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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As I’m venturing into Social Networking more, I asked a question on one of the major ones and got a surprising response. The question?

“What part of marketing do you hate the most and how do you deal with it?”

Most of the answers defended the “DYI” (Do It Yourself) attitude. This can be a massive trap for anyone who runs a business or department.

One person wrote ‘delegation is also a potential risk’ (paraphrased).

Well, yeah, delegation IS a potential risk. In business what isn’t a risk? Life is a risk. As one old-timer once told me..

“If you haven’t made any mistakes today it’s because you haven’t done anything.” So make some mistakes.

Back to my question…

As I’m dusting off and polishing my shingle – moving back into copywriting for clients, I need to reconnect with what the needs of prospects and clients really are – from your perspective not mine.

It’s the process I go through when I’m working on a new project. It’s not good enough to “think” I know what customers want. I need to know. But I’ve got a problem. A big problem. The fact is, this problem could affect you too – whether I ever write anything for you or not.

I know my stuff.

I know business. I know copywriting. I know sales. I know this sounds like bragging. Maybe it is. But I’ve absolutely awed some people – people I hold to be very savvy business people in their own right. And I’ve done it right off the top of my head, never even starting to work up a sweat. And that’s a problem. Why?

Because standing too close to a problem can obscure my view.

I’ve seen this happen to my own clients over and over again.  My clients aren’t stupid people. They are smart. They are savvy. Often I find things that are staring them in the face, but they are too close to the situation to see it. They don’t hire me because I am smarter than they are – often I’m not . They hire me for my perspective and my objectivity. They know how difficult it is to be objective when you’ve invested your heart and soul (and everything you own) into your business.

On the other hand, my copywriting clients want my specific knowledge and ability to write a message people will respond to. Maybe they hate writing. Maybe they just know their efforts are better spent elsewhere. Either way – just as I hire a professional to do my taxes, they hire a professional to craft their marketing messages. And they are avoiding the DYI trap.

What about you? Are you feeling trapped? Does it seem like you’re missing “something” but you just can’t put your finger on it? If so then maybe it’s time to bring someone in. Keep in mind, this is not an admission of failure but a show of strength. You are proving you are strong enough (and smart enough) to look for chinks in your armor.

God bless,

Andy

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Hi,

For those of you who saw the video embedded in my last post – maybe you caught this. Maybe not.

One of Google’s top analytics experts states the average conversion rate for US web pages is 1-2%. Yeah. So what? Big deal. Well, actually it IS a big deal.

One of the questions I see most often is “What’s a good conversion rate?”. What these business folks are really asking is “Am I selling as much as I should be?” Are you? Consider this…

Paul Hancox in his book The Secrets of a Ten Percent Conversion Rate, says direct salespeople often achieve conversion rates of 20-40%. Do you think those salespeople are satisfied? Even those who consistently converted 40%? So why should you be satisfied with 2% or even 5%? You shouldn’t – pure and simple. So how do you improve upon your now totally unacceptable sales performance? Before I answer that I have a confession to make.

I’ve been an Idiot.

Yes, that IS with a capitol “I”. Though much of this not new to me – as a matter of fact I’m a “natural anti-salesman” – I, too, got tangled up in the “hard sales copy craze”. I bought and read 10% Conversion over a year ago. I bought and read Paul Hancox’s previous book “Small Changes, Big Profits” a couple of years before that. On top of all that, I’ve long billed myself as more of a marketer than a salesperson. What’s the difference?

As I usually say, a salesperson pitches until they make a sale or get thrown out. A marketer finds a need and fills it.

While this is simplified, you get the idea. So whats my point?

Recently I read a report that brought all this together and finally woke me up to the truth about sales and selling. I’ve been having a miserable run at copywriting lately only to find out what should have been so obvious…

Copywriting doesn’t “work” anymore!

Or rather, it’s getting harder and harder to make a living if you model yourself after the “carnival hawker”. It’s time for a better approach. It’s time for

Process Selling

What is process selling? Simply put it’s recognizing sales is a process and changing your approach to your prospects accordingly. I’ll delve into this more and more in the coming months… and then some.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a report I’d like to give you that explains all this very well. It’s called “Why Johnny Can’t Sell” by Paul Myers. Don’t let the fact that it doesn’t cost you a cent fool you – it’s one of the best reports you’ll ever read.

I’m not even collecting email addresses to give you this. My subscribers may cry foul because I usually reserve the best stuff for them alone. But this is too important to mess around. If you sell anything, you need this.

Right now the credibility for marketers – especially online marketers – is at an all time low. The sooner business moves way from “hypesterizing” and towards a more customer-focused, problem-solving win-win style of true marketing, the better things will get for all of us.

‘Nough said – get your copy of “Why Johnny Can’t Sell” here.

There is just one thing I’d like in return, if you would – please come back and let me know by adding a comment to this post.

God bless,

Andy

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 Money magazine’ Dan Ariely just published an article on “tricks” maketers use to get folks to buy.

Here’s a link to the article: Consumer Habits 

Is this ethical? Some might say if you have to ask if something is ethical, than it’s not. But I don’t think this is true  and I consider myself a very ethical person.

Some of these tricks are well-known – such as offering something for free. Some marketers contend this tactic  is losing some of it’s appeal. I think it’s all in the context. We humans are “hard-wired” to grab offers like these. Certainly as everyone offers stuff for free and much of the stuff is worth less than the asking price – you will find more resistance.

On the other hand, consider the “free offer” Ariely himself got caught up in… buy this car and get free oil changes for a year. And this is a guy to studies consumer behavior.

Another way to apply this principle is when building your offer. The next best thing (or maybe even better) is offering so much value for the money one would have to be a fool to pass it up.

The other interesting aspect of this article is his observation of “comparative” pricing. Ariely says for example, if your comparing menu prices at a restaurant, the  $45 dish may seem outrageous in one restaurant. But if another dish on the same menu is $60, it may seem comparatively cheap.

Another thing to keep in mind is the consumer’s expectations. You’d scream bloody murder if somone placed that menu in front of you at “Joe’s Diner” but if you were in “Antione’s Bistro” you may not blink an eyelash, even if the food at Joe’s is not all that bad.

Ariely’s article is from his book “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.”  It may be a good companion to Cialdini’s “Influence: The Psychology of Persuason”. I haven’t read Ariely’s book yet.  When I do, I’ll post a review.

God bless,

Andy

P.S. You’ll also find a wealth of sales triggers in “22 Secret Hot Buttons“

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