A consumer behaviour study was completed in 1978 which indicated that the average North American was exposed to about 2,000 selling messages a day. That number seems overwhelming. The same group that completed the 1978 study updated their research in 2008 and found that number had grown to 5,000 selling messages a day!
As business owners/managers our job in to find and keep customers. That’s why our companies exist. But you can’t get a new customer if they don’t know you exist. So you need to let them know about you, and how do you do that? Traditionally you interrupted them. You purchase advertising of some kind or cold called and said “hello, we’re (insert company name), we specialize in (insert your specialty) and we can help you. Well guess what, there are 4,999 other companies doing the same thing to your potential customer everyday.
How many of those 5,000 messages, how many do you think your potential customer remembers, or even more important; acts on?
The answer is close to zero. How many billboards do you remember seeing on the way to work today? How many radio commercials?
A person only takes action to change something when what they’re currently using no longer works. So before someone will pay attention to you, they first have to be interested. They have to have a pain.
So this means you can’t talk about you. You can’t talk about your products or services either. Don’t talk about your customer satisfaction awards, your longevity, your market leadership or how much you spend on R&D. NO ONE CARES!!!
You need to talk about one thing. PAIN. The people in the marketplace that have that pain will pay attention to your message, everyone else will ignore it. As human beings we block out information that is not relevant to our current situation, but we let in what is. Here’s a test. Have you purchased a car recently? I bet that before you became interested in buying a new car you didn’t really notice anything about that car – from advertising to how many of them are on the road. But once you were interested you started seeing that car everywhere as well as their advertising. Your brain lets in what’s relevant and blocks out the rest.
This is main reason you need to market your company everyday, On any given day only a small percentage of the market will be interested in your message. Not to complicate things, but there are also two other factors at work: Urgency and Risk.
While someone may be interested in your message they will only take action if they have urgency. If they do have urgency, they still need to trust (RISK) that you can deliver.
So here is a simple formula for talking to potential customers:
1. Talk about their pain (Interest)
2. Identify the consequences of what the pain can lead to (Urgency)
3. Tell what happens when the pain is removed (no product pitch – talk results) (Urgency)
4. Let others tell how great you are (testimonials) (Risk)
5. Offer a no risk opportunity to learn more (Risk)
One last tip. Less is more. Keep your message simple and get to the point.
