Client-Centered Marketing Spells
In this lesson, I'm going to talk about the two types of client prospects you have…and
how to reach them with my 'client-centered marketing' techniques.
Everyone knows what a client is, right? And of course, you know all about 'prospects,'
too. But it's very important that you know there are two kinds of prospects for your
goods and services…
There are Motivated Prospects…
and Unmotivated Prospects.
Motivated Prospects are those people who are hot to buy right now.
Unmotivated prospects are those who will buy later.
Actually, to add to the confusion, you can also break this particular category down into
Undecided and Unaware prospects, as well.
But let's be optimistic! Let's first talk about the type of prospect we all love - the
Motivated Prospect!
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This is the person who needs a print shop to do the posters and collateral work for an
upcoming trade show; or someone who needs a photographer for his or her upcoming
wedding; perhaps they've got a big training manual due and need a tech writer to get it
put together; or their garbage disposal has given up the ghost and they need you to
replace it!
These are the hot prospects, and there are easy ways to reach them; for example,
through the Yellow Pages (yes, the phone book still has its place in our lives), the online
yellow pages, and through the local search function of Google or Yahoo.
I'll talk about the internet and Yellow Pages and advertising a little later down the road,
but now, I want to spend some time talking about the Unmotivated Prospects.
Unmotivated Prospects
Unmotivated Prospects are the lion's share of your market because, unfortunately,
there's a lot more of them around than motivated customers. The problem is that since
they're not looking for your services, YOU have to find out who they are and you have
to educate them on who YOU are, and what you can provide them.
Here's a little secret for you. Not many of your competitors are making the effort to
find these prospects. This is a tremendous opportunity for you to cultivate new clients
with little worry about your competition across town.
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So how do you attract customers?
You develop a mix of good marketing tools...you become a "Star" - and you stress the
benefits of your benefits! You use what I call client-centered marketing to get people to
call you on the phone and come knocking on your door!
Here's the Mojo. Client-centered marketing is simple. All you have to understand is the
difference between features and benefits!
Features are about you and your product or service. Saying, "We use digital video
cameras" is a feature. (It's a 'what it is.')
Benefits are the specific results that your product or service offers to your clients and
prospects. (It's a 'what it does.')
Saying, "You can rest assured that you'll have a permanent record of all the sights and
sounds of your wedding day - in true-to-life color and sparkling clarity that will
NEVER fade away - a legacy to pass down to your children and their children and their
children's children's children!" is a benefit.
(Sorry about that last part. I always enjoy saying "children's children's children.")
Features count, of course! When I'm buying a piano, I want to know that it has a full set
of 88 keys, that those keys are weighted and they're velocity sensitive, that the whole
shebang weighs under 60 pounds… but what I really want -above all else -is an
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instrument that sounds terrific on-stage. Only after I'm convinced of that do the
features start to matter.
Anyway…a couple weeks ago, I put up an audio called "10 Steps To Marketing
Success." Remember listening to that one? Do you recall the third step? Very good!
If you printed out the little pocket reminder card, look it up right now! Step three, you
must be client-centered. Now…keeping that thought in mind, just take a closer look at
the stuff you get in the mail.
Most marketing materials are self-centered monologues instead of benefit-laden
dialogues. Or worse, they're just plain boring! And they fail. Why? Because they don't
immediately address the buyers' self interests, which are critical questions like ---
what's in it for me? or So what? or Who cares?
You have to remember that people don't buy things.
They buy results --results like happiness, making and saving money, popularity,
wisdom, saving time, comfort, praise, safety, security, recognition and easier ways to do
things.
While technology is changing our lifestyles, our basic needs and wants have remained
the same for millions of years. So you've got to be sure that all of your marketing
materials include benefit payoffs that tell your prospects immediately how you can
help them be popular, be comfortable, be admired, avoid problems, make their life
easier, gain power and status, gain wisdom, avoid criticism and exploit opportunities.
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NEVER assume that people can translate your features into benefits; you must always
do this for them!
At this point, you should have figured out that the old platitude about marketing being
"finding a need and filling it" is not specific enough to do you much good. Nope!
You've got to find WANTS and fill them!
Look at it this way. Most of us have enough of the basics - food, shelter, clothing and
transportation. We don't NEED much more. But! We WANT more, don't we? We
really need food as basic sustenance - but we WANT diet foods, gourmet foods, fast
foods, Mexican and Chinese and Italian foods.
We probably don't NEED a six bedroom, four-bath home...but we may WANT one!
We probably don't NEED a new car, but we may WANT a new Mercedes or a BMW or
a vintage 'Vette.
You really don't NEED one of my DVDs but you might WANT to gain wisdom quickly
and conveniently. Get the picture?
People buy with their hearts…
You must remember that people buy with their hearts, and then rationalize their
decision with their heads. It's the old emotion versus logic thing, here. Which means
that when you're trying to sell, remember you're solving a problem for your prospects
by giving them what they want (their desires), not what they need (required), and
they'll reward you big-time for it. How do you do this? Easy. You communicate the
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"payoff benefits" I just talked about.
Okay. What have we learned in this lesson?
There are two types of client prospects -Motivated Prospects who are ready to buy and
are just looking for a place to spend their money…and Unmotivated Prospects, who
need to be educated as to how you can help them. (They can be further split into
Undecided and Unaware.)
You reach these prospects with "Client-Centered Marketing," making certain to
emphasize the benefits of doing business with you, rather than just the features of your
products and services.
It's not enough to simply find a need and fill it. You have to find WANTS, and then fill
them, for the best results!
To make sure you learn to stress the benefits of your products and services first; and
their features second, I've set up this simple challenge for you. It's a features and
benefits worksheet. On it, there's space for you to write down the features… and the
benefits… of each of your products and services!
I suggest you start with your most popular service or product, and work down the list
from there. Sure, if you're selling a widget, put down that it measures 4 inches by 3
inches by 5 and 5/16 inches in the feature column…but more importantly, write down
the benefit of that size - half the size of similar widgets, takes up very little room so you
can add extra components without crowding your widget rack.
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Maybe you use special 10-gauge woven silk thread when custom tailoring your clients'
shirts or dresses. That's a feature. The benefit is "hem stitching is invisible and
guaranteed never to unravel or fail." Put those two together and you have an
uncommonly strong sales message.
Get the idea?
Next time around - get ready to rope, ride and brand 'em.
-0-
mexico
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