life. True in marketing.

So here’s my advice.

All you need to do is to keep 3 things in mind. Three Simple Components Of The Marketing System. No big deal.

COMPONENT #1: Create something that you think your target audience would be interested in receiving, that you can give away for free. It might be an article, recording of a speech you gave, video, piece of software, book, assessment…whatever. The important point is that it should be something that your particular niche is interested in. (Usually this means that it focuses on a problem they’re suffering from.)

How do you find out what the best topic is? The easiest way is to simply…ask them. Put together a quick survey on SurveyMonkey and send it out to those who are already on your list. So what if you’ve only got 12 people on your list-survey them. That’s a heck of a lot better than sitting in your office deciding on your own what your niche is interested in. (P.S. The offer should be something you can send electronically at zero cost, rather than a “free consultation”. That’s not to say that a free consultation is a bad offer to make, you just don’t want to offer it at the very beginning.)

COMPONENT #2: Create a one-page microsite that promotes the free offer. That’s all it does. In effect it’s a long form sales letter with one purpose: Get your visitors to opt-in to get the “free thing”.

When people opt-in, their contact information goes into what’s called an autoresponder. That’s basically a database that then enables you to send these people additional messages that build trust & credibility, and eventually turns large percentages of them into paying clients. There are lots of services to choose from. The one I personally use and recommend is HERE.

COMPONENT #3: Promote the one page microsite and get people to come to it. Lots and lots and lots of ways to do that. Pay-per-Click advertising, online advertising on relevant association sites, direct mail (letters and/or postcards), social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter…No, not all “social media” is the same so you need to decide what’s best for you and your market), blogs, joint ventures (fancy way of saying, align yourself with those who are also selling to your target market), articles, white papers, books, PR, direct sales, speeches, webinars, telemarketing, teleconferences; the list goes on and on.

So here’s my point.

These are the 3 components of marketing. All you need to do is start with component #1 and progress from there. But by all means don’t start with component #3 (which many people do) since all you’ll wind up doing is spending money on driving prospects to a website from which they bounce off. It’s somewhat difficult to build a relationship with someone if they don’t leave any record of who they are when they come to visit.

Will this work for you?

It’s hard to argue against a strategy that fundamentally says, “Offer people something free and then stay in touch to build a relationship.” Although I hate the term “no-brainer”, in this case it certainly does seem to fit. The bottom line is that there’s simply no reason why anyone can’t have an effective marketing system up and running inside of 30-45 days.

Unless they start making it complicated.

As always please let me know if I can ever be of assistance.

Related links:
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The Most Watched Business Speech Of All Time

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Last night I re-watched what I (and many others) consider to be one of the best speeches given by a business executive in the past 10 years.

Can you guess whom I’m referring to?

Ironically, it was a commencement speech given by one of the world’s foremost business visionaries-who never actually graduated from college.

It started this way.

“Thank you. I’m honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college and this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots…”

It’s been viewed over 2.4 million times and is the only commencement speech to actually go viral. But most importantly it’s a model that all of us can learn from who aspire to gain greater attention for our marketing messages, motivate others or simply differentiate ourselves from the over-increasing hordes of competition.

You may have guessed that the speech I’m referring to is one given by Steve Jobs at Stanford University’s commencement exercises.

What made this speech so powerful? A large part of it is what Job’s said in the very beginning, “Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.”

A friend of mine who was there later told me that you could visibly see the audience’s level of attention increase as Jobs spoke those words.

Intellectually most of us know that if we want to get attention or persuade and motivate others, using stories is by far the most effective tool we have.

But do we really do it?

Unfortunately the answer is usually, “No”

A quick case in point.

I was in a meeting last week with a top senior sales executive for one of the largest financial services companies in the world. I was there to talk about my sales training program Unique Sales Stories: How To Get More Referrals, Differentiate Yourself From the Competition & Close More Sales Through Storytelling.

I could tell that Mr. Williams (he asked that I not use his real name although he did hire me to conduct the program for reasons that will be apparent in a moment), agreed wholeheartedly about the “concept” of using stories to more effectively develop relationships and close sales.

I could also tell that he thought his sales team:
1) Already knew how to tell stories, and…
2) Were doing a good job of it.

I could tell this because…well, he told me so.

Anyway, playing a hunch, I asked Mr. Williams if he would spare 2 more minutes and walk with me out on the sales floor. Humoring me, he agreed.

We walked past the desks of over 2 dozen financial advisors, all on the phone, all pitching their services. We’d stop periodically and eavesdrop.

Guess what we heard-or more specifically what we didn’t hear?

Not a single story.

Lots of facts. Lots of features. Lots of…noise. But not a single story that would enable prospects and clients to visualize the benefits these advisors were offering.

I’m sure you get my point.

There’s a world of difference between intellectually knowing something and actually doing it. Even more importantly…as I suggested to Mr. Williams, there is a huge difference between knowing what you should be doing and actually how to do it.

Which is why Mr. Williams is now a client.

But let me go back to Steve Jobs’ speech for a moment. After I watched the speech again I got curious. I’m a big fan (in fact I’m likely to be the only person you’ll ever meet who actually has never used a PC), but I was curious about something.

Does Steve Jobs wing it when he gives a speech? I mean the guy is one gifted speech giver. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he did.

But apparently he doesn’t. Not by a long shot.

I had the opportunity to do some work with Apple about 15 years ago and have stayed in contact with the person who hired me. (Not a big surprise-I am the Gentle Rain guy after all.) Anyway, he had a lot of interaction with the CEO so I posed the question of whether Mr. Jobs did much preparation prior to giving a speech. He replied:

“You wouldn’t believe how much preparation goes into making these speeches look completely unrehearsed and natural. The content is excruciatingly and painstakingly reviewed to make sure the ‘points’ come across. Absolutely nothing is left to chance. The preparation and the practice is the stuff behind the scenes, that very few are aware of, that makes the end result so powerful.”

So here’s something to think about…

Stories are powerful.

Stories get you remembered.

They help you develop more brand new relationships and convert prospects into paying clients.

But knowing and agreeing with those statements is worlds apart from actually developing those unique sales stories that only you can tell.

Perhaps that is something I can help you with. Whether it is training your sales team on how to develop and deliver sales stories…to coaching you one on one…to writing a great sales story for your website…please let me know how I can assist you.

Thanks and I look forward to speaking with you soon.
Mark
mark@gentlerainmarketing.com
770-643-8566

Relevant links:
Learn more about my sales training
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Steve Jobs YouTube video:
Transcript of the speech:

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A Quick Tip For Creating Great Sales Stories

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

What makes a sales or marketing story interesting and motivates a prospective client to pay attention? How do we develop and communicate a message so that gets attention? The most effective sales stories are the ones that enable the listener or reader to picture a desired outcome. In other words, you need to paint a picture with your words.

Far too often sales stories are little more than a restating of the obvious. While this may be the safe path to travel, it’s not a particularly interesting one, which is why it is so important to have an opinion about your particular area of expertise.

Although that sounds perfectly fine in theory, what exactly does developing a different opinion mean? How do we do that? One of the easiest methods is to develop a system or process for implementing your particular type of solution. Thus, the opinion becomes that your process is what works. When people mess up the implementation phase, it’s usually because they fail to follow the process, or do things out of order.

Another alternative is to develop a contrarian point of view. What is the prevailing belief among people in your field? Why might that opinion be incorrect? It’s true that people are attracted to those who have a strong opinion and will tend to give them a greater look. It’s the people who get stuck in the middle of the bell-shaped curve who are ignored..

Unfortunately far too many fledgling storytellers think that they can just get away with making it up as they go along. After all, we’ve told stories to each other since we were children. Are we not taking something that is pretty simple and trying to make it complicated?

The reality is that there is a huge difference between communicating a story to your friends and telling a sales story that is designed to get you more referrals, differentiate you from the competition or help you close more sales.

To develop that type of sales story you need to start at the end. First you must determine what the point is that you want to make? What do you want your listener or reader to do once they have heard the story? That is the only way that you’ll construct a story that truly advances the sales process.

The true purpose of a great sales story is not to just entertain. It’s to accelerate the selling cycle or create an initial level of curiosity about who you are and what you do. While simply speaking off the cuff may work in social situations, a more calculated approach is what is needed in the highly competitive sales arena.

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Your Assistance Would Be Appreciated

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

I wanted to let you know that my newest book, “Unique Sales Stories: How To Get More Referrals, Differentiate Yourself From The Competition & Close More Sales” comes out today.

As a subscriber to my newsletter I’d like to offer you a free copy of my book (for a nominal mailing and shipping charge). You can get HERE

Now…if you take me up on this offer, there is a favor I’d like for you to do me.

Once you’ve read the book (It’s not very long-but it’s packed with useful information) I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d go to Amazon.com and write a short review. The page is RIGHT HERE:

As you may be aware, Amazon tracks books by not only sales but by reviews. There’s an outside chance I could get some great publicity for my book if the number of positive reviews reaches a certain threshold. Your help would be much appreciated so let me thank you in advance.

Secondly…the book is a part of my launch for the Unique Sales Story sales training program.

Not surprisingly, I’m using a Gentle Rain style marketing campaign to launch this:
1. Create a free offer. In this case a book.
2. Motivate interested parties to raise their hand and express interest in this topic by opting-in to get a copy.
3. Follow up appropriately.
4. Drive targeted traffic to the page offering the book through a combination of direct mail, online & offline advertising and media/pr.

If you are a marketing or sales consultant, this program could potentially be a great addition to your portfolio of services. If you have clients or contacts that you think might be interested, please let me know and I’ll fill you in on how our partnership arrangement works. (Suffice it to say there is a large initial and ongoing commission along with great support.)

For my international subscribers, I am particularly interested in developing alliances in the U.K., Western Europe and South Asia. My last training program did very well in these markets, and I would like to have similar success with this one.

Again, your support for this latest project is greatly appreciated and I look forward to hearing back from those of you who would like to get involved.

Thanks,
Mark

To talk with me about becoming involved with the launch of the Unique Sales Stories training program, send an email to me at
mark@gentlerainmarketing.com

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How To Communicate Better With Your Target Audience

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

I’ll admit I have a bias.

While I’m not a Luddite driving a buggy, I think that a lot of time we focus way too much on technology as the solution to our business development woes. For example, want to start a passionate conversation? Ask a group of marketers or business owners, “Does social media really work?”

“Yes it does.”
“No it doesn’t.”
“My friend Al got a big account from Facebook, so there!!!”
“I don’t care, you’re still ugly.”

On and on…missing the point. (Or a large part of the point.)

It’s not the technology…it’s not the medium…it’s WHAT you’re communicating.

People seem to forget that.

But I get asked these questions a lot…

Does email really work?
Do autoresponders really work?
Does video really work?
Does advertising really work?

And the answer is always the same…”Yes, if you communicate the right message.”

Which brings me (finally) to my point.

How can we do a better job of communicating to those we want to do business with?

This all came about as a result of an interview I read in this month’s CEO Magazine with Linda Heasley, CEO of The Limited Stores. (As an aside and to answer another question I get asked, “How do you think of things to write?” The answer is “Read lots of magazines and newspapers.” If you want my list let me know and I’ll pass it along.)

I don’t know how much you know about women’s retail (I knew next to nothing until I interviewed Les Wexner for a report I was developing for a client) but it won’t come as any great surprise when I tell you that it’s brutally competitive. Lots of “me-too” stuff, harder and harder for stores to carve out an individual niche for themselves, “branding” is extremely difficult…(sound familiar?).

But Ms. Heasley’s success in reinvigorated The Limited offers all of us a specific lesson that’s valuable.

One of the top challenge she and her team faced was how to hone in on what her target customer really wanted to buy? What really was going on in her head? To figure that out, they came up with a very simple, but highly effective solution.

They created one.

The article explains:

“The fictitious, Tyler Monroe-prototypical Limited shopper-became the touchpoint for decisions at every level of the organization. Strategic decisions were based on the answers to such questions as: What were her likes and dislikes? What type of house does she live in? What car does she drive? What appointments would be in her day planner? What does she do for fun?”

The answers to these questions then drove the answers to the next set of questions:

“How does Tyler dress? What would Tyler wear for the office? For the weekend? At a picnic? At a corporate event?”

And then ultimately the answer to…

“What marketing messages would she respond to? Which would she reject?”

Everything from buying to advertising to store layout was geared towards appealing to Tyler Monroe.

So what’s the lesson? Simple.

You need to create a prototypical client. When you create your website, write marketing copy, develop ads…it’s all done with the vision of this individual (and that’s key-it needs to be an individual) in mind.

To toot my own horn, I’m told by people who allegedly know about this stuff, that my 42% email open rate is extremely high, especially given how long some of my 25,000+ subscribers have been on my list. (For which I am very appreciative-thank you!)

I believe that a large part for why the open rate is so high is because I have a prototypical client in mind when I sit down and write to you. (It was one of the early exercises my coach and I did back a few years ago and it remains one of the most productive 2 hours I have ever spent.)

There’s a series of questions I like to ask my coaching clients to zero in on who this prototypical client is but you can probably do a decent job of creating this “character” with just some good thinking.

But the real point is this.

If you want to attract more new prospects…If you want to convert large percentages of them into paying clients…

It’s not about the latest technology.

It’s not about whether social media, direct mail or advertising work…

It’s all about WHAT you communicate.

Food for thought.

Talk with you soon.
Mark
Related Links
Need some good practical marketing advice?
Sales letters that get you more new clients
The Best Self-Study Program You’ll Ever Own

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How To Use Trojan Horse Marketing To Attract New Clients.

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

An interesting short article in SalesForceExp magazine about “What Business Are You Really In?” It reminded me about the power of Trojan Horse Marketing.

For example, on the surface one might think that your local cinema is in the movie business. But they’re not.

The movie is just the “Trojan Horse” for their real business, which is selling popcorn and refreshments. As the article points out, “Cinemas are fast food businesses that happen to offer entertainment.”

So why is this worth thinking about?

Because most services business use a straight ahead-direct-battering-ram approach when attempting to get new business.

And there’s a much more effective way that achieves far better results. Let me explain…

You’d put it more elegantly, but the general gist of most marketing messages tends to be…

Hi…If you suffer from (problem) I have a solution for you. As the leading (financial planner/executive recruiter/technology consultant/Fill-In-Your-Expertise-Here) we have extensive experience working with…(well you know the rest.)

Now there’s nothing inherently bad about that. However the problem is that everyone (or at least all your competition) is taking pretty much that same approach. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so difficult to stand out.

Alternatively, the Trojan Horse strategy approaches the target market at an angle. It may not be immediate obvious what in fact the ultimate objective is.

You see this many times with infomercials. You know, the ones that sell a $8 doo-hickey like some sort of goofy lure that fisherman can use to catch “the really big one that got away”. You’ve probably said to yourself, “How in the world after spending all this money on advertising can they make any money selling something so inexpensive?”

And the answer is…”The can’t.” (And they aren’t.)

In most cases what they are really doing is building a list of buyers of fishing equipment and then selling that list to lots of manufacturers and marketers who sell rods, reels and other fishing equipment.

There’s a lot of money in fishing.

Now they could have used the straight ahead approach, “Give me your contact information and we’ll have a lot of fishing manufacturers send you stuff you might like to buy.” They’d get the really hard core fish fanatics that way. But that’s just a teensy tiny segment of the market.

But they used a Trojan Horse, and now have a list of people who have actually bought fishing stuff.

That’s worth big bucks to others who want to sell fishing stuff, since it’s a proven list of buyers (as opposed to just those who are interested in fishing).

So how does the Trojan Horse approach work with services firms?

Here’s an example.

I’m about to launch a new sales training initiative. It’s my one day sales training program, Unique Sales Stories: How To Get More Referrals, Differentiate Yourself From The Competition & Close More Sales Through The Power Of Stories.

Now I could just create a nice PowerPoint presentation, brochure, website, direct mail campaign ect and market this to sales executives and training directors.

Might work.

But the sales training field is very competitive. Lots of programs vying for attention.

And there are a lot of heavy hitters, companies with far bigger budgets than mine who are mailing their brochures to the same people I want to hire me.

So I need a Trojan Horse.

And I’ve got one.

It’s a book. Not a eBook but a real paperbound book, published by a real publishing house -it’s even got some pictures in it. Pretty cool if I say so myself.

I wrote this book over a 6-week period of time this spring and early summer.

Was my goal to have a best seller?
Was my goal to sell a lot of books?
Was my goal to get “famous”?

Nope.

My goal is to sell a lot of sales training programs. And my book is my Trojan Horse.

Instead of doing what all my competition is doing…sending sales training brochures, having their sales reps cold call training directors and sales executives pitching their sales training programs…guess what I’m going to do?

I’m sending some very targeted direct mail and implementing other very-focused marketing to one niche market that I think has a burning need for this program. (After I hit that one market I’ve got 9 others that are on the list.)

But I’m not going to be talking about sales training in my sales letters, emails and ads.

Nope.

What I’m going to be doing is offering this very targeted and very specific audience a FREE copy of my book.

Guess how many of my competitors are doing this?
What’s their approach?

The straight-ahead-direct-battering-ram approach.

I’ve done this before, the last time I was in the training business. (For reasons I won’t bore you with I’ve been in and out of the training biz periodically for the last 12 years.) The last time I was marketing a program on how to gain access to top decision makers.

Similar model.

Wrote a book. You may have heard of it, Power Prospecting: How To Gain Access To Key Decision Makers (http://www.gentlerainselling.com)

Direct mail to partners at large consulting firms offering the book. Had a small sales team follow up with those who “raised their hands”. (Gave them a great incentive: 50% of the fee for the first training program a company bought and 20% ongoing for all subsequent sessions. With initial commissions of $2250 and then $900 for each subsequent program, my sales team made some serious money…BTW I’m offering the same sales incentive program again so let me know if you want in on it.)

The seminar went head-to-head with at least 7 other programs focusing on the same issue-all of who had been around for at least 5 years.

Using the Trojan Horse strategy we sold $1 million of training in the first 18 months.

All because my team and I were able to get attention by offering something that was “one-off” from the standard straight ahead-direct-battering-ram approach.

And I’m going to do it again.

But the really important point is…so could you.

It doesn’t have to be a book or a movie theater. What it does have to be is something creative that gets people to initially raise their hands. I’ve helped my coaching clients strategize on these and we’ve created some outstanding programs in over 17 different niche markets.

But here’s why most everyone won’t do it.

It requires a lot of thinking.

And planning.

There are a lot of moving parts.

It’s not quick…

But projects that have a potential $1 million payoff seldom are.

So what might be your Trojan Horse?

Summer is good for lots of things. One of which is planning how you’re going to grow your business in the fall.

I’m launching my Unique Sales Stories Sales training program. (And maybe helping some of you with your business launches.)

What will you be doing?

Food for thought.
Mark

Related links
http://www.gentleraincoaching.com
http://www.gentlerainblueprint.com
http://www.gentleraincopywritng.com

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Would Someone Want To Buy Your Business?

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

I attended a “Congratulations” dinner last night for Sam Lockwood. Sam’s been a client for a number of years and recently sold his boutique consulting practice to one of the “Big 5” consulting firms.

Although selling his company was not his objective when we first started working together, it became clear about 2 years ago that this would become a distinct possibility if a few of the cards fell right.

And they did.

And today Sam’s net worth has been increased by a bit more than…(well, he asked me not to mention specifics but suffice it to say, Sam doesn’t need to work anymore.)

Anyway this got me thinking about why Sam was able to build such an attractive business in less than 5 years that he had not 1 but 3 bidders.

What I’ve concluded is that Sam thought differently about his business than most of my clients.

It also raises the question…Do you have what it takes to create a million dollar business that someone would want to buy?

You may think of yourself as a financial planner, HR consultant, executive recruiter, coach-whatever. But suppose you’re wrong? Suppose you’re actually a million-dollar business that could be attractive to a number of buyers?

What if by making a slight change in how you think about yourself and your business you could create opportunities beyond your imagination?

Now, in reality building a multi-million dollar business is not for everybody. It may not be for you. But here’s an interesting question…how can you know?

As I do every year at this time I reread Michael Gerber’s wonderful book The E-Myth. I’m sure you’ve read it or are at least familiar with the basic argument he presents.

To put it far less eloquently than Mr. Gerber does, the reason so many businesses fail to reach their potential is primarily due to the fact that owners define their business as what they do.

I’m a financial advisor.
I’m a HR consultant
I’m a technology expert
I’m a leadership coach

Rather than thinking that they are in the Business of what they do.

That’s a significant difference as I’ll explain more about in a moment.

But first, let’s go back to the question I raised…Are you just a consultant, advisor or solo-entrepreneur, or do you have the potential to someday sell your business for a 7-Figure sum?

Here are 5 short questions that will help you determine the answer.

1. Do you believe you deserve this level of success?

I find it surprising that so few people really believe that they’re worthy of this level of success. Somewhere along the path of life something happened that made them believe that outsized success is for “other people”-not them.

What do you believe?

I’m very fortunate. From an early age Mom & Dad ingrained in me a fundamental core belief that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to. While I never took success for granted, my goals have always been set high.

I was talking with a client the other day who wanted to write a book. I mentioned the books I had done for McGraw Hill and the writing I did for the Wall Street Journal. “No, no, no”, he said. “I don’t think I’d ever get published by a real publisher, I just want to self-publish this”

Well why the heck not!

If you are doing the book primarily to promote your business (as I’m doing with my next book Unique Sales Stories-which is designed to market my newest sales training initiative) self-publishing is fine. But that’s not what he planned to do.

No, he thought he could never get published by a large prestigious publisher because he wasn’t worthy.

Self-fulfilling prophecy.

You’ve probably read the study of the public school teachers in Chicago. A small group of them were told that they were going to be teaching the top 5% of the students in the public school system and that it was the school board’s expectation that these students be accepted into top universities.

The teachers took the task seriously and met the school board’s expectations.

Which was great.

Except for one thing.

The student’s weren’t the top 5%. They were randomly selected.

This was one of the first (and very powerful) studies on the role that positive expectations have on performance.

So, what about you? Does your belief filter send the message that you’re not worthy of the same level of success as my client Sam?

If however you said to yourself, “Yes I DESERVE to be just as successful as those entrepreneurs I read about who sell their companies for millions of dollars”, then CONGRATULATIONS, you’re taking the first step in making this a reality.

2. Do you have a dream?

Of course you do. Everyone does.

So let me rephrase this…Do you have a dream that so motivates you that you are willing to do whatever it takes in order to turn it into a reality?

And let me be specific here. I’m not talking about a dream of having a “successful” business. I’m talking about what comes along with the dream when you achieve it. The money…the prestige…the visibility…the freedom to focus on doing what you’re interested in doing-not what others dictate you should do.

If your dream is so strong that you will sacrifice and do what is necessary in order to turn it into a reality-then you have an excellent chance that you have what it takes.

3. Are you willing to learn what you need to know in order to be successful?

Sam is the third person I’ve been personally involved with who’s sold his business for large sums of money. One thing they all shared-and this is true about every successful person I’ve ever met…They were willing and interested in learning new things.

Obviously you know a lot about your particular area of expertise. But my question is, Are you willing to recognize that you don’t know it all-and are you willing to do what must be done in order to fill in the gaps?

Unless you have financial resources and can afford to hire top experts to do the work for you, you’re going to have to learn how to create a business plan and a marketing system.

For example, I often ask people who come to me for advice, What type of marketing budget are they working with?

I’m amazed at the small percentage who can formulate a coherent answer.

That’s the difference between an “individual contributor” and a business owner.

You need to know which media is most promising for promoting your services, what your most effective sales message and offer is…how to position yourself against your competition….

And much, much more.

The good news is that the sources for your education are all around you and the Internet has made learning so accessible that anyone with the desire can acquire the knowledge they need.

If you approach learning as a challenge…if it excites you to develop new knowledge-muscles…you may have what it takes.

4. Are you willing to take a risk?

Sure it takes money to build a million dollar business. But, it doesn’t take a million dollars.

To start takes very little. It’s mostly mental heavy lifting. How to position yourself? What offer to make? Websites, PDF reports, autoresponder services…they cost next to nothing.

However it does take some money to drive traffic to your micro-website. You need some chips in order to play.

Yes, you are going to have to risk some money and some time to get started.

So how does that make you feel? Anxious? Overwhelmed? Discouraged? If so do yourself a favor and don’t embark on the entrepreneur’s journey.

But…if you pulse quickens with the idea of risking a few hundred or couple thousand in order to make tens or hundreds or thousands…or even millions, you may have what it takes.

5. Are you willing to be patient and persistent?

I’m an avid reader of biographies and memoirs of successful people. I’m absolutely fascinated with what they went thought before they were successful.

In every single case, without exception, no one who is successful today started out that way.

They all took risk.

They all failed at times.

But…they stuck with it

They didn’t give up.

They were patient for the success that ultimately came.

…So how did you do?

If you answered, “Yes” to all five questions perhaps you have more than just a individual practitioner business. Maybe you have the makings for building something that someone will want to pay you millions of dollars for.

As a reader of Gentle Rain you know that at a very fundamental level, Gentle Rain is all about direct response marketing.

Which is the best type of marketing to grow your business.

Because at every step in the process you know precisely how you’re doing. And that’s what prevents us from getting in too deep before we make a course correction.

As a direct response marketer and Gentle Rain reader you have the tools to make your company a big as you want.

So instead of thinking of yourself as a coach, consultant, advisor or expert…try thinking like an entrepreneur. It could be the difference between dreaming about a millionaire’s lifestyle, with all the independence and freedom that comes with it…and actually living that dream.

Food for thought

Talk with you soon
Mark

Resources related to this article:
Gentle Rain Blueprint
Gentle Rain Coaching
Gentle Rain Copywriting

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