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Articles filed in: Marketing
Rethinking The Sales Process
The food halls and nail bars were humming last Thursday evening. Apparently when they have a few extra shopping hours people want to do one of two things, grab a bite to eat or have their nails done. The designer clothes boutiques were dead. Not a soul in sight in any of them, apart from one, where the sales assistants were run off their feet for a reason.
That reason was permission.
The suits, shirts and shoes they stock are just as good as those in the store two doors down, not better. What this store has is something even more valuable than the stock that lines their shelves. They have my phone number, my email address and the permission to let me know when there is a genuine sale that I might be interested in. And they know how to use it.
Back in the day you just had to open the door and put stuff in the window. All you needed was a ‘come in we’re open’ sign. Because the customer had fewer choices a store owner didn’t need to give them a reason to walk in.
Thirteen years after Seth Godin wrote Permission Marketing retailers are lamenting the death of the old sales process, and only now realising their mistake.
Online or offline, you need to give people a reason to come now.
And you need to know who to give that reason to.
Image by Jill G.
What’s The Formula?
There was no formula for being commissioned by Starbucks to design the Red Christmas Cup,
so Johanna Basford created one.
There was no step-by-step guide to building a brand around ‘delivering wow through service’ before Zappos did it.
And yet that’s what we want. The how to, the instructions, the rules we can follow.
The businesses that stand out, the entrepreneurs who succeed wildly don’t go looking for the manual, they rewrite it.
Working with a formula that everyone else can follow might allay your fears, but it won’t give you an advantage.
The thing that’s scarce is what people are looking for and you won’t find that in the manual.
Image by liquidnight.
The Fortune Cookie Principle™
Every idea, innovation, product and service has two elements.
The cookie…. the commodity, the utility, the tangible, the facts, the logical benefit. The cookie is the thing you put in the shop window which has a fixed inherent value.
Then there’s the fortune, the intangible part of the product or service which is where the real value lies. The fortune is the abstract, the thing that changes how people feel. The real reason they buy the product in the first place. It’s your story and purpose, your vision and values manifested. The fortune gives the product an acquired value or a different perceived value.
People don’t buy fortune cookies because they taste better than every other cookie on the shelf. They buy them for the delight they deliver at the end of a meal.
Marketers spend most of their time selling the cookie, when what they should be doing is finding a better way to tell the story of the fortune.
Bake a good cookie but spend your time working out to tell a great story about the fortune.
Image by Rachael.
The Easy Way Out
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
A $6000 full page advert in a magazine with a readership of 200,000 people might feel like a bargain. All those eyeballs connected to all those credit cards just waiting to discover you.
Now all the advert must do is convince people to pick up the phone.
Buying ads feels safe, but handing over advertising dollars and waiting to be picked is only guaranteed to buy you hope. The promise of new customers is a maybe.
What if the shortcut (the billboard or magazine advert) is not the easy way out at all?
How much goodwill could you create with just 10% of your advertising budget amongst the customers you already have?
There are a thousand different ways to get noticed, and most are a gamble. The easiest way to convince people is to do it one person at a time with truth and connection and love.
Image by scion cho.
People Don’t Buy What You Do
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Michael and Phil Farrell knew how to sell steak. They didn’t do it by having an abundance of tasty cuts in their shop window to tempt strangers or passers by who might fancy a t-bone for dinner that evening. No, they did it by knowing the name of every single customer who walked through their door.
The brothers sold thousands of kilos of steak at premium prices even when times were hard, because a housewife was prepared to juggle the budget to afford them. A trade that was worth it for the amount of joy she experienced when they remembered her name and some tiny detail in her life. She was prepared to ignore the supermarket specials in lieu of the feeling she got when Michael went in the back and brought out a cut of meat he was saving just for her.
The steak was good but that’s not what the customers were there for. They were there for the whole story, not just a good product.
People don’t buy what you do. They buy how it makes them feel.
Image by yooperann.
The Elephant In The Room
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
John (not his real name) was discussing the features and benefits of a new product he’s bringing to market with me yesterday.
He had a niggle, a way which his product worked that other products in the same category didn’t. An elephant in the room. He wondered if this might be a problem.
What if your problem was actually a benefit?
Your weakness could be your strength.
The elephant, that thing you don’t do might be your story.
Image by express monorail.
A Better Way To Say It
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
There’s a little funeral chapel a few kilometres from where I live. A place that’s a far cry from the draughty stone churches I remember from my childhood in Dublin. A beautiful warm room with skylights that allow the sunshine in. It’s surrounded by bush and a cemetery where kangaroos roam and eat the flowers left by mourners who know, and don’t seem to mind.
Then there’s the lovely little cafe right next door with a shaded terrace overlooking the gum trees.
And then there’s the A4 paper sign taped in several places to the walls, that says it all.
Café for paying customers only.
Waiting area outside chapel.
There’s probably a better way to say what you want to say to the potential customers who pass by your door every day.
If there is you should find it.
Image by Jordan.
No Strings
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Alexx saw the sign outside the local gym and decided that there was no excuse. It was just a hundred metres from her front door and was advertising a six week membership for just $99. An opportunity not to be missed.
As she signed up Alexx tried to overlook the quiet desperation of the owner. The headphone jack that didn’t work. Not to mention the dated posters advertising extinct products in the toilet stalls.
When she asked about rush hour periods that she should avoid the gym owner told her that there were none, because things had been a bit quiet lately. He explained the options for extending her membership, the plans and the monthly rates once her initial six weeks were up, then went on to tell her that as long as she didn’t broadcast it he would keep renewing her membership at the $99 rate… “no strings”.
Alexx being a real food low tox living guru asked if he would consider stocking coconut water as an alternative to the high sugar energy drinks that glowed out at her from the fridge.
He said he’d think about it.
Fast forward six weeks and as she passed the fridge Alexx remarked, “Still no coconut water?”
“Hmmm, yeaaaah. Not really at the top of the list I have to be honest. There’s obviously quite a bit to do in the day, as I’m sure you know.”
She did. But despite the convenience and the bargain Alexx didn’t renew her membership.
If you’re going to go to the trouble of losing money to get your customer through the door. Why not go the extra mile to keep her?
‘Strings’ are exactly the reason you’re in business. Connection with your customers is the reason you exist. Your job is to find ways to create as many strings as possible, by going out of your way to make them feel like you care and that they belong.
More strings are your emergency.
Image by Bethan.
Speak Human
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
The new perspex sign in the toilets of fast food restaurant read…
“It is our intent to provide you with the cleanest possible facility.
If the room needs attention please notify a Manager.”
I stood in the mirrorless bathroom looking at it for some time wondering how this was supposed to make me feel. There was no room, no time, no budget and no thought for a mirror, and yet someone had carved out a way to make this sign work. A ‘manager’ with a capital ‘M’.
If you go to the trouble of speaking to your customers, speak their language.
Write like you speak. Speak like you care, not like you’re trying to impress.
Give them what they want, not what enables you to put a tick in a box.
If you’re selling bananas, sell the bananas and do it like you mean it.
Image by littlevanities.
Selling The Facts
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Front row seats. That ring in a certain ‘blue box’. 70% dark chocolate. Business class flights. Pumpkins at Halloween. Botox. iPad mini. Frappuccino. 12 months gym membership in January. Free range chicken. The bestseller everyone is talking about. That black BMW. Vitamins.
The honeymoon suite. Gluten free bread. Wrinkle cream. Overnight shipping. Black stockings.
$50 charity donation. Recyclable toilet paper. Muesli bars. Car insurance. Low fat yogurt.
A trip to Paris. Nike running shoes. Red roses on February 14th. Private health insurance.
The collectible album. Angry Birds. A college education. Fireworks. A kitten. IKEA furniture.
People aren’t buying the facts.
They’re buying how what you do, and how you do it makes them feel.
So why are you selling them the facts?
Image by Pietro Izzo.