The Attractiveness of Your Offer is the KEY – Not the MEDIUM!
By Damien Parker | February 3, 2015
This 64-year-old business warrior was fortunate to experience some success in the old world of business and marketing – the days of direct mail, telemarketing and belly-to-belly selling!
And now after a period of seven years in retirement, swanning around the world and exhausting the bucket list, I have come to the firm conclusion that retirement can certainly wait for a later time. I used to love what I did and I wanted more of it to stimulate the mind and re-create that intangible endorphin hit called “achievement”.
Side point: don’t retire too early! If you love what you are doing, scale back on your time commitment, but make sure you always have a sense of purpose and destination.
My “road to Damascus” conversion came whilst we were living in London in the early part of 2014. My wife, probably picking up on my moodiness, made the prophetic statement, “Damien, I married you for life, but not for lunch every day, why don’t you go back and do what you love doing?”
So I have and to my horror, the world of business and particularly marketing has changed.
Everywhere I turn everyone is spruiking “Web, Web, Web”, then they throw in vogue expressions like “social media, content marketing, optimisation, SEO” and a slew of words that didn’t exist 10 years ago. This new breed of marketing gurus would have one think that “website marketing” is a singularly, separate technology which will solve all business problems.
As powerful and extensive as the Internet might be, it is just a “medium” as are direct mail, telemarketing, newspapers, radio, television, magazines and a whole raft of other marketing “mediums”. This certainly suits my definition of marketing which is, when stripped of all of the academic waffle, simply this:
Marketing is anything, anything which delivers a qualified lead to your place of business.
But, and here is a key point, marketing will not result in a sale if the offer is unattractive, overpriced or poorly presented. More on this in a minute.
So to all of the pony-tailed, café latte swilling “SEO geeks” out there I say this: Beating the Google algorithm might be your passion and reason for being…but what the website owner really wants is a consistent stream of qualified prospects.
“I concentrate on traffic, what’s your definition of a qualified prospect?” one of these guys pitching for my business asked me whilst sipping his double tall, double pump, vanilla skim, caramel macchiato.
Now, given that I am a commercial animal and not a registered charity or social feel-good fellow, I have strongly held beliefs here, forged on bitter experience of pandering to the whims of too many tyre-kickers in my early career years. These days I don’t have time to waste and I view marketing dollars as an investment on which I want a decent return.
To Mr Caramel Macchiato I said: “The basics of business haven’t changed in tens of thousands of years. A qualified prospect has a pulse, a purse with permission to spend and a healthy interest in what you are offering. Preferably, they also have an intense need for it NOW, but if they don’t, I can work with them till they are ready. I’m really not interested in any other traffic.”
Mr CM then asked, “and how do you qualify them to that extent?” to which I responded “qualifying has always been an important part of selling and related to a website it means powerful copy which leaves the reader in no doubt as to whether this offer/site is for them. Allow the unqualified ones to de-select themselves.”
I, and my beliefs on my intended website weren’t really synching with my SEO “double-pumper” who, on a caffeine high, asked how I knew my prospect wanted what I had on offer.
“I don’t in the early stages” I responded “but it is my specific duty to make my product/service presentation as attractive as is possible and to answer the key questions every prospect asks of themselves when looking at a possible acquisition, no matter what the product or service.”
“And they are?” was the predictable follow up question.
Enter stage right for another hobby-horse of mine…that of keeping things simple and in relation to the sales process, I am a firm believer that all potential buyers want answers to these questions:
- What are you offering me?
- Why is it better than anything else in the marketplace?
- Why is it better than me doing nothing at all?
- Why should I act now?
Naturally, the website should answer these questions prominently and clearly, for the attractiveness of the message is what will ultimately deliver the sale. And hey, in business, nothing happens until we make a sale!
Final Comment: I’m excited by the potential of the web and all of the technological advancements, but the basics of business will always be just that – ignore them at your peril.
Here’s to more sales, profits and cash from your business,
Damien Parker
Business Improvement Specialist
www.salesprofitscash.com
Follow my Tweets: @salesprofitcash
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