How One Hour of Clear Thinking is Better than 40 Hours of Confusion

By John Kumpunen, M.A.
President and CEO of SumHow.com

In Real-Life 101 we learned that only a super-small percentage of products rise to the hotcake status of “they sell themselves” — the top 1% of products (probably more like 1 out of 1,000,000 products) become the fads (Elmo, Crazy Wall-Walkers), the cool stuff (iPods, Wii, Blackberry, iPhone) that everyone MUST have. The rest need work: 99.9% of products and services have to be marketed when there is no organic demand for them.

4 Un-Reasons for Marketing:

1) Product is unknown, new to the market, or needs to be re-positioned. This is a task of increasing awareness (and differentiating) through hundreds of tactics like press releases, publicity, advertising, case histories, CNN, Oprah spot, even Twitter links. Remember this: To attract the mice, you gotta make noises like cheese.

2) Product is undifferentiated. The affluent markets are inundated with all sorts of products …do we really need 437 mp3 players? Or 20,000 brands of beer? Probably not. But marketing comes into play when there isn’t enough demand because buyers cannot tell your products apart from the many competitors. This is a task of educating the buyers to understand the differences between products and why these differences are important. Marketers throw around concepts like USP unique selling proposition, PBTs personal buying triggers, tested selling sentences, and Ries and Trout concept of ‘positioning’. Remember this: Failure to market is largely a failure to stand out in the mind of the buyer.

3) Product is unremarkable. Design is ho-hum. People who run the business are burned-out. Product quality isn’t quite there. Corners were cut in manufacturing and raw materials; it might be the Chinese bargain, cheap but … you get the idea. If your service is ho-hum, there are very specific steps you can take to improve the perceived quality in the market place. Remember this: Sure, glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

4) Product is unsupported by the market for these reasons: Not enough buyers, Not enough money, Not enough interest. Common problem is that the market you are talking to is just too small in size to give you the number of sales you need. They may be small in money and cannot afford the product (selling Mercedes 500 SL cars in rural Uganda). Remember this: Find a parade and march in front of it. Go where the fish swim.

If MARKETING is “Whatever it takes to make profitable sales”, then ask yourself these questions

What is the overall communication objective of your marketing — is it to increase awareness, to differentiate, or to improve the perception in the marketplace? Action Step: Write one sentence: What communication OBJECTIVE is the most valuable to your clients and you right now, which singular message do you need to bring into the minds of prospects? What message are you going to yell out standing on a soap box in Central Park? What would impress your prospects?

DON’T USE UNHEARABLES … words and concepts that you’ve heard a million times before. It has to be FRESH, innovative, provocative, and action-stirring. What specific ACTION do we want them to take after they have viewed the presentation? Reality is there is no money if they don’t take the action. Aim all your communication to that first step: Mr. Prospect Take This Action Now.

60-second rule: What do you want them to do in the next 60 seconds after they have viewed the presentation? For example, do they call, fill out a form, place an order, arrange an interview, explore the web site, etc. What action do they need to take at the end of the presentation?

LONG-TERM: What do you want them to REMEMBER 12 months from now? We humans see great commercials and have no idea what the product was. We listen to seminars and forget most of it within 24 hours. Now, what ONE concept, idea, slogan do we want them to remember for the rest of their lives? Some action slogans seem to stay with us forever: How do you spell RELIEF? R-O-L-A-I-D-S (This campaign slogan was so powerful that one half of the southern school kids spelled relief … you guessed it … R-O-L-A-I-D-S).

Who is this communication for — dealers, distributors, staff, prospects, existing clients — what is their familiarity with the company and the products? If known, what are the target audience psychographics (lifestyle, attitudes, religion, politics), demographics (age, sex, income, geographical factors), and ethnographics (race, ethnic background, etc.)?
Hoover vacuum salesmen worked with typical persona of a buyer. I forget what Mr. and Mrs. Consumer were called, but it might help to apply the Pareto rule and see which 20% of your customers are giving you 80% of your business.

Problem-Agitation-Solution (PAS) Model of Selling: We like to work with the PAS model of selling because of its beauty of simplicity: Three components: Problem that your service or product solves, emotional Agitation of that problem to the degree where the prospect realizes that change is absolutely necessary, and the Solution you offer.

What is the PROBLEM you solve? How does the problem manifest in their lives? How does this problem show up in their daily lives? Is the problem large enough to justify action? How much does this problem cost in terms of lost revenue, lost speed, lost productivity?

What is the Agitation we can provide? The majority of sales fail because the buy-now solution is introduced too early. Presenting a solution before the buyer is emotionally engaged, before he is ready to buy, will result in low conversions. We need to drive the motivation-to-buy deeper, ideally to the level of emotion that purchase is the only logical (and emotional) solution. How can we make his problem worse, how can we introduce ideas that lead HIM to believe that he needs to make a change?

THE MOST CRUCIAL STEP: What is the Solution’s Unique Selling Positioning (USP) AND ITS EMOTIONAL TRIGGERS (We buy on emotion and justify with logic)? Compare yourself to your competitors. What does your company provide that is truly UNIQUE (no competitor offers it), that is important to SELLING (a differentiator important enough to make or break the sale) and can take the top-of-mind POSITION in the decision matrix of the buyer. 99% of purchase decisions are made with a fewer than six variables; often one single differentiator makes the sale (and becomes a “tested selling concept”).

We need to enter into the buyer’s mind and eliminate all other alternatives (“kill” competitors) and to direct the buyer’s attention and interest to your company’s unique solutions. What are the hard differentiators (objectively measurable: price, size, weight, speed, compatibility) and soft differentiators (matters of judgement: quality, responsiveness, standards of service). What is truly unique about you? What makes the sale? What factoid can rise to the top-of-mind?

What are the 3 reasons why prospect should buy this product / service?
What are the 3 reasons why prospect should buy this from you rather than competitors?
What are the 3 reasons why prospect should buy now?

Selling by education (you educate the customer to the important features and benefits of your products; e.g., via newsletter, white paper, online video, DVD) has incredible ROI (one manufacturer got $81 in sales for every $1 spent). What can you teach? What is the insider’s angle? You and your staff probably know more about the product, its application, and its performance than 99.99% of the population ever will. What can you teach the audience?

What can you tell him that makes his eyes light up? What makes him say, “Wow, I didn’t know that”? What can you tell them that makes a huge difference? How can you educate them? What is the “insider’s angle”? What “secret” knowledge will surprise them? One maxim that applies here is: “Be Interesting or Be Invisible”.

Tested Selling Sentences. Many companies have script books—specific words and sentences that sell. What are the buying triggers, what are the concepts, ideas, words that “click” in the mind of the buyer? These are often mental concepts that bring a near-close prospect to a close and a purchase decision. What is your ultimate closing statement?

What 6 specific irrefutable facts can you say and get him to agree with you without hesitation? What are the 6 minor “yesses”. As we build the ‘framework’ for a sale, we want the prospect to engage emotionally and agree with us before we attempt bring him into a close. In your industry / product line what are the minor yesses he cannot disagree with? Use industry metalanguage or industry lingo if possible. Example: High-altitude towing is harder on the engine because of thinner air. Thin-air power loss can be as much as 30%. An RV-trailer tow vehicle with that extra 70 horsepower can handle high-altitude Kentucky hills better.

Your vision of the presentation: What absolutely needs to be shown and explained in the presentation? Describe what you see happening in your mind’s eye — from start to finish.

Closing: Here you can talk about TakeAwayClose, what will the prospect lose if he does not make a decision now, timed offers; CalamityClose—what if he does not buy and calamity strikes, what are the costs of indecision; HitstheFanClose — what are the costs of litigation if company set up done poorly (esp. franchises, ventures, stock promotion, offshore deals).

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Search terms: What are the typical search engine terms your target audience might use to seek your type of services or products? Think of as many words and phrases as you can. Trade journals, magazines, portal web sites: What does the industry read? What are the industry forums?

MORE IMPORTANTLY– it is nearly impossible to get first page placement in competitive markets (Search Engine Page Returns > 1,000,000+). There are just too many competitors and to organically rank in the first 10 is tough. Very tough in competitive markets — you’ll just waste a ton of time. Instead aim for the words that trigger sales, not the tire-kickers and lookie-lous. Long-Tail. Instead of Chevrolet Trucks, you look for phrases that a proud buyer would describe his Chevy Truck purchase: Three-quarter-ton Chevy with extended cab and double rims at the back. Okay, that may be an exaggeration, but you get the idea of long-tailing.

Name and Describe your major competitors: Who are they? Web site URLs? What are their estimated sales volumes, market shares? Are they private or public companies? Do they publish annual reports? Where can we gather competitive intelligence on them, e.g., trade journal article?

Post-sale cognitive dissonance: Research shows that car buyers actually read MORE car brochures AFTER they bought their car than before. Once a sale is consummated, the buyer often enters a cognitive dissonance phase—Did I make the right decision? What communication can we make available to him immediately after the sale to abate the discomfort of decision making. What can we communicate to him that tells 1. He made the right decision, 2. His decision is perfectly timed, 3. There are thousands of other people who made the same decision and happy with their decision.

Opinion Leaders, word-of-mouth, affiliates, partnerships: When a buyer is happy with the outcome of the sale, has moved past the cognitive dissonance phase, he can often become your best salesman as an Opinion Leader — especially important in group settings, regional sales, vertical industry sales. Opinion Leaders influence and shape the attitudes of their peers. He can become a powerful testimonial by word of mouth, an affiliate, as an influencer. The higher his “source credibility” is the more powerful his influence—cf., Insider tutoring on Manhattan real-estate transactions: Donald Trump vs. Richard Simmons? What “weight” do your buyers carry in the industry, region—and how can we solicit their help in further sales?

For further information, please contact
John Kumpunen, M.A.
1-800-535-4999
john@sumhow.com
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