Sell with Sincerity

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In a sea filled with competitive businesses, sincerity is a must if you want to get (and keep) customers. Here are a few tips to help you sell with sincerity:

  • Sincerity is more than just a smile or a firm handshake. It can be heard in your voice, your words, and your actions.
  • Don’t read from a script. No one wants to listen to a sales pitch that sounds like a recording. Mix in your personality, passion, and even personal experiences with the product.
  • Ask questions and listen with interest. Show that you really care about what the person is saying (in contrast to simply listening because it is the polite thing to do).
  • Be yourself. Remember that people buy from other people. If they like working with you, they are more likely to remember you and return again.
  • Back off the business mode when using social media sites. Rather, use them for their intended purpose: to be social and build relationships.
  • Remember that sincerity has to last. It doesn’t end after the sale. If customers have a problem with a product or service, sincerity is a must to resolve their issue.

George Henry Lewes once said, “Insincerity is always weakness; sincerity even in error is strength.” Sincerity in sales can not only help you build a stronger relationship with your customers, but will also help your business receive honest feedback and suggestions for improvement.

Features Tell, But Benefits Sell!

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When it comes to marketing, it’s often necessary to rethink what you’re really selling. For example, rather than selling life insurance, vitamins, or digital cameras, you may really be selling peace of mind, longevity, or treasured memories. Here are a few tips to help you focus less on features and more on the benefits your products and services have to offer:

  • Sell the sizzle, not the steak, by explaining the direct benefits your customers will experience if they choose your products or services. For example, instead of telling a customer that the cell phone they’re looking at has 16GB of memory, tell them it can hold XX songs, videos, and photos. By repositioning a product feature as a benefit, you’ll show your customers the many positive ways your product features will impact them directly.
  • Highlight benefits when creating a headline for brochures, flyers, or other promotional materials. While features are also important, they’re not the hook to get customers interested. For example, instead of writing a headline about a car’s six side-impact airbags, focus on the added safety benefits and peace of mind for your customer and their family.
  • If you haven’t already, create your own features and benefits sheet. Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left side, write all the features of your product or service you’re offering. On the right side, write out the corresponding benefits that go with each feature.
  • If you’re having a difficult time thinking in terms of benefits, consider a freelance writer. As an outsider, a freelance writer can separate themselves from your company and look at your products and services from a new perspective. They can also more easily put themselves in the shoes of your customer.
  • You may also consider a customer focus group that will help you identify issues that are important to customers, so you can gain a fresh new insight and perspective.

What Does the Fortune Inside Your Cookie Say?

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A fortune cookie has an average taste at best. So why do people look forward to eating them? Because of the little piece of paper inside the cookie. You know, the one that tells a story: your fortune.

The text on the fortune is rarely profound, yet we still excitedly break open the fortune cookie to see what it says. Why? Because those simple and sometimes silly words illicit an emotional response.

Your products and services are like a fortune cookie. In your mind, they are second to none, but to your audience, you may be one of many.

Your values, vision, and especially your story are like the fortune in the cookie. Your prospects and customers want the fortune as much if not more than the cookie itself because that’s how they connect and how they will remember you.

Strive to make your services and products the best they can be. But don’t forget to tell the stories behind them, so you can connect with your clients emotionally. That’s the key to what will make you unforgettable.

Marketing with Email Signatures

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Think about how many business emails you send each day. Now think about the email signature you’re currently using on your emails. While email signatures are commonly used as a way to identify the sender and provide important contact information, many people are missing out on the valuable opportunity to use their signature line as a marketing tool. Here are a few tips to help you create an effective email signature that your recipients will remember:

  • Create brand recognition by including your logo, tagline, mascot, or other graphic that is tied to your brand.
  • Choose images carefully and use them sparingly, so your signature doesn’t overpower your message.
  • Increase web traffic by enticing readers to visit your web link for a free sample, free white paper, or to subscribe to your newsletter.
  • If you include a web link, spell out the address rather than using hyperlinks. This will eliminate trust issues caused by opening an unknown link and will also make it easy for recipients to copy and paste the address into their browser.
  • Offer a teaser that entices the reader to ask for more information or to click a link to learn more.
  • Personalize your email signature with a photo to help readers put a face with your name.
  • Consider adding a brief quotation that represents your business or provides an insight into your personality.
  • Create a consistent brand image by standardizing email signatures throughout your company.
  • Change up your messaging frequently to keep it fresh and interesting for email recipients.

The Secret to Selling to Someone Who’s Not (Yet) Ready to Buy

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There was once a man named Charlie who sold insurance for a living. Charlie was a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy who enjoyed what he did. Charlie had a friend named Steve. Steve was in his late thirties and happily married, with a wife and two kids.

Charlie and Steve would play the occasional round of golf with some friends. Charlie would tell Steve about the importance of having life insurance for someone in his situation, but without being pushy.

Steve had his reasons for not buying at the time and would always put it off. Charlie, being the good, persistent salesman that he was, would bring up the topic regularly without being annoying.

One morning while Steve was at work, a colleague who was about the same age, with two kids and in seemingly good health, had a sudden, unexpected heart attack and was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

Guess who Steve called that very afternoon to get the paperwork started for the life insurance policy he had been putting off for years?

What’s the moral of our story as it pertains to your business? You can have the greatest product, the best service, and a great price, yet some of your prospects will still not buy. The reasons are many, and some are a mystery that you won’t be able to solve right away.

While you’re scratching your head trying to find those answers, your real job is to continually market your services by educating your target audience about what you can do to help them achieve their objectives. Why? Because one day soon, your prospect will be ready to buy, and she will remember the persistent, but pleasant person who has been looking out for her best interest all along.

Charlie knew that secret, and now you do, too.

Lessons From the Greatest Direct Mailer of All Time

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Direct mail has been a proven money maker for many years and continues to prove its worth to this day. In this age of all things digital, it’s ironic to note that many who have tired of wasting valuable time and resources with unproven tactics are once again turning to direct mail.

If you’re one of the wise ones who have penciled this powerful strategy onto your marketing calendar this year, it would be smart to learn from one of the best direct mail sales letters ever written.

In 1974, Martin Conroy wrote a simple, two-page sales letter which was continuously mailed out with very minor changes between 1975 and 2003. Not only did it have amazing longevity, but it was responsible for raking in over a billion dollars in new sales.

This letter was a simple story. The best salesmen, teachers, CEOs, and communicators know that stories told well sell! Whether you’re selling something or trying to get others to take action, simple but powerful stories can do much of the heavy lifting for you.

There are many reasons this piece proved to be so successful. The classic formula of attention, interest, desire, and action are beautifully articulated in the piece. Here are a few other lessons to learn:

  1. It pulls you in with a story and emotional hook which makes you want to read more.
  2. It’s simple and clear, so you can follow to the end without getting lost.
  3. Emotions and hot buttons are weaved throughout the copy so your interest remains high.
  4. The benefits are crystal clear.
  5. There’s a clear call to action.
  6. It offers a risk-reversal and guarantee for those on the fence.
  7. It makes a promise and restates that promise at the end.
  8. It provides three options: Good, Better, and Best.

These simple 781 words proved to be a key circulation builder for subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal for over 30 years. There are seminars and courses which have been taught using this letter as a prime example. Studying the letter and learning the techniques and power can make your next direct mailer a big success as well.

Here’s a , along with some information about its amazing success.

Start Spreading the Word

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When it comes to making introductions, first impressions are very important. Whether you’re introducing a new business location, new employees, or even a new product or service, introductory marketing pieces are a great way to make a lasting impact.

A professionally printed introductory piece can establish credibility, build report, and pique interest. However, it’s important to remember that this is simply an introduction. Give readers adequate details, but don’t overwhelm them. Instead, develop it as a lead-in piece that entices readers to learn more.

The creative options for direct mail introductions are endless and can include letters, postcards, self-mailers, statement stuffers, personalized note cards, brochures, or even a simple folded flyer. In addition to direct mail, you can distribute introductory materials at trade shows and other events, include them with purchases, or deliver them door-to-door with eye-catching door hangers. To increase staying power, consider including an elite offer, coupon, exclusive invitation, or tear-away business card that recipients can use to keep your information at their fingertips.

If you need ideas or want help getting started, give us a call today. Our creative team would love to help you start spreading the word!

The Right Mindset

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Many people start off the new year with high hopes and aspirations for a successful future. They dutifully set goals, make plans, state their objectives, and promise themselves that this time they’ll really stick with it.

But sometimes life gets in the way and throws a curve ball (or two or three!), diverting our eyes from our path just long enough to derail the whole plan.

If you have plans this year to ramp up your business and want to really see it all the way through, there’s one thing that can help you stick with the agenda even when things seem to be going sideways.

Solve their pain.

If you can remember that one phrase and make it a theme for your entire year, you’ll be much closer to achieving all of your goals than you have ever been.

Your customers, prospects, and even your friends and family have some kind of pain. They’re all either actively or unknowingly searching for someone to help them cure their problems. Your task should be to find out what these ills are and then help provide solutions. You’ll become the one they always look forward to hearing from because you care about them.

The late Zig Ziglar once said: “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” It’s somewhat ironic that achieving goals in your life and business requires a mind shift change from “me first” to thinking about what’s in the best interest of other people.

So as you set your sights on having the best year of your life, remember to always strive to be the one that presents answers to problems and puts the best interests of others before your own. If you can master these skills, you’ll never be without a friend and will achieve more goals than you ever have before.

Please Give Me a Call

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With the recent explosion of marketing avenues available to businesses, it’s easy to forget some of the fundamental building blocks that go into making a company successful. Take, for instance, that telephone in your office. It may not be as sexy or new as social media, but it packs a much bigger and more immediate punch than tweeting or Facebook posts! Perhaps the most important method of communicating with your clients and prospects is still that little old telephone.

The phone connects your business with your audience in ways that email and social media can’t. The sound of the human voice and the interaction between two people on the phone can never be replicated or replaced by any other medium. That interaction can either increase or decrease your business in terms of traffic and revenue. Most callers will base their decision about whether or not to do business with your company on how they are treated on that phone call.

No amount of marketing and PR can overcome a negative experience on a phone call with your office. So before you move forward with any new marketing, make sure all that effort doesn’t go to waste when a prospect calls your business.

You can either pay someone or ask a friend to call your business and pose as a potential customer. Have the calls recorded. Review these recordings on a regular basis, and share both the positive and negative calls with your staff, along with items you find that need to be corrected. These are extremely valuable training times. It takes a little effort on your part, but the rewards will pay off for many years to come.

By making sure that all callers experience a positive event when calling your business, you have a strong pillar to continue building your successful business.

It’s 11:30. Are You Ready?

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Deadline Lessons from Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live (SNL) producer Lorne Michaels once said, “I say it every week: We don’t go on because we’re ready. We go on because it’s 11:30.” He went on to say that being “ready” is a state of mind, one you can condition yourself to overcome with regular deadlines.

SNL is a long-running late-night live television sketch comedy created by Lorne Michaels. The live aspect of the show requires an absolute commitment to being ready to go on air at 11:30 eastern time every Saturday. It’s a hard deadline. No excuses can be accepted or tolerated. The show begins with a topical sketch, at the end of which someone breaks from the skit and shouts: “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

But before the show airs each Saturday night, an entire week’s worth of preparation has gone into making that episode a reality. Monday starts with a production meeting where ideas for the following week’s skits are pitched. On Tuesday, the ideas chosen are turned into skits, and on Wednesday they’re reviewed to pick the best ones to move forward.

On Thursday, the skits are tweaked and adjusted as needed. The winning skits are rehearsed on Friday and then once more before a live audience on Saturday at 8 PM before the actual live performance at 11:30.

Whatever project you’re creating — whether large and elaborate or small and simple — you likely follow a similar process. Your ideas are put on paper, the best survive, an action plan to move forward is chosen, and deadlines are given. Everything is ready, so then why do some ideas and projects never get done?

Over-thinking, doubt, procrastination, and perfectionism are the enemies of deadlines. Each one can play the role of devil’s advocate in your head to delay and destroy deadlines.

The cure might be to learn from SNL and Lorne Michaels. Take imperfect action when necessary. When you delay, nothing can move forward. You can always correct course and improvise as you move toward your goals, but nothing can happen unless you make that leap of faith to take the first steps.

SNL has aired some 730 episodes since its debut and began its 38th season this year, making it one of the longest-running network television programs in the United States. It has produced countless stars, created immense wealth for the creators, and entertained several generations of audiences over the years. The live aspect of the show creates a certain drama that most other shows lack. Some of the jokes fall flat, and there are unexpected surprises in many shows that had not been rehearsed. But the actors improvise as needed, and the show always goes on.

SNL doesn’t go on air at 11:30 every Saturday evening because they are ready. It goes on because it’s 11:30. You may never be “ready” enough if you don’t commit to a deadline to go live. Set aside your fears and worries. Time is wasting, and you may never get another chance to go live again.