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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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Where Do The Best QUALITY Sales Leads Come From? (Aside From Referrals)

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Let’s talk a bit about sales leads, and more specifically, the quality of leads that we get from different sources.

I think this is the best method (aside from referrals) for getting prospects that can afford to invest in your services…

What got me thinking about this was a recent marketing conference I attended. As is often the case, one speaker after another proudly proclaimed that a certain method generated the most leads. But after a while that got me thinking.

Sure it’s good to have lots of prospects interested in who you are and what you do, but it’s even better if your prospects actually have the budget to invest in your services. While that may seem to be a blinding grasp of the obvious, the reality is that lots of people are spending lots of time attracting prospects who, quite frankly, never will never become good clients for them.

I mean it’s wonderful to have a gazillion (real number) followers on Twitter and Facebook but the likelihood that those people are going to convert into clients, willing to pay substantial fees for your services is…well, not real good.

But I understand the appeal…the primary one is that it’s free. But the old saying that there is a relationship between the level of investment and the quality of prospect is true. I have yet to see any hard evidence that ether of these social media methods attract the types of clients the majority of my readers want.

Google is a better lead generation source but I’ll admit that it’s changed over the last couple of years. Whereas the quality of prospects that myself and the majority of my clients attracted two years ago was quite high, the percentage of “Qualified” prospects has dropped of precipitously. That’s okay, since (for now) staying in touch via email is free, but there’s a lot more separating the proverbial wheat from the chaff.

So where are the best quality prospects coming from? There are two methods I think you should consider but the one that I want to focus on today has consistently yielded the highest quality of prospects. Interestingly, as Google has diminished in the quality of leads it provides, this has actually gotten stronger.

Now in all candor I will tell you, that it will not generate anything close to the largest volume of leads for you. So if you have a sales team with a voracious appetite for new people to call, this may not be right for you. But if quality is what you’re after, this is where I would focus.

I’m referring to direct mail.

Now, direct mail has a lot of moving parts to it and it’s easy to mess up.

When you’re doing direct mail you need to keep in mind that you need 1) a great offer (and “call me for a free consultation” is not a great offer) 2) a great list (InfoUSA is OK but their lists get hit a lot so I stopped using them a while back) and 3) great sales copy in the letter.

Yes, I said letter not postcard, but that doesn’t mean that a postcard won’t work. But if your mailing is going to go through a screener, I would not use a postcard.

If you offer B2B consulting services, nothing beats a 1-2 page letter in an envelope with a first class stamp (lots of people-myself included-look at the postage before deciding whether to open something.)

And there are lots of other considerations. Should you put promotional copy on the outside of the letter? If so, what? Should you force people to go to a website or offer other methods to take advantage of your offer? What offer works best? What’s the #1 thing you can do after the mailing to increase conversion? Ect. Ect.

Yup, there’s a lot of things to consider but if you’re willing to do so, direct mail is still the best way to get the quality of prospects that you want.

Or at least that’s my opinion. I welcome yours.

Talk soon
Mark
*******
Gentle Rain Coaching is specifically designed to jump start your marketing and get you more new clients. Learn more HERE

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Will the Gentle Rain System work for ME?

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

That’s a good question, and it’s one that I’d be asking myself if I was in your shoes.

The honest answer is, “I don’t really know.”

But this much I can tell you.

It’s worked well for me. and since 1992, for my clients as well.

Let me share a bit more…

…Obviously I don’t know you, so I really don’t have a sense for how you’re currently attracting new clients. But the fact that you’re reading this tells me that you’d either like more clients, or desire some sort of system so that new business comes to you…rather than trying to push yourself onto prospects.

So, the question becomes, what’s the best way to do that?

In order to answer that, let me share with you a little bit about my own business, and how I developed the Gentle Rain process. I think that it will give you a helpful perspective on whether it’s right for you.

I came into consulting having worked in advertising and with Pepsi and Kraft Foods. These were great experiences and I learned a lot about marketing.

However, when I decided to hang up my own shingle as a marketing consultant, I discovered that I really didn’t have a large network of contacts. Pretty much everyone I knew, worked where I had worked. Thus, it wasn’t long before I had lapped the track more than a few times, hitting up my meager list of contacts for leads and referrals.

Like most people, I heard that networking events were a good way to meet prospective clients, so I joined a few groups, went to Chamber of Commerce meetings and even tested a couple of Rotary groups. The problem was that I’m just not real good at “meet & mingle” events, so I never got much out of them. Most everyone I met “said” they got a lot of business from these things, but for some reason they never worked for me-I found myself falling into that trap of hanging out with the few people I already knew.

To tell you the truth, I was getting a bit desperate when I borrowed an old cassette program from my cousin Jerry. It was Dan Kennedy’s Magnetic Marketing, and I’m not exaggerating when I say it transformed my life.

At first I rejected the program because what Dan was teaching focused on restaurant owners and plumbers, and his sales letters were pretty over the top. I thought to myself that my clients were different-they’re too sophisticated for the type of marketing that Dan advocated.

But, I really liked the idea of using free information to get prospects to raise their hands and then a pre-planned drip marketing sequence to build trust, credibility and eventually turn these prospects into paying clients.

I figured that I really didn’t have anything to lose, so I modified what I learned from Dan to focus on my niche which was consultants and others who offer intangible advice and services.

Anyway, to make a long story short…it worked. Really well as a matter of fact. I went from making $45,000 to $97,000 the following year. For someone like me, who had $1,800 in my checking account, that was a huge leap forward.

And it got better.

I kept experimenting with ideas, some didn’t work-but a lot did, and in two years my business got up to around $250,000. That was in 2002, and as you may recall, that was the year that the internet really started to take off. All of a sudden websites became a lot easier (and cheaper) to put up. Now there were these programs called autoresponders that enabled someone like me (who has absolutely no technical skills whatsoever), to automated almost the entire marketing system.

My income increased by 50%. And then it did it again.

I’ll admit this was pretty great. Instead of having to go out and try to strike up conversations with strangers at networking events, I literally had a waiting list of clients. Which meant that I could raise my fees, and even more importantly…choose whom I wanted to work with. (If you’ve ever had a jerk as a client you know how valuable it is to be highly selective about who you decide to work with.)

Anyway, that was my life for the next 3 years, and it was great.

But things change, and in my case the change came in the form of the international management consulting firm, A.T. Kearney. You may or may not have heard of them, but they’re one of the world’s elite consulting firms, up there with McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group and Accenture.

A.T. Kearney was going through a tough patch. Surprisingly, for a $1 billion consulting firm, they didn’t really do any marketing. Virtually all of their business came from referrals and repeat assignments.

Which worked fine until a number of their long-term clients didn’t renew their contracts, and the referrals started to dry up. Then they started to get worried about how they were going to fill their pipeline back up with new business.

One of their senior partners, Bill Jeffrey read a book I wrote called, Power Prospecting, liked my non-hard selling approach and asked me to fly up to New York to meet with him and some of the other senior partners.

That conversation led to a 5-year engagement in which I trained over 800 of their partners and directors on my Gentle Rain methodology.

Did it work? Obviously I wouldn’t be telling you this story if the answer was “No”, and to be totally honest the success they achieved was mostly due to their willingness to implement what I taught and embrace new ideas and approaches.

As you may be aware, A.T. Kearney staged one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the consulting industry. They recovered so well that the partners bought the firm back from their corporate owner EDS, and today are once again one of the most successful firms in the world.

That’s when word got out about me.

It was a pretty heady period of time. But there was a price.

A lot of my work wound up being in Europe. In the beginning it was terribly glamorous and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. But it does wear on you. The 13th time you go to Düsseldorf, it really becomes little more than just a v-e-r-y long consulting trip.

Plus, while I really enjoyed working with some of the world’s top consulting firms, I had a desire to teach and apply the Gentle Rain methodology on a smaller canvas. Working with solo consultants…helping firms with 3-25 consultants who really want to make a mark in a particular niche. That’s what gets me the most excited.

Which leads me to where I am today. My clients are in consulting, insurance, financial services, real estate, training and a lot of other niche businesses.

The one thing that they all have in common is a focus on building relationships and a desire to become very well known for what they do within a particular niche. (Not to mention also making a very nice living with plenty of free time for family and leisure time activities.)

I realize that this is a very long answer to the simple question of, “Will Gentle Rain work for me?”-but it’s a good question and deserves a thoughtful answer.

Which is…Gentle Rain has worked very well for me and for my clients. I truly think that it will work well for you too, but ultimately that’s up to you to decide.

One thing I will tell you is that I sense you recognize a need for change. That whatever you are doing now, or have done in the past, isn’t producing the results you want. I also have the sense that you would like some assistance. (Since, from a purely practical perspective, if you were going to do this on your own, you probably would have done so by now.)

There are a number of ways I work personally with clients. Everything from my elite Platinum program is which I partner with you and earn the bulk of my income from the success we achieve together (although in fairness I will tell you that it does require a $15,000 retainer)…to a la carte assignments in which I’ll write a sales letter, landing page copy or success story for you. Others want advice and answers to the questions they have about differentiating themselves from the competition, and how to set up their marketing system-for which my Gentle Rain coaching program is a great option.

And here’s one final thought…which may be the best way to determine whether Gentle Rain is right for you.

As I’m sure you’re aware, you’re experiencing the Gentle Rain process right now. As a result of an ad, a letter, a referral or some other sort of lead generation method, you went to one of my websites and opted-in to get some free information. That triggered a series of automated messages that hopefully you’ve found helpful and interesting.

And something else has happened…

You’ve started to build a relationship with me. Which is even more interesting since it’s likely that we’ve never spoken or met.

Yet, you feel on some level that you know me. Perhaps even like me.

And no matter where the relationship goes from here (whether you decide to invest in Gentle Rain or not) it’s likely that you’ll refer me to others if the appropriate situation presents itself.

And that’s ultimately what Gentle Rain is all about. Building relationships. Gaining visibility within your niche market, and ultimately, getting you as much new business as you desire.

So, if you decide that Gentle Rain is right for you, I would welcome the opportunity to be of assistance. Please let me know how I can help.

Thanks,
Mark

Mark Satterfield
Gentle Rain Marketing Inc

http://www.GentleRainMarketing.com

mark@gentlerainmarketing.com
770-643-8566

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Why Was This Sales Letter So Successful?

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Perhaps it’s just because of the nature of my profession, but I’ve long been fascinated with why one sales letter attracts a swarm of interested clients while another is studiously ignored.

This question motivated me to do some poking around and research what the most successful sales letter of all time was. The first step was to determine how we defined success. Would it be number mailed? That didn’t seem right. Just because a letter is mailed a lot doesn’t necessarily mean it is effective. What about greatest number of responses? That seemed better but simply getting people to say they’d like more information didn’t seem like a high enough bar for a letter deemed the “most successful sales letter of all time”.

No, in order to be crowned with that honor, the letter would need to actually motivate readers to pull out their wallets and spend money. Not just one person who spent $25 million on a Gulfstream but lots of people buying something. Now that would be a letter worth examining for its secrets. Imagine if we could capture that letter’s essence.

Surprisingly it wasn’t all that hard to find. What was surprising was how long ago it was written. I would have thought that with all the new information we have about buying behavior and the sheer number of excellent copywriters working today that the “Greatest Sales Letter” would have been written less than ten years ago. Apparently we don’t know as much as we think we do, since the letter I’m referring to was written over 40 years ago.

According to numerous sources the letter that is credited with selling the most stuff (to put it inelegantly) is a sales letter written for the Wall Street Journal. It’s been used on and off by them for decades and it’s been copied by numerous copywriters and used successfully to sell a wide variety of goods and services. You may actually be familiar with it. Here’s how it starts:

“Take two men. Both graduates of good universities. Both hardworking and ambitious.

Flash forward twenty years and one is in the corner office commanding the attention and respect of hundreds. The other toils amid the legions of middle managers in a largely obscured position. Why did one ascend to great heights and the other plateau so early?”

The letter to goes on to point out that one key point of differentiation was that one person read the Wall Street Journal and the other did not. Regardless of the Journal’s actual ability to elevate you to the corner office, this is one very successful sales letter.

Which raises the next question of, why? What makes this letter so effective. Why did this one, amid all the others that have flooded our mailboxes over the years motivate so many people to take action?

The answer is actually fairly simple. It tells a story. A story that is deceptively simple in the telling. In a mere 57 words we are transported from reading words on a page to visualize two men. One successful, the other considerably less. Not only does the story enable us to visualize the scenario but it also does a masterful job of forcing us to decide which camp we are in. Are we resigned to the plateau? Isn’t there more that we can achieve? What’s the answer? What’s the secret? How can we too, get to whatever level of success we most aspire to?

Unleashing this psychic visualization of desire and limits is the power behind a great sales story. The power is in its simplicity. It’s elegance is in its restraint.

Those of us who offer our services for a living often hear about “selling invisibly”. It’s an appealing concept especially when the concept of “selling” is uncomfortable. However, while selling invisibly seems like a good idea in theory, how exactly is it done?

This letter from the Wall Street Journal offers an answer. The key to selling invisibly is to tell great stories.
***
That all makes sense but the question becomes…Do you have the time to actually write a great sales letter or success story? If not perhaps I can help.

Send an email to me at mark@gentlerainmarketing.com and I’ll send you my newest portfolio of letters, sales stories and lead generation advertisements along with my current fee schedule. By this time next week you could have a sales letter or email out in the market, generate lots of interest in what you offer.

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The End Of Boring Sales Messages

Monday, May 17th, 2010

OK…The first step if you want to capture attention is to focus on a problem.

But that’s only the first step. How do we go from “mild curiosity” to having our prospect really care about the story we’re about to tell?

Care so much that they’ll give us a call?

Care so much that they’ll pay us large sums of money to solve it for them?

The answer is by communicating the consequences of not solving the problem. This is the stage at which we make our prospect start to really care about the challenge that faces the character you’ve created.

Consequences address the question of, “Why should I care?” or “Why is that a big deal?” Sometimes a form of Socratic questioning can be highly effective in uncovering the consequences of a particular problem.

Dan and Stan are in conversation. Dan is struggling to hire a salesperson for the St. Louis territory. The search has been going on for over 9 weeks and he still hasn’t found the right person.

Stan: “I don’t understand why you just don’t hire the best person you’ve found thus far. I mean you must have interviewed over 30 candidates.”

Dan: “I tried that once and it really backfired on me. If all you’ve seen is grade C prospects you’re not going to get someone who is really going to solidify our sales position in the mid-west. Compromising just isn’t going to work.”

Stan: “I still think that you’re making too big a deal out of this. I mean you’ve got the majority market share right now-what is it, 65%? That’s huge. Any warm body would have to work real hard to mess that up. I still think you’re being too picky.”

Dan: “And I think you’re missing the point. Sure, I’ve got a majority market share at the moment, but that only because our largest competitors new it wasn’t worth their time to try to muscle in while Susan was working the territory. Now that she’s gone, you know they’ll be dog-birding the new rep to see if they’re as strong. I put an ‘also-ran’ in that job and I’m going to have competitors coming out of my ears in less than 30 days.”

Stan: “Well I really I think you’re giving your competitors a lot more credit for awareness than they deserve.”

Dan: “Suppose you’re right. Suppose they don’t bird-dog my guy. Here’s the next problem. Corporate is rolling out the new products at the end of the month. If this guy isn’t up to speed by then, he’s toast when it comes to being able to talk coherently about the new stuff.”

Stan: “I guess I hadn’t thought of that.”

Dan: “If this guy isn’t super sharp I’m not only not going to make my numbers on the new product, but dollar to donuts he’ll start falling apart with the prime products.”

Stan: “True, I guess the last thing you want is for someone to get overwhelmed.”

Dan: “Yeah, I’ve gone done that road before. Once they feel that they’re in over their heads, they start to get nervous and then embarrassed that they’re not doing better. The next thing I know I’ve got a resignation notice sitting on my desk and I’m starting over from scratch.”

So let’s examine this dialogue and see how it uncovered some real and substantial consequences to the problem of staffing a sales position that Dan faces.

The conversation starts out with the problem being, “not all that big a deal”. This is the attitude that many of your prospects will have as well. Although you may think that the consequences of not addressing the problem are obvious, your prospect is likely not to be as self-aware. As a result of the ensuing dialogue it becomes apparent that there are at least three consequences to compromising and hiring only a average candidate.

1) The competition is likely to find out and as a result put a greater emphasis on gaining market share.
2) There is a new product being introduced. It will be a challenge to get up to speed on both the existing product line and the new one. Unless the new hire is extremely sharp it’s likely that he or she will get overwhelmed and be effective at neither.
3) As a consequence of becoming overwhelmed, the odds of the new rep quitting become increasingly likely. This would put Dan back in the position he currently is with the added pressure of wasted time.

It’s likely that if we allowed the conversation between Dan and Stan to continue, we would uncover additional consequences for not addressing the problem. At this stage in the development of your sales story you may find it helpful to map out the consequences section by using this form of interactive dialogue.

This “devils advocate” approach can be highly effective in uncovering consequences that might otherwise not be readily apparent. Although one could use the discussion model to communicate these consequences, that may not be feasible or practical, especially if your story is to be told verbally. This Socratic dialogue technique is often best used for uncovering the key points rather than as a method for story telling. However, if your story is being told on your blog, website or through a sales letter, dialogue can be a highly effective tool.

The story that we have developed thus far might be told as follows:

Dan Sullivan wondered to himself why with the economy so poor was it so difficult to recruit a top flight sales rep? When he started the search 9 weeks ago, he felt confident that he would have it wrapped up by now. Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth.

“Over 30 interviews and I’m not really impressed with any of these people” thought Dan to himself.

He pulled the schedule for the rest of the week up on his computer and groaned. Hardly an open hour remained. “Maybe I should just hire one of these people and hope for the best” he considered as he once again shuffled through the pile of resumes.

His hand paused mid-thought as he reflected on what had happened the last time he had gone down that road. It had been over 5 years ago but the painful memory still lingered. “What a bust that was. Not only did he only last in the job 6 weeks, but our largest competitor instinctively knew we had compromised our hiring standards. They’d stayed out of the territory when we had an A player in place, but this industry is so incestuous-everyone knows everyone-that they rushed in once I hired the best of the mediocre. I certainly don’t want to be sitting here 6 weeks from now starting this process all over again from scratch.”

Dan’s eye turned to his Blackberry and it’s most recent message. “Update on Sniffer New Product Introduction at 3 pm Today” read the subject line. “One more reason not to compromise”, thought Dan. “This person is going to need to not only get up to speed on the existing product line, but this new product is going to challenging to explain to our prospects. Great potential, it could be huge for us, but I really need someone who is going to catch on quickly.”

Realizing he had made his decision, Dan picked up the phone and placed a call he had been hoping to avoid. “These search consultants are awfully expensive, I was really hoping to do it myself, but I just don’t see how I’m going to find the person I need on my own.”

What makes your unique sales story compelling and interesting is the layering of facts it contains. At the early stages of the story, when your prospect is still considering in their mind whether to pay attention to you, we need to make them care about what you are communicating. If you think about stories that didn’t engage you, often times the reason was because the problem they focused on just didn’t seem to be “that big a deal”. By infusing your story with the consequences that can occur we make our prospects care. And that’s a very important step since if they don’t care about the problem they certainly won’t care about the solution. And if they don’t care about that, the odds of them becoming a paying client become very long indeed.
*******
Want me to write a client attraction sales story for you? I’m actively seeking a couple of great clients who are the “best kept secret” in their market. If that’s you and you’d rather be well known and in high demand, email me (mark@gentlerainmarketing.com) and I’ll send you the most current PDF with a list of the services I offer and the reasonable fees I charge.

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How Long Should A Sales Letter Be?

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

A Gentle Rain Reader writes…

Hi Mark,
I’m confused. How long should a sales letter be?
How about for a lead-generation email? Thanks-Tim Long

My reply:

The first thing to keep in mind is that length is secondary to content. If you bore your readers, two sentences can be too long. However there are some general guidelines to keep in mind.

First about sales letters…If you’re writing in the B2C market (business to consumer) there is truth to the adage ” The more you tell, the more you sell.” As direct marketers and top copywriters Dan Kennedy, Clayton Makepeace and Denny Hatch all point out, a 2-page sales letter out-performs a 1-page letter, a 4-page letter gets a better response than a 2 page.

Where’s the top? I honestly don’t know. In theory a book should outperform a letter and a
l-o-n-g book should do better than a short one. But keeping reality in mind, if you’re marketing to consumers, don’t worry about length. I once wrote two sales letters for a fitness studio. One was 4 pages, the other 8. The longer sales letter did in fact pull a greater number of leads by a factor of 3.

However in b2b marketing it’s a bit of different story. My opinion is that length does matter. In order to get through the various screeners and anti-promotional mindsets, our sales letters need to look very much like business correspondence. The copy should convey the tone of easy familiarity from one executive to another.

Length? I’d keep it to no more than 2 pages.

With emails, I would as a general rule keep them short and link the rest of the copy to your website. (As I’ve done here.) That’s one of the things I really love about WordPress sites. They enable you to add blog pages with the content that you “tease” in your emails.

Hope that helps. I’m interested in what others think so let me know.

Thanks
Mark

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How To Get Your Prospects To Care About Your Solution

Monday, May 10th, 2010

One of the key challenges in any sales presentation is communicating a message that makes prospects pay attention. Amid all the clutter and noise that exists in the marketplace, how do we get those with whom we most want to do business with, to pay attention to us?

Obviously, that’s a complex question and the answer quite frankly is that there are a lot of factors. But if we go to ground zero, that point where we are first trying to get attention, there is one element that we most want to focus on.

The problem. That’s what gets attention. That’s what makes people say, “Perhaps I should learn a bit more.” It doesn’t mean that they’re going to get them to hire us. It doesn’t mean that they’re going to give us money. But, the right problem, presented in a way that is compelling and intriguing, can be the proverbial spark that starts the dry brush ablaze.

However, what do most people do? How do they try to capture attention? Ironically (and mostly ineffectively) they talk about themselves. The opening salvo usually takes one of two forms. Sometimes it’s the ubiquitous, “This is what I do.” “I’m a lawyer, realtor, financial advisor, headhunter, butcher, baker candlestick-maker. “ What’s the response? Typically, “Oh.”

Those that have been to sales training 101 (but didn’t stay through the whole thing) know that this is not enough. So they confidently answer, “We offer the worlds most researched solution on extrapolating data through software integration.”

“How very nice for you.”

Answers like these are what my friend Don refers to as “Hammers in search of a nail.” Realistically how many of us really know what software integration is? Or care?

So what’s the answer? How can we make people care? One of the most effective ways is to put the answer in the context of something that I can understand. Something I can relate to. And what might that be? Simply put, it’s a story.

What stories have in common is that they address a problem. Some sort of gap between what the main character desires and his or her current state. It could be desire for love, success, confidence or any of another basic human goals. From a business perspective it could be something a bit more pragmatic: increased sales, improved employee morale or reducing costs.

The point is that if you want to get someone’s attention you need to focus on the problems that you solve. Even if the person you’re speaking to doesn’t suffer from that particular problem, by focusing on problems rather than some bland recitation about what you “do”, you dramatically increase the likelihood that they will remember you.

Let’s take the marketing consultant as an example. She could try to get attention by saying, “I’m a marketing consultant.” In one ear and out the other. Let’s try again.

She could say, “I offer an integrated turn-key solution to help my clients get more new clients.” Hmmm. Still a bit of the “hammer in search of a nail.” It’s hard to visualize what she really does. And that’s the key. We need to get what we do visualized in the person’s brain. We need for it to come alive.

So how do we do that? We need to paint a picture. We need to tell a story. Like this:

“On a fundamental level I help my clients get more new business. The challenge most of them face is that they’re the ‘best kept secret’ in their marketplace. I show them how to get more referrals by communicating unique sales stories about what they do.”

So let’s examine this last answer in a bit more detail. Certainly it’s longer and that may take a bit of getting used to. Since most everyone describes what they do in 15 words or less we feel compelled to do so as well. Resist that temptation. If you have something interesting to say, your reader or listener will stick with you.

So this answer starts by framing the topic by focusing on a large problem-getting more new clients. However, she doesn’t stop there. She immediately drills down on a highly specific problem (being the “best kept secret”) that she helps solve. She then concludes by transitioning into what she offers. However it’s important to note, that she is very specific about how she helps.

What our marketing lady has done here is to paint a picture in our minds. We can now easily visualize a problem she works on. In all likelihood she probably works on many different problems and depending upon the situation she is in, she draws upon different answers. However, each answer follows the same format of hooking attention by focusing on a problem.

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How Frequently Should I Stay In Touch With My Prospects?

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

A Gentle Rain Reader writes…

Hi Mark-How frequently should I stay in touch with my prospects? I’ve heard all sorts of answers and would be interested in your perspective.

Also, if there any difference between autoresponder services? What should I look for?

Thanks, Jason Engles

My answer—

Frequency of contact is indeed a tricky subject for all the obvious reasons. Too little you’re out of sight/out of mind. Too much and you worry about being a pest.

My belief is that it is better to err on the side of more rather than less contact. Here’s my thinking.

The reality is that most of our messages get ignored. It’s not that your subscribers aren’t interested in you, it’s just that there is so much “stuff” being communicated. Way too much noise.

Thus, I think that that it’s best to communicate quite frequently, especially in the beginning when your name has not been cemented into your prospects mind. Thus, after a request for a free report or other offer I would send a message daily for the first 5 days. Then I might back off to once a week for at least the next 5 weeks. Ideally I think you should be communicating at least once a week, but if that just seems like way-to-much. once every 20 days is acceptable.

Regarding autoresponder services, you’re right there are lots and lots and lots of choices. Many of the services come with a lot of Bells & Whistles that you may never wind up using. I’d budget around $25-$30 per month for a good service. You can learn about the service I personally use and recommend to my clients HERE.

Hope this helps,
Mark

PS: As always if you have a question that you would like for me to answer please send it to me at mark@gentlerainmarketing.com Thanks!

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