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Discover effective product and business
marketing strategies to drive up new business, by improving communication and developing a valued relationship with your prospects. Your marketing communication strategy and Unique Selling Proposition (USP) must differentiate your business and provide reasons why I should prefer to choose you over the competition. When you apply the following strategies, even the most sceptical prospect will sell themselves and become your most enthusiastic customer. (Start by putting the power of ‘why' in your marketing). O.K. So you've grabbed your readers' attention with a riveting headline. Now how do you push that next sales trigger? How do you make sure you retain their interest, and overcome their doubts and fears and preconceptions? There are three levels of relationship you can have with your prospects: 1. ‘Trusted Advisor' 2. ‘Consultant' 3. ‘Salesperson' Only one of these has the prospects' best interests truly at heart (remember GIVING versus GETTING ?). And only one leads to maximum long-term sales and profits. As soon as you have targeted your prospect with your mailing, sales letter, advertisement, or phone call, your prospect immediately (and correctly) puts you into category 3, "Salesperson".
Your prospect has a healthy scepticism about your claims, and a natural resistance to being sold to. Unless you put yourself in their position, and provide compelling evidence, they probably won't take action on your recommendations. They believe you're just trying to sell products and earn a commission or make yourself a quick profit.
To put yourself in their position, conventional sales and marketing trainers recommend the “consultative” approach to marketing.
They tell you to downplay your specific products and services, and instead offer an "audit" or "review” of your prospects' particular needs." You then act like a "Consultant" and make recommendations based on what you found in the needs analysis or review.
Whilst a very worthwhile and profitable step-on from the Salesperson approach, this is really only practical in a face to face situation where you can respond to the visual and verbal clues you are given.
There's a much easier approach that guarantees your sales message will be read, and believed …. Very few companies have ever heard about a strategy that I call the "Trusted Adviser" approach. Basically, what this method allows you to do is instantly place yourself into the "Trusted Advisor" category, even with a new prospect you've never met with before.
Your prospects then have a very low resistance to reading your sales message - in fact, they WANT to read everything you have to say. They place a HIGH value on the information you give them - and are willing to compensate you very HIGHLY for your products or service. Plus, they will completely trust your recommendations and act on them immediately. The key to being able to raise yourself from a
‘Salesperson' to the ‘Trusted Advisor' role is POSITIONING your company properly. FACT:Prospects always prefer to buy from the industry experts
Unless you want to follow a strategy of competing solely on price (and someone, eventually, will always be able to beat you at this game), you must position yourself as THE authority in your industry. There are several keys to successfully using this approach, but they are all designed to overcome the dominating thought in the prospects mind:
WHY?
All your customers want to know is ‘Why should I choose you?', ‘Why should I take this decision?', ‘Why should I spend this money?,' ‘Why should I look at your website?', ‘Why should I read your brochure?', ‘Why should I agree to an appointment?', ‘Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?'
In fact, if you look closely, even a ‘WHAT' statement like ‘What's in it for me?' is really a ‘WHY.' All it is saying is ‘Why should I pay attention?' Give your customers the WHY in your marketing activity, and your lead generation and conversions to sales will multiply overnight.
How many of us waste this powerful trigger in our marketing because it seems too obvious, almost too simple?
The only way to answer all these questions is with relevant information, facts, figures, illustrations, case studies, independent reports, testimonials, guidelines and other knowledgethat GIVES your prospect more value than your competitors.
In providing all this useful, informative education that helps your prospect make the best decision for them, you will automatically have become the expert in your industry or profession.
Common-Sense Marketing to position your
company for maximum sales and profits: You have to first sell your prospects' mind on WHY you have the answer to their problem, and WHY you are the best choice they can make.
If you don't include a reason why, your sales message is simply a bland generalisation that won't be believed.
You must provide ALL the answers which will help your prospects make the right decision for them. (Don't leave any nagging doubts in their mind).
To do this successfully, you must position your company as the EXPERT in the market.
This is simple, down to earth advice, yet it represents one of the most powerful psychological triggers why people buy. WHY on earth would you ignore it?
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