Posts Tagged ‘marketing services’

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How To Make Sure Your Business Is Remembered

Monday, April 26th, 2010

As a wise mentor of mine once said, “People don’t remember facts. They remember stories.” If you want more referrals for your business the key is to be top of mind when people have a need or learn about opportunities that make sense for you. As I learned from hard fought experience, simply educating people about what I did, simply wasn’t enough. In order to be remembered, I needed to make my services come alive through the use of unique sales stories.

Now, I will admit that this is hardly new news. Sales professionals have known for years that using metaphors, case studies and stories is a time honored method for standing out amid the competition. Which then raises the question, “Why are some people so good at this while others so painfully bad?”

It’s a bit like cooking. Most of us know the basics. So why are so few of us accomplished chefs? I think that great chefs are a lot like great storytellers. The key is that they understand how the ingredients fit together. They know when to add a “touch of this” or a dash of “that”. It’s part science but it’s also part art. I’m not sure that the art part can be taught, but the science of it certainly can. What that means is that while you may never publish the proverbial great American novel you can learn how to tell a story that gets your point across in a way that is both educational and memorable.

What great chefs and storytellers also share is a process that is more similar than dissimilar. By that I mean that they both begin with the end in mind. The great chef visualizes the outcome. The succulent crispy duck or the moist three layer chocolate and strawberry cake. They don’t simply start dumping ingredients into a bowel and hope that something delicious will emerge. They begin at the end which is the same thing that the gifted storyteller does as well.

However, unlike the chef, far too many fledgling storytellers think that they can just get away with “winging it”. After all we’ve told stories to each other for how many years? I mean, can it really be all that difficult?

Truth be told, there is a huge difference between telling a story to your friends and communicating a unique sales story to a prospect that will keep you in the front of their mind when they hear about opportunities that would be perfect for you.

Thus the first question you want to answer is what is the point that you want to make? This is a bit like working the puzzle maze backwards, or beginning with the end in mind.

For example, suppose I wanted to make the point that starting an entrepreneurial venture or small business is a path best traveled by those with a burning desire for independence? Now there’s nothing particularly earth shattering about that statement. It seems like common sense and the moment someone told you it, you’d probably forget all about it.

But suppose I really wanted to make that point? Perhaps I’m doing some career coaching and I’m concerned that the people I’m speaking with may be following the self-employment path for reasons that don’t make sense for them. If I really want to get the point across, what I want to do is tell a story. Like this:

My career has really had two distinct parts to it; corporate and self-employment. I had the great fortune to work for one of the great companies in the United States, Kraft Foods. It was a wonderful experience, I learned a lot and I had the opportunity to interact with a group of outstanding individuals.

One of them was my boss, Bob Morrison who at the time was the CEO of Kraft. Probably more than any other individual he had the greatest impact on the direction the second half of my career took.

I can still remember my final performance review (although I didn’t realize that it was my last one at the time) which took place on the 6th floor of Kraft’s headquarters. The 6th floor was far different than the rabbit warrens the rest of us worked in. This was the “executive floor”. The carpet was plusher. Each office was protected by a not one, but two executives assistants. And the offices themselves, a Hollywood set designer couldn’t do a better job. On the floor where I had come from, all my years of hard work had managed to secure for me a small office, with a plant and two guest chairs. Supposedly, if I continued to work hard and succeed some day I might get a couch. Now I realize that this all sounds somewhat silly as I type this but for anyone who has toiled in a world headquarters of Fortune 50 corporation, knows, this is the stuff we aspire to.

Thus, emerging on the hallowed lands of the 6th floor (with its own security guy no less) was to travel to the highest peaks of aspiration. Anyway, I digress.

As I entered Bob Morrison’s office for my performance review I noticed that Bob was dressed as he always was with the blue button down collar shirt, red tie and sleeves rolled up over the forearms. A look that said “senior executive who gets a lot of stuff done”. He was gazing in a slightly befuddled way at a sheaf of papers which I presumed were the HR forms that accompanied (or as some said, sucked the life out of) the performance review process.

With a sigh Bob tossed the papers onto the desk in front of him and motioned for me to take a seat.

“We’ll fill out these forms later”, Bob began. “Basically Mark, I can summarize your performance in just a couple of sentences, so here goes. Mark, if you’re interested in the topic there’s no one better than you. But Mark, if you’re not interested in the topic, everyone’s better than you.”

Not surprisingly that message stung a bit. (OK, it actually stung a lot.) But I didn’t dismiss it. After I cooled down I understood the point that Bob was making. In order to have a successful corporate career one needs to have a level of flexibility. One needs to approach assignments in which they have only a modest interest with the same enthusiasm that they do for those projects which match up well with their passion. Entrepreneurs by contrast have an overwhelming desire to focus just on their passion. It’s that single-minded devotion that causes the most successful entrepreneurs to overcome all the obstacles they face. Without that passion, the chances of success are slim.

That was what Bob was telling me. He knew I had passion around certain areas. However what he observed was that when the assignment called for me to focus on other areas, I wasn’t able to let go. The passion kept calling me back. That’s the hallmark of a successful entrepreneur but the Achilles heel for a corporate executive.

So let me take a break from this story. Suffice it to say that this conversation was the catalyst for my leaving the safety and security of a corporate career to embark on something far more in sync with my personal goals.

But the real point that I am making here is that what I just communicated would most likely be remembered and thought about if I was speaking to someone who was considering a career change. Simply stating a fact such as “entrepreneurs need to have a passion” would be dismissed as simply a blinding grasp of the obvious.

Thus, when you create your own unique sales stories, think about what the point is that you want to make. You’ll find that if you do, your story will not only resonate with your listener or reader, but it will also increase that they’ll remember you for a long time to come.
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This sales letter made me a lot of money. I’d like to share it with you for FREE. Go get it HERE

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Want Me To Write A Unique Sales Story For You?

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Here’s something that may be of interest.

I’m looking for 6 clients who would like for me to create their very own unique sales story that can be used to get more referrals, differentiate themselves from the competition and close more business.

(If you want to read more about WHY sales stories are such powerful tools go HERE)

You can use this sales story on your website, in your sales letters as well as in one-on-one selling situations.

Here’s how it works.

If you decide to take me up on this offer, I’m going to send you a very short questionnaire. Complete it, send it back and I’ll get to work. In less than 7 days, you’ll have a sales story that will grow your business.

Sounds good so far but…how much is this going to cost?

Well, according to my published price list, I typically would charge $3,500 for this. However, that’s not what it’s going to cost you.

How much? A mere, $395.

Now, you’re probably wondering why so much less and what’s the catch? It’s really pretty simple.

I’m in the final push for completing the manuscript of my next book, “Unique Sales Stories. How To Get More Referrals, Differentiate Yourself From The Competition & Close More Sales Through The Power Of Stories.”

I want to include in the book some case examples of sales stories for different types of clients.

That’s where you come in.

I’ll write you a great sales story for a ridiculously low price, but you have to give me permission to publish it in my book. (I’ll disguise your company name if you like, but candidly, this would be another great way to spread the word about who you are and what you offer.)

So, if you want to take me up on this you need to get back to me ASAP. I’m only looking for 6 people, so it’s first come first served. There’s no “additional information” to send you, so don’t email me back saying “you’re interested in learning more”. You’re either in or out.

Remember, the reason that you may not be getting as many referrals as you want, or are still the best kept secret in your market, is likely to be because people don’t fully understand the value you provide. That’s where sales stories become the competitive advantage for attracting prospects and converting large percentages of them into paying clients.

(Again if you want to read more about WHY sales stories are such powerful tools go HERE)

Thanks for reading this and I look forward to working with 6 of you.

Talk with you soon,
Mark

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How To Get Prospects To Pay Attention To You

Tuesday, April 13th, 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.”

Or they try this…

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 compelling sales 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 money, success, confidence, respect or any of another basic human goals. With business stories it’s usually 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’ll 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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Want me to work with you on developing you own Unique Sales Story? Send an email to mark@gentlerainmarketing.com and we’ll set up a time to talk. Please reference this blog post. Thanks!

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How To Get Prospects To Trust You

Monday, March 15th, 2010

New prospects are a skeptical group. The unfortunate reality for those of us marketing services, is that when someone doesn’t know you, they tend to look for reasons to dismiss you rather than looking at your value proposition with an open mind.

So how do we go about building credibility with prospective clients? Naturally the easiest method is to avoid cold marketing altogether. Being referred by someone who knows you has a huge benefit in reducing the inherent mistrust we often have when we meet brand new people. However, strictly relying on referrals is one of the main reasons why so many small business owners experience the proverbial feast-or-famine business cycles.

It’s easy to understand why. When we rely on referrals we are giving up control of our new business efforts. We are hoping that our network will be sufficiently large enough so that a certain minimum number of referrals will be generated each month. The sad reality is that hardly anyone’s existing network is large enough to accomplish that goal.

The primary reason for this is because most small business owners use highly labor intensive methods for meeting new people. While networking events, lunches and dinners certainly have their place, when one gets busy with work, these activities typically start to fall onto the back-burner. Over time the number of new people in one’s circle of relationships begins to shrink rather than expand. During tough economic times, it is easy to “lap the track” of this finite group and suddenly realize to one’s horror that referrals have dried up.

Many small business owners view the process of getting brand new clients with a mixture of apprehension and fear. They are concerned that they will come across as the stereotypical used car salesman, and the idea of cold-calling someone fills them with dread. Fortunately by using one page websites that clearly communicate the benefits that you offer a specific targeted group of prospects, and offers compelling free information, it is a relatively straight forward proposition to attract brand new prospects.

But still the question remains, “How do I build trust and credibility with these people?” After all, it’s easy for me to say “I’m great”. Unfortunately that doesn’t do much to reduce the skepticism level. The most powerful method you can use to build credibility is to offer proof. Proof that you can do what you claim. Proof that others have achieved the desired results you offer.

What’s the best way to provide proof? As you may have guessed, it’s by using testimonials. If your website and other marketing materials don’t have numerous testimonials appearing on them, you’re missing a huge opportunity to build credibility.

But, not all testimonials are equal and it’s important to keep in mind that your reader is still skeptical. A testimonial that says “You’re great” pales in comparison to one that says “By using your system I increased the number of brand new clients I got by 45%” Thus when you request testimonials make sure that you ask: “What was the biggest benefit that you achieved by using my products or services?” The more you get quantifiable answers, the more it will increase your credibility.

Not surprisingly, many prospects think that you’re just making up your testimonials (which you should never do). Here are a couple of ideas for reducing that inclination. First, include the website of the person giving the testimonial. This adds a layer of credibility and underscores that this is in fact a real person. Secondly, consider using video testimonials. Since over 50% of web content is now video, using video not only provides strong proof, but also positions you as a leading edge provider of your particular service. If you keep these thoughts in mind you will easily reduce the skepticism that new prospects have about doing business with you.

“These Sales Prospecting Techniques Landed Me A $96,000 Client.”
Please Allow Me To Show You How To Fill Up Your Sales Pipeline With Eager Prospects…For FREE by clicking HERE

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Internet Marketing Made Simple

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

When one raises the topic of internet marketing there are usually a couple of responses. From the technically gifted, they immediately go off onto an elaborate discussion about the nuances and subtleties of the newest software or services. For the rest of us, there is usually a completely different reaction.

“Sure it sounds like something that could help me grow my business and get more new clients, but it sounds far too complicated. I wouldn’t know where to begin.” If you’re an entrepreneur, consultant, coach or small business owner, I’m here to tell you that Internet marketing does not need to be complicated and that when implemented correctly, it can fulfill the promise of making your business life a lot easier.

One of the problems is that Internet marketing covers a wide range of topics, thus it can easily overwhelm anyone who is not immersed in the topic. At a fundamental level, internet marketing is a system for 1) driving traffic to your website 2) capturing data on who is visiting and then 3) automatically communicating with these prospects to build trust, credibility and ultimately motivate them to take action. So let’s begin in the beginning.

We begin by creating some sort of offer or free report that will entice people to give you information about who they are. Although it would seem that free reports have been done to death, the reality is that they still work extremely well. The key is to make sure that your report targets a very specific group of visitors. For example “Time Management” probably won’t elicit much interest. However, “Time Management Techniques For Busy Dental Offices” is likely to stimulate high curiosity among the target audience.

A second key point is to make sure that your report has a compelling title. Remember that people won’t know about how valuable the information is until after they read the report. Thus what will motivate them to request it in the first place, will be the title. One important point to keep in mind is to emphasize the benefits that one will get from reading the report in the title.

The report is made available on a one-page website whose sole purpose for existence is to get people to sign up. This could be a free-standing one page site or just an additional page to your established website. Either is fine. The important point to keep in mind is that the internet is a very fast medium. That’s both good and bad news. The positive aspect is that people can get to your site in the blink of an eye. The bad news is that they can click off your site in the same amount of time. By offering free reports you are slowing down the process and increasing the likelihood that your visitor will remain with you for at least a couple of minutes. That’s why your page should heavily promote your report and not have the “call-to-action” hidden in some obscure part of the page.

Naturally in order for people to get the report they need to give you their contact information. I’ve found after years of testing that just asking for name and email will yield the highest response. By stating on the form that “The information you requested will be sent to the email address you provided” you will eliminate people giving you bogus email addresses just to get your free information. You can also add a page after they have signed up stating that you have additional information that you would like to send them if they provide you with their mailing address and phone number. I’ve found that around 25% of subscribers provide me with this additional information. If you think of internet marketing as following these basic steps you can start to use electronic tools to grow your business without getting overwhelmed.

Granted, doing this all alone by yourself can be frustrating and quite frankly, pretty lonely. If that describes you, this is worth reading and considering.
***“These Sales Prospecting Techniques Landed Me A $96,000 Client.”
Please Allow Me To Show You How To Fill Up Your Sales Pipeline With Eager Prospects…For FREE by clicking HERE

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Get More Traffic By Doing This!

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

The visibility of your website on Google depends upon a lot of different factors. However one of the most important is the number of links that connect to you. Who you link to is of little or no value, but if you can get high quality links coming to your site, you can dramatically increase your visibility. Let’s talk about some specific strategies you can begin to use immediately.

The first thing to consider is who do you want to have link to you? All links are not the same. Google ranks websites on a 10-point scale. A site that has a Google page rank of 1 is worth very little. Google reserves the 10s for themselves. A site such as CNN or Amazon are ranked around 8. Realistically your objective is to get sites that are ranked 5 or higher to connect to you. Set as a goal to get 12 sites linking to you and you will find that your own Google page rank and visibility increases substantially.

So what is the best way to get links? One option is to research the sites you would most like to have linked to you and contact them directly. I’ve heard that this can work but it’s obviously very labor intensive and frustrating. I personally use three strategies, which only require a minimal investment and offer you a chance to get literally hundreds of high quality links.

The first is to write articles such as this one. The page on which you found this article has a link to my website through the information that appears in my author bio box at the end of the article. Rather than distribute the article manually to each and every article directory, I use an article distribution service to send them out. For example this article that you are reading will be distributed to over 700 article distribution sites. That’s a lot of links. I typically write two or three 500-700 words articles a week that are sent out. Although that may be more writing than you want to do, you can outsource the task to a freelancer that you can find on elance. Even if you just write one article a month, you’ll reap some great visibility rewards.

The second tool is video. For each article I write, I turn it into a short narrated video using power point slides. Although YouTube is the best known video directory service it actually only has about 11% of the video traffic. Thus I use a video distribution service to get my short video out through all of the various video directories. Since Google gives a lot of credit for video, these short videos tend to rank very high for the key words that I tag them with. It is important to keep in mind that I don’t really expect that anyone would actually go onto YouTube and search for me. Rather, because my video is on YouTube it gets a lot of “Google credit” and shows up when someone does a search for my keywords. People watch the video and if they like what they see, they’ll take the next step and go to my website for more information. This is a strategy well worth implementing.

The final strategy for getting links is the most direct. You simply buy them. You can go on Ebay and search for links for sale or one of the other services you can find by Googling “Buying Links”. Expect to pay around $10 x the page rank of the site that you want to link to you. For example a website with a page rank of 5 would typically charge you between $40-$60 for setting up a link to your site. This may be expensive for some businesses, and it may not be where you focus first, but I’ve found that this is often money that is very well spent.
***“These Sales Prospecting Techniques Landed Me A $96,000 Client.” Please Allow Me To Show You How To Fill Up Your Sales Pipeline With Eager Prospects…For FREE by clicking HERE

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Here’s How To Automate Your Marketing

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

If you are looking for a resource that will guide you step-by-step and show you precisely how to set up an automated marketing system, you should watch this video:

Marketing strategy from Mark Satterfield on Vimeo.

Learn More About What I Discuss In This Program By Clicking HERE

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How To Market Your Services

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Let’s talk a little about marketing your products or services.

Now when I speak of marketing, I am referring to something quite separate (although complementary) to sales.

A marketing system, when it’s done right, offers you a lot of benefits. Chief among these is that your sales team only spends time talking with prospects who have indicated an interest in your programs.

But that is certainly not the only benefit.

In the world of selling high-value products and services the decision to engage your firm is seldom made after the first meeting. Staying-in-touch is crucial. Unfortunately it’s very easy for this crucial step to fall between the proverbial cracks. This is especially true if the entire stay-in-touch effort rests on the shoulders of your field sales team.

A truly effective marketing system should be designed to enable you to remain in touch with consistent messages of relevance and interest. The process should seamlessly and automatically move prospective clients from curiosity to interest to action. Best of all it should be largely automated so that one never has to worry about too much time elapsing between communications.

That’s what a highly effective, fully-integrated marketing system should do for you.

Something else we observe about the most profitable and productive companies is that the focus of their marketing is on building relationships rather than the more common transactional approach of selling services or products.

This is a fundamental shift in thinking, and not surprisingly impacts both what and how your communicate you message.

It’s been our experience that successfully building these new business relationships depends upon three important factors.

The first is having a process in place that is specifically designed to motivate prospective clients to “raise their hands”.

The second is a separate system (with some similar characteristics) that enables the firm to stay in touch with both existing and prospective clients, with messages of relevance and interest.

The third, and arguably the most important factor, is the patience to commit to a marketing effort even if results are not immediate.

Patience is key, but as with many things in life it’s something that’s easier to say, than do.

Let me share with you a quick story.

Back a few years ago I decided to take up martial arts. Lots of fun. Punching, kicking, plastic weapons, what more could a middle-aged guy want? I actually became reasonably proficient. If my wife Marian and I ever get attacked by a really slow old person, I know exactly what to do.

Anyway, after about a year I felt I had my fill of martial arts. I was ready to move onto something new. My Sensei sat me down and told me that he thought I had the potential to be a very good martial artist and he was sorry that my lack of patience was going to cause me to leave the sport.

Now this isn’t the first time I’ve been told this. And in all candor I’ve probably quit far too many things before I got really good at them because of my impatience.

As you may have guessed, the reason I’m sharing this story with you is because I think that a lack of patience is the number one reason why marketing campaigns don’t produce the desired results. It would be great if we could start a marketing campaign in the morning and have it yield results by the afternoon, but we both know that’s not going to happen.

No, marketing, like most things of value, takes time. Takes patience. Takes focus. Unfortunately most people don’t stick with a marketing plan long enough to see any significant results.

So what’s the answer? Do we magically just go out and order up some patience? I’m a big believer in positive thinking, but I also know how hard it is to change a fundamental character trait.

What tends to make me more patient, whether it’s in my hobbies or business, is having a plan. Having a system to follow. When I have a plan, when I know what the next steps are, then I’m much more likely to stay-the-course. I’ll see something through to the end. Conversely, when I’ve only figured out one step in the process, then I’m real likely to give up (or get distracted) after I do just the one thing.

Thus the importance of having a marketing system. We think that a great one focuses on these key components:
1) Targeting a hyper-responsive group of prospective clients.
2) Getting their attention by focusing on issues that are of most importance to this group.
3) Motivating them to self-nominate themselves as being interested in learning more about your services or products.
4) Moving them along a series of steps that encourages them to take action.
5) Staying in touch with them and building the relationship with consistent messages of relevance and interest.

Although the goals of marketing are simple, implementing a process to actually achieve these objectives is anything but simplistic. But if you keep these steps in mind you can begin the process of developing a very powerful marketing system.

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Get More New Business From Your Next Speech

Friday, January 29th, 2010

How can you maximize the business potential of giving a speech? Rainmakers don’t simply rely on someone in the audience happening to call them. By the same token we don’t want to waste a lot of time with people who are unlikely to ever purchase our services and just happen to be at the meeting for the camaraderie.

What we want to do is to offer them incentives to self-nominate themselves for future contact while screening out those unlikely to actually buy our services.

If you just want to collect a lot of cards you can say, “If you’re interested in learning more about what I’ve been speaking about and would like to receive our white paper on this topic, drop off your business card in the box by the door on your way out.” You’ll get a lot of volume this way but will spend a lot of unproductive time calling the tire-kickers who will drop their card in any fishbowl they see.

That’s why I opt for an approach that focuses more on quality rather than quantity. My approach is to ask audience members to fill out a brief survey in return for receiving the white paper or other offer. Depending on the audience I’ve even offered to send individuals an audiocassette of the program if they will fill out the survey. In order to do this I simply tape record the program, duplicate it and later market the tape as a “live” presentation.

You can also use the ubiquitous evaluation form as a powerful data-gathering tool. This is an often-overlooked opportunity. For example on my evaluation form, I try to get a variety of data. First are the more commonly asked questions about what did you think about the program, what was most beneficial and what do you wish there had been more time for?

Good information to get, but the answers don’t directly help me build my business. Thus, I also ask if you would be interested in any of my other services such as coaching or training. I also ask if you would be interested in having this program conducted in-house at your company. Finally, I ask for names of other people I should contact regarding my services.

Let me make one point about follow up. If you don’t call people who fill out the survey form within two weeks, the entire effort is for naught. You will not get any business unless you follow up with prospects. It’s as simple as that. No more than two weeks and ideally within one week.

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Understanding the Buying Mindset

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Ask any highly successful sales or marketing professional and they’ll tell you that the more you understand the mindset of your prospective client, the more effective you’ll be in crafting sales and marketing messages that resonate positively.

One key component of your client’s mindset is their readiness to buy.

While we may not have a great amount of control over this, it’s important that we understand the client’s buying mindset. It can take four different forms.

The first is what’s called the Building Mindset. The client views their current situation as one in which there is opportunity for growth. When a client is in a building mindset they are ready to buy goods or services that can help them achieve the results they want. Prospects in this mindset tend to be most interested in hearing about specific features and benefits and are less concerned (although not oblivious) to how your product compares to the competition. The focus is on how specifically your services can help them achieve their particular goal.

The more you can focus on the specifics the more effective your proposal will be to a buyer in this buying mode.

Conversely, there are times when your client is in Pain. Again, the client is in the mode of needing to buy goods and services, but they will buy from the person who can eliminate the pain the quickest. Speedy removal of the pain is the primary objective of the client. Given a choice between building and pain, you can rest assured that alleviating pain will always take precedent over building.

Not being aware of whether your prospect is in a building or pain mindset is often a common problem. Although you may assume that the client is in one mindset you need to be prepared to quickly shift gears if it becomes apparent that your initial assumption is incorrect.

The advantages of having clients in either a pain or building mindset is that you know they’re going to be open to buying services that will help them grow their businesses or alleviate the pain. The most challenging buying mode is what we call Happy State. That’s when the needs of the customer are pretty well served by the products or services he’s currently using. When the client is in this happy state there are a couple of things we can try to reinvigorate the need to buy.

The first is to let them know about trouble or pain that may be headed their way. In order to be credible, the more you can discuss specific examples of the problems others are facing in their industry, the more attention you’re going to get. Naturally, in order for this strategy to be effective you’ve got to be completely up to speed on what’s going on in their industry. You’ve got to be reading what your customers are reading, attending the professional association meetings, and learning about the issues that that are of most importance to them.

While giving your clients insights about the future is one strategy to move them off the happy mindset, an alternative strategy is to readjust their thinking about their business performance. This is particularly effective when you know that your client’s competitors are achieving greater levels of success than your client is.

“Yes Ms. Client what you’re achieving is good, however I must tell you that Your Chief Competitor just reported earnings that are 15% greater. We’ve done some investigating about how they achieved those results and I think we could help you do the same or better.”

Either of these strategies gives you a fighting chance of getting your client out of the happy state and into a position where they are interested in learning more about your products or services. Think about it from your own company’s perspective. Even if you were satisfied and content, if I was to come to you with information about why your competitors were more successful, wouldn’t you want to know how they’re getting those results?

When a client is in the happy mindset it’s generally easier to sell growth than it is pain avoidance. Unfortunately, we are usually short sighted and hope that bad events won’t hit us directly. It’s far more fun and sexy to grow a business than it is to focus on problems. It’s one of those terrible ironies that it’s very difficult to sell pain unless the person is actually experiencing it. However, if you have an appreciation for both mindsets you can quickly switch gears and position your presentation in a way that is most likely to be received favorably.

The fourth mindset is Fantasy Land, and unfortunately there isn’t too much you can do when your client is in this mindset, except wait. In the fantasy land mode the client thinks they are doing wonderfully, when in fact their results are terrible. Reality just hasn’t hit them yet. They’re living in a dream world. Although there is nothing you can do short-term to change their mind, the good news is that sooner or later reality will hit and then the prospect will most likely fall into the pain mode.

From a strategic standpoint you want to know the buying mode of your clients since this will give you clues for your speeches, articles and other follow-up activities.

For example, one of the challenges people face when they prepare a presentation or begin to write an article is that they don’t know what to speak or write about. A helpful idea is to focus on the business issues your clients are facing and the kinds of results they’re looking for.

In other words, discuss the buying mode that they’re in.

If you follow this strategy it is likely that your article or speech will have a broad industry appeal, since if something pains one company, there’s a high probability that others are also impacted.

This is yet another advantage of making sure you understand the buying mindset of your prospective clients.

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