unstoppableceoconfidential/201509 how to sell with words
SEPTEMBER 2015
UNSTOPPABLECEO.NET
THE SECRET FORMULA FOR SELLING WITH WORDS A Practical Approach to Creating Your Winning Marketing Message, Even if You’re not a Natural Writer.
This month, we’re going to get practical…’cause marketing and business ideas are all great, but if you don’t have a process to turn them into reality, what good are they? For the last few months, there have been about a dozen questions from members centered around how to create a good… compelling…successful marketing message. It’s vital, if you want to follow my advice last month for creating a “life-giving,” rather than a “life-sucking” business. You’ll remember, I laid out three criteria for a “life-giving” business. They are: #1. The business must be capable of operating without you for extended periods of time. #2. The business must be capable of
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selling without you. #3. The business needs a recurring revenue model of some kind (and I laid out three recurring revenue business models. If you’re new and missed that issue, email Lauren—[email protected]—for details and pricing). This month, let’s deal with #2: getting the business to sell without you doing all the selling. The first temptation is to go get “people” to sell for you. As I said last month…bad idea to start here. Unless and until you can put pen to paper and create a clear, compelling marketing message, you’ll never be able to get other people—who know less about your business than you—to sell successfully for you. Not a natural writer…not to worry…not comfortable writing…not to worry… deathly afraid of the “blank screen”…not to worry… We’re going to break down the development of your marketing message into a process. By the time you actually sit down to create your message, you’ll
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have all the pieces in place to get the
July 7 & 21, August 11 & 18, September 1 & 15
words to come out.
Currently the Unstoppable CEO™ Elite Coaching Program is by application only. Visit UnstoppableCEO.net/Consulting for information and an application. Minimum income requirements apply.
The Secret Ingredient Missing in 99% of all Marketing and Sales Communication
Unstoppable Referrals Launchpad™ THE LAUNCH WINDOW IS OPEN: Visit UnstoppableCEO.net/Launchpad-Confidential for EXCLUSIVE HALF-PRICE OFFER for subscribers. STEVE GORDON CONSULTING & COPYWRITING: Availability for copywriting and in-depth strategy consulting is extremely limited. Project fees begin between $15,000 and $25,000 (and are often higher depending on scope).
The vast majority of marketing, in all
Should you wish to contact Steve concerning consulting or copywriting, email a brief description of your project to Lauren ([email protected]) and we’ll schedule a call to discuss your goals.
industries, is just plain garbage. That’s great news, because by the end of this newsletter, you’ll have a map and guide book to make your
STEVE GORDON SPEAKING/INTERVIEWS/WEBINARS FOR YOUR PROSPECTS/CLIENTS - Dates are limited. For availability: Contact Lauren ([email protected]).
marketing message stand out…way above the noise in your market. And, you don’t need to be
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a professional copywriter to do it. So, what’s that missing “secret” Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved.
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ingredient? CLARITY. Most of the marketing I see (and I see a lot of it) just isn’t clear. It’s written by the business owner, who is expert in his or her field, and who suffers from expert’s myopia. Too close to the material to understand how to communicate the value he or she brings to a client in a way the client can understand. Let’s look at some examples…
I’m going to pick on my old industry for a moment. This is a land planning and engineering firm. Read it…any idea what, exactly, they do and why you’d want to hire them? I know the industry and I’m a bit confused about what they do after reading this piece! Here’s another…same industry.
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I’ve blacked out the firm name. If I asked you to tell me what’s different about the two, could you? Could you explain what they really do for their clients? If this is what your marketing sounds like, by the end of these pages, you’ll know how to fix it. And, don’t despair if you’re in this boat…you’ve got lots of company. I know a bit about each of these firms and I know each is doing well. But they sell manually. The business owners, partners in this case, must do all of the selling and prospecting, because their marketing is so incredibly vague that it can’t help. If you want to achieve the promise of owning a business—freedom—then you cannot make these mistakes in your marketing. The answer starts with CLARITY. Using clear, plain language to describe what you really do, and avoiding puffed up words that you think make you sound important. Now, let me give you a mental image to picture when you’re choosing the words to put into your marketing message. As we go through the simple process in the following pages, keep this image in mind…
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Use simple language when you’re communicating with prospects and clients…if Homer Simpson can understand you, you’re on the right track!
I’m not saying your prospects are stupid. They are not. But simple, easy to understand language works better than flowery, formal language. Speak and write plainly in your marketing. Clarity is the foundation of a great marketing message. Don’t underestimate the simple power of clear communication with prospects—for a confused prospect, leaves with her money.
Does Your Marketing Suffer This Deadly Sin of Omission? Both examples on the previous pages commit a sin by omission…and it’s a BIGGIE. In fact, it’s the most common omission in marketing (and all persuasive communication). Without it, you’re not having a “conversation” with prospects, you’re having a “monologue.” Great if you’re David Letterman, but even he only got 3-minutes at the beginning of the show. The examples above make a deadly error…they leave out the prospect. Her problems, her challenges, her point of view. It’s all “me, me…and some more about me!” I’ll be honest, I had to really concentrate to get through both of those passages because they were so focused on the companies and what they do. Your prospects don’t care what you do or how you do it. Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved.
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They have a problem and want a solution. Start there. Want to capture your prospect’s attention and keep it? Talk about THEM. Talk about THEIR STRUGGLE.
It’s About THEM, Not You On a legal pad draw a vertical line down the middle and make a list of every problem you solve for your clients on the left side of the line. Then, on the right side, write why solving the problem is important to your clients. Great! Now we’re getting somewhere. The “reasons why” in the right column should drive your marketing. Those are the reasons clients buy. The don’t buy because of your list of services. They may not even want your services… they want the feeling that comes from each “why.” For example…it’s time for my wife and I to update our wills. I don’t want legal services (no offense to the lawyers among us…take note, your clients are likely thinking this way). I don’t even want a will. So why am I going to buy legal services? I want our kids to be taken care of if we meet an untimely demise. So when I go to a law firm’s website and see their list of services (that usually scrolls off the page) and I read about the qualifications of their attorneys it has no meaning. Virtually every law firm’s site is similar. I’m not qualified to judge any of the credentials. I have to assume that, if they’re approved by the state Bar Association to practice, they are qualified. But, talk to me about the issues related to ensuring our kids are taken care of, have access to the assets we leave behind and can side-step the lengthy probate process…I’m listening. You have to start where your prospect is, right now. Spend time thinking about where they come from, right before they see your marketing. What frame of mind are they in? What problem is weighing on their minds? Start the conversation there. And I do mean start the conversation. How would you converse with a real live prospect in front of you?
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Surely you wouldn’t say… “We are a design, planning, and policy analysis consulting firm dedicated to creating cities that work. We specialize in the integration of…yada, yada, yada…” as our friends in the land planning business did above.
3 Steps to a Successful Marketing “Conversation” Let’s break down this “marketing conversation” idea into three easy steps… STEP 1—The Problem: We just covered it—start with the problem your future clients want to solve…the really painful problem they want to solve (or, alternatively, the result they really want, but can’t get on their own). You’ve got the list of problems and why they are important to solve. STEP 2—The Consequences of the Problem: This is the “A” in the old, proven, marketing formula know as P.A.S.—Problem, Agitate the Problem, Solve the Problem. But I find that people get confused about how to agitate the problem…and a lot of the online advice on how to do this borders on the unethical. What you’re really trying to do, once you’ve established the problem, is to shine a bright light on the consequences of not acting on the problem. Your prospects may know they have a problem, but may not know that, if left untreated, it will carry nasty consequences. You, as the expert in your field, have a responsibility and an obligation to educate your prospects on all of the consequences of the problem(s) they face. And, it’s just smart marketing… It’s the consequences, and the accompanying emotional pain that will take a prospect who knows they have a problem and actually move them to solve it. Getting a human into forward motion is difficult. Don’t underestimate the challenge in front of you. Unless you make them aware of, and feel the consequences of not acting to solve the problem, it’s unlikely that they’ll make any move until the pain gets to be too much to bear. If your goal is to help your clients, this one step is one of the most important ways you can help them. For each item in your list of problems and reasons why, I want you to write on a separate sheet, the consequences of leaving the problem to fester and grow…in short, what will they experience if they don’t hire you to solve it.
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IF you find that a particular problem on your list has no corresponding consequences, you’ve just learned something important…it’ll likely be tough to sell. STEP 3—Give ‘em the Solution: Now that you’ve listed the problems your clients face and the consequences they’ll feel if they don’t act, let’s address your solution to those problems…your cure for the consequences. Make a list of your solutions to each of the problems/consequences. How does your product or service deliver the cure? What you’re doing is connecting the dots for your future clients. Instead of assuming the client understands the problem he or she faces and the consequences AND that you offer the cure, you’ve now given them a road map that starts where they are right now…worried about a problem. And you’ve guided them through the valley of consequence and up the mountain to the ultimate cure. Take them on the journey and you’ll have pre-sold prospects, when they finally reach you for the cure.
An Ounce of Prevention is Damn Hard to Sell Many of our members sell “prevention” of problems, rather than “cure” of problems. Unfortunately (and you already know this), prevention of future pain is damn hard to sell. So, if you’re selling prevention, you’ve got to bring the pain and the consequences back from the future and into the present. The single best example of this I’ve ever heard was a story my mother-in-law related to me…She was pregnant with my wife and she smoked (back at a time when the dangers of smoking were just becoming known). The doc was selling “future health” and trying to get her to quit smoking. Tough sell. So, the good doc brought the future consequences back to the present…he told her to put her hand on her belly, feel the baby kicking inside. Then imagine the baby grown and getting married. He asked, “Do you want to be the mother of the bride who walks down the church aisle towing an oxygen tank so you can breathe?” Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved.
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She felt the future consequence in that present moment. Broke into tears, and, quit cold turkey. That’s how you bring the consequences back from the future.
BEGIN AT THE END You’ve got the basic outline. Now, the most logical way to sit down and start creating your message is to begin with the hook or headline. Big mistake. If you start here, it’s often really difficult to stay focused on where you’re trying to end up…at the action you want the prospect to take as a result of experiencing your message. Begin at the end…with the call to action. So, what exactly is the call to action? Simple…it’s the instructions you’re going to give the prospect so they know what to do next. Look, I know that sounds pretty basic and it should be easy to do, but, I stumble across calls to action daily, that are so poorly conceived, I don’t know what to do next. So I leave. Worse…the overwhelming majority of marketing I see has no specific action for the prospect to do at all! At every step, there must be a next step a prospect can take to move closer to you and your business.
How to Create a Killer Call to Action Write down what you want them to do… Schedule a meeting with you? Buy something? Attend an event? Request your Referral Kit™? What specific and singular action do you want to trigger? Write it down. Be VERY specific (spell out the steps they need to take: fax a form, send an email, go to a webpage and fill out a form, call a number). Once again, clarity is important. Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved.
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Next, write down what the prospect gets if they take the action. What are the top 3 or 5 benefits of completing the action? For example, if you want him to book a consultation (a/k/a sales meeting), what will the prospect gain by booking, then showing up for the consult? Will he gain greater clarity (and why is that important to him)? Will he gain ideas (how will those help him)? Will he receive a bonus “widget” of some kind (why would he want it)? List the benefits and why they are beneficial. Now, list the risks your prospect faces if they take the action. Do they risk losing money? Do they risk experiencing sales pressure? Do they risk embarrassment, having to admit they let a problem grow, rather than deal with it? Do they risk loss of privacy? Loss of time? Can you eliminate the risks? If so, how will you do it? If you can’t eliminate it, how will you deal with it? For one of my clients, selling to CEOs, a risk is the fear that their board of directors will think “Why can’t she do this herself…why does she need outside help?” So we make sure that, throughout the marketing message we make it clear that we are there to make the CEO look like a rock star. They must feel as though they’ll get credit for the success my client delivers. Whatever risks your prospect must face to take the action you want, you must either mitigate the risk or face it head on. In the sales message for this newsletter we use the risk of loss of money as a client qualifier, instead of mitigating it: “Note: there are no refunds. If $19.97 is too big a risk for you then this isn’t the publication for you. And that’s OK.” Depending on the risk and the client’s perception of the risk, you can mitigate it or use it as a qualifier, but whatever you do, don’t remain silent on any of the significant risks you listed. Call them out and deal with them.
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How to Approach Risk Reversal Like a Trial Attorney If there’s an industry that’s mastered the elimination of risk for their clients, it’s the personal injury trial attorneys. Their simple slogan…“You pay nothing unless we win.” Whether you like ‘em or not, you’ve got to admire how they’ve managed to structure a killer offer. It goes like this… “Think you’ve been wronged or injured by someone else? Come meet with us for free. If we agree that you’ve got a case, we’ll go to work for you. And, oh, by the way, you don’t need to pay us now, or later, unless we win a cash award for you. So, really, the person who hurt you pays our fee.” Reminds me of a Dire Straits song from the ‘80s, “Money for nothin’ and your chicks for free…” You may not be able to make this kind of offer. And in some businesses it’s counter productive. If McKinsey and Company tried this exact offer it wouldn’t work. It doesn’t fit. But they take the same approach…“Hire us and we’ll more than pay for our fee, so, really, hiring us is not only free, it pays you.” If you’re selling to businesses, “making it free to them” is a huge advantage. It takes you out of the cost column and into the income column. Costs get minimized. Incomes get expanded. Figure out how to play the income game.
An Offer They Can’t Refuse The centerpiece of your call to action is the offer you’re going to make. It might be for a consultation (a/k/a sales meeting) or it might be to make the actual sale. No matter. When you’re crafting your offer you want to make it an offer they can’t refuse. Invest your time and creativity here. It will pay the biggest dividends.
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A fantastic offer that’s exactly what your IDEAL clients want, can do very well in spite of mediocre marketing. However, it’s hard to sell a weak offer, even with world class marketing. When I say the word “offer” some instantly think of “discount,” so I checked Webster’s. The two words are not synonyms. There are reasons to discount, but as a rule…avoid it. Discounting should be the exception. Developing your offer can be really tough. Especially in an existing business, where you and your industry do things using “accepted norms.” In my first business we really struggled to create our first offers (beyond, “let’s have a sales meeting”). Our service, was, in our eyes “standard.” We already included all the client needed. Developing the offers took some creativity. We looked at, and made a list of, the problems that caused our clients’ development projects to miss deadlines, create re-work, and go over budget. One recurring issue…communication between the field engineers/surveyors and the construction crews. About 20% of the errors on projects could be tracked to this one source. So, rather than add to our service offering, we simply created a “communications system” to eliminate the cause of the errors. Our fancy communication system was a 1-page, laminated training card for the construction crews, plus free training every 60-days on how to interpret survey markings for construction crews (in hind-sight, I’d have added a special “hot-line” for construction questions—again, cheap to do, but big value added). Total cost to implement: About $1000 per year. Competitive advantage gained by having it in our offer: Priceless. I share that with you to illustrate the point that, you don’t have to load up feature after feature into your offer, and you don’t, necessarily, need to change your core offering. Sometimes adding a laundry list of low-value features can actually erode your credibility with your prospect. They’ll think…“do these people really understand where I’m coming from, if they’re offering me all this stuff I don’t need?” But one or two or three smart and unique solutions to real and painful problems can give you a completely unique and attractive offer for your prospects.
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In the example above, the cost savings from fewer errors, more than paid for our premium fee.
How Your Offer Affects Your Positioning Imagine… You’ve attracted a prospect. They were referred by a client. They got your Referral Kit™ and responded to your Next Step Offer. They’ve accepted the fact that they have a problem and you’ve built up enough trust and authority that they now want you to solve it for them. You have the sales meeting and present your offer… But they don’t buy. What happened? The offer didn’t match the positioning. Big problem, especially in businesses trying to move from selling like everyone else in the industry, to selling from authority, at premium fees and favorable (to you) terms. If you’re trying to position yourself as a premium/authority in the market, but you’ve got a weak offer—perceived low pricing, unnecessary extras or loaded up with guarantees (in a situation where they don’t make sense), you’ve now killed your authority position. Not only do you kill positioning, which drives away the good clients, you attract the really bad ones. Before you unveil an offer—whether it’s your Next Step Offer in your Referral Kit™, a lead magnet offer on your site or the offer for your product or service—ask yourself: “Does this match with my positioning?”
DO YOU MAKE THESE MISTAKES IN YOUR OFFERS? A final word on offers. There are two big mistakes I see often. Avoid them. MISTAKE #1: No offer is made. This is the most common mistake. Both examples I shared are devoid of any offer, as were all of the competing firms sites that I reviewed. When you omit an offer, you fail to help your prospects take a next step towards solving a problem. MISTAKE #2: You offer too little. If they have a problem you can identify, sell them everything they need to solve the problem now, and prevent it from coming back. Don’t stop short. This happens for two reasons:
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1) The business fears price competition, so, sells a smaller, cheaper solution. 2) The sales process isn’t diving deep enough to uncover the whole problem, thus, diagnosis misses the root problem. In both cases you commit sales malpractice. Clients aren’t fully served and you leave a pile of money on the table—nobody wins. Sell them the whole solution. Soup to nuts. You can bundle it all together into a package, or not. Bundling is different than selling the whole solution. McDonalds has mastered bundling to deliver the entire solution (meal). Don Shula’s Steakhouse sells everything a la carte’. They still sell you the whole meal. If you forget to order a vegetable with your steak, they don’t simply say “OK” and bring you a lone steak. They offer the vegetable. Not just to sell, but to serve the customer. Want a deeper understanding of this particular mistake? Watch Jay Abraham’s talk on The Strategy of Preeminence: http://bit.ly/TSxy4o
Can You Prove It? Your current clients are already getting great results, right? Don’t keep that a secret (unless of course the law won’t allow it). Use client testimonials to your advantage. They give your prospects the opportunity to “look in the mirror” and see someone like them, who faced the same problem they faced, who then found you, and hired you or bought your product to solve their problem. And now, life is grand. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in creating your list of problems, consequences, benefits and your offer that you forget to share the success you’ve already created for clients. You need testimonials and case studies for each service and each type of ideal client…because prospects are looking for someone just like them. I have a private client selling to corporations and we carefully tailor the testimonials by size of corporation, role of the person receiving the testimonial (so the CEO hears from a CEO, the COO hears from a COO, etc.). If you’ve got three or four IDEAL client types, you need testimonials or case studies for each. Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved.
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For a simple formula for creating testimonials, download my 4-part testimonial formula: http://bit.ly/1JvnrFB.
The Five “C’s” OK…a quick summary of your marketing message, in five “C’s”: Clarity: Use clear, simple language in your marketing. People will stay awake longer, than if you use hyperbolically verbose language ;-) Easier to sell to ‘em when they’re conscious.
Conversation: Done well, your message should sound like a conversation with the prospect and about the prospect, rather than some formal corporate puffery edited by the legal department at Microsoft. Communicate to the human on the other end, and you’ll keep attention longer. Focus all of your words on the problems and consequences your prospect faces.
Cure: Structure your offer as a cure to present pain if at all possible. Prevention is hard to sell.
Call-to-Action: Decide on a singular next action the prospect should take after consuming your marketing. Tell them how to take that step and why it’s in their best interest to take it.
Complete Offer: Give them the complete solution. Don’t let them buy less than they should buy. A trusted advisor would never allow a client to only get a partial solution.
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September Roundtable Call By Popular Demand How to Structure a Leveraged Sales Presentation The September Roundtable call is Thursday, September 17th at 1:00pm Eastern (10am Pacific and 6pm London). We got a mailbag full of responses to my offer last month to do a call on structuring leveraged sales presentations…so it’s on. Join the call on the 17th (call-in details to be emailed to you prior to the call) and I’ll walk you through the structure for a leveraged sales presentation, what should go into the presentation, in what order, how to deliver the call-to-action (for a variety of situations) and, what to leave out. Until next month…Be Unstoppable!
Steve
The UnstoppableCEO™ CONFIDENTIAL Contact Information: PO Box 16334, Tallahassee, FL 32317 1-877-316-4448 ◆ www.UnstoppableCEO.net publisher’s notices Copyright © 2015 Steve Gordon Marketing Systems, LLC (the “Publisher”). All Rights Reserved. Published in the United States of America. All trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners. All references to these properties are made solely for editorial purposes. Except marks actually owned by Publisher, Publisher does not make any commercial claims to their use, and is not affiliated with them in any way. Unless otherwise expressly noted, none of the individuals or business entities mentioned herein have endorsed the contents of this newsletter. Facts and information are believed to be accurate at the time they were placed in this newsletter. All data provided in this newsletter is to be used for information purposes only. The information contained within is not intended to provide specific legal, financial or tax advice, or any other professional advice whatsoever, for any individual or company and should not be relied upon in that regard. Products and services described are only offered in jurisdictions where they may be legally offered. Information provided is not all-inclusive, and is limited to information that is made available and such information should not be relied upon as all-inclusive or accurate. The materials in this newsletter are provided “as is” and without warranties of any kind either express or implied. Publisher disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Publisher does not warrant or make any representations regarding the use or the results of the use of the materials in this newsletter in terms of their correctness, accuracy, reliability, or otherwise. Applicable law may not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the above exclusion may not apply to you. Under no circumstances, including, but not limited to, negligence, shall Publisher be liable for any special or consequential damages that result from the use of this newsletter even if Publisher or Publisher’s authorized representative has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Applicable law may not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability or incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation may not apply to you. In no event shall the Publisher’s total liability to you for all damages, losses, and all causes of action exceed the amount paid by you, if any, for this newsletter.
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THE SECRET FORMULA FOR SELLING WITH WORDS A Practical Approach to Creating Your Winning Marketing Message, Even if You’re not a Natural Writer.
This month, we’re going to get practical…’cause marketing and business ideas are all great, but if you don’t have a process to turn them into reality, what good are they? For the last few months, there have been about a dozen questions from members centered around how to create a good… compelling…successful marketing message. It’s vital, if you want to follow my advice last month for creating a “life-giving,” rather than a “life-sucking” business. You’ll remember, I laid out three criteria for a “life-giving” business. They are: #1. The business must be capable of operating without you for extended periods of time. #2. The business must be capable of
Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved.
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selling without you. #3. The business needs a recurring revenue model of some kind (and I laid out three recurring revenue business models. If you’re new and missed that issue, email Lauren—[email protected]—for details and pricing). This month, let’s deal with #2: getting the business to sell without you doing all the selling. The first temptation is to go get “people” to sell for you. As I said last month…bad idea to start here. Unless and until you can put pen to paper and create a clear, compelling marketing message, you’ll never be able to get other people—who know less about your business than you—to sell successfully for you. Not a natural writer…not to worry…not comfortable writing…not to worry… deathly afraid of the “blank screen”…not to worry… We’re going to break down the development of your marketing message into a process. By the time you actually sit down to create your message, you’ll
3rd QUARTER PRIVATE CLIENT COACHING DAYS:
have all the pieces in place to get the
July 7 & 21, August 11 & 18, September 1 & 15
words to come out.
Currently the Unstoppable CEO™ Elite Coaching Program is by application only. Visit UnstoppableCEO.net/Consulting for information and an application. Minimum income requirements apply.
The Secret Ingredient Missing in 99% of all Marketing and Sales Communication
Unstoppable Referrals Launchpad™ THE LAUNCH WINDOW IS OPEN: Visit UnstoppableCEO.net/Launchpad-Confidential for EXCLUSIVE HALF-PRICE OFFER for subscribers. STEVE GORDON CONSULTING & COPYWRITING: Availability for copywriting and in-depth strategy consulting is extremely limited. Project fees begin between $15,000 and $25,000 (and are often higher depending on scope).
The vast majority of marketing, in all
Should you wish to contact Steve concerning consulting or copywriting, email a brief description of your project to Lauren ([email protected]) and we’ll schedule a call to discuss your goals.
industries, is just plain garbage. That’s great news, because by the end of this newsletter, you’ll have a map and guide book to make your
STEVE GORDON SPEAKING/INTERVIEWS/WEBINARS FOR YOUR PROSPECTS/CLIENTS - Dates are limited. For availability: Contact Lauren ([email protected]).
marketing message stand out…way above the noise in your market. And, you don’t need to be
INCOMMUNICADO DAYS - We’ll be “incommunicado” (unreachable) September 8-11 and September 14-15.
a professional copywriter to do it. So, what’s that missing “secret” Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved.
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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ingredient? CLARITY. Most of the marketing I see (and I see a lot of it) just isn’t clear. It’s written by the business owner, who is expert in his or her field, and who suffers from expert’s myopia. Too close to the material to understand how to communicate the value he or she brings to a client in a way the client can understand. Let’s look at some examples…
I’m going to pick on my old industry for a moment. This is a land planning and engineering firm. Read it…any idea what, exactly, they do and why you’d want to hire them? I know the industry and I’m a bit confused about what they do after reading this piece! Here’s another…same industry.
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I’ve blacked out the firm name. If I asked you to tell me what’s different about the two, could you? Could you explain what they really do for their clients? If this is what your marketing sounds like, by the end of these pages, you’ll know how to fix it. And, don’t despair if you’re in this boat…you’ve got lots of company. I know a bit about each of these firms and I know each is doing well. But they sell manually. The business owners, partners in this case, must do all of the selling and prospecting, because their marketing is so incredibly vague that it can’t help. If you want to achieve the promise of owning a business—freedom—then you cannot make these mistakes in your marketing. The answer starts with CLARITY. Using clear, plain language to describe what you really do, and avoiding puffed up words that you think make you sound important. Now, let me give you a mental image to picture when you’re choosing the words to put into your marketing message. As we go through the simple process in the following pages, keep this image in mind…
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Use simple language when you’re communicating with prospects and clients…if Homer Simpson can understand you, you’re on the right track!
I’m not saying your prospects are stupid. They are not. But simple, easy to understand language works better than flowery, formal language. Speak and write plainly in your marketing. Clarity is the foundation of a great marketing message. Don’t underestimate the simple power of clear communication with prospects—for a confused prospect, leaves with her money.
Does Your Marketing Suffer This Deadly Sin of Omission? Both examples on the previous pages commit a sin by omission…and it’s a BIGGIE. In fact, it’s the most common omission in marketing (and all persuasive communication). Without it, you’re not having a “conversation” with prospects, you’re having a “monologue.” Great if you’re David Letterman, but even he only got 3-minutes at the beginning of the show. The examples above make a deadly error…they leave out the prospect. Her problems, her challenges, her point of view. It’s all “me, me…and some more about me!” I’ll be honest, I had to really concentrate to get through both of those passages because they were so focused on the companies and what they do. Your prospects don’t care what you do or how you do it. Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved.
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They have a problem and want a solution. Start there. Want to capture your prospect’s attention and keep it? Talk about THEM. Talk about THEIR STRUGGLE.
It’s About THEM, Not You On a legal pad draw a vertical line down the middle and make a list of every problem you solve for your clients on the left side of the line. Then, on the right side, write why solving the problem is important to your clients. Great! Now we’re getting somewhere. The “reasons why” in the right column should drive your marketing. Those are the reasons clients buy. The don’t buy because of your list of services. They may not even want your services… they want the feeling that comes from each “why.” For example…it’s time for my wife and I to update our wills. I don’t want legal services (no offense to the lawyers among us…take note, your clients are likely thinking this way). I don’t even want a will. So why am I going to buy legal services? I want our kids to be taken care of if we meet an untimely demise. So when I go to a law firm’s website and see their list of services (that usually scrolls off the page) and I read about the qualifications of their attorneys it has no meaning. Virtually every law firm’s site is similar. I’m not qualified to judge any of the credentials. I have to assume that, if they’re approved by the state Bar Association to practice, they are qualified. But, talk to me about the issues related to ensuring our kids are taken care of, have access to the assets we leave behind and can side-step the lengthy probate process…I’m listening. You have to start where your prospect is, right now. Spend time thinking about where they come from, right before they see your marketing. What frame of mind are they in? What problem is weighing on their minds? Start the conversation there. And I do mean start the conversation. How would you converse with a real live prospect in front of you?
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Surely you wouldn’t say… “We are a design, planning, and policy analysis consulting firm dedicated to creating cities that work. We specialize in the integration of…yada, yada, yada…” as our friends in the land planning business did above.
3 Steps to a Successful Marketing “Conversation” Let’s break down this “marketing conversation” idea into three easy steps… STEP 1—The Problem: We just covered it—start with the problem your future clients want to solve…the really painful problem they want to solve (or, alternatively, the result they really want, but can’t get on their own). You’ve got the list of problems and why they are important to solve. STEP 2—The Consequences of the Problem: This is the “A” in the old, proven, marketing formula know as P.A.S.—Problem, Agitate the Problem, Solve the Problem. But I find that people get confused about how to agitate the problem…and a lot of the online advice on how to do this borders on the unethical. What you’re really trying to do, once you’ve established the problem, is to shine a bright light on the consequences of not acting on the problem. Your prospects may know they have a problem, but may not know that, if left untreated, it will carry nasty consequences. You, as the expert in your field, have a responsibility and an obligation to educate your prospects on all of the consequences of the problem(s) they face. And, it’s just smart marketing… It’s the consequences, and the accompanying emotional pain that will take a prospect who knows they have a problem and actually move them to solve it. Getting a human into forward motion is difficult. Don’t underestimate the challenge in front of you. Unless you make them aware of, and feel the consequences of not acting to solve the problem, it’s unlikely that they’ll make any move until the pain gets to be too much to bear. If your goal is to help your clients, this one step is one of the most important ways you can help them. For each item in your list of problems and reasons why, I want you to write on a separate sheet, the consequences of leaving the problem to fester and grow…in short, what will they experience if they don’t hire you to solve it.
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IF you find that a particular problem on your list has no corresponding consequences, you’ve just learned something important…it’ll likely be tough to sell. STEP 3—Give ‘em the Solution: Now that you’ve listed the problems your clients face and the consequences they’ll feel if they don’t act, let’s address your solution to those problems…your cure for the consequences. Make a list of your solutions to each of the problems/consequences. How does your product or service deliver the cure? What you’re doing is connecting the dots for your future clients. Instead of assuming the client understands the problem he or she faces and the consequences AND that you offer the cure, you’ve now given them a road map that starts where they are right now…worried about a problem. And you’ve guided them through the valley of consequence and up the mountain to the ultimate cure. Take them on the journey and you’ll have pre-sold prospects, when they finally reach you for the cure.
An Ounce of Prevention is Damn Hard to Sell Many of our members sell “prevention” of problems, rather than “cure” of problems. Unfortunately (and you already know this), prevention of future pain is damn hard to sell. So, if you’re selling prevention, you’ve got to bring the pain and the consequences back from the future and into the present. The single best example of this I’ve ever heard was a story my mother-in-law related to me…She was pregnant with my wife and she smoked (back at a time when the dangers of smoking were just becoming known). The doc was selling “future health” and trying to get her to quit smoking. Tough sell. So, the good doc brought the future consequences back to the present…he told her to put her hand on her belly, feel the baby kicking inside. Then imagine the baby grown and getting married. He asked, “Do you want to be the mother of the bride who walks down the church aisle towing an oxygen tank so you can breathe?” Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved.
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She felt the future consequence in that present moment. Broke into tears, and, quit cold turkey. That’s how you bring the consequences back from the future.
BEGIN AT THE END You’ve got the basic outline. Now, the most logical way to sit down and start creating your message is to begin with the hook or headline. Big mistake. If you start here, it’s often really difficult to stay focused on where you’re trying to end up…at the action you want the prospect to take as a result of experiencing your message. Begin at the end…with the call to action. So, what exactly is the call to action? Simple…it’s the instructions you’re going to give the prospect so they know what to do next. Look, I know that sounds pretty basic and it should be easy to do, but, I stumble across calls to action daily, that are so poorly conceived, I don’t know what to do next. So I leave. Worse…the overwhelming majority of marketing I see has no specific action for the prospect to do at all! At every step, there must be a next step a prospect can take to move closer to you and your business.
How to Create a Killer Call to Action Write down what you want them to do… Schedule a meeting with you? Buy something? Attend an event? Request your Referral Kit™? What specific and singular action do you want to trigger? Write it down. Be VERY specific (spell out the steps they need to take: fax a form, send an email, go to a webpage and fill out a form, call a number). Once again, clarity is important. Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved.
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Next, write down what the prospect gets if they take the action. What are the top 3 or 5 benefits of completing the action? For example, if you want him to book a consultation (a/k/a sales meeting), what will the prospect gain by booking, then showing up for the consult? Will he gain greater clarity (and why is that important to him)? Will he gain ideas (how will those help him)? Will he receive a bonus “widget” of some kind (why would he want it)? List the benefits and why they are beneficial. Now, list the risks your prospect faces if they take the action. Do they risk losing money? Do they risk experiencing sales pressure? Do they risk embarrassment, having to admit they let a problem grow, rather than deal with it? Do they risk loss of privacy? Loss of time? Can you eliminate the risks? If so, how will you do it? If you can’t eliminate it, how will you deal with it? For one of my clients, selling to CEOs, a risk is the fear that their board of directors will think “Why can’t she do this herself…why does she need outside help?” So we make sure that, throughout the marketing message we make it clear that we are there to make the CEO look like a rock star. They must feel as though they’ll get credit for the success my client delivers. Whatever risks your prospect must face to take the action you want, you must either mitigate the risk or face it head on. In the sales message for this newsletter we use the risk of loss of money as a client qualifier, instead of mitigating it: “Note: there are no refunds. If $19.97 is too big a risk for you then this isn’t the publication for you. And that’s OK.” Depending on the risk and the client’s perception of the risk, you can mitigate it or use it as a qualifier, but whatever you do, don’t remain silent on any of the significant risks you listed. Call them out and deal with them.
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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How to Approach Risk Reversal Like a Trial Attorney If there’s an industry that’s mastered the elimination of risk for their clients, it’s the personal injury trial attorneys. Their simple slogan…“You pay nothing unless we win.” Whether you like ‘em or not, you’ve got to admire how they’ve managed to structure a killer offer. It goes like this… “Think you’ve been wronged or injured by someone else? Come meet with us for free. If we agree that you’ve got a case, we’ll go to work for you. And, oh, by the way, you don’t need to pay us now, or later, unless we win a cash award for you. So, really, the person who hurt you pays our fee.” Reminds me of a Dire Straits song from the ‘80s, “Money for nothin’ and your chicks for free…” You may not be able to make this kind of offer. And in some businesses it’s counter productive. If McKinsey and Company tried this exact offer it wouldn’t work. It doesn’t fit. But they take the same approach…“Hire us and we’ll more than pay for our fee, so, really, hiring us is not only free, it pays you.” If you’re selling to businesses, “making it free to them” is a huge advantage. It takes you out of the cost column and into the income column. Costs get minimized. Incomes get expanded. Figure out how to play the income game.
An Offer They Can’t Refuse The centerpiece of your call to action is the offer you’re going to make. It might be for a consultation (a/k/a sales meeting) or it might be to make the actual sale. No matter. When you’re crafting your offer you want to make it an offer they can’t refuse. Invest your time and creativity here. It will pay the biggest dividends.
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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A fantastic offer that’s exactly what your IDEAL clients want, can do very well in spite of mediocre marketing. However, it’s hard to sell a weak offer, even with world class marketing. When I say the word “offer” some instantly think of “discount,” so I checked Webster’s. The two words are not synonyms. There are reasons to discount, but as a rule…avoid it. Discounting should be the exception. Developing your offer can be really tough. Especially in an existing business, where you and your industry do things using “accepted norms.” In my first business we really struggled to create our first offers (beyond, “let’s have a sales meeting”). Our service, was, in our eyes “standard.” We already included all the client needed. Developing the offers took some creativity. We looked at, and made a list of, the problems that caused our clients’ development projects to miss deadlines, create re-work, and go over budget. One recurring issue…communication between the field engineers/surveyors and the construction crews. About 20% of the errors on projects could be tracked to this one source. So, rather than add to our service offering, we simply created a “communications system” to eliminate the cause of the errors. Our fancy communication system was a 1-page, laminated training card for the construction crews, plus free training every 60-days on how to interpret survey markings for construction crews (in hind-sight, I’d have added a special “hot-line” for construction questions—again, cheap to do, but big value added). Total cost to implement: About $1000 per year. Competitive advantage gained by having it in our offer: Priceless. I share that with you to illustrate the point that, you don’t have to load up feature after feature into your offer, and you don’t, necessarily, need to change your core offering. Sometimes adding a laundry list of low-value features can actually erode your credibility with your prospect. They’ll think…“do these people really understand where I’m coming from, if they’re offering me all this stuff I don’t need?” But one or two or three smart and unique solutions to real and painful problems can give you a completely unique and attractive offer for your prospects.
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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In the example above, the cost savings from fewer errors, more than paid for our premium fee.
How Your Offer Affects Your Positioning Imagine… You’ve attracted a prospect. They were referred by a client. They got your Referral Kit™ and responded to your Next Step Offer. They’ve accepted the fact that they have a problem and you’ve built up enough trust and authority that they now want you to solve it for them. You have the sales meeting and present your offer… But they don’t buy. What happened? The offer didn’t match the positioning. Big problem, especially in businesses trying to move from selling like everyone else in the industry, to selling from authority, at premium fees and favorable (to you) terms. If you’re trying to position yourself as a premium/authority in the market, but you’ve got a weak offer—perceived low pricing, unnecessary extras or loaded up with guarantees (in a situation where they don’t make sense), you’ve now killed your authority position. Not only do you kill positioning, which drives away the good clients, you attract the really bad ones. Before you unveil an offer—whether it’s your Next Step Offer in your Referral Kit™, a lead magnet offer on your site or the offer for your product or service—ask yourself: “Does this match with my positioning?”
DO YOU MAKE THESE MISTAKES IN YOUR OFFERS? A final word on offers. There are two big mistakes I see often. Avoid them. MISTAKE #1: No offer is made. This is the most common mistake. Both examples I shared are devoid of any offer, as were all of the competing firms sites that I reviewed. When you omit an offer, you fail to help your prospects take a next step towards solving a problem. MISTAKE #2: You offer too little. If they have a problem you can identify, sell them everything they need to solve the problem now, and prevent it from coming back. Don’t stop short. This happens for two reasons:
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1) The business fears price competition, so, sells a smaller, cheaper solution. 2) The sales process isn’t diving deep enough to uncover the whole problem, thus, diagnosis misses the root problem. In both cases you commit sales malpractice. Clients aren’t fully served and you leave a pile of money on the table—nobody wins. Sell them the whole solution. Soup to nuts. You can bundle it all together into a package, or not. Bundling is different than selling the whole solution. McDonalds has mastered bundling to deliver the entire solution (meal). Don Shula’s Steakhouse sells everything a la carte’. They still sell you the whole meal. If you forget to order a vegetable with your steak, they don’t simply say “OK” and bring you a lone steak. They offer the vegetable. Not just to sell, but to serve the customer. Want a deeper understanding of this particular mistake? Watch Jay Abraham’s talk on The Strategy of Preeminence: http://bit.ly/TSxy4o
Can You Prove It? Your current clients are already getting great results, right? Don’t keep that a secret (unless of course the law won’t allow it). Use client testimonials to your advantage. They give your prospects the opportunity to “look in the mirror” and see someone like them, who faced the same problem they faced, who then found you, and hired you or bought your product to solve their problem. And now, life is grand. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in creating your list of problems, consequences, benefits and your offer that you forget to share the success you’ve already created for clients. You need testimonials and case studies for each service and each type of ideal client…because prospects are looking for someone just like them. I have a private client selling to corporations and we carefully tailor the testimonials by size of corporation, role of the person receiving the testimonial (so the CEO hears from a CEO, the COO hears from a COO, etc.). If you’ve got three or four IDEAL client types, you need testimonials or case studies for each. Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved.
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For a simple formula for creating testimonials, download my 4-part testimonial formula: http://bit.ly/1JvnrFB.
The Five “C’s” OK…a quick summary of your marketing message, in five “C’s”: Clarity: Use clear, simple language in your marketing. People will stay awake longer, than if you use hyperbolically verbose language ;-) Easier to sell to ‘em when they’re conscious.
Conversation: Done well, your message should sound like a conversation with the prospect and about the prospect, rather than some formal corporate puffery edited by the legal department at Microsoft. Communicate to the human on the other end, and you’ll keep attention longer. Focus all of your words on the problems and consequences your prospect faces.
Cure: Structure your offer as a cure to present pain if at all possible. Prevention is hard to sell.
Call-to-Action: Decide on a singular next action the prospect should take after consuming your marketing. Tell them how to take that step and why it’s in their best interest to take it.
Complete Offer: Give them the complete solution. Don’t let them buy less than they should buy. A trusted advisor would never allow a client to only get a partial solution.
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September Roundtable Call By Popular Demand How to Structure a Leveraged Sales Presentation The September Roundtable call is Thursday, September 17th at 1:00pm Eastern (10am Pacific and 6pm London). We got a mailbag full of responses to my offer last month to do a call on structuring leveraged sales presentations…so it’s on. Join the call on the 17th (call-in details to be emailed to you prior to the call) and I’ll walk you through the structure for a leveraged sales presentation, what should go into the presentation, in what order, how to deliver the call-to-action (for a variety of situations) and, what to leave out. Until next month…Be Unstoppable!
Steve
The UnstoppableCEO™ CONFIDENTIAL Contact Information: PO Box 16334, Tallahassee, FL 32317 1-877-316-4448 ◆ www.UnstoppableCEO.net publisher’s notices Copyright © 2015 Steve Gordon Marketing Systems, LLC (the “Publisher”). All Rights Reserved. Published in the United States of America. All trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners. All references to these properties are made solely for editorial purposes. Except marks actually owned by Publisher, Publisher does not make any commercial claims to their use, and is not affiliated with them in any way. Unless otherwise expressly noted, none of the individuals or business entities mentioned herein have endorsed the contents of this newsletter. Facts and information are believed to be accurate at the time they were placed in this newsletter. All data provided in this newsletter is to be used for information purposes only. The information contained within is not intended to provide specific legal, financial or tax advice, or any other professional advice whatsoever, for any individual or company and should not be relied upon in that regard. Products and services described are only offered in jurisdictions where they may be legally offered. Information provided is not all-inclusive, and is limited to information that is made available and such information should not be relied upon as all-inclusive or accurate. The materials in this newsletter are provided “as is” and without warranties of any kind either express or implied. Publisher disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Publisher does not warrant or make any representations regarding the use or the results of the use of the materials in this newsletter in terms of their correctness, accuracy, reliability, or otherwise. Applicable law may not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the above exclusion may not apply to you. Under no circumstances, including, but not limited to, negligence, shall Publisher be liable for any special or consequential damages that result from the use of this newsletter even if Publisher or Publisher’s authorized representative has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Applicable law may not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability or incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation may not apply to you. In no event shall the Publisher’s total liability to you for all damages, losses, and all causes of action exceed the amount paid by you, if any, for this newsletter.
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