Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Scientists agree: First impressions are crucial to sales success

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first impressions, initial impressions, more sales, get clients

First impressions count. And they count far more than most people know.

Alex is a web designer.

Think for a few moments about the mental picture you’ve just built of Alex.

With only a name and job title, you’ll have almost instantly started to think about how they look.

Perhaps, you’ll have pictured them dressed a certain way.

You may have decided they’re arty. Or maybe a bit of a geek.

Here’s the thing. Your first impression of Alex wasn’t based on who she really is.

It can’t possibly be!

Your impression was based on what your perception of a web designer is.

How to create high value, first impressions

Using Alex as an example, try thinking for a moment about the initial impression a prospective client or customer gets, when you describe yourself by your job title, industry or profession.

Remember to include the fact that some people, perhaps many, will have had a bad experience with one of your counterparts, before encountering you. This is an important factor to take into consideration.

If we want prospects to form a powerful first impression of us, based on the huge value we bring, we need to start by focusing on that value.

initial impressions, first impressions,

Here’s an example of what I’m referring to.

When Alex describes or introduces herself, she starts with something very like the following:

“I help companies attract high quality clients and sales, with websites that deliver consistently outstanding results”.

Alex is a former client of mine. So I know that her description works extremely well. You only have to consider how your impression of her radically changed, when you read it!

But that’s not all.

Something else happens

When you intentionally guide a prospect’s first impression, you also switch their perception of your service or product, from a cost to an investment.

  • Yes, on an intellectual level, most business owners know that there’s a difference between a cost and an investment.
  • But on an emotional level, many still regard the procurement of a new service or product as a cost. And sales are made based on emotions or feelings, way more than on logic.

By encouraging them to focus on the value you bring, it’s easy for them to firmly position you as an investment. This dramatically increases the likelihood of them hiring you or buying from you.

What about the science part?

Remember at the start where I mentioned how scientists have proven this?

Well, they have.

Well, they have. Back in 2014, scientific research confirmed that first impressions are so powerful even facts won’t change them. In other words, once they have formed their initial impression of you, positive or negative, that’s how they will regard you and value you… even when facts show them that their impression is wrong.

Let’s recap first impressions

  1. You set the foundation, upon which prospective clients or customers will form their first impression of you.
  2. If you start off by referring to yourself by your job title, industry or profession, you’ll create potentially damaging preconceptions.
  3. By intentionally starting off your conversations, presentations and marketing messages with the value you bring, you position yourself far more attractively to prospects.
  4. You also switch the perception of your services or products, from costs to investments.
  5. This all combines to dramatically improve your results.

In short, people will form their first impression of you, regardless. It’s your job to make certain that your marketing and sales presentations / demos form the right impression. An impression that builds trust and value. An impression that makes buying from you or hiring you the obvious choice.

Marketing 101: Styles make sales

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styles make sales, selling style, marketing

In today’s post, I’d like to share how a simple idea can help you develop a massively more effective way to sell your products or services.

Styles make sales

When I started out in sales and marketing, one of the first things I learned is that styles make sales. It works something like this.

Certain salespeople have a style of selling that is very effective with certain prospective customers. Conversely, if a salesperson’s style is at odds with a prospective customer’s buying style, the salesperson is less likely to get the sale.

In the companies I worked for back then, there were large and diverse sales-forces. A sales manager would look at the data they had on a prospect, then try and match our styles to the prospect’s profile.

I know you’ve spotted the challenge here.

As a small business owner, you don’t have that same abundance of salespeople to mix and match to the prospect’s buying style.

Sometimes the salesperson is you.

This begs the question: How do you sell effectively to prospective clients or customers, who have a buying style that’s different to your sales style?

The answer is to align as closely as you can with what motivates them.

How?

Develop your own ‘styles make sales’ model!

Here’s a quick look at how to get yourself started.

Before you begin your pitch or presentation, spend a little while asking the prospective customer a few informal, pre-prepared questions that require useful answers.

For example, you could ask questions, where the replies will indicate whether they are more (or less) influenced by facts, figures and graphs… than by stories, feelings and pictures. Then, match your presentation style to their preference.

As your presentation continues, look and listen for other signals from the prospect, which indicate that you’re on (or off) the right track.

Ultimately, you’ll need to create several easy to answer questions, which uncover your prospect’s buying style. You’ll also need to park the idea of a one-size-fits-all approach to sales, if that’s what you currently use. Spend the time required to get this right. It’s worth it.

What’s the pay-off?

It’s huge.

If you get it right you’ll enjoy the rewards of having a fluid presentation model, which matches the motivation your prospects need, in order to buy from you.

Just think what that would do to your sales figures, my friend.

Training your customers to spend less and leave you?

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special offer marketing, special offers, discount offers

If you run special offers at predictable times throughout the year, you need to be aware of the full cost.

It’s always more than the 20% or whatever your discount is.

That’s because there are two types of loss when you discount a price or fee… not one. And the second loss, which most business owners are totally unaware of, can lose you and your business an absolute fortune.

The first loss you probably know

By discounting at predictable times, you train your customers or clients to wait. So that’s what they do. They hold off making the purchase they would have made at full retail, for the special offer they know you’ll run. In these cases, you only lose 20% on every purchase that customer makes of that predictably-discounted product.

You already knew that.

The second loss is much bigger

This doesn’t happen as often, but you take a huge loss every time it happens.

While waiting for your next special offer time to come around, some who would have purchased at full retail, won’t purchase from you now. Or ever again!

Here’s the scenario.

Rather than wait until your next special offer, they get tired of waiting and decide to buy elsewhere.

Why not buy from you at full retail?

Because you trained them not to. You’ve trained them that they’d be losing out if they buy from you now. That’s an extremely painful purchase for them to make, knowing they’re losing money. And many of them won’t make it.

So, they buy from one of your competitors instead.

That deal from your competitor may not be as good as your special offer, but your former customer can have it now. AND without all that pain. Assuming your competitor looks after them, they stand a great chance of retaining your former customer indefinitely.

The kicker?

Very few businesses that have this problem even know it’s happening to them. The overall cost to their business is the lifetime value of every customer they lose this way. And the business owner just assumes the customer left for some random reason.

There is a space in marketing for special offers or discounts. Major companies do it well, smaller businesses almost always make a mess of it and unknowingly lose a fortune right across the board; short-term, medium-term and long-term.

A couple of things to consider

Ideally, don’t discount anything. The only exception here, is if you’re looking to sell time-sensitive inventory that’s going out of date, or inventory items that are depreciating in value.

If you want to increase the number of sales you make or the number of new clients you attract, don’t lower the price or fee. Instead, increase the value of whatever you’re providing. Then increase the effectiveness of your marketing, until it’s utterly irresistible.

A value-packed product or service, with irresistible marketing will sell outstandingly well all year long. No special offers required.

Your sales figures. Going up!

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elevator pitch

Did you know that you can increase your sales in multiple ways, by using a great elevator pitch? Well, you can. It will work for you online and face-to-face. It will open doors for you and help you get noticed. It will help you be remembered by prospective clients or customers, too.

Here’s how you and your business can benefit mightily from this powerful, often misunderstood marketing tool.

It’s not actually a pitch

There are lots of variations, but a common definition of an elevator pitch will go something like this.

A sales pitch that can be delivered in a short period of time [the time it takes to ride an elevator].

That is incorrect. It’s a narrow, literal interpretation of what an elevator pitch is. You are never going to sell anything of value to a stranger in 20-30 seconds. What you absolutely can do, is give a compelling introduction to someone, which will motivate them to want to know more.

In other words, an elevator pitch is a pre-pitch. It’s a short, well-crafted message that inspires the person(s) listening to become interested. Interested enough to give you more time, where you can actually pitch your service or products.

Why you need an elevator pitch

Here are the core business benefits of having a short, well-crafted sales message.

You’ll create a great first impression, fast

When you connect with a prospective client for the first time, you need to be able to make a positive impact quickly. This is true whether it’s face-to-face or online. A motivating elevator pitch will allow you to do exactly that. People are busy and your pitch will ensure they hear what they need to know, with clarity and without delay.

Preparation

It takes time to develop a great elevator pitch. By the time you have it down, you’ll know it by heart. And because it’s a short message, it’s also an easy message to remember. That means it will stick. It also means that whenever you’re in a situation, where someone asks you about your business, you’ll have the perfect answer to hand.

And that’s not all. The feeling of being prepared and knowing you have a powerful message to share, boosts your confidence. And that confidence is then transmitted to whoever is listening, which makes your message vastly more compelling.

How to write your elevator pitch

I strongly recommend you don’t write one from scratch by yourself. Instead, find a free one from a credible source online and refine it, so that it’s directly relevant to you, your services or products. There are hundreds of free examples and templates for you to choose from via your search engine of choice.

Why refine an expertly written elevator pitch, rather than write your own? The toughest form of written marketing is what’s known as writing short. Even professional copywriters struggle with writing short. That’s because you have very few words and every one of them needs to count. You’re trying to motivate, educate and leave a powerful first impression, within those tight confines.

If at all possible, find an industry-specific example to refine. That’s because a different approach is required for every industry. Here’s what I mean. The pitch used by a family law firm will need to be different from that of an oven-cleaning franchise. The pitch used by that oven-cleaning franchise will need to be different from that of a private school.

It’s reasonably easy to create an effective elevator pitch and the benefits massively outweigh the time it will take you. Start with a good quality example or template to work from and you’ll be good to go in no time.

Assess. Improve. Execute

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Assess Improve Execute

Today, I’m going to share a strategy with you that helped me increase a client’s sales by just over 180% in 5 months. It’s achieved even better results than that with other clients.

It can be summed up in just 3 words: Assess. Improve. Execute.

Here’s how it works.

Assess

The first step to boosting your sales results is to assess your current situation. I spent some time digging into my client’s sales and marketing process and identified her company’s primary problem. It wasn’t the quality of their sales team. It turned out they offered a superb product and when people saw it, they absolutely loved it. The problem was that they were getting too few chances to demo their product. This means I needed to radically increase the number of high-quality sales leads they attracted.

Think about it: Even without improving your conversion rate, you will double your sales figures by doubling the number of targeted prospects you speak with.

Once we identified the root of her problem, it was time to improve things and free my client to dramatically increase her company’s sales results.

Improve

There were a number of areas in my client’s marketing that were under-performing. This is why she wasn’t generating the volume of high-quality enquiries she needed. She knew her marketing wasn’t working the way she needed it to. But like many business owners, my client assumed the enquiries they attracted were about average in number and quality. She was wrong on both fronts. A common mistake, which had been needlessly losing the company a fortune.

By making a small number of essential improvements at the very beginning, we were able to considerably improve her company’s results. And fast. Really fast.

I remember the easiest adjustment I made, was to improve the focus of their sales message. It had previously focused on what their business did, how great their product was and how amazing their team was. It’s a common mistake.

If your marketing has a similar focus, it’s a bad, bad idea!

And here’s why.

No one buys a service or a product. They buy the result.

  • You don’t buy exercise equipment. You buy looking good and feeling great.
  • So, sell the result of investing in your product.

Anyhow, we then dug a little deeper and uncovered a series of similarly untapped, windfall opportunities.

One of them was for me to transform their website into a lead generating machine, by improving their marketing copy. I needed it to make prospects on their site feel massively more curious.

Curious?

Assess. Improve. Execute

Why curious, Jim?

Think about it. Every client / customer enquiry you have ever had, or will ever receive, only happened because the other person needed to know something. So, if you want your marketing to attract massively more leads, it needs to create more curiosity… and answer fewer questions.

Previously, their website tried to answer as many questions as possible. I rewrote their marketing and made sure it provided just enough information.

Just enough information to inform the prospect and ignite their curiosity.

Just enough information to compel, to motivate and to inspire eager prospects to contact them with a high-quality client lead.

We wrapped these ideas into a plan, along with half a dozen other tactical improvements. Now we were good to go!

Execute

Oh man! Without doubt, this is the stage that excites me most. This is why I do what I do.

It’s where we execute on the new marketing strategy and measure the feedback. There’s something wonderful about the energy I get from clients, as they see their business performing the way they always wanted it too. And often far, far better.

Assess. Improve. Execute. Focus like a laser on those 3 steps and watch your business grow.

Move your customers from something, to something

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Today, I’d like to share a very powerful marketing strategy with you, which few, if any, of your competitors are aware of.

marketing, usp, different

As you know, every business provides a product or a service. And that product or service solves a problem for the customer. In order to solve their problem, it needs to create a change. To move them from (something) to (something).

For example.

  • From broke to wealthy.

  • From discomfort to comfort.

  • From bored to entertained.

  • From confused to clear.

  • From worried to confident.

  • From struggling to succeeding.

  • From vulnerable to safe.

  • From lonely to connected.

  • From loss to gain.

  • From ignorant to informed.

  • From stressed to relaxed.

  • From lost to guided.

Here’s the part very, very few business owners get right.

You need to figure out the change your prospective customers are looking for. Their ‘from what’ and their ‘to what’.

Warning: The biggest danger here is believing the answer is obvious.

It almost never is

Seriously.

For instance, NO successful coffee shop focuses on changing you from thirsty to quenched. None of them.

They change you by creating an attractive atmosphere. An atmosphere, where you can go from stressed to relaxed, or from tired to restored, or from lonely to connected, from stuck to creative or from bored to entertained.

The world’s top coffee shops know this. It’s what their marketing focuses on. It’s why we see very little emphasis placed on the coffee beans used, yet huge emphasis placed on the welcoming, positive atmosphere.

The improvement this shift in your focus will make is almost impossible to overstate.

Here’s another example.

The world’s most expensive restaurants don’t focus on taking you from hungry to full. You can go down the street and get the same number of calories from a burger joint for pennies. Instead, these restaurants focus on their exclusivity. They take you (and your guest) from feeling normal to feeling like a star.

How this relates to your product or service

Determine what change or changes your prospective customer is truly looking for.

Focus on the ‘from what’ part. Your marketing message needs to meet them right there. It needs to talk to their current situation. It needs to address the discomfort they’re feeling. This means your message will be on the very same wavelength that they’re on. This dramatically and profoundly increases the sales impact of your marketing

Then focus on the ‘to what’ part. Your marketing needs to illustrate how your product or service transitions them to their end point. To the very thing they desire.

This marketing strategy is designed to directly address the wants (or needs) of your prospects and position your products or services as the answer. Almost no small business does this and amazingly few medium-sized businesses.

I strongly recommend you consider adding this strategy to your 2023 marketing plans.