Marketing Comet - Small Business Marketing Secrets

How Open Should You Be About Price

One of the things that impressed me the most about the gym I belong to is that their price was posted on the front counter. A lot of the more expensive gyms you walk into guard their prices like they are a state secret. This makes me very uncomfortable.

I remember that there used to be a gym very close to my office. I walked in there one morning and said, "I want to sign up, can you give me the price". The answer: "no, you have to go on a tour of the gym first and them meet with one of our salespeople."

See ya! I never joined and that gym has gone out of business. They lost my sale because they missed out on two key sales points:

1. If somebody is at the peak of their buying emotion (they are ready) - do not make them wait to buy. Sign them up or sell them right then.
2. They refused to answer one of my questions making me distrust them and suspect that they were trying to pull something on me.

Now, I will say that I have been on the flip side of this when doing sales myself. Selling something as complex as advertising, many potential clients would say, "just give me your prices". Of course we would, but the client had no way to interpret them because the prices were completely out of context.

Often they would get one glance at a price sheet and say, "too expensive". The reality is that answer is mostly natural sales resistance, but also the client not understanding what he or she is looking at.

My recommendation is always give the client the information they want, don't come off like a sleazy huckster, and offer up more explanation. Try to have a natural conversation with them - 9.999% of people can smell a pitch a mile away and hate it.

"Can I get your prices?"

"Absolutely, here they are. We have a couple of specials that you might want to hear about as well. What questions do you have about the prices?"

"This is way too expensive."

"I know a lot of people get sticker shock when they first see the price list. Let me explain a little bit about our prices..."

It's important to keep the dialog going. If your prices are higher than your competition - you had better have a compelling reason for it. If you are less expensive than your competition - have those prices handy to show your client that you are lower.

Low prices to some people mean less value. I know it may sound crazy, but you also need to explain lower prices. In tests when people are given three choices of similar products with different prices - most people pick the middle price.

If you ever get a chance to walk around an IKEA take a look at a lot of their signage which explains how they keep their prices so low. They buy in bulk, use self-service, and ship everything in flat boxes for example. IKEA has successfully built a reputation for very low price, high quality, and incredibly useful stuff for the home.

Always try to see things from your customer's perspective. Would you trust a huckster that wouldn't give you their prices?

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Your Customer's Time is Very Valuable

Today I took my car in for some routine service and to get a state inspection sticker. I normally take my car to a specific Toyota dealer because they have aways given me exceptional service. I am willing to pay a bit extra for good service.

When my wife and I took the car in at 8:00 this morning, they told us it would take about 2 hours. Great, I had an appointment at noon and that would give me plenty of time. At about 11 am we hadn't gotten word the service was done and I started to worry. The repair desk was very busy so I peered into the wok area, but our car wasn't there. Hmmmmmm.

I looked outside and noticed the car parked outside. I thought maybe the service was done but they had neglected to tell us. I asked the cashier but she had no idea - I had to go to the busy repair desk to check.

The man at the counter said he would check on the car so I went back into the waiting area. It's now 11:20, my wife goes out to check. The man at the counter sees her ticked off and decides he better check on our car.

He comes back and tells us that the car hasn't been inspected but we are next in line. "Sorry, we'll pay for the service and take the car somewhere else, I have to go."

He tells me that if I can wait ten minutes he'll do the inspection right then and we wouldn't have to pay for it. Fine, I can wait ten minutes. 20 minutes later the car is finally done. We get the car and the repairman has left a half-full container of Gatorade on the passenger seat. We hurriedly pay the bill and leave, not noticing that we had indeed been charged for the inspection.

Ouch - they get a D, and they only got that because they were always courteous.

There's practically nothing you can do to tick off a customer more than waste their time. I'm not unreasonable, I know that sometimes things take longer than expected. However, we had been kept waiting because other people, who had come in later without an appointment had been put in font of us.

There is nothing more valuable to me than my time. I tend to look at things from a billable hours perspective. As consultants, my wife's and my billable hours are worth multiple hundreds of dollars. If you waste  an hour and a half of my time - a free inspection sticker doesn't even begin to make up for it.

Likewise - when the cable company gave me a 4 hour window that I had to sit at home waiting it was inconvenient. When they never showed up I was furious. A single month's free cable did not make up for it and didn't make me happy. It's been almost 10 years since it happened and I'm still ticked off.

Every company will have screw-ups with customer service from time to time. Nobody is perfect. If you want to keep your customers you have to make them whole. If you own a restaurant, and one of your waiters spills tomato sauce on a customer's coat it's not enough to pay for the cleaning. You should comp the meal, and offer to take the coat to the dry cleaner and then deliver it clean to the customer.

Just paying for the cleaning means that you are forcing the customer to take the coat to the cleaner - taxing their time. Guess what they are thinking about when they are bringing the coat to the cleaner, picking it up, and then trucking the bill over to you? They are thinking about how that stupid waiter spilled the sauce, and what a pain in the butt it is for them.

When I showed up at my noon appointment 1/2 hour late today, and I hate being late, all I could think about was how ridiculous my wait had been. Has the dealer lost me as a customer? Maybe. They have given me about 10 years of good service, so they get maybe 1 more shot. If they mess up again - goodbye.

My wife and I are planning on buying a new Toyota this year, so they may miss out on that, as well as the rest of my life in service calls. Their failure to keep me happy may cost them tens of thousands of dollars in business.

Think about what to do if your customers aren't absolutely thrilled with your service. What's a customer worth to you? How far are you willing to go to keep your customers?

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

What Are Sales Objections REALLY About

Anybody who has been in sales for five minutes knows that objections can be frustrating. You could be selling free money and some people would still find something to complain about. There are a few basic reasons why people use objections, and understanding these will make your sales effort easier.

Valid Objections
First, let's talk about valid objections. Valid objections are any disconnect between what the customer wants and what the customer thinks you are selling. I want a blue car and you only have the one I want in red. I might object to the color.

Dealing with valid sales objections might involve creative problem solving. You might give me the red car at a discount so I can go get it repainted. It also might mean that you walk away from a sale because you don't want to create a unhappy customer.

How do you tell if an objection is valid? First, if a customer comes to your with specifications you can't meet, or while you are gathering needs you find out the objection may be valid. You may also seek out more information about the objection and learn that it is indeed a disconnect.

A valid objection might also be a misunderstanding. A customer might have a false impression about your product that you can clear up.

Invalid Objections
Invalid objections are excuses that customers come up with not to buy. They can be exaggerations, lies, or just items that customers have some discomfort with. There are a few reasons why customers come up with objections:

1. No rapport: You have yet to build a relationship where the customer trusts you. There is a cultural norm that sales people are out to get our money at any cost. You haven't made yourself different from that image in the customer's mind.
   
   
2. Natural Sales Resistance: Nobody likes to feel sold. We all resist the idea that we would give up our will power to some salesperson. We all resist someone trying to sell us something to some degree.
   
3. Contrarian Personality: There are some people who just like to disagree all the time. They usually don't do this to be difficult, but unconsciously it's how they add to a conversation. It's about low self esteem and asserting that they are special and different. You may have to puff up their self esteem a little bit to get their trust, and be careful about disagreeing with them.

The easiest way to counter any objection is before it occurs. Build rapport, stay attentive to the communication and ego needs of your customer, and never ever argue.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

How Not To Do Sales And Marketing - Lessons From Telemarketers

Once in a while a telemarketer ignores the fact that I'm on the "Do Not Call" list and rings me anyway. I relish these moments. Sometimes I'll try to sell them something. I will talk to them ... at least for a while. I realize that most telemarketers are just trying to make a living and, while I won't buy anything from a telemarketer, I won't be rude to them.

Instead, I try to learn from them. I pay attention to what they do that is extremely annoying. You might call it learning the negative lesson.

Here are a few things I've learned:

No telemarketer ever has anything I want or need
This may be because anything with real demand potential doesn't need high pressure sales tactics to get you to buy. Instead of finding out what a market genuinely needs, they randomly call a bunch of numbers and try to force me to believe that I need what they are offering.

If you're like me, when a sales situation like this happens, you feel instant resistance.

I don't trust people I don't know, and I don't buy from people I don't trust
When some stranger offers to sell you a TV off the back of a truck for $25, smart money says he's going to rip you off or that the TV is stolen. When a telemarketer calls you with an offer that's too good to pass up, or a free trial, or a survey - I'm betting you feel a strange tightness in your chest or stomach.

Again - this is resistance. If you pay attention to your own physiology, you can actually physically feel resistance. Usually in the muscles of your stomach or chest tighten or you feel a strange energy there. This is actually a precursor to the flight or fight response. Your brain senses danger and sets off some processes that your body responds to.

I hate to be interrupted
I don't care if I'm only sitting in my office staring at the wall, if the phone rings it had better be important, interesting, or someone I love. To intrude upon my day, take up my time, and then force feed me a poorly written and executed sales pitch - you'll have better luck selling ice cubes in Antarctica.

Everybody is so busy today. When you make business calls, even if they are expected it's always best to ask first, "is this a good time to talk?" If they say no, simply ask, "when would you like me to call back?" When you call back then ask, "is this still a good time for us to talk?" People will appreciate your respect of their time. You might even tell them, "I need to speak to you for about 10 minutes" and then ask if it's OK.

Sometimes people you call will feel anxiety because they don't have time to talk, but due to social discomfort won't get off the phone with you. They won't be paying very close attention, because all they can think about is when they can get off the phone. This isn't a good state to have people in when you want to conduct any type of business.

The "spray and pray" sales method doesn't work
the last telemarketer that called me asked for me by name and, after I confirmed who I was, talked at me for the next 5 minutes. It felt like 5 hours. She fired off every feature and benefit of the thing she was selling, never once checking in with me to see if I was still even on the phone. When she was done he simply said, I just want to send this to you for a 30 day free trial OK? Nope.

I know she's not a very skilled sales person, or she'd be doing something different. I know they have given her a script that they probably paid some consultant to write. Probably a lot of people say OK because it's a free trial and they just want to get her off the phone. Of course they will get billed $150 after 30 days.

One on one sales is always a conversation. Good marketing communication approaches a conversation as closely as possible. There may be situations where people expect scripted, dry, bland, lists of things. I'm imagining technical journals, maybe. In general, people don't like to feel bullied or tricked into buying. They like to feel like the idea comes from them.

The positive lessons:
If you flip around the negative lessons here, we should get some criteria for good sales and marketing communications. You should be able to come up with some great positive lessons, here are some that I got:

1. Find and fill a real need for your market
2. Allow people to get to know you and your company, familiarity builds trust. Build networks of evangelists who market your business to their friends.
3. Use non-disruptive marketing tactics whenever possible. Allow people to access your marketing and sales messages on their terms.
4. Make your marketing and sales communications as conversational as possible. Involve your customers in dialog as much as possible. Encourage feedback.

Look for marketing or sales situations that set off your flight or fight response and analyze them for the negative lessons. Turn the negative lessons around and you'll have a very inexpensive education in sales and marketing that works.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

The Tao of Sales And Marketing: The Only Reason Anybody Buys Anything

Here's the #1 secret to sales and marketing: No matter what veneer we put on it, there is only one reason in the whole world that anybody buys anything. Master that concept and rule the world. I'm working on it - join me.

So here it is: the only reason that anybody buys anything is to feel relatively good. It sounds almost too simple right? Read on...

I call this the Tao of sales and marketing because, like the Taoist model of the universe, first there is nothing, then the one thing, then two things, then 10,000 things. The one thing in my model is the idea of wanting to feel relatively good.

Wanting to feel relatively good gives rise to two things - seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. From those two impulses we get our 10,000 made-up reasons for buying stuff.

Every time I talk about this, I make some people uncomfortable. Some like to believe that all their purchases are rational. Of course they are frequently the ones buying cars and houses they can't afford. People are great at rationalizing everything. Rationalizing is another thing we do to make ourselves feel good.

Brain scan research shows us that every single decision we make starts out in the emotional center of the brain. Even very simple decisions start as a feeling. Then, we rationalize by moving through the logical centers of the brain. Honestly, if people made decisions rationally would we have wars, drug abuse, or karaoke? Probably not.

My wife and I bought a house right after we got married. The price was good, in a good neighborhood, and I knew that the equity would grow fast. But the real reasons we bought were more emotional. It made us feel like we were really married to own a house. I feel better paying mortgage than paying rent. I have a greater sense of ownership of my home than I ever did with an apartment. It may have made logical sense to buy the house, but logic is not enough to get somebody to buy.

A critical part of the Tao of sales and marketing is the phrase, "relatively good". You might just say, "better". We can't always make somebody feel truly good. However we might be able to take away some of their emotional pain. This is a gigantic motivator for people. Here's a Marketing Comet Principle: The cure to any ill will always outsell the prevention.

How much could you get for a carton of orange juice on a ship of people afflicted with scurvy? Probably you could become the richest person on the ship. However, I don't think you're going to increase the perceived value of orange juice at your grocery store by slapping up a sign that reads, "prevent scurvy!" Not too many people in America feel the pains of scurvy and would be willing to give up their life savings to get a carton of juice.

How to use this in your sales or marketing efforts:

There are many ways to use this principle, here are a few:

1. Make people happy when they do business with you.
2. Find out what people's most painful problem is and offer to solve it.
3. Persuade with emotion, and give them logic to rationalize with
4. Pay attention to the emotional impact of your marketing materials
5. Communicate with people in ways that make them more comfortable

Sales and marketing are ultimately about engineering emotion and state of mind - getting people emotionally ready to buy.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Shaky Small Business Sales Tactics

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail"
-Abraham Maslow

I was on a conference call last night talking to some marketers about sales tactics. A guy on the call is going through some well know sales training. I will say up front that I'm not familiar with this sales training but it has a great reputation. I think it's probably stellar, but this guy has only taken one small part of the training and inflated its importance.

In his opinion, the right way to sell is to drive your prospect into so much pain that they are practically begging to buy from you. Like most generalizations - this will work for some people and not for others.

In general - people move away from pain and towards pleasure. However, the push or pull people feel is different. People can have more or less risk aversion, and have more or less orientation towards a promise of reward. High performers tend to be motivated forward by the promise of reward - they are driven and risk is just part of the game for them.

This outlines a flaw in all "systems". No system is perfect, and everything that relies on people to interpret it can be corrupted. Hey, that's human history!

Personally I am far more influenced by a promise of a reward or positive emotions. I don't do business with people that make me feel like crap, or reinforce negative states. I do my best not to associate with people that operate in negativity.

There's another school of thought regarding sales. You put your customer into such a positive emotional state that associate those good feelings with whatever you're selling and buy it. Think of "state" as the unique mental and emotional framework that the customer is operating in.

The meta-level strategy that's common to both schools of thought is that influencing a customers state is important to sales. Sometimes you need to find the pain and offer a way out, or sometimes you need to show a reward that truly excites the customer. To be great at sales, you need to be able to figure out which tactic is the most appropriate. Sometimes you have to mix both - this is what champions do.

A lot of fast-food commercials are great at stimulating hunger. If they stopped at that and then flashed their logo they wouldn't be too effective. What they do is show you that juicy burger flying through the flames. I'm making myself hungry just thinking about it.

No matter what sales systems you study here's a Marketing Comet Principle: People do not like to feel 'sold'.

I remember talking to a sales trainer about doing a seminar for me. The joint venture would have represented a potentially large income for both of us. He decided to go hardball on me and demand a outlandish amount of money up front. He then used a bunch of "out of the book" objection counters when I told him the money was out of the question.

I realized then that the guy could regurgitate sales manuals chapter and verse, but couldn't sell me, or other sophisticated buyers. He hadn't built value, found out what my goals were, made a connection. He talked at me rather than to me. He let his ego get in the way of really communicating. My business partner and I walked away from the table and dropped the deal.

I have certainly read some sales books, or attended seminars and said to myself, "man this is it - this is how it's done." And what I've discovered is that no one thing, one system, or one strategy works all the time. Different high-performance sales people can and do use conflicting systems.

I'm not saying don't learn a sales system. Certainly sales training can be useful - especially if you aren't performing in the sales department or are new to sales. As a small business owner - selling is an essential skill - even if you don't work in direct sales.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Why's It So Hard To Sell Small Businesses Stuff They Need?

He calls it "the Extractor". Last week, my Guerrilla Marketing buddy (and top marketing consultant), Mary Eule went to the South Carolina State Fair. An inventor had set up a booth where he was selling a device he created for extracting nails. He was a contractor and he noticed that he spent too much time in renovations pulling nails.

Here's a great product that uniquely solves a great need that makes people's lives easier. It should be a breeze to sell right? Well, when Mary asked him how many he had sold all day, his answer was one. One lousy extractor. No doubt the cost of the booth rental was far more than his revenue.

Intrigued, Mary and her partner David jumped behind the counter - mostly for fun. In 1/2 hour they sold 4 extractors. That's four times his previous entire day's sales. It would have been more if the guy had been equipped to take credit cards or process mail orders.

Why isn't this guy a millionaire yet? His idea is certainly worth it. You might argue under-capitalization, or any other MBA-BS, but the reality is he's only missing one thing - marketing. He's got a great idea but he's not a marketing or sales professional. Nor should he be expected to be.

He should get help from an expert marketer. Experience tells us that he probably won't. Like most small businesses he will go it alone, struggle for a while, and never truly grow to meet his potential. If this guy's product is as good as it's reported to be, he should be in every hardware store in the country.

Mary has made some of the companies she's worked with millions and millions of dollars. I have given one client a single suggestion that increased his profits 13X in less than a month. Either one of us could walk into almost any business and literally multiply its profits. It's frustrating for both of us when the people who deperately need our help won't get it. Small businesses are tough.

I don't want you to think that I am saying there's anything wrong with this guy, he's got natural resistance. Marketing Comet Principle: Do not blame the customer for not buying. I've worked with small businesses for over 10 years and I know that small business owners have more sales resistance than anyone I've ever encountered. Let's talk about the reasons why.

Here are some of the biggest small business sales objections:

1.   No Money - Small business owners do not have unlimited budgets. They are frequently struggling and trying to preserve their limited capital.

2.   No Value - Small business owners tend to be do-it yourselfers. They don't see the big advantage of hiring an expert, or switching phone service, or hiring a bookkeeper.

3.   No Confidence - Small business owners are frequently over cautious. They simply don't believe that you're going to deliver the goods.

4.   No Concept - Sometimes what you're offering is so far outside the the experience of the small business owner that they don't even grasp it. I feel that way with a lot of software packages that don't clearly describe what they do. Restaurant owners know they need food, wine, linens, a valet. They would benefit from a web marketing expert, but they are probably going to get their cousin's kid to do their web site for nothing.

5.   Sales Overwhelm - Start a small business and get a listed phone number. Within three weeks you will be inundated with credit card offers, charities seeking donations, people selling toner, and people offering to switch your long distance carrier. As a small business owner myself I could spend 24 hours a day just entertaining junk mail, spam, and telemarketers. It's too much and I frequently just reject all offers up front.

6.   Ego - This is the big one. Most people who start small businesses have a powerful sense of individuality and independence. To even suggest that they have been doing something wrong is an affront to their ego.

While everybody expresses these aspects of sales resistance to some degree, in my experience, small business owners have it more.

There's also Natural Sales Resistance. This is simply people's tendency to reject being sold anything - even if they need it. If you had the cure for cancer, some portion of the population would refuse to buy it. Why? Because people don't like to feel as though their freedom of choice is being taken away. Again, it's an affront to their ego.

This is mostly a level of unconscious discomfort, rather than a conscious thought. I worked at a retail shoe store while in high school. We were required to greet customers as they came in. "Hello, how are you doing today" I'd ask. About 80% of the time people would zoom past me and grumble, "I'm just looking."

People were so afraid I was going to sell them something that they had to shut me out - even though I made no sales approach. I worked with my friend Greg and we made up a little game. We got so good at identifying who would be a "just looking" person that we would say weird stuff to them when they came in and laugh they would zoom by and didn't notice. "Your shoes are untied." is probably one of the more innocent things we'd throw out.

By the way - I'm almost one of those people. I hate being interrupted by sales people when I'm in a store looking around. I'll seek out help if I need it - just make sure it's available. However, I'm never rude to retail people - I've been there and it's a tough job.

Ultimately sales is part of the marketing process. We have to understand the components of resistance and inoculate against it. We need to be better about really personally connecting with our customers and prospects. We need to be genuine, keep our promises, and help our customers do our sales for us.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Don't Sell Me Stuff I Don't Want

Here's a Marketing Comet Principle: People do not like to feel sold.

I hate movie theaters that, when I order the medium popcorn, say something like, "For just 25 cents more you can get 30 more pounds of popcorn." I feel like they're telling me I am an idiot who can't make good choices for ordering the medium popcorn. How about charging a reasonable markup while offering a volume discount and letting the customer choose what they want?

In general people hate feeling like they gave up their willpower to trickery or someone with a stronger ego. This is where natural sales resistance comes from. People value their freedom to choose and, if they feel like you are taking away their freedom, they will resist. Some people have such strong sales resistance that they will often refuse to buy things they need.

Unfortunately we have been trained by people who are lousy at sales and marketing, companies that view their customers as numbers, and businesses that are just plain dishonest. It just doesn't make sense to do business this way. You can bully or trick someone into buying from you once - but you'll lose them as a customer for life. This is an incredibly stupid and shortsighted way to do business.

I have written previously about how Best Buy used fraudulent sales tactics to sign my wife and I up for an ISP we didn't want. They have not only lost me as a customer for life, but I take almost every chance I get to warn people about them. This blog is a good example. The $38 that they tried to steal from me has cost them tens of thousands of dollars in my future business. I will try to scare more people away from them as well.

Many comapnies get up-selling wrong. I ordered some camera equipment online from a dealer (I buy a lot of camera stuff). They sent me an email that they were having problems processing my order and that I needed to call them. This was just a ruse. When I called them they had to "verify my zip code" - which I had already given. Oh yes, while they had me on the phone they had several add on items and more expensive equipment that I should purchase. I was furious and have never bought from that dealer again.

In my opinion, Amazon.com does it right. When you buy from them they have that little unobtrusive box that shows you some other recommended items. Those items are based on what you are buying, and what people bought that was similar to what you are buying. You don't have to refuse a million offers before you can buy - you can go straight to checkout. They do not put the burden on the customer.

Another Marketing Comet Principle: Take as much burden off the customer as you can and making the buying process as pleasant as possible.

This stuff should be common sense, but many companies miss this. They see customers as numbers on a spreadsheet. They have difficulty looking at the long-term results of their decisions. Many need to show instant growth or cost-cutting to appease stockholders. This is where small business can flourish and out-compete the big guys.

As a small business owner, service and sales need to part of your overall marketing strategy. It's not difficult to outperform those who see sales and service as overhead that they can cut to increase profits. Simply give good service, and use good sales tactics.

Look at sales and service as ways to form and better your relationship with your customers. Marketing is everything you do that touches the customer in some way. Marketing is not overhead, but an investment in your profit. Make your customers comfortable and happy to do business with you, and you'll win them for life.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Marketing Secret: Emotions Are Contagious

You may know a few vampires. You know - the people that seem to suck the energy out of a room when they walk in leaving everyone feeling depressed. You probably also know people who, "light up a room" when they walk in. You might describe someone you just met as "rubbing you the wrong way" if you found yourself irritated with them and you just didn't know why.

As someone trying to market a small business, your #1 job is to make your customers and prospects feel good about doing business with you. Sure, you are going to use every marketing tool in your disposal, and you understand that people ALWAYS buy on emotion and then justify with logic.

Everybody who's not insane enough to be locked away or has some other mental pathology is, to some degree, "role adaptive". Observe how your own behavior changes when you are talking to a toddler, or when you are talking with your friends, or talking on the phone with a sales person. You will notice that your voice, body language, inflection, word choice, pace, all change. You take on different roles that are more or less appropriate for the situation.

Human beings, as a species, have survived so long by being social. Compared to large predators that might have eaten our ancestors - we don't have sharp claws or fangs, can't run fast, don't climb well, and have poor night vision. The two things that we have going for us are living well in groups and making tools.

Think back to that person that rubbed you the wrong way. You may not be able to place what it was about them. We respond to very subtle and unconscious social clues like body language and tone of voice. We respond very efficiently and very quickly on an emotional level. What’s on the inside shows on the outside even when we aren’t consciously aware of it.

An experiment was conducted where women of varying relative attractiveness were sent to draw samples of blood from guys. The men didn’t know that the blood was tested for testosterone levels – to see how sexually 'turned on' the guys were.

Two major observations were made:

1. Guys get turned on by being in the presence of attractive women on a hormonal level.
2. The female researchers could accurately predict the guy’s testosterone levels just based on their body language and behavior. Keep in mind, the guys weren’t in a bar trying to pick women up – this was a clinical setting.

The lesson is: people are generally very good at sniffing out what you’re up to. We train from birth to know what people are feeling – anger, deceit, euphoria. We also know that generally people are more comfortable being around people they are like. People form clubs and interest groups or, in extreme cases, become bigots.

What's the marketing lesson? You, and everybody who’s involved in your business, must be convinced to the depth of their being that you are going to deliver on your promises. You must be enthusiastic about what you sell, or you can't expect your customers to be. You don’t want to totally mismatch a customer by being happy if they are angry, but you want to gradually move them to a happy place.

You must communicate intentionally. Do you yell at your employees and then send them out to serve your customers? Do you get angry with your customers? Do you show up sleepy and lethargic? Think of emotion like a virus, you can pass it to your employees, and they can pass it to your customers.

What would your business be like if your customers just emotionally lit up every time they saw you? If every time your customers deal with you they get a shot of happy, they are going to want to deal with you again. They are also more likely to refer more business to you.

Take a close look at how you and your employees come off to your customers. You may have to do some training to get out of bad habits – but it will pay off in bigger profits.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet
Technorati Tags : marketing, small+business, sales, emotions, psychology

Your Killer Elevator Pitch - A Powerful Small Business Marketing Tool

I don't go to networking meetings to catch a nap, but I feel like some networkers are trying to induce narcolepsy. What do you do? "I'm a business and management consultant." zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

That violates my #1 marketing rule - make your marketing about the customer. It also violates my #2 rule - never waste an opportunity to answer the question, "what can you do for me?" It's money out he window. I could care less about business and management consulting, I don't even really know what it is.

If you haven't heard of an elevator pitch, the idea is to make a very brief statement about your business. If you were in an elevator with someone and had to describe what you do before they got off, what would you say? Your elevator pitch can be one of the most important marketing pieces you craft.

One of the best elevator pitches I have ever heard was, "I help businesses just like yours learn how to double or triple their revenue in about 45 minutes." The guy that gave this pitch does sales training. Imagine if he just said, "I do sales training." How interested would I be in the rest of the conversation?

What can we learn about crafting a great elevator pitch from this person?

• It is 100% focused on me. This person doesn't even mention what his solution is.
• It makes me curious. I want to ask him the question, "really, how do you do that?"
• It is very short. It's about 3 seconds long, and that's about all you have. You don't have 15-30 seconds to get people interested in you.
• It answers the question, "what's in it for me?"
• The benefits are very specific, he uses actual measurements and a timeframe. This gives his statement credibility.

Your elevator pitch needs to be prepared and practiced. If you aren't getting the response you want, work on it some more. You need to deliver it as if it was unrehearsed - this may take practice if you aren't a public speaker. Be prepared to answer follow-up questions when the people you are talking to are intrigued by your new elevator pitch.

The next time someone asks you what you do - be prepared to turn them into a paying customer with a killer elevator pitch.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet
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