Saturday, August 27, 2005
Meaningful Marketing
Meaningful Marketing
© 2004 by Doug Hall and Jeffrey Stamp
Meaningful marketing focuses on the acquisition of new customers. Someone studied the careers of 1,500 business school graduates from 1960 to 1980. At graduation 1,245 will categorize as being focused on making money while 255 of the graduates were focused on pursuing something that was personally meaningful to them. 20 years later 100 out of 101 meaningful millionaires were from the latter group.
Most new products fail because they are not new enough. They do not offer any perceptible point of difference. Define first. First is a limited category. Define what you are at the first step based on a limited subset. Define first as a combination. Define what you are the first step based on a unique combination. Being first to market nearly doubles your sales versus being fourth to market.
Use your voicemail messages as the test market. Script the voicemail messages you leave for customers. I am calling about a new act we have that can help you XYZ. Make 25 calls and measure the number of callbacks. Then script another message and try again. When you get the right benefit and stated in an obvious fashion you will know it because response rates will increase by 50-100%. Be specific about your meaningful uniqueness. Sales messages that are specific about this have a 52% greater success rate. Describe your offering with a mind-opening and articulate it with clarity.
Open your customers’ minds by blatantly and boldly articulating how your product will transform their lives. Speak up your uniqueness from the viewpoint of new and existing customers. Perpetually focus on finding new customers. Remember the goal is total customer growth. Do one thing great. When your message is highly focused you have a 60% greater chance of long-term success. A customer’s trust in your expertise is dramatically enhanced when you focus on doing one thing better than anyone else. Make defining your brand an urgent priority. If you do not know what your brand stands for there is little chance that your customers do.
Publish your focused brand vision on everything. Publish it everywhere. Target customers who seek meaningful innovation. Focus your initial resources on customers most open to trying new things. Feel influential passion for being smarter. 44% of adults have a logical rational orientation. Left brained people respond best when the sales person is serious, knowledge and highly organized. Once you think about product compare to what you are using now.
Right brainers are 28% or emotional people oriented. They respond best when the sales person is humorous, animated, relationship oriented and focused on their personal need. How do you feel about what I am offering? Make frequent personal contacts. The last group of thinking styles is known as whole brain. The importance of non-loyal customers, first time and onetime customers represent over one-third of sales and profit. Celebrate the arrival of new customers. Define special methods handling new customer needs. Warmly welcome them to your brand and your people. Incentives motivate the customer’s can’t be bought. A financial incentive construe customer to action.
A one dollar incentive raises the survey response from 20-40%. A five dollar incentive raises the best at 51%. Above that did not go too much. When possible give the small sample size of your offering. In person requests for 82% of the time are successful versus 47% for survey sent by mail. We feel that sales marketing executive should spend 25-50% of their time connecting with current or prospective customers.
Avoiding the loss can be more motivating to customers than realizing a gain.
Define your benefit as preventing a loss. Quantify the long-term cause of non-action. Articulate fears and doubts could have faced on the loss. Context has a major impact on purchasing. When you offer customers the opportunity to choose between three options they are significantly less likely to select the cheapest one. It is smarter for company to offer three different options. The optimum number of marketing pitches to a new customer is three. Don’t rest. Remember when a customer gives you an absolute yes there is still a 50% probability he will change his mind. When you get a yes move rapidly to close the sale. The four most important measures for predicting success for important customer benefit, a unique performance, benefit easy to communicate, good value for the money. Leverage special knowledge loyalty program.
Open a system of dialogue with loyal customers. Give them access to believing as of your company’s thinking. You sell more when you compete more. Competition by internal-external forces yields the passion for winning more. Leverage the rhythms of sports team.
Five decision making styles of buyers: Charismatic 25%, thinkers 11%, skeptic 19%, followers 36%, controllers 9%. Selling charismatic by a focus on the most important, most dramatic big picture, bottom line benefits first. Sell thinkers by providing the frame of reference so provide constant side-by-side comparison. Sell followers by references. Research indicates there are three distinct sources of customer trust; company, sales person, and products. Relative importance of company is 1.9, sales person 1.7, product 1.0. Build the corporate brands. Literally wear your brands on your sleeve. Embroider and imprint your corporate logo everywhere. Provide leadership to your industry. Customer trust of the sales person is based on dependability, honesty, customer-first confidence, and likeability.
Create a pattern of dependability by making small promises and over delivering on results. Learn and talk more about your competition. Keep asking what’s new. Make it a habit to ask your customers and your own company staff what’s new. When you can actually achieve a pricing premium compared to the competition it becomes one of the best measures of your brand because it is free market testimony for your customer’s commitment. Sharpen your brand’s thirty-second message. By keeping it simple and clear your brand strategy will stay in the minds of all involved. Talk to customers in real words. For the masses of customers it is over twice as effective to tell them the storage or data that it is to provide a chart of numbers.
Storytelling is twice as effective. Be a storyteller. Turn you marketing message into storytelling. Think offense not defense with marketing cost, as you think to improve your sales and marketing cost effectiveness. Focus energy first on how you can more meaningfully connect with customer needs. Instead of saying what you can eliminate focus first on what else you can do to make a more meaningful articulation of the virtues of your offering. Instead of mindlessly advertising the millions send the product sample to a subset of higher probability customers. Instead of making millions of prospecting calls create a lecture book that can provide an in-depth display of your wisdom. Define what you would spend money on. Break the commodity cycle. Bigger brands are perceived to offer poor quality.
When your small leveraged as an asset do not apologize for your small size, rather use that an as asset, articulate and deliver customer service that exceeds expectations. Use of nimbleness and responsiveness are the major advantage versus the market leader. Eliminate the irrelevant. The presence of irrelevant information lowers customer’s perception of performance excellence. Follow the advice of Steven King that the second draft should be the first draft less 10% of the words. Use testimonials that speak directly to your meaningful benefit. Tell your story without words. Digital cameras, not photo, use analogy, depict the magic moment that defines your benefit.
Get a customer and say yes to a small harmless request and he is much more likely to say yes to additional larger request. When participant draft to answer five research questions small request they were 28% more likely to answer a second 20 question survey. 34% made the donation pursue, 90% by making a small commitment to you, they subconsciously become more favorable towards you. When they gain any commitment from the customer you dramatically increase your chances of gaining further commitment.
Use the Franklin and France’s wisdom selling system. When Frenchman Franklin was ambassador of France he gained influence with a key sales leader by first asking a borrowed book from his library. The greater the initiation entered the greater the commitment further action. Leverage longtime members. Tour and educate. Get your customers involved in learning and studying about your products. Getting customers to verbalize positive feeling significantly improves sales result. Positive momentum creates positive momentum. When customers state they are feeling good they are more inclined to give you a positive response to your request, so keep the positive feelings flowing. Build momentum. When your customers perceive you as an expert or authority they are more likely to purchase. Authority can come from a perceptional power or protégé. Publish. The popular power of the written word of the source of the authority is immense.
The power of food. Eating of food and drink has a positive impact on customer’s reactions to your presentation. When we are given food or drinks we feel thankful and develop a feeling of owing the giver. Make dining unexpectedly wonderful. Dine at a restaurant where you are well known by the chef and waiter staff can make a positive impression.
The power of deadline. By sending the specific deadline you can dramatically speed customer decision-making.
The halo of attention of personal details. When you look successful customers perceive you as successful. Basking in reflective glory. Customers like to be perceived as being on winning team. Build a sense of belonging. Creative sense of belonging among your customers by enrolling them as members of the club. Celebrate wins. Invite customers to celebrate your milestones of victory that they made possible. Build winner momentum. Celebrate the extremes.
Be bold. Be brave. Whenever you can give a dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius power and magic in it by goodwill. Benjamin Franklin said “Up sluggard and waste not life in the grave we will be sleeping enough”.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1578601789
© 2004 by Doug Hall and Jeffrey Stamp
Meaningful marketing focuses on the acquisition of new customers. Someone studied the careers of 1,500 business school graduates from 1960 to 1980. At graduation 1,245 will categorize as being focused on making money while 255 of the graduates were focused on pursuing something that was personally meaningful to them. 20 years later 100 out of 101 meaningful millionaires were from the latter group.
Most new products fail because they are not new enough. They do not offer any perceptible point of difference. Define first. First is a limited category. Define what you are at the first step based on a limited subset. Define first as a combination. Define what you are the first step based on a unique combination. Being first to market nearly doubles your sales versus being fourth to market.
Use your voicemail messages as the test market. Script the voicemail messages you leave for customers. I am calling about a new act we have that can help you XYZ. Make 25 calls and measure the number of callbacks. Then script another message and try again. When you get the right benefit and stated in an obvious fashion you will know it because response rates will increase by 50-100%. Be specific about your meaningful uniqueness. Sales messages that are specific about this have a 52% greater success rate. Describe your offering with a mind-opening and articulate it with clarity.
Open your customers’ minds by blatantly and boldly articulating how your product will transform their lives. Speak up your uniqueness from the viewpoint of new and existing customers. Perpetually focus on finding new customers. Remember the goal is total customer growth. Do one thing great. When your message is highly focused you have a 60% greater chance of long-term success. A customer’s trust in your expertise is dramatically enhanced when you focus on doing one thing better than anyone else. Make defining your brand an urgent priority. If you do not know what your brand stands for there is little chance that your customers do.
Publish your focused brand vision on everything. Publish it everywhere. Target customers who seek meaningful innovation. Focus your initial resources on customers most open to trying new things. Feel influential passion for being smarter. 44% of adults have a logical rational orientation. Left brained people respond best when the sales person is serious, knowledge and highly organized. Once you think about product compare to what you are using now.
Right brainers are 28% or emotional people oriented. They respond best when the sales person is humorous, animated, relationship oriented and focused on their personal need. How do you feel about what I am offering? Make frequent personal contacts. The last group of thinking styles is known as whole brain. The importance of non-loyal customers, first time and onetime customers represent over one-third of sales and profit. Celebrate the arrival of new customers. Define special methods handling new customer needs. Warmly welcome them to your brand and your people. Incentives motivate the customer’s can’t be bought. A financial incentive construe customer to action.
A one dollar incentive raises the survey response from 20-40%. A five dollar incentive raises the best at 51%. Above that did not go too much. When possible give the small sample size of your offering. In person requests for 82% of the time are successful versus 47% for survey sent by mail. We feel that sales marketing executive should spend 25-50% of their time connecting with current or prospective customers.
Avoiding the loss can be more motivating to customers than realizing a gain.
Define your benefit as preventing a loss. Quantify the long-term cause of non-action. Articulate fears and doubts could have faced on the loss. Context has a major impact on purchasing. When you offer customers the opportunity to choose between three options they are significantly less likely to select the cheapest one. It is smarter for company to offer three different options. The optimum number of marketing pitches to a new customer is three. Don’t rest. Remember when a customer gives you an absolute yes there is still a 50% probability he will change his mind. When you get a yes move rapidly to close the sale. The four most important measures for predicting success for important customer benefit, a unique performance, benefit easy to communicate, good value for the money. Leverage special knowledge loyalty program.
Open a system of dialogue with loyal customers. Give them access to believing as of your company’s thinking. You sell more when you compete more. Competition by internal-external forces yields the passion for winning more. Leverage the rhythms of sports team.
Five decision making styles of buyers: Charismatic 25%, thinkers 11%, skeptic 19%, followers 36%, controllers 9%. Selling charismatic by a focus on the most important, most dramatic big picture, bottom line benefits first. Sell thinkers by providing the frame of reference so provide constant side-by-side comparison. Sell followers by references. Research indicates there are three distinct sources of customer trust; company, sales person, and products. Relative importance of company is 1.9, sales person 1.7, product 1.0. Build the corporate brands. Literally wear your brands on your sleeve. Embroider and imprint your corporate logo everywhere. Provide leadership to your industry. Customer trust of the sales person is based on dependability, honesty, customer-first confidence, and likeability.
Create a pattern of dependability by making small promises and over delivering on results. Learn and talk more about your competition. Keep asking what’s new. Make it a habit to ask your customers and your own company staff what’s new. When you can actually achieve a pricing premium compared to the competition it becomes one of the best measures of your brand because it is free market testimony for your customer’s commitment. Sharpen your brand’s thirty-second message. By keeping it simple and clear your brand strategy will stay in the minds of all involved. Talk to customers in real words. For the masses of customers it is over twice as effective to tell them the storage or data that it is to provide a chart of numbers.
Storytelling is twice as effective. Be a storyteller. Turn you marketing message into storytelling. Think offense not defense with marketing cost, as you think to improve your sales and marketing cost effectiveness. Focus energy first on how you can more meaningfully connect with customer needs. Instead of saying what you can eliminate focus first on what else you can do to make a more meaningful articulation of the virtues of your offering. Instead of mindlessly advertising the millions send the product sample to a subset of higher probability customers. Instead of making millions of prospecting calls create a lecture book that can provide an in-depth display of your wisdom. Define what you would spend money on. Break the commodity cycle. Bigger brands are perceived to offer poor quality.
When your small leveraged as an asset do not apologize for your small size, rather use that an as asset, articulate and deliver customer service that exceeds expectations. Use of nimbleness and responsiveness are the major advantage versus the market leader. Eliminate the irrelevant. The presence of irrelevant information lowers customer’s perception of performance excellence. Follow the advice of Steven King that the second draft should be the first draft less 10% of the words. Use testimonials that speak directly to your meaningful benefit. Tell your story without words. Digital cameras, not photo, use analogy, depict the magic moment that defines your benefit.
Get a customer and say yes to a small harmless request and he is much more likely to say yes to additional larger request. When participant draft to answer five research questions small request they were 28% more likely to answer a second 20 question survey. 34% made the donation pursue, 90% by making a small commitment to you, they subconsciously become more favorable towards you. When they gain any commitment from the customer you dramatically increase your chances of gaining further commitment.
Use the Franklin and France’s wisdom selling system. When Frenchman Franklin was ambassador of France he gained influence with a key sales leader by first asking a borrowed book from his library. The greater the initiation entered the greater the commitment further action. Leverage longtime members. Tour and educate. Get your customers involved in learning and studying about your products. Getting customers to verbalize positive feeling significantly improves sales result. Positive momentum creates positive momentum. When customers state they are feeling good they are more inclined to give you a positive response to your request, so keep the positive feelings flowing. Build momentum. When your customers perceive you as an expert or authority they are more likely to purchase. Authority can come from a perceptional power or protégé. Publish. The popular power of the written word of the source of the authority is immense.
The power of food. Eating of food and drink has a positive impact on customer’s reactions to your presentation. When we are given food or drinks we feel thankful and develop a feeling of owing the giver. Make dining unexpectedly wonderful. Dine at a restaurant where you are well known by the chef and waiter staff can make a positive impression.
The power of deadline. By sending the specific deadline you can dramatically speed customer decision-making.
The halo of attention of personal details. When you look successful customers perceive you as successful. Basking in reflective glory. Customers like to be perceived as being on winning team. Build a sense of belonging. Creative sense of belonging among your customers by enrolling them as members of the club. Celebrate wins. Invite customers to celebrate your milestones of victory that they made possible. Build winner momentum. Celebrate the extremes.
Be bold. Be brave. Whenever you can give a dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius power and magic in it by goodwill. Benjamin Franklin said “Up sluggard and waste not life in the grave we will be sleeping enough”.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1578601789
