You know the kind – think of a product you bought that you didn’t really need? Impulse buys are usually low value, low risk and disposable items often found in the aisle displays or near the cash registers.

Whether you sell products or services ask yourself what you can promote as your impulse buy.  Do you have something that you would be able to sell at a low cost to encourage prospective customers to buy from you?

We can also call this your “door opener” – something that represents value to the client, is easy to commit to and will allow them to feel like they’ve got a bargain and / or something worthwhile without being tied in to anything else.

Do you have information that you can pass on that would be specific to a particular audience that you are targeting or do you have some end-of-line stock that needs to go that you can heavily discount?  The purpose here is to begin some form of dialogue or engagement with your prospects.

Then remember to integrate.  Once the impulse purchase has taken place, make sure you then contact them to offer incentives for further business or for recommending you to their contacts.   Think about how you position your offer – is there a deadline that you can use, a 0% deal, a joining offer etc.  All will add value if used in the right way.

Let me know if I can be of any help in this area.

So you buy a new car and that’s the product.  It’s not as simple as that in marketing terms!

The product is more than what you see

Taking the car as an example the product becomes more complex than you first thought as there are three levels to this product.  The Core product, the Actual product and the Augmented product.

Here’s a summary of how the three levels differ.

The CORE product is NOT the tangible, physical product. You can’t touch it.  The Core product is the benefit of the product to the customer – so getting from A to B, the convenience of having a car rather than using public transport etc.

The ACTUAL product is the car itself.  It’s the tangible piece of machinery that you drive and can touch an feel.

The AUGMENTED product is the non-physical part of the product.  Think about adding value after the sale.  It could be warranties, customer service etc.

Think about your own products and services a little deeper and see if you can identify the core, actual and augmented elements.

How would you attract the attention of other motorists and persuade them to stop and help?

You wouldn’t write a joke, a clever play on words or draw a nice graphic – you would probably write as big as you can “HELP ME” on the paper.  That would do the job of getting your message across to your “audience”.

Now think about how you begin your marketing letters, flyers or any promotional material.  Many companies do not get to the point and seize the undivided attention of their prospects and then wonder why they have spent a small fortune on an exercise with minimal returns.

With increasing competition for your prospect’s time and attention, you don’t have the luxury of enticing them with a long lead into your offer – instead you run the risk of boring them and having your letter placed unceremoniously into the bin with twenty others that landed on their desk that day.

You must convey your offer by making it irresistible – have it jump off the page and force the reader to pay attention!   You will get approximately 5 seconds (at best 10) to give your reader a reason to read your correspondence.

Your headline must promise the reader something that will draw them into the rest of the promotional piece.  It should be powerful and direct.

Give them a major benefit they will get from your product or service.  Can you offer something FREE, a special time limited offer or a powerful testimonial for example?

By offering a major benefit you will not only attract their attention but you will encourage them to read on – they only care how you can help them, not about you and why you are wonderful!  You must use your headline to drive your advertising stake directly through the heart of your prospect’s needs.

I have a sheet of proven successful headlines – contact me if you want it mmc@elite-edge.co.uk

Hearing does not mean listening. Hearing is only the first stage in the listening process.

Hearing does not mean listening - there is a difference!

You can develop your listening skills – try these activities:

• increase your listening span
• take time to listen
• give your full attention
• don’t “switch off” when you hear something you don’t like
• don’t fake attention
• listen between the lines
• listen for ideas, not facts
• don’t monopolise
• adapt your thought speed (we speak at 100 to 150 words per minute and we hear at 400 to 500 words per minute.  Since the brain is not idle while we listen, it is difficult to slow down our thinking speed.  Poor listeners become impatient with the speaker’s progress and their minds wander)

So, why should you listen to your own clients?

You can learn a great deal by listening:

• it helps with problem-solving
• it gives you time to think
• it increases your self-confidence
• it helps you sell ideas
• it generates ideas

We have a Listening Skills Quiz for you to test yourself – let us know if you would like a copy!

1. Send out press releases.
2. Set up meetings with reporters.
3. Contact editors with story ideas.
4. Invite the media to your events.
5. Write articles for publications.
6. Offer to speak at functions / events.
7. Promote any unusual marketing or promotions you run.
8. Identify interesting things and people in your business.
9. Produce and distribute a newsletter.
10. Hold a series of seminars.

If you need more guidance on any of these activities, or need help with your own publicity, please get in touch.

Work through these points and you will be well on the way to developing a marketing message for your own business.

Once you have developed your marketing message, you are ideally placed to answer the age-old question “What do you do” in a concise way, providing enough information and relevance to hold the attention of the person asking.

TARGET MARKET

What clients do you serve?  Develop a detailed profile of your ideal client, including demographics (basic facts such as industry, location etc) and psychographics (values, characteristics, interests etc)

PROBLEM

What problem, predicament, issue, challenge or pain are your clients facing that would make them seek your help?

SOLUTION

What results do you produce when working with clients?  For example – Before they were struggling to do xyz.  After they are successfully doing xyz.

PROOF

What do you have that can prove you can in fact deliver that solution?  Do you have client testimonials, static or video case studies or clients who are willing to speak to your prospects?

DIFFERENTIATION

What makes you stand apart from your competitors?  What makes you special, unique or memorable?  What is it about your business that offers your clients a true advantage?

As you go through each step, seek to improve any areas where you know you may be weak.

1. Prepare. Don’t make the mistake of not preparing for a negotiation situation.  You need to understand the needs and possible concerns of the other party.  You also have to think about how you will present your product or service.

2. Rehearse. You cannot put enough weight on rehearsing.  Put yourself in the mind of the other party.  What do they want to achieve from the negotiations?  What are they likely to ask for?  What sticky questions could they ask you? Role play with somebody else if possible and play out different scenarios but doing this alone is fine too, it simply helps you to consider all angles and be prepared.

3. Describe. Visualise the negotiation process.  Can you describe what you have to offer the other party focusing on the benefits and value to them?  Do not let price enter at this stage or you will be on a downward spiral.

4. Propose. In a negotiation situation you will arrive at a point where someone has to make a proposal.  DO NOT make the first proposal.  You have made your offer so let the other party put a proposal forward first.

5. Negotiate. If the other party made the first proposal then you are now in control because you are aware of their starting point.  This may be way off where you need it to be so you will have to think how you are going to handle their negotiation tactics.  It is vital that you do not concede to something you are not happy with.

6. Agree. One of the biggest challenges in any negotiation situation is to reach agreement.  You have done all the hard work so don’t fail to agree.  Go over with the other party what you have agreed verbally.  Then get this in writing as quickly as possible.  This stops them coming back to question what was agreed and subsequently starting this process all over again.

More will follow on negotiation in future posts.

I’m not trying to point out the obvious but seriously if you are asked this question do not launch into a list of your services as if you are reading from a brochure or your website – they asked what you can do for them, not what you do!

I have lost track how many clients do this when we first ask them the question from a customer’s perspective.

It’s really important to find out a bit more about the prospect so you could answer with a question and get your prospect to talk about themselves “…tell me a little about where you are at right now with your marketing…”- what they are trying to do, the challenges they face etc.  As they are talking you can be matching your services to their needs as you listen and then provide a more tailored reply.  Not only will this show you actively listened – for example, “…it’s interesting that you mention ‘X’ because we have worked in this area alot with various clients who found it really worthwhile…”.

If you would like to discuss this in more depth and really get to grips with what you are offering to your prospects, just let me know.

First and foremost you must have your list in order.  Make sure the data is clean and the audience is relevant and you have the correct contact for your product or service.

Secondly, you need to determine exactly what the objective of the mailing is.  From here, you can then get into the compilation.  Don’t make the language you use too technical and ALWAYS put yourself in the recipient’s shoes – ask yourself (and answer honestly) would you respond to this mailshot?

Headline.  The headline must be of benefit to the reader and attract attention.   You will be competing with dozens of other communications that land on your prospect’s desk.  Most people open direct mail and don’t even read past the headline!

“You” versus “I”.  Focus on the recipient.  If you do this, you cannot lose.  Use the words “you” or “your” rather than “I and “we” throughout the letter.   Make statements that you can see the recipient nodding his or her head to as they read.

Copy.  Think of the letter as a story but don’t write a novel unless every word is critical – be ruthless!  It has to have a beginning, middle and an end.  The content must be in line with your objective.  If you are trying to increase sales, you need copy that will influence people to purchase your product from you and you need to provide benefits for potential customers.   Bypass intellect for emotion.  If you can appeal to your audience on a personal level, they are far more likely to respond.  Remember at all times that the person receiving your letter does not care what YOU do, they only care how what you are offering will benefit them.  They don’t need you; they need the benefit or solution which you can provide.  You must communicate this in a clear and concise manner.

Examples & Testimonials.  Fact is stronger than fiction.  Don’t use the letter to tell your prospect how wonderful you are!  Instead, use real life case studies outlining where your product or service has provided benefits to a customer.  If possible get testimonials to support your claims – people buy people and if you can illustrate how you have helped someone else to solve a problem, it will add credibility and “reality” to your sales letter.  Be specific and not general.  For example, “…increased sales by 25%”, “…saves us 2 days a month”, “…has saved us £2,000 to date” etc.

Give a clear call to action.  Perhaps give an offer up front.  Give your recipient a reason to respond and make it easy for them to do so.  Either include a pre-paid response mechanism or fax-back form or at the very least, make sure you have given a telephone, email and website address if appropriate.  Put somebody’s name on the mailing in addition to a sense of urgency “call John today on…”, “respond by…” etc.

Tell people not to make a mistake.   One very effective way to get people to use you or your product is to tell them “…don’t make the mistake of spending too much money on…” or “don’t make the mistake of relying on another system that does not provide the results we do”.

Add a PS! Research indicates that most people read the PS even if they don’t read the rest of the sales letter – you can use the PS to sum up the letter or re-mention a special offer etc.

Professionalism.  Nothing will remove confidence in you or your company quicker than an amateur mailshot.  If you are sending enclosures with your letter, have these printed professionally or if you are producing them in-house, make sure you print on a laser printer, not an inkjet.

Timing.  When is your mailing going to land?  Research indicates that letters arriving on a Monday morning will find their way to the bin faster than those arriving mid-week for example.  Also, is it holiday season or a short working week?  Timing is key.

Test, Test and Test. I would always recommend that you test several versions of the letter to find out which one attracts the most response.  It is amazing that a tweak in headline, offer etc can dramatically increase your return rate and this will also save you money rather than mailing out the entire list without testing a sample first.  Testing should be ongoing – markets and conditions change and what you offered six months ago may not be relevant in today’s climate.

Response Monitoring. Put a code on every mailer so you can assess where the responses have come from.  This will help you to calculate your return on investment and effectively plan for future campaigns.

Every company is unique and the above guidelines are generic and definitely not conclusive.  If you would like to discuss your own campaign in more depth, please contact us.

Healthy competition can be good to keep you on your toes!

Having competitors is a fact of life for most businesses; few can genuinely claim they have none – and if they do they must question why.  You have to be aware of the rules of competition in your chosen markets in order to win business when the prospect has a choice of many suppliers.

For the purposes of this post, competitors are either those people or organisations who win business that you wanted or those people or organisations who lose out on business we win.  Competitors are potentially different in each sector that you operate within but in order to make your marketing planning effective, you need to know who your real competitors are in each area that you operate so that you can out-position them in the eyes of your prospective customers.

You have to understand their capabilities and ambitions in order to anticipate their response to your strategies.

Answer the following questions fully to ensure that your knowledge of the competition is up to speed.

1. Why do they exist?
2. Where do they add “will pay for” value for customers?
3. Which of your customers are of most interest to them?
4. What is their cost base and liquidity?
5. Are they less exposed with their suppliers than you are?
6. What are their future plans?
7. How will their activities affect your strategies?
8. How much better than them do you have to be to win their customers?
9. Look to the future – are there new competitors coming on board or new ways of doing things that will affect your positioning in the markets where you operate?
10. If I were a customer, would I choose your product / service over those offered by your competitors?  If so, why?  If not, why?

Answering these questions will help you to challenge your existing assumptions about competitors, ensure that you are the customer’s best option and reduce the chances of being surprised by competitor activity in your marketplace.

An understanding of your competition is an essential element in ensuring your business remains healthy.  Some of the analysis required above will need to be more based on sound judgement than reference to factual data but it is worth thinking hard about these questions if you are to succeed in the battle to win more profitable customers.

If you need help to get to grips with your own competitors, just let me know.