Entries from March 2010 ↓

By “soaps” I mean soap operas or “daytime dramas” as they prefer to be called. If you’re like me you’ll breathe a sigh of relief to discover you don’t have to watch them to learn the lesson they teach. Whew!

My mom watched “her” soaps incessantly Monday-Friday. Can’t remember her ever missing them after she was forced to stop working with debilitating spinal arthritis. More than once I found myself caught in our living room with no where else to go. In such situations, I usually found something to read but strangely enough I managed to pickup a storyline now and then. So what did I learn about branding then? Nothing really.

My real lesson didn’t come until I recently read a story about advertising in the Great Depression. Basically Proctor & Gamble, one of the early sponsors of Soap Operas, er Daytime Dramas, (Gee, wonder how they got that “soap opera” label?) was used as an example of Depression-era advertisers. The point made was that business-wise, the Depression survivors advertised while those who cut back lost market share and some even closed down entirely.

Well, it’s an interesting theory but who knows how true it is? I don’t know anyone who has seriously studied this subject. What I do know is fortunes were made during the Depression. Movies were popular as were other forms of entertainment. Folks who didn’t know if they would eat next week would spend a nickle on a matinee. Well that’s something ain’t it? But that is not the lesson! So what is it?

Maybe it’s obvious to you by now. Once it dawned on me, I can’t believe I missed it.

Proctor & Gamble build their brand through content! They weren’t called “soaps” for nuttin! P&G didn’t just advertise they produced a large number of shows. In other words, they developed the content used to build their brand. And the content really had nothing to do with their product. At least I don’t think they bathed in Ivory or washed with Tide. Nonetheless  P&G built a  multi-billion dollar company partly on this content.

So what does this mean to you?

These days content is making a strong comeback as the Internet seems to sport an insatiable appetite for it.  Youtube is one of the most visited sites on the planet. While lots of folks search out information on everything from the hottest pop star to stuff as mundane as animal crackers, if you’ve any creative bones in your body, now would be a good time to let them cut loose.

Maybe you’ve got an idea for something that is not “commercial” something you do for fun that has a media component. Or maybe you know someone else just itching to “get published”.  Keep in mind, it does not have to be related to a product – it just has to appeal to an audience. Granted the wider appeal the better, but in today’s environment, it’s much easier to find pockets of fans for just about any topic.

God bless,

Andy

P.S. This post was brought to you by Havens Communications. We help businesses find missing or lost customers.  If you need more customers, call Andy Havens for a free no-obligation consultation at 443-254-3703.

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I’m reading a book that has nothing to do with marketing or sales. (GASP!) Even though this book is not even remotely connected to business, the authors managed to force me to stop everything and just ponder for a while. What did they say that was so profound?

Just this: “When we were young and first started out we made everything complicated. Now that we are older, we’ve simplified everything only to find it works better.” (paraphrased)

How about that? I had to stop and think on that one. Sure enough, I still tend to make stuff a lot more complicated than I need to. It reminds me of a story of a fellow who went to his 10 year high school reunion…

The guy had done well and was pretty proud of him. Of course, he was anxious to show off. Then he saw a classmate who had obviously topped them all and his jaw dropped. He had to get the inside story. The conversation went something like this:

“Hey Joe, how’s it going?”

“I’m doing all right. You?”

“Fine, fine, but not as good as you from what I can see.”

“Yeah, I kinda stumbled onto something and it made me rich.”

“What was that? I mean, I hate to say it, but you were voted the guy most likely to be collecting garbage…”

“Yeah, well, I started making this product for two dollars that I could sell for five. It’s amazing how much money you can make on a three percent profit.”

My point? In the story the fellow who wasn’t very bright – not even smart enough to calculate what his profit margin was – made a fortune by producing a product and selling it.

It’s not rocket science folks. And, yes, even the simplest product is a bit more complex than this but does it HAVE to be hard? No.

Lately, I’ve been pounding on one topic – your sales process – and one point in that process – the one step in that process where you need to focus:

Get the people coming to your place of business to raise their hands.

I don’t care if you are online or offline. Take names.  Take email addresses. Take numbers. Start a relationship. It doesn’t matter if they are buying today. Heck, it doesn’t even matter if they NEVER buy. Why? Because they know people. And if you treat them well, chances are they’ll remember you and maybe send someone your way.

The gloves are coming off. The gauntlet is tossed. I challenge you to do something today to get more hands in the air.

Let me know what action you are taking – leave a comment – contact me directly – whatever. If you don’t want your comment made public, just say so.

If you need help, feel free to ask.

God bless,

Andy

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Hi,

Just finished answering a question about lead generation. My answer got me to thinkin’ – I know dangerous – always dangerous.

The question was how to develop sales leads. Innocent enough. As usual, I came up with a unique perspective -

start at the point of sale and work backwards!

Why do it this way? Well lets take a look at a sale and find out.

First let us assume a reasonably complicated sale – one that ends up with a signed agreement. This kind of sale often takes more than one meeting. For our purposes lets suppose the agreement is a relatively simple one – a standard one – that does not require extended negotiations. Even so, many agreements are signed in person, and therefore we can assume a face to face meeting. How did this happen?

It was likely set up by a phone call. Just one? For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume so.

How did you get the clients number? Ah, now here’s the rub. Even if you are an avid cold caller (for example: ringing up anyone remotely qualified for your product/service and pitching them), chances are you solidified your position with some sort of communication between the call and the appointment.

Maybe you sent a brochure. Maybe you sent and information packet of some sort. Or some articles published by you, or an extensive quote. One way or another the prospect agreed to accept more information by you and thus gave you that foothold of an email address, physical address and/or phone number.

No matter how this works in your business, I’m betting you now see the sales process I’m describing much clearer than you may otherwise.

From all the potential people who might be interested in your product or service, you entice a few to ask for more information in exchange for their contact details. Then you contact them. Eventually, you both decide your prospect can benefit from what you have to offer at a price agreeable to you. You both then come to an understanding and sign on the dotted line.

The crux to all of this is

You’ve Got to Get Folks to Raise Their Hand!

In most situations there is no way around this. How do you do this? Offer something that solves a problem. Sure there are other ways but this one is the most direct and sure-fire.

For my own copywriting/consulting business, I have adapted this generalized process to suit the needs of my clientele and my own. I rarely meet anyone in person as it simply is not necessary nor convenient. Heck, I’ve worked with clients from Europe to Australia and while I’d love to jaunt Down Under or fly to London, it is neither practical nor profitable. So most of my business is done over the phone and the Internet.

Likewise, I use any number of methods to find those raised hands. I publish articles and reports. The articles  draw people to pages where I offer a related report. I post to this blog and other places on the Internet. I am active in various forums.  In short I try to make my own contact information available in enough circles so potential clients can contact me either directly or indirectly.

What about you? Certainly I’m not suggesting you call folks up or send out agreements ready for a signature. On the other hand you may get a better idea of how to get that agreement in front of a willing person if you take a good look at the process with hindsight. This quick and easy technique may show you a glitch you may otherwise miss.

Meanwhile, if you decide you’d like some help or guidance, why not give me a call? Mention this post and our initial consultation will be free of charge. Of course if you have a project already in mind or on deck, I’d be more than happy to discuss submitting a no-obligation quote.

It’s easy to raise your hand, just call 443-254-3703 or submit a comment to this blog with your contact info. (Don’t worry, all comments need approval before they are published so I’ll just read it without making it public.)

Finally, for your convenience, I’ve added a contact form to the sidebar at the right. If you leave your phone number, I’ll call, otherwise I’ll email you.  While this is set up via my autoresponder account, you are NOT subscribing to anything and I am NOT going to bombard you with “gotta haves”.  Just make sure you are filling out the form with the phone number otherwise you’ll get my blog alerts

God bless,

Andy

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