----+---TL----+-T--2----T----3--T-+----4T---+---T5----+-T--6----T----R--T-+--r ESSENTIALS OF MONEY MAKING MARKETING by Dr. Jeffrey Lant You don't need the alarming U.S. Small Business Administration statistics to know that most small businesses fail. In fact, four out of every five businesses fail in their first three to four years. The waste in terms of time, trouble and treasure -- not to mention punctured dreams -- is incalculable. Yet, if more people understood the essentials of money-making marketing, many of these flickering enterprises would succeed, and handsomely so. I've spent the last year of my life writing what I know to be true and useful about marketing. The result is my latest book, MONEY MAKING MARKETING: FINDING THE PEOPLE WHO NEED WHAT YOU'RE SELLING AND MAKING SURE THEY BUY IT. But more importantly, I've spent the last eight years of my life really investigating the subject of marketing to see what works -- and why -- and what doesn't. Here's 10 important things I've learned to make your marketing more successful. My key marketing addage is, "Never sell. Always solve." But you can only solve if you understand the problems of your prospects. No one is really interested in buying a product or service. Everyone wants to buy a solution to his problem. So help. Start off every day by asking yourself these questions: "Do I understand what is bothering my prospect?""Do I understand either what hurts and/or what he wants to achieve?" "How do I know?" The successful marketer is always able to get out of himself and focus exclusively on his prospect. Nowhere is there truer empathy than between a successful, client-centered marketer and his prospect. Nowhere; for the marketer can only succeed to the extent that he understands precisely what bothers his prospect and precisely what that prospect wants and needs to achieve. CONCENTRATE ON BUYER BENEFITS, NOT PRODUCT FEATURES As someone who has launched a product or service, you know that that product or service entralls you. You can tell me, in often excruciating detail, the most minute details about your precious baby. I have this to say to you: so what! A feature is useless except to the extent that it is linked to a precise, immediately-understandable benefit. Thus, you must translate each feature of your product or service (including size, color, weight, hours of business, mode of operation, etc. into a benefit which is meaningful to the buyer. If there is no benefit emanates from the feature, then that is a feature you need never consider. The essence of successful marketing is to discern and then disseminate precise, compelling benefits to prospects, benefits which let them know in crisp, energetic detail exactly what's in it for them when they use what you're offering. KNOW HOW MANY PROSPECTS YOU HAVE, WHERE THEY ARE, AND HOW TO REACH THEM Over the last several years, I've been taking an informal survey, continually asking people to describe for me their prospects (market) and what they know about them. The results have generally astonished me because of the paltry knowledge most supposed marketers have about the people to whom they are selling, the people who constitute the basis for their prosperity. Successful marketers can tell you in often mind-boggling detail exactly how many people there are in the nation, or, indeed, the world who have the problem their product or service can solve. They know, in short, their Universe of Prospects. They know how many of these people there are, they know where they are, they know salient details about their lives, and, importantly, they know precisely how to go about reaching them. From this information comes their Marketing Plan. Remember: marketing is an action-oriented activity which involves identifying people in pain or people with clear aspirations, studying them until your understanding of them is greater than their understanding of themselves, and knowing all the available means of connecting with them to bring to their attention the solution you have available in your product or service. UNDERSTAND YOUR COMPETITORS Marketing never takes place in a vacuum. Others are offering products and services like yours. They are approaching the same kinds of people you are approaching. That's why an essential part of successful marketing involves close scoutiny of your competitors, in an attempt to understand what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how well they are doing it. Successful marketers pay as much attention to what their competitors are doing as to what they are doing. But think! Do you know: Who is offering products and services like yours the precise features of these products and services; the benefits which emanate from these features; the territory in which your competitors are operating; why people are buying what your competitors are selling; why someone might select their offer, instead of yours; why someone ought to buy what you are selling, instead of what they are offering? Unless you have this information at hand, and can use it to formulate your marketing strategy, can you really expect marketing success? CREATE CUSTOMER CENTERED SALES LITERATURE After years spent assiduously studying people's marketing documents -- everything from the lowly business-card to four- color annual reports -- I have come to the hard-bitten conclusion that most money spent on such documents is wantonly wasted. Most marketing documents do not: Focus on the clients; reveal the marketer's understanding of what the prospect wants to achieve and indicate that the seller can help him do so; offer benefit-rich inducements for the prospect to buy now; even address prospect directly. If this is your problem (and it probably is), get rid of your documents and start again. Remind the prospect, in the most direct, dramatic detail, of his problems. Let him know that you can solve them. Give him the benefits of acting now to solve them. Provide complete details about what your product or service will do for him. Only then provide him with its features. Provide complete details about how he can take action to acquire your product or service NOW (even though it's 2 a.m. Sunday morning). Tell him what will happen to him if he doesn't take this beneficial action on his own behalf. Remind him there are consequences for inaction. EXPLORE INEXPENSIVE MARKETING ALTERNATIVES I can always tell an inexperienced marketer from an experienced one. The inexperienced person always wants to get heavily into paid advertising and direct mail first. These are the lemming marketers, adept only at throwing themselves onto the shoals of insolvency. Experienced marketers always attempt to find a less expensive way of reaching their buyers. Instead of buying an ad on a radio station, they'll see whether they can't get publicity exposure through an available program. Instead of sending a direct mail piece, they'll see if they can get their flyers to the same prospects with a package stuffer or envelop insert. Instead of paying full freight for the price of an ad, they'll explore the possibility of getting remnant space in the same publication for a fraction of the cost. I've been in business the better part of a decade now, and I've watched the rise and, all too often, the fall of businesses, many lead by bright, enthusiastic and creative people. One of the reasons I'm here and so many of them are not is because I always respond to the call of my Scots heritage and find a way of approaching my market for the least possible expense instead of the greatest, investing the difference in an income-producing vehicle or another marketing gambit. So should you! ALWAYS ASK FOR THE SALE It happened again the other day. A young salesman came to call, presented me with fact on fact about his service, and then, without asking for anything, stopped. He didn't ask for the sale. And I didn't help him make it. Instead, with the greatest possible ceremony, I escorted him to the door. Before leaving he asked me to think about what he'd told me. I didn't have to. I was already appalled. When you're sure you've got a solution to the prospect's problem and that your solution will help him, it is your bounden duty to ask him to use (purchase) what you're selling. And if he doesn't do so today, then it is your duty to keep asking him to acquire and use it so long as he has the problem. Thus, as my clients can attest, I never stop bringing my problem-solving product to their attention, so long as they have the problem. Moreover, if they don't buy today, I ask why. I want and need to know, so I can alter my tactics accordingly. Marketing is the art of finding out where the prospect hurts, letting him know that you can assuage the pain, and then asking him to acquire what you're selling so that he doesn't hurt anymore. You can never consider a meeting with a prospect closed unless and until you have explicitly asked him to acquire your offer and make his life better. Never. For reasons which elude me, most people's marketing seems concentrated on attracting new prospects and buyers. Now don't get me wrong, this is an essential part of successful marketing. But it is only one part. It is also important to lure your lapsed customers back. Do you now have in place a marketing effort designed to reattract people who have bought from you in the past and who still have the problem your product or service can solve? If not, why not? These people know you. If in the past you provided them a quality product or service, they should be grateful to you. If this is indeed the case, then you should spend time making them into buyers again. Not only should existing buyers be contacted as regular intervals, but so should those who have bought from you in the past. But don't be passive about this! Remind them of the benefits they received from your product or service. And remind them of what they are missing by not taking action to acquire more of these benefits. Finally, always remind them that, while you want them back and are willing to do much to get them, if they don't take action by a certain specified date, then you will sadly have to assume they are flatworms, that noxious bi-polar charmer who talks about progress but is only interested in the non-threatening status quo. UPGRADE EVERY CUSTOMER To my utter and continuing consternation, most people who sell (that is to say, most people) only sell the thing the prospect says he is interested in buying. The expert marketer, however, never sells. Instead, he always solves. Selling the prospect only what the prospect says he is interested in may or may not solve his problem. Your job is to find out what that problem is and to offer not just the single thing the prospect says he wants to buy but all the constituents that will solve the prospect's problem, a problem which you, as the specialist, may very well know better than he does. Unlike the order-taking salesperson, that primitive marketing life-form, the marketing specialist: Concentrates not only selling what the prospect says he wants but on understanding the prospect's problem and what he wants to achieve. Then he tells the prospect exactly what he needs to achieve the results he wants and shows the prospect how to acquire it. If the prospect cannot now acquire all that he needs to achieve his aims, the marketer suggests what the prospect should do or buy now to move towards his objective. In any event, the marketer is never satisfied merely to sell the prospect something unless that something is the only thing he has available and entirely solves the prospect's problem. Rather, he is always attempting to upgrade the prospect and hence move him closer to the objective that prospect wishes to achieve. This is the essence of successful marketing. BE PERSISTANT Marketing is not something you do when you feel like it. It is something that must be done daily. This is because the people you are approaching with your offers will not always or even usually take action the first time they hear about your ability to help them. No, they must be told again and again. And again; at least seven times within an 18 month period. This is what I call The Rule of Seven. You must identify a group of people who have the problem you can solve with your product or service and approach them at least seven times in 18 months using a variety of marketing means: telemarketing, direct mail, free publicity, paid ads, workshops, and all the other alternatives. Only then can you be assured that this portion of your market knows that you can help them. Only then will a significant percentage of this market take action to acquire what you have available. Only successful marketers understand and profit from The Rule of Seven. The rest, including most of the newly-established businesses, somehow expect their prospects to be as enthusiastic and interested in what they're selling as they themselves are. This is a gigantic miscalculation, resulting in the early demise of most business ventures. Those who succeed in marketing are clear about whom they are selling to, about the problems these prospects have and about the time and expense it takes to reach these prospects and persuade them to take action to acquire what they're offering. The others simply wither away, blighting the naive hopes of their creators. This unfortunate result will not, however, happen to you now that you know what you must do to become the consummate marketer. Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the author of many well-known books. Just published is his latest, MONEY MAKING MARKETING. He also wrote THE UNABASHED SELF-PROMOTER'S GUIDE. Each is $32.50 postpaid from The Sure-Fire Business Success Catalog, 50 Follen St., Suite 507, Cambridge, MA 02138. SMART SHOESTRING SELLING TIPS By Nancy Croft Baker When an unemployed Sophia Collier concocted Shoho soda in her kitchen one blistering August day in 1977, she knew the product was so unique it would launch a business. She also realized that she knew nothing about marketing and had better do substantial homework before selling her natural soda. Today, despite years of marketing on a bare-bones budget, Collier's American Natural Beverage Company is a multimillion-dollar enterprise. By defining her market and working with small convenience store chains, Collier carved a niche in the gourmet soft- drink industry that would attract take-over offers from the likes of Seagram Beverage (which did purchase the company recently). Ironically, Collier's strategy was more out of necessity than intention. She had no money to hire a distributor, so she delivered bottles of her natural soda from the back of her Jeep. She was so poor, in fact, that she would look for parking meters with time still remaining when she made her deliveries. Collier says that marketing on a tight budget taught her more about her product than she could have learned by hiring a distributor. "I recommend for anybody who's going to start a business to sell the product yourself. Get to know your product, understand it," she says. "You get to hear customers' objections, and it's a way to have personal market research right from the customer." Initially, she says, she tried to persuade distributors to sell her soda, but because she didn't really understand the product herself, she couldn't negotiate particularly favorable contracts. To survive in today's competitive marketplace, businesses large and small must constantly keep their names before their target markets if they want to expand. Unfortunately, as the economy tightens, marketing is typically one of the first business expenses to be trimmed. It is when times are tight, however, that savvy marketing is most critical. In the book, the Frugal Marketer: Smart Tips for Stretching Your Budget (AMACOM, $15.95), Collier and dozens of other entrepreneurs, small-business owners, and association marketing managers share their secrets to marketing success on skinny budgets. Following are some examples of how business owners of small (and large) companies and association marketing managers can compete with big competitors without spending big bucks on marketing. Before a business owner considers hiring an expensive marketing consultant to develop a strategy, he should take a good look at the resources in his own backyard. Inventory records, customers, employees, board of directors, suppliers, and competitors are wonderful gauges for demographic trends and are good sources of product/service feedback. Teach employees to be good listeners when customers make a purchase. Encourage them to ask if the customer has any suggestions for improvement, if he would like to see the business offer a particular product it doesn't already offer, or why he does or doesn't frequent the business more often. Your trade or professional association is another wealth of demographic information and industry trend information. Some suppliers and vendors offer demographic information to preferred customers as a special service. Subscribing to a news clipping service to track any media coverage on competitors also gives a business owner a better perspective of how he is or isn't positioned in the marketplace. Contact a local Small Business Development Institute or Small Business Development Center for free (or nominally priced) market research assistance. Affiliated with the Small Business Administration, Small Business Institutes (SBI) are housed in universities and colleges and provide intensive management assistance by teams of qualified college students in business disciplines. Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) are staffed by professional business volunteers and are typically located in local SCORE offices, chambers of commerce, or regional offices of the Small Business Administration. For more information about SBIs and SBDCs, write to the Small Business Administration, 1441 L Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20416. ALWAYS SAY THANK YOU AFTER A SALE A free marketing technique often overlooked, says Phyllis Miller, a Los Angeles marketing consultant, is thanking the customer after a purchase. "I watched a salesman take money for an entire computer system and not say thank you or escort the customer graciously to the door," she says. If you want to encourage repeat business, reassure customers that they have made a good choice by shopping at your business, and let them know you appreciate their patronage. "It doesn't cost you a penny, and it can increase sales dramatically since so few marketer do this," says Miller. This personal approach will stand out in customers' minds. MAKE YOUR ADVERTISNG PAY FOR ITSELF When a midwestern video store wanted to distribute a coupon book to the community, it went to other area businesses for funding. The businesses -- even competitors -- paid the video store an advertising fee for including their coupons. The video store used the advertising funds to produce a snappy coupon booklet imprinted with its logo. The booklet also was cleverly designed to conveniently hang on customers' doorknobs at home as a reminder to take it with them on errands. Participating stores received inexpensive advertising, and the video store paid no production expenses. Other businesses have used the same technique with calendars and other items used frequently by customers. Just because you have a ho-hum marketing budget doesn't mean you have to settle for ho-hum sales. "If you don't have money, that's not an obstacle," says American Natural Beverage's Sophia Collier. "There's always a way to do something (spectacular), and money creates the ability to amplify your ideas. But the lack of money is not an absolute block." Author's Box: Nancy Croft Baker, a Washington-based communications executive and former marketing editor for Nation's Business magazine, is coauthor of THE FRUGAL MARKETER: SMART TIPS FOR STRETCHING YOUR BUDGET (AMACOM, $15.95) with J. Donald Weinrauch. AMACOM is a subsidiary of the American Management Association, 135 West 50th St., New York, NY 10020-1201. CHOOSING GOOD ASSOCIATES By William Eddy Although they're scarce, loyal cooperative associates are worth looking for. Sometimes we have to depend on associates to hold up their end of the bargain for a project to succeed. We may need them to stand by us when emergencies occur. We need honest advice from our associates; perhaps we have to depend on them to keep certain matters confidental. Moreover, a associate who shares our wins, losses, tears, and laughs will provide us with pleasant memories and warm feelings for a lifetime. On the other hand, the memories of a disloyal associate often recall unwanted feelings of contempt and disgust for a lifetime. Most of us misplace trust occasionally, and some of us repeat the mistake too often. Anyone who reads newspapers knows that everyone isn't trustworthy. Yet we wonder why so many con- artists and swindlers outwit government agencies, big businesses, and entire communities. The problem isn't new; historically, people have trusted traitors for identical reasons. We don't examine the trustworthiness of our associates because we are preoccupied thinking of their value to our goal achievement. A well known example is Benedict Arnold who was put in a position of trust because of his extraordinary abilities as a military commander, but those who trusted him were aware that he was immature, selfish, envious, arrogant, and egotistical. Those who Arnold betrayed were confronted by the rigid- reaper- reality--ignoring obvious warnings is not a substantial excuse. Technical abilities will not compensate for moral weakness. We must choose associates who are efficient, cooperative, and ethical or we'll get burned. There is only one significant difference in people; some are selfish and some are unselfish. There are many labels for various manifestations of selfishness: greedy, domineering, dependent, egotistical, and so on, but the root of these characteristics is social immaturity. We must remember that we form relationships to share efforts to achieve mutual rewards or benefits. Unselfish people are genuinely interested in the well being of others, so they are willing to share. Selfish people are concerned with their own interests, they may be willing to give a little to get a lot, but they are not constitutionally capable of sharing. They will be unethical when faced with temptations. "Let no man think that he is loved by any who loveth none." -- Epictetus warned. However, many of us think that our wisdom, relationship skills, or shining example will make selfish people "see the light" and mend their ways. This is impossible as selfishness is a behavior patterned by a lifetime of selfish thoughts and actions. To reverse selfish behavior requires years of persistent struggle. A person's character is apparent by his or her conversations, activities, and interactions with others. Yet sometimes we are deceived. A simple way to determine the reliability of perspective close associates is to let them know our thoughts and feelings. If we talk openly about our principles and values, we will find one of three responses from the other person; enthusiasm, indifference, or disagreement. If we talk about the people we admire, we discover whom the other person admires. If we talk about constructive projects aimed at the improvement of society, we will discover whether the other person is interested in similar topics. We can form complete networks of reliable associates by keeping files of efficient, cooperative, and ethical people. Our files can contain: doctors, lawyers, plumbers, realtors, car dealers, and everyone else we come in contact with, including people in our social activities. Keep in mind that society gravitates to its own level. A trustworthy realtor will know honest people in various facets of the real estate field; likewise, a reliable plumber will know trustworthy people in the building business. We can ask honest people for recommendations when we need special services, and we can recommend honest people to our friends. We must get the word out that we appreciate good associates; honest people want to increase their networks too. If we help honest people succeed, we will expand our networks. Sometimes our far-sightness prevents us from recognizing good associates within our grasp. We are often preoccupied thinking about our goals, and we forget to reward cooperative efforts. Lack of appreciation causes cynicism in many people and gives them a "what's the use of trying?" attitude. No one respects an ingrate. Often a small present, a note of appreciation, or a sincere "thank you" is sufficient encouragement to promote cooperative relationships. Yet we should reward extreme efforts with appropriate benefits that are important to the receiver. We cannot afford to allow our goal pursuits to dominate our thoughts and forget to be considerate of the needs and wants of others. We all get off track once in a while, becoming wrapped up in ourselves. To prevent self- centeredness, we should try to be more cooperative and ethical; reading ethical inspiring literature and spending time in honest self- examinations will help. As we become better people, our deportment will attract more and more good associates. This article is adapted from Willpower Guide by William Eddy. The book is available from Rise, P.O. Box 1478-C, Glenwood Springs, CO 81602 for $8.95 postpaid GREAT HEADLINES CAN MAKE YOU RICH By Russ Von Hoelscher Since many of you are involved with direct response marketing and the creation of advertising, let's zero in on creating display ads. The key success factor: YOUR HEADLINE! The headline you choose for your ad is of greater importance than any other component of your ad (combined with body, copy, guarantees, testimonals, etc.). Assuming you have a desirable product or service, the headline you create will be a major plus or minus factor. I'm convinced a good headline is worth at least 60% of the value of your advertisement. A weak headline will almost always doom your project to failure, regardless of how good your product or service may be. Headlines Must Appeal to the Reader's Self Interest A person's greatest interest usually lies in themselves. People desire to become a winner by gaining benefits -- while avoiding loss or pain. Thoughs, emotions and feelings play a big part in influencing purchasing decisions -- much more so than pure intellectual considerations. This why an appeal to an emotional interest will always outpull a purely factual headline. Save your facts for use in the body copy of your ad. First, you must grab your reader's attention with a powerful (or promise of) benefit. Powerful ads begin with sizzling self-interest. Advertising is a battle to briefly capture the attention of your prospect and lead them to the desired action -- placing an order. Advertising is salesmanship in print. The goal is to stop a page flipper dead in his tracks with a bold statement that appeals to their self- interest. If successful in gaining his or her attention, we further hope to entice readership through the use of sub-heads and trigger words used in the opening line of each paragraph. Once the entire ad is read, we hope to have pushed enough "hot" buttons pertaining to basic needs, desires and values (success, greed, wealth, sex, survival, etc.) in order to motivate the person to act -- which means getting out their credit card or making the toll-free call. Only compelling copy will achieve this effect. A Positive Approach Works Best Appeals to the person's self-interest almost always produces the best results. Your headline should shout BIG BENEFITS FOR YOU to the reader. Telling a prospect how they will prosper under your plan works better than telling them how to prevent losses. Negative appeals (a loss to the reader by not using your plan) are better placed within the text of your body copy. My experience has shown that positive benefits in a headline always do better. Some of my successful headlines include "Wealth, Health, Love & Happiness...Now You Can Have It All!" -- from my book How to Achieve Total Success which has sold more than 120,000 copies worldwide. "If you Love to Catch Fish...Get Your 'Bass-Buster' While We Can Still Legally Sell Them." -- this headline was created to sell a unique fishing lure which resulted in over 200,000 units being sold for my client. "The Amazing Secrets of Sweepstakes Millionaire" -- which was written for the Bruce Robbins report, very successful. "The Best New Book on Making Money By Mail is Yours Free" -- this incredibly successful ad has appeared in every leading business and opportunity magazine and it introduces our line of books and tape programs to potential buyers/distributers. It would be easy to continue, but you should be getting the idea by now. Capture attention with a daring, beneficial headline. You'll get the results you desire without resorting to using overly worn cliches, cute or clever ad headlines. Simply give your readers the good news of what you have to offer in the form of benefits. EDITORS NOTE: Perhaps the best volume ever written on the art of creating advertising is MY LIFE IN ADVERTISING/SCIENTIFIC ADVERTISING, by Claude Hopkins. Check your library for this book as it is now out of print -- but still required reading by the best agency copywriters. Russ von Hoelscher is a highly regarded advertising expert and the author of over three-dozen books including "How to Achieve Total Success: How to use the Power of Creative Thought." Russ also writes the information-rich monthly newsletter for direct response marketers, "The Russ von Hoelscher Direct Response Profit Report." Samples of the newsletter are available for $2 from: Publishers Media, Dept. PR, Box 546, El Cajon, CA 92022 or you can call Russ at 619-282-5822