How many potential clients are you turning off or losing each day?
Think of it. Every day you deliver marketing and sales messages to
clients and potential clients through your website, email, social media,
voice mail, presentations, advertising, signage, brochures and
marketing sheets (to name a few or nine!).
Sending your message is one thing. How it is received however, is
quite another thing. And when you fail to send the right message to the
right person, the right way, your message is not only getting lost, it’s
hitting you where it hurts the most – your bottom line.
Why? Because if potential clients are tuning out your message,
confused as to what you have to offer, or simply don’t care about what
you have to say, you’re missing out of lost sales and missed
opportunities.
Day after day, month after month, year after year, that can add up to
hundreds, thousands or millions of dollars in lost revenue. All because
people didn’t buy into your message.
Got your attention? Good, because nowadays, no one can afford to
leave money on the table. Trust me. It’s far better in your pocket!
How do you find out if your marketing or sales messages are helping
or hurting your business? Here’s a simple, but (dare I say!) obvious
way. If business is great and your sales and profits keep increasing,
then fantastic. Your message is hitting the mark. If on the other hand,
you’re not generating more leads for your business, increasing your
sales, or simply not getting potential customers to return your calls
(curious about what you have to offer), then it’s time to change your
message. It’s not working.
Change your message. Change your success.
If you keep on using the same marketing and sales messages, you’ll
keep on getting the same results you are getting now. Nothing is going
to change. But, if you change your message, you can change your success.
I know. I’ve spent 25 years in the marketing/advertising field,
crafting messages for a who’s who of who’s who. And the most important
thing I learned was this. When you create the right message, to the
right person, the right way, you create success. And people will
actually come to you, curious and interested in what you have to offer.
So, how do you send the right message to the right person the right
way? It’s really very simple. All you have to do is remember three
little things…
1. The right message is about your customer, not about you.
In the beginning when you are trying to land new customers, you must
remember that nobody cares about you, your product or your service
(well, except for your mom!). All people care about is how you can help
them. You can “blah, blah, blah” about your product or service all you
want, and people won’t give a hoot! They only care about how your
product or service will help them. Show them that and you’ve got their
interest.
2. The right person is the one you want listening.
Send the right message to your ideal customer who has a need or desire
for your product or service. You can’t be all things to all people. And
your market isn’t everyone. So, it’s incumbent upon you to get to know
your customers’ needs, wishes and wants. The more you know about your
customers, the easier it will be to craft your message to fit their
needs. And chances are you’ll see your next customer walking down the
street.
3. The right way is to make your value stand out amongst your competitors.
Whatever marketing and sales messages you create, don’t (I repeat
don’t!), be a “Me Too” company, and sound the same as everyone else.
You’ll lose any competitive value. Be different. Stand out. Get noticed.
Give your message a likeable personality. Be your loveable self. Have
fun with your messages. And people will gravitate to you, as they do
with any charming personality.
Got it? OK. Then, stop wasting time with marketing and sales messages
that don’t work. Make your messages matter. Because when you change
your message, you’ll change your success.
J Brett Abbey
Message Masters
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