Do you clarify whether the strength in your product or service could help the buyer?

Up until recently I’ve never consciously thought of this.

Consider this situation. You have a wonderful service and you are speaking to a prospect. You have identified that the strength could help the buyer. Then you begin the closing process. All of a sudden the prospect says “I am not interested.” You wonder what you did wrong or you try to close hard because you are sure that this is what the prospect needs.

What could you have done differently?

I think this is when clarification is needed to have taken place. During the interview process is when you need to ask a question or two that would clarify why your product or service is important to the prospect.

Once they have identified the why, you can help them so much easier. The key point to remember is; don’t try to clarify too early in the sales process.

What are two questions you can use to clarify the needs of your prospect?

Do your prospects have a short attention sp…?

We are in the Twitter age where communication is ruled by less communication. But do you believe that your prospects have a short attention span?

There are two answers to that question; yes and no. If what you are describing is interesting and client focused it is a proven fact that people will continue reading. If your marketing is dull the answer is obvious.

Which one of these head-lines grab your attention?

1. Would you like a Free Report on ‘The Five Landmines that all Business Owners need to be Aware Of’?
2. Call us for a Free Consultation this week.

For you information # 1 had 82 characters without spaces. #2 had 37 characters. Isn’t it interesting that the longer head-line got your attention? Could it be that it appealed to a specific clientele? Could it be that it had enough words to keep your attention?

Twitter may be useful but is it really effective in promoting what you do in your business?

What happens when you have great at customer service, but have trouble promoting your business?

This can be a very frustrating situation.

Many times I have seen a company that had outstanding customer service, but were challenged when trying to promote this great service. I guess that is why I do what I do. Many businesses view customer service as the heart of business. Please consider that marketing is the brains. If the brain fails (marketing) the heart will soon stop.

I recently came across a situation where a business was trying to create its own marketing and they were having problems coming up with an effective solution. They became very frustrated despite their best efforts. What can be done to overcome this? I would suggest that after a number of days of devotion and your best effort is weak, stop!

You would admit that you’ve hit a dry spell and need to consider your time. You may be surprised that working with a person who knows the proven principles of marketing you can have some very effective and fresh ideas. Consider this comment I received from a business man in Texas, “You suggested some new and innovative ideas that we probably would have never thought of on our own.”

Give me a call and I can get you pointed in the right direction. Call Tim at 519-539-2267.

Are you telling a gripping story to your prospects?

We all like to hear stories, especially ones we can relate to.

If you consider any TV program that has been running for a long time – it has a gripping story. Do you want your business to run for a long time? It will if people can relate to you and your story.

People tune in to TV programs that feature people struggling with the situations that they are placed in. This is good drama as the viewers can relate to this.

Have you ever thought of a gripping story that you can tell you prospects about why you do what you do? Remember this story must be carefully crafted so that it doesn’t become an ‘I am the greatest!’ brag session.

Can you imagine how much credibility you will build with your prospects?

Why do the statistics and the opinions of business owners disagree?

In our local newspaper recently there was an article about how retail sales had risen in our province, but not in our area.

Sadly in the article the business owners made comments like;

•  "People only buy what they need."
• "A lot of people are not buying."
• "Times are tough. Very tough."

Is there any doubt as to why their retail sales had not risen like the rest of the province? Yes the business owners they interviewed are talking like it is the end of the world. Don’t they realize that the marketing of their business starts in the brain of the owner? Times can be tough, but with a little bit of ingenuity and brain power; tough times wise can be turned around in a heart beat.

Have you fallen into this negative trap?

What can you do to get out of it today?

Is your marketing giving you less bang for the buck?

Are you getting fewer prospective customers inquiring about what you do?

Could it be that you have forgotten one of the keys to effective marketing?

There are many keys to effective marketing, but the one I want to speak about today is the tendency to push your company, product or service. It is a proven fact that if you have to brag in your marketing you are missing something in your understanding of what prospects are looking for. There are more effective ways of showing the client how good you are than what many businesses are doing today.

By building rapport at the beginning of a relationship you become what I consider a service professional. This needs to start with your marketing. It is done by being informative and shows that you are interested in serving the prospect in the best way possible.

This is one way you can differentiate yourself from the ‘pitch’ men.

Do you want it to seem that you are just interested in yourself?

What impact will that have on your business long-term?

If the business saying is, "You get what you pay for." In marketing what is the saying?

I would say that in marketing the rewards are in portion to the risks you take.

This is because if you don’t take risks and just try to blend in with the crowd you will never be recognized or even noticed.

I say that due to general observation. Consider two businesses in the same industry both in the same community. One is trying to blend in with the general marketing trend by marketing their services in all the usual avenues. The second one has done it’s homework on the type of clients they want to work with and now only market to those particular clients.

Tell me, who is going to be noticed and who is going to grow their business extraordinarily?

The challenge that I see is that once a business is established we get into a mistake-avoidance mode. We have forgotten that it was the risks we took to get the business started that made the business what it is today.

What can you do today to bring some excitement back into your business by the way you market?

What does the new movie ‘Contagion’ have to do with marketing?

It is my understanding that this upcoming action film is based on a threat posed by a deadly disease.

It is my belief that there is a deadly disease that is permeating many business owners’ minds. I call this ‘thought contagion’. Thought contagion is the unproven view that because something is popular it’s true or at least justified.

Let me give you a real-life example. There are companies right now that have bought into marketing what they do by having a web-site. Yes, this is popular, but I believe it is very ineffective. At least by the way many appear to be designed and worded.

Why do I say that? It is because all of the sites look alike. The have their company name at the top of the front page and then they speak eloquently about how long the business has been in existence or how good they are. They are so focused on themselves that they have forgotten about the potential customer. This is due to their effort to appear special or unique.

Is your focus on your business instead of the potential customer in any of your marketing?

What does it mean for a business to become unique?

Being unique to me is being without equal.  

I believe that being unique is surprising the customer by showing you are different than they thought you would be. It means being out of the ordinary. Being unique is an action, it is not just talk. It means creating a service or product for the customer that they would thoroughly enjoy, but never anticipated.

This is all about ‘going the extra mile’. It is adding something that they would never have expected. In fact what you are adding usually doesn't cost you much, but the perceived benefits for the customer are valued highly.

Can you think of a business that did that for you?

What can you do today for a customer that goes beyond what they have expected?

Does your business need to get better or become more unique?

It takes a rebel to argue against any business planning. 

The challenges is that is most businesses look at what they did last year and want to do provide the same service the next year and also get a double digit percentage increase. This is when you need to give your head a shake! If you continue to do what you’ve always done, you’ll continue to get what you’ve always got. There is no possible way to get a double digit percentage increase by doing the same thing as you did before.

Due to this it is far more important to become unique in your field and more people will come to your door. I say that because the curiosity factor in the market place will increase. Also when you decide to become more unique, you become more focused. You become focused as you look at all the processes you do in your business and start to tweak them to make yourself more unique. By becoming more focused on what you do well, you won’t be following what everyone else is doing.

By being unique or distinctive you will automatically increase your business because potential clients will see the difference in what you offer and be more interested in what you do.

Doesn’t this make sense?

What is the first step in service marketing?

I believe it is to improve your service. The reason for that is - you don’t want to attract more people to a flawed service company. Secondly by improving your service you will also improve your understanding of what specifically you do as a company.

You may be saying, “But our service is good.” My question is, ‘How can you tell that?’ Remember that most people have given up complaining, they just move on to another provider or retail outlet. The challenge for all of us is that we think we are far better than what we are.

If you continuously think your service needs improvement, it will force you to improve.

What would be wrong with that?

Are you at the end of your rope?

Would you agree that you are leading a life that is very complicated and involved?

In business we find ourselves working on many items at the same time which increases our stress level. When you are stressed many of your decisions are not as good as they could be.

I know that when you are not focused enough big problems occur. Let me give you an example from Success Magazine.

NBA Veteran Magic Johnson started a retail sporting goods store in 1990. In anticipation of the opening of the retail store he went to a sporting goods conference and bargained for the products he planned on selling at the store. The mistake he made was not doing research about what his customers would buy. If he liked something, he bought it. Within the year the store closed and a lot of the goods he had originally purchased were still in the store.

In Magic Johnson’s book ‘32 Ways to be a Champion in Business’ he suggests the following;

• Have a Mission – this is the reason your company exists. It should communicate the company’s focus and what is being provided to the customers. It should be written in less than 10 words.
• Be Humble, and
• Handle Your Weaknesses – we all have weaknesses, so which one(s) will you admit to need help with?

When it comes to handling your weaknesses, you need to look for people that know their subject matter very well and can produce results for you.

Marketing is an area that has the greatest impact on your business. It is also an area that I have been able to help numerous businesses all over North America. To take advantage of my expertise, give me a call today at 519-539-2267.

What are the most important points to stress when you are marketing?

I bring this up because I noticed some marketing recently that was bad.

It was a marketing piece about a fitness company. In the first line of the marketing it spoke about the owners of the business and how good they are.

Sadly, it appears that they have misplaced their focus. This is because every prospective buyer has a question in their mind all the time. The question they have is ‘What’s in it for me?’

When I was reading the fitness company’s marketing piece it did not answer that question. In fact it was almost as if the owners thought that good marketing was about bragging about their business. I know there is nothing wrong about being pleased about that you do, but if you can’t phrase what you are pleased about from the customer’s perspective, you’ve made a big mistake. This is because the prospect won’t be interested in continuing their assessment of what you can do for them. If they stop being interested – you lose!

Doesn’t this make sense?

Are you aware of the disease that is now impacting business?

This disease has been part of our personal lives for many years, but it appears that it is now running rampant in business.

This disease is the lack of awareness of the difference between a fact and an assumption.

When you are communicating with a client or a prospect there is a tendency to accept assumptions as being facts. Let me give you an example. The client tells you that they can’t afford whatever you are selling. You agree, put your tail between your legs and wander off.

Now give your head a shake! The only reason why they said they couldn’t afford it was because they know saying they can’t afford it works. The fact is that with the access to money today anyone can obtain or find the money if they really wanted to buy what you offered. The problem was that you did not create enough ‘tension for change’ in their mind.

So how are you going to start creating more ‘tension for change’ with the next person you are marketing to?

How would you describe a professional?

I believe a professional is a person who has mastered the fundamental truths and principles in the field they are in. They must research what the growing body of knowledge is in their field and they must work with a sense of obligation to the public.

Are ad creators professionals?

Many aren’t as they are mainly employees who are slapping ads together. I believe that ad creators should be professional and filled with purpose to integrate and use the proven principles of marketing. They must also have a deep sense of honesty and reliability in what they do.

Are you wondering what does marketing need to be effective? It must be interesting enough to get read and it must be persuasive enough to accomplish its selling object. That is because it costs no more for space to run an ad that is done professionally, than one that slapped together.

When are you going to demand more results from your marketing?

Do you wonder why so many ads do not grab your attention?

Could it be that they were business focused not client focused?

Over the years I’ve noticed that the people that are putting together marketing/advertising don’t realize the impact of their decisions. A couple of questions for you to consider;

- Are the words used helping the reader become more informed about how your business can help them with their needs?

- Has the writer of the ad forgotten that the main purpose of an ad is to serve?

Let me give you an example from my local paper;

• Why is it that at the top of the ad is the company name? Does anyone care about the company name, except the owners?
• Why don’t ad creators realize that there is a big difference in what the company does to what the client buys? For example; no one buys life insurance; they buy financial protection.
• Did you know that the size and location of the picture can take away or add to the impact of the ad or marketing piece.

So when are you going to start creating marketing that effectively grabs the attention of your prospective client’s?

How many marketing messages do we get every day?

Back in 1992 it was about 2,000 per day, you may be surprised to hear that in 2009 there were over 30,000 commercial messages per day. Due to this you have a clutter problem if you want to market your business effectively.

So what is a person to do?

First of all you need to realize that this clutter can have a great impact on the cost of promoting your business. Secondly you need to differentiate your product or service from your competition.

Differentiating what you do for the client is and has been the key to any long-term business growth. If you want to differentiate your business you have to know what your business stands for. When someone asks you what you do, you need to use verbs that describe what you do as an expert in your field. If you can find ways to use numbers this will also increase your credibility and finally you need to identify how you solve a deep need for the customer.

When are you going to take action and differentiate your business?

How does a person become a better marketer?

I believe that marketing must be studied.

It has been said that if you want to become a master at any subject you need to spend about 10,000 hours studying and analyzing the topic. There is no substitute for an educational approach to marketing. Remember that the word education is derived from the Latin word educare, which is related to educere which means to bring forth what is within and ducere which means to lead.

So if you look at the definitions using an educational approach means that you use the knowledge from within and lead. So you don’t copy others marketing ideas and try to make them work with your company. You need to lead and stand out from the crowd. As a client of mine wrote me many years ago, “In the past we just pieced together ideas from many different sources for an ad. Then we would try to blend it so that it would work.”

Blending just doesn’t work as it fails to implement the strategies of creating effective marketing. With my 30 plus years in marketing, I can help you overcome the challenges of creating effective marketing.

Doesn’t it make more sense to use your skills at what you’re good at? That way you can leave the marketing to someone who is thoroughly educated in the proven principles of effective marketing.

If you don’t want to work with me, choose someone who is thoroughly educated and has proven their knowledge and expertise with marketing results.

Why are some ads not effective?

This is a question that has presented to me many times over the years.

Unfortunately many businesses have failed to realize that what they are buying with any advertising is the white space. Whether you write a letter or put an ad into a newspaper or are creating the front page for your web-site, it is what goes into that white space that makes all the difference. If you don’t know what is important for your prospective client (from their point of view) the marketing effort is guaranteed to fail.

The question becomes how do you do that?

What you need to do it connect a sound influencing technique with an imaginative approach. When you do that with interesting writing you will have marketing that pays for itself.

To make your marketing more effective, call me at 519-539-2267 today.

Who is your target market?

In the life insurance business years ago it was stated to me that ‘anybody that can fog a mirror was a prospect’.

What a bunch of garbage!

As you know you can’t be everything to everybody. I write that because when you try to do that you will be nothing to everybody. You’ve got to have standards in business. There are going to be times in your business life when you don’t want to work with a particular client. If you want to be everything to everybody and you decide to do business with that client you will find out that you have more headaches from one person that all the others.

When you target your market you will become well known in that market and you will be pleased at the amount of referrals that come to you.

Doesn’t this make sense?

Are you being unreasonable enough to succeed?

I get so tired of people saying we did everything reasonable to succeed, but it couldn't be done.

To me this is a cop-out. I say that because when you take action you need to evaluate your results. If you say you did everything reasonable and still failed it means two things. Number one you are afraid of change and number two you never evaluated your actions close enough to see that what you were doing was an absolute path to failure.

Think about this! Isn’t it the unreasonable business that changes the rules to the game in an industry? Think about Apple. Isn’t it the unreasonable person that sets new benchmarks that their competition has trouble even getting close to? Think about Steven Spielberg.

Isn’t it time that you moved your business forward and not tried to blend in with the rest of your competitors?

Have you ever questioned your customer service?

Many of you will say that you would never question it.

The word question means to evaluate. If you are not regularly evaluating your customer service you and your business could be in for some very tough times.

Why do I say that? It is because if you are in a profitable business there will always be other people starting up to be in competition to you.

I want to tell you a story of a wonderful experience I had this past weekend. It is the story of a business that appears to be constantly evaluating what they do for their customer’s. I stayed at a Bed and Breakfast near Winchester Ontario (which is just south of Ottawa). My hosts were Annette and Jim and when I say hosts - I mean hosts. They treated me with respect and were very interested in serving me. 

In my discussion with them I found out that they are always willing to try new ideas as long as these ideas were customer focused.

Can you say that you are willing to try new ideas that are customer focused on a consistent basis?