For those of you who are regular readers of my monthly column, you know I always seek out the very best educators and progressive thought-leaders to share their wisdom in my column. This month is no different. I recently read the column below in the Monument Builders of North America MB News Magazine and knew immediately I had to obtain permission from the author to share it with you. Larry Mersereau is a professional speaker and the author of four books on small business sales and marketing. For more information on Larry’s keynote and workshop programs visit his web site: http://promopower.com His books are available at Amazon.com, or at better bookstores.
In my opinion, Larry is spot on with his advice. Please do me a favor and e-mail Larry to let him know your thoughts!
Stand Out!
By Larry Mersereau
Larry Mersereau
Everyone in your market is a total stranger until they discover you.
They can discover you either of two ways: Either they somehow stumble across you…maybe by driving past your facility or seeing your vehicles on the street, or you go out and find them and make your presence known.
Which do you think is preferable?
In the former, they are left to formulate their own impression of your business. If your lot is overgrown with weeds or your vehicle cut them off in traffic, the impression isn’t going to be a good one.
In the latter, you get to help them formulate the impression that you want them to have. Through business development activity, you can educate your public about what you do, why it’s important to them, and why you are the only business they should consider getting it from.
Just getting them to recognize your name is the first rung on your “brand ladder.” Marketing experts say it takes seven exposures just to get people to recognize your name. (They call it “the rule of seven.”) The next step is awareness. That means they can recall your name from memory if asked to list everyone they can think of that sells what you sell.
That brings up the other rule of seven: People can only recall up to seven items in any one category. Try this: Write down the names of all of the brands of washing machines you can think of. If you came up with seven, you’re exceptional. Most people come up with two, three, maybe four. That means that if you’re not one of the first two or three names that come to mind when your prospect is ready to buy, you’re not even in the game. They will call one of those first names first. If they do their job, they’ll get the sale.
So, you spend a lot of money, time and/or energy to get to the “recognition” rung on the brand ladder. You spend still more to get to the “awareness” step. If you were the one the prospect called when they were ready to start looking, you got them to the “acceptance” step. They’ve accepted you as a supplier worthy of consideration.
If you get them up to the “preference” step, they have decided you are the one they are going to buy from. Look back at all of the steps, all of the money and work it took to get the prospect to that first sale. You’ve made a huge investment to get that first sale.
It’s important to keep moving them up the brand ladder after that first sale. Having spent the money to get the first sale, you would be foolish to just say “thank you” and drop the ball.
Then next step up the ladder is “loyalty.” Loyalty means that you will be the first choice for them and for family members who buy in the future. Do you think it happens automatically because they had a good experience with you the first time they bought? Don’t count on it. Remember that all of your competitors are still trying to get your customer’s business. But you have an unfair advantage: They’ve bought from you. They’ve had a good experience with you. And if you played your cards right, you learned a lot about them and their needs.
In that first actual sales conversation, you asked lots of questions about how they would be using your product, who would be operating it, what it will accomplish for them…and much more. You know about their budget and spending habits. Now all future contacts can be tuned in to them specifically. You’ll mail personally-addressed offers that talk about things that are important to them. In short, you’ll be communicating one-on-one with someone you know well and who knows you. Your competition will still be talking in broad terms to the general public.
If you do it right, you move them to the top of the ladder: Insistence. They don’t even want to consider the other possible options, including just spreading ashes somewhere. Why should they? You know their needs and desires, and you’ve built your business and written your promotional copy just for them.
If you aren’t using the customer intelligence you gathered during that first sale to keep moving them up your brand ladder, you’re never going to get the kind of return on investment you deserve from your advertising and promotion. Take notes, put them into a well-designed database, and communicate with them by direct mail, email, and through Facebook. Engage them with programs like Billion Graves to keep in touch with future generations and to go for the next sale and the next.