EIGHT SELF-DEFEATING BEHAVIORS CRIPPLING YOUR MARKETING... AND HOW TO GET RID OF THEM AND MAKE MORE MONEY! By Dr. Jeffrey Lant You'd think business owners would be doing everything possible to improve the return on their marketing -- especially given this pun k economic climate. But I'm here to tell you it just isn't true. Stationed as I am in the marketing lighthouse, I daily see supposed ly intelligent business people literally throwing their money away by engaging in a series of entirely self-defeating, completely av oidable self-defeating marketing behaviors. Indeed, so severe is this problem I've now come to believe such behaviors are more preva lent among businesses than the kind of unrelenting, client-focused behaviors which ought to distinguish any enterprise. See for your self: how many of these behaviors characterize your efforts? Self-Defeating Behavior #1: You're Condescending The only way you're going to get rich through your business is to make a certain number of profitable deals with a precise number of customers. Why then are so many business owners so ridiculously condescending to their customers. I think, for instance, of a recen t encounter I had with a gallery selling old master paintings. I collect such pictures and had determined to acquire one I'd recentl y seen. Such paintings, as you perhaps know, are not inexpensive; indeed, they represent very considerable investments. Most of the negotiations for this acquisition were handled by fax. In each fax, I provided my name, title and address. In each response, the mar keter deleted my title, demoting me from "Doctor" to "Mister." When he spoke to me, he further demoted me from "Mister" to "Jeff," a name I loathe. Some might argue that all this was merely his attempt to establish some kind of rapport. I see it, instead, as a subtle form of the condescension which is all too prevalent in business today. Other manifestations include: ## not returning phone calls, even when you indicate they are most important; ## not answering your letters in a timely fashion, if at all; ## promising things you cannot or will not deliver; ## not looking at your customer when you're talking to him; ## allowing yourself to be endlessly interrupted while talking to a customer; ## allowing your customer to stand by while you gossip with others. As customers, all of us have been victimized by such endemic behaviors. What's worse, as business people all too many of us perpetra te them. Customers are the people who make us entrepreneurs wealthy. As such they deserve our utmost, concentrated attention and not the witless condescension which today characterizes so much of American business. Self-Defeating Behavior 3: You're Not Prepared For The Marketing Response You Get Business these days is amazingly disorganized, and in no particular more so than responding to people who want to hear more about th e products or services you sell. Why, just the other day a woman told me she'd run an ad and received about 850 responses. She was c omplaining because she'd managed to close only one of these responses. What, she wailed, was wrong? Closer examination showed that: ## she had no proven response package... in other words she'd never bothered to see if what she was sending out actually worked; ## she'd farmed out the responses to a series of people who were to make the closes... but who had received no training at all in ho w to do so; ## she'd never bothered to listen to or instruct the people she'd selected to make the closes. She had, that is, no idea whether the y could do so... or, indeed, any idea about what they were doing. Net result? She was in despair about the process. In truth, she should have been in despair about her own methods, because it was he r own failure to create an organized, tested closing process that produced the truly disastrous results she experienced. It never ceases to astonish me how little marketers consider the entire process of marketing, how little attention they give to each necessary and inevitable component of a successful marketing effort. While large amounts of time may be given over to the considera tion and production of marketing copy, only a fraction as much is devoted to such essential elements as where and how this copy shou ld be used... how responses should be tabulated and logged... how responses should be followed up... and what further follow up ther e should be beyond this. Yet each of these is a crucial component of profitable marketing. Consideration of these issues should take place before -- not after -- you execute any marketing tactics. You need to walk through a nd consider in the most focused way each element of the entire marketing process. Otherwise, you'll end up like the ELM marketer I t alked to the other day who spent a very large amount generating leads... and nothing on the package to close them. He was surprised that he closed so few of his prospects... but no one else could possibly be. Self-Defeating Behavior #3: You STILL Don't Know The Difference Between A Feature And A Benefit And STILL Keeping Trying To Sell Fea tures Really, it is most irritating to me that this point should have to be here, but it still needs to be. Pick up any business brochure, cover letter, ad, proposal, flyer and what will you see? I'll lay odds that you'll first find the company's name, logo, address, a photo of its location, a motto... in short, something about the company itself, its product, its mere existence. But I ask you: who can make company better off: the company itself, or its customers. Obvious, isn't it? And that's why every business, for every one o f its products and services, needs to concentrate on benefits -- which are of interest to buyers -- and not features -- which are no thing more than descriptive components of what the company is selling. Think of it this way: a feature is like a sentence beginning "I have..." or "It is..." "I have a location at 308 Main Street." Or "I t is three inches high." Interesting as these facts may be to specialists, they rightly elicit from prospects the deflating "So what ?" response. "What's in it for me, cub?" That's where the benefits come in. Benefits are sentences beginning with the far more motiv ating words "You get..." This is what your prospects want -- not facts about you -- but things they get. That's why you need to turn every feature into a client-centered benefit. How about that location on Main Street? "You get free parking at our easy-to-reach lo cation at 308 Main Street, right in the center of town." The fact, in short, of no intrinsic interest or value in itself, has now be en transformed into a client-friendly motivator. Which is just what must happen with every feature for each one of your products and services. The sad fact is that most so-called "marketers" can't do this... which is one major reason they have such a hard time motivating the numbers of people they need to buy their products and services. Self-Defeating Behavior #4: You STILL Don't Provide A Cogent Reason For Your Prospects To Take Immediate Action It sickens me just how many marketing communications are on the wrong track. Most still say nothing more significant than, "We're he re. We think we're great. Buy something from us." Now I ask you, is this motivating? Of course not! What motivates people is not just the benefits of a product or service... but a special offer that motivates them to take faster act ion to acquire it. I've discussed these offers in many places: they must offer a real benefit and must be limited in some way, as wi th amount or in time. The importance of the offer is that it provides the final push to a prospect... the oompf that he needs to tak e faster action. "Act now," you're saying, "and get not only this BENEFIT... and this BENEFIT... and this BENEFIT... but also this SPECIAL OFFER with its MEANINGFUL BENEFIT." Now you stand a reasonable chance of getting the slothful, and all too often cash-poor consumer, to take f aster action. Note: have you noticed this recession just how creative many offers have become? These people have made a calculated d ecision to do whatever it takes to get through this distressing period of our lives as comfortably and profitably as possible. If yo u're not doing this, you're apparently decided to slice your wrists and quietly bleed to death. Self-Defeating Behavior #5: You're Unwilling To Assume Responsibility For Acting How many times have you responded to a marketing communication, calling, say, for information. What are you told by the idiot at the other end of the receiver, "Signor Importance is not available. Leave a message?" What I've discovered in many instances is that th is grandee doesn't need to be involved in the reckoning at all. You may simply be calling for "information." You may have the most b asic of questions that anyone with a grain of intellect could answer. Why then must you leave a message? Your message must be left because the marketer hasn't adequately thought through what he needs to do and what members of his staff c an do. These days too many of my once proudly self-reliant countrymen now do a self-defeating dance of responsibility avoidance and irresponsibility. Sure they could tell you what you want to know... Sure they could find out. But it's "not my job." And so they don 't, thus throwing the all-important prospect/customer into limbo. Thus, make it your credo that you will not only assume responsibility yourself but instruct those in your operation about how they, too, can act in a way that expedites the closing of business. This is never just the responsibility of a single person in an organiz ation -- unless there is only a single person in that organization. It is always the responsibility of all, and the sooner this is g enerally recognized and implemented the better. Self-Defeating Behavior #6: You're Slow To Respond This self-defeating behavior is, of course, closely linked to the one above. It perplexes me, I confess, just how torpidly businesse s respond to queries which could, if properly handled, make them money. Why, just the other day I had occasion to call a service pro vider whose talents I needed to employ. When she didn't call me back within a couple of hours, I tried another provider and made a d eal. Four days later when the first provider finally returned my call, I told her she was long out of luck. Predictably, she did not express her regret about her inadequate business practices; instead, she drawled something about needing a rest! Really, it's no wo nder we're in the middle of an interminable recession with attitudes like this! These days, with the advent of the computer, modem, all-pervasive telephone systems, fax and overnight mail services, there is absol utely no reason why every request cannot get the exact level of responsiveness it requires. To gather further details or respond wit h simple information, call immediately. When the prospect needs more detailed and lengthy information, a fax is tailor made. On the other hand, when you need to get bulkier information to the client, depending on the seriousness and potential value of the assignme nt, an overnight or second-day air service may be called for. In short, there is absolutely no reason why the response cannot be as quick as the seriousness of the prospect calls for -- and as thorough. Yet, as we all know, this isn't at all what happens. Call most businesses today and you'll quickly learn just how deplorably lax the ir response practices are. Yet these are the very people who bemoan their cash flow and cannot seem to fathom why their sales are of f. Sure, an adverse economic cycle takes its toll. But lax response practices weaken and kill in all seasons. Self-Defeating Behavior #7: You're Afraid To Talk Directly To Your Prospects And Gauge Their Intentions Too many businesses assume that all people responding to their marketing communications and expressing an introductory interest are real prospects, that is people who have both the desire and capacity to acquire the benefits the company is offering. This is a mist ake. When you become as aggressive a lead generator as I am, you will quickly come to learn about the large numbers of people who respond to waste their time (which doesn't matter) and yours (which does) answering everything. Such people are business parasites and ough t to be rigorously rooted out. There are many reasons why they're not, including: ## a misdirected courtesy. Many business people reckon that if a person says he's interested, we ought to take him at his word and b ehave accordingly. I do not agree. Only real prospects deserve your serious attention and investment. ## a fear of upsetting the prospect. Real prospects want you to be focused. Parasites simply want to weaken you. When you seek to as certain from a real prospect whether he really wants the benefits you have available, he understands what you're doing and approves. After all, he doesn't want to waste his time and money either. Parasites get irritated, because when you prove them frivolous, they must go. No wonder they huff and puff when you cut to the chase. ## fear of rejection. When you get focused with prospects, you risk rejection. Get used to it; that's just the way it is. ## thinking sending "information" is your job, rather than closing prospects. Sending "information" is never anyone's job; indeed, m indless mailing of information packets is to be avoided whenever possible. The job is always to offer the most focused client-center ed benefits and to figure out if the prospect is interested in them and has the ability to acquire them now. That's all that marketi ng is or ever will be. Your job is to generate the maximum number of prospects with the benefits you have available and with a highly motivational offer... and then to talk directly to the prospect and see if he wants to do what it takes -- if he even can do what it takes -- to acquire them. The most focused you are, the more you have a right to insist that the prospect be equally focused and prepared to deal with y ou directly. Self-Defeating Behavior #8: You Don't Treat Routine Marketing Tasks In The Most Efficient Fashion The objective of profitable marketing is to create a process that: ## identifies the right prospects for what you're selling, namely the people who want the benefit you're selling and have the means to acquire it; ## identifies them in sufficient numbers to meet your profit quota; ## markets both motivating benefits and offers; ## responds in increasingly efficient ways thanks to better use of improved business machines and office procedures to close more pr ospects, more promptly. Towards this end, you should concentrate on handling all routine marketing tasks as efficiently as possible. But, you, say, I AM! I doubt it... Have you, for instance, fully integrated the computer into all your marketing activities? That is, when a prospect calls, do you hav e the correct response immediately available on computer? When you need to follow up, is that letter on computer? If one of your emp loyees makes telemarketing calls, is his script on computer? How about boiler plate for proposals and contracts? In short, it all sh ould be immediately accessible on computer. If it isn't, you're not as efficient as you can be. Do you have a computer record where you log all your marketing activities, the dates you did them, the responses, the results? Or ar e you continually playing guessing games with this crucial information, like an organization I know which can never tell you which m arketing gambits have worked and which have not, because the director of this business absolutely refuses to get organized and use t he technology and people at her disposal? One of the crucial things I have learned about marketing in the last fifteen years is how important it is to establish a profit-maki ng process, a set of simple and easy-to-run procedures which predictably bring in money and regularly bring you closer to the degree of wealth you desire. While a certain dash of creativity may well have been necessary to establish this process, more mundane and p redictable traits are called for to perfect and administer it. Unfortunately all too many "marketers" give way to the siren song of "creativity" seeking instead of perfecting client-centered benefits, motivating offers and a process of prompter turn-around and foc us. This is a serious error. But like the other errors outlined here, it's one you are now saved from making! Resource Box Dr. Jeffrey Lant is one of America's best-known marketers. Tens of thousands of people are profiting right now from his many money-m aking books, tapes and Special Reports like MONEY MAKING MARKETING: FINDING THE PEOPLE WHO NEED WHAT YOU'RE SELLING AND MAKING SURE THEY BUY IT (285 pages, $39.50 postpaid); HOW TO MAKE A WHOLE LOT MORE THAN $1,000,000 WRITING, COMMISSIONING, PUBLISHING AND SELLIN G "HOW-TO" INFORMATION (552 pages, $39.50), and NO MORE COLD CALLS: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO GENERATING -- AND CLOSING -- ALL THE PROSP ECTS YOU NEED TO BECOME A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE BY SELLING YOUR SERVICE (600 pages, $39.50). Get all these -- and a free year's subscrip tion to his quarterly 32-page Sure-Fire Business Success Catalog -- by calling (617) 547-6372 with MC/VISA or writing 50 Follen St., Suite 507, Cambridge, MA 02138.