Persuasion

Standing Out From The Crowd

While in New York recently I was struck by how competitive it was just to get noticed. In a thriving city of millions of people if you do not stand out from the crowd then you merge into the background. Small business owners need to put in place the right strategies to get themselves to STAND OUT!

Time Square is an amazing central hub in New York. The first thing you notice is all of the billboard advertising for Broadway plays. Each of them desperately trying to get your ATTENTION. The second thing you notice is all of the hustle that is going on. Hundreds of sprukers trying to sell you tickets to an endless supply of entertainment.

If you do not have an angle, something that makes you unique … something to make you STAND OUT from the crowd then guess what … you go largely unnoticed.

One person doing this extremely well is The Naked Cowboy. Take a look at the picture above … here is a street performer who has figured out one approach to standing out and stand out he did. The evidence was the constant crowds of people around him (mostly women). I would not want to be a street performer competing with this guy if I didn’t have some sort of angle for standing out.

So how does this relate to you and your small business?

Do you need to go to the lengths of the Naked Cowboy to stand out?

Right now we live in an age where it is easier than ever for people to start a small business in a whole range of categories. Chances are good that if you went back ten to twenty years you probably would not have even dreamed of starting a business … but today the barriers to entry are lower than ever.

This means one thing … whatever business you are in there is going to be more competition than ever before. You are not the only one doing what you do and competing for the dollars of your prospective client. Not only do you have competition right now but there is more coming … much more.

So you have to start thinking about how you are going to STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD!

Here are three strategies you can start to use immediately to make sure you stand out from everyone else in the same business that you are in:

1/ Unique Approach or System – One of the most effective strategies you can implement is to develop your Unique Approach or System for how you work with clients. Most small business owners market what they do as opposed to the system they use to help clients get results. What they do is the same as what everyone else competing with them does … so they merge into the background of the many.

Remember your clients are only interested in getting results which is a solution to their problem. If they see that you have a unique approach or a step-by-step system for getting the result they want, and that no one else has this, then they will naturally be attracted to you.

So if you are a personal trainer for instance you are perceived by your prospective clients to do pretty much what all personal trainers do. What if you created though the ‘Three Phase Fat Blast’ system? Now you would stand out because no one else would have this unique approach or system.

This is what I did with my business and it played a major role in my success. You see I could have marketed myself like all business coaches did and done okay. Instead I developed ‘The Attraction Marketing System’ … a unique approach to helping small business owners attract more clients. As a result my profile and ability to market myself and stand out from the crowd skyrocketed. All of a sudden my prospective clients could clearly see why they should do business with me as opposed to any and all other options.

So look at what you do and develop your unique approach or system.

2/ Don’t Think Like They Do – If you want to stand out from the crowd then you can not be like the crowd. So you need to seperate yourself from them. What I mean by this is that most small business owners tend to associate with all of their peers. So the life coach tends to form networks of other life coaches. They share ideas, talk about their business, and share philosophies on the life coaching business.

Now here is what happens … over time you start to model the people you associate with. So you see them applying a paritcular marketing strategy and next thing everyone is using the same strategy.

If you want to stand out from the crowd then you can not be one of the crowd.

You want to seek advice, and ideas on marketing from those outside your industry or business.

If you want to stand out from the crowd then you can not think like, act like or be like the crowd!

3/ Out Market Them – The last strategy that you can use to stand out from the crowd is to simply out market them. If you put in place the right marketing systems that gives you massive amounts of visibility amongst your tightly defined niche market then you will stand out.

Here is why … its highly likely that your competitors are not placing a high enough priority on their MARKETING.

If you focus on putting in place a highly effective marketing system into your business that drives thousands of new leads into your marketing funnel then before long you will own the market. This will make you stand out from the crowd because your prospective clients are attracted to success. They will be magnetised to you when they see enough social evidence that you are the person to go to.

Your marketing system needs to do three things … Attract leads, Convert Leads into Clients, and Increase the Value of Each Client.

I can almost guarantee you that 95% of your competitors do not have such a markeitng system in place in their business right now. When you implement such a system you will put yourself in a position where you will easily stand out.

The good news is you don’t need to get naked and stand in Time Square to get noticed and stand out. In fact you only need to do a few things well (all of them marketing focused) in order to gain the ATTENTION of your target market.

Popularity: 14% [?]

If you are in Small Business or are an Entrepreneur then you will want to join us for the worlds first ever “Mega Networking & Referral Event”. There has never been an event quite like this one.

At the event we are giving you 10 different opportunities for you to promote your business. You will have the chance to:

* Meet New Business Contacts
* Generate Referrals
* Identify & Establish New Joint Venture Partnerships
* Attract New Clients
* Plus … You will hear from leading Australian Business Growth Specialists

To place yourself on the Priority Notification List and be the first to hear all of the details when we officially launch head over to:

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Popularity: 98% [?]

I was having a conversation the other day with a prospective new coaching client who was complaining that she was not getting the results from her marketing efforts.

She said she was doing everything right but she was just not attracting enough new prospects into her Marketing Funnel. As I had spent a large amount of time in perfecting lead generation systems I immediately began to ask her a series of questions to identify the problem.

When I got to the question … ‘How Irresistible is your offer?’ I knew I had identified the problem.

Her answer … ‘What do you mean by that?’

Think about this from Joe Publics point of view. They are quitely going about their business when all of a sudden they become exposed to your marketing material. It seems to be offering them something but the message is unclear. In fact, Joe is not even sure if the message is meant for him or not. Regardless … Joe promptly igonres your marketing message as it does not really appeal to him or grab his attention anyway.

I explained to her that in order to make a prospective client have an overwhelming desire to want to give you their personal details to go on your database they have to find your offer IRRESISTIBLE!

So I asked her what offer she was making.

Her response was that she only offered her weekly newsletter. The question I have for you is this … How Irresistible does that sound? Does it make you want to give up your name and email address to get your hands on it?

Probably not right?

The key is to create an offer that is so Irresistible to your TARGET MARKET that they just have to get their hands on it. They must have a powerful DESIRE for the offer to say YES please add me to your database so I can have access to the offer you are making.

If you are doing this online using a lead capture page or squeeze page then you can tell how Irresistible your offer is … just look at your conversion ratio. A good conversion ratio for lead generation online is approximately 20% to 25%.

When you can achieve a result better than this then you know you have a powerful and irresistible offer that has strong appeal to your target market. Take a look at my Attraction Marketing Revealed site which is designed to create leads for us. Currently it is converting at around 41.7% … this is very high and is a good demonstration of what can happen when the offer is irresistible to a focused target market.

So how do you create Irresistible offers and dramatically improve your lead generation?

What can you do to make your lead generation efforts more ATTRACTIVE to the market place and achieve conversionrates like 41.7%?

Here are 7 ideas to consider to generate more leads:

1/ Target Market – You must FOCUS your lead generation on one target market. You can not market to a general market and expect to get results. Narrow your focus down to one very specific focus market. This way when they come across your marketing material it is easy for them to identify that it is meant for them.

2/ Identify Their PAIN – People are more motivated by their PAIN and how to get out of it than they are with the thought of gaining something. So you need to be able to clearly articulate their PAIN in your lead generation material.

3/ Offer A Solution – Along with identifying with their PAIN you must make it clear that you have the solution that they are looking for. You want them to identify you with the solution they seek.

4/ One Option – For more effective lead generation you need to have dedicated lead generation site that only allows visitors to do ONE thing … give them just ONE OPTION. Too many people provide a whole lot of options and as a result they confuse their market.

5/ Give First – Do not try and sell up front. You are much better off to giveaway something of VALUE first which talks about the solution to their problems. This way you will attract a lot more prospective clients into your database that you can sell to later. Besides … it will be easier to sell your service to them later once they have had a chance to get to know you, like you and trust you.

6/ Assign Value – Just because you are giving away something first does not mean it has no value. You want to assign a value to the information that you give away up front. If you look at our Attraction Marketing Revealed website you will see that we are giving away more than $497 worth of information upfront just to make it totally irrresistible to enter our database.

7/ Overwhelm Them – Provide more than what you promised. Give them so much information about solutions to their problems that they become overwhelmed by it. I have found from experience that the more you give away without expectation of return the more will flow back to you in the form of new clients.

When you have created a truly irresistible offer and follow the above 7 ideas you will find that your target market will be highly attracted to you. Your conversion ratio will go up and your database of prospective new clients will start to grow steadily.

So give some thought to making an offer that is so irresistible to your target market that they will say YES to being on your database and identify themselves as a prospective new client.

Popularity: 9% [?]

So what motivates us to make a positive buying decision?

This is a great question to ask and one that every small business owner must know the answer to. The motivational giant Tony Robbins tells us that we are motivated either by PAIN or PLEASURE. Of the two PAIN is more motivating.

So how can we apply this knowledge to marketing?

Well people are more motivated by the PAIN of their current situation than they are the potential PLEASURE of the future. So when marketing our products of services you can improve your success rate by focusing on the PAIN currently being experienced by your target market.

PAIN accounts for up to 80% of the motivation to make a buying decision. It is the PAIN of the current situation that gives us the compelling desire to change.

So you want to spend 80% of your marketing time and effort talking about their PAIN and 20% talking about their potential PLEASURE. The key of course is to link your product or service to the solution that will get them out of PAIN.

Popularity: 7% [?]

In recent times in line with the development of NLP there has been a lot of work in the area of influence and persuasion. The most significant studies were conducted Robert Cialdini, a Psychologist who wrote the book ‘Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion’.

From this recent research there are a number of laws of influence and persuasion, which have been proven through numerous studies to be highly effective. Lets consider some of these laws and how they may apply in your business.

1.Law of Consistency – The law of consistency is perhaps the single most important discovery in the research into influence and persuasion. It is redefining the sales process. The exciting news is that it works hand in hand with a lot of the ideas from NLP.

The law of consistency simply states that we have a deep unconscious need to remain consistent. So in other words we always try to remain consistent with our point of view, the things that we state to be true, or the actions and behaviour we engage in. Any time we are placed in a situation where we may violate this law we feel a strong internal pressure to return to a position of consistency.

For sales people and business owners this is possibly the most important concept they will ever integrate into their understanding of the sales process.

It is vital that we create an environment where our prospects are able to remain consistent with their views, the comments they make and their behaviour. Any time we place them in a position were they feel they are being inconsistent then we are building in them at an unconscious level pressure to return to being consistent. At the same time there levels of fear and uncertainty begin to rise.

Understanding the law of consistency is extremely powerful and can virtually eliminate the need to use closing techniques. If we lead our prospects into what is known as an agreement frame of mind and keep them there throughout our presentation then by the law of consistency they are far more likely to make a yes decision.

2.Law of Reciprocity – The law of reciprocity is where we feel a sense of indebtedness or obligation to someone else. When others do something for us we feel a strong need, even a push to return the favour.

In other words, if we go out of our way to help our clients solve their problems and we give of our time and expertise, then they begin to feel a strong sense of obligation and indebtedness to us.

Those sales people who are truly masters of their craft have learnt to focus on how to help their prospects first without coming across as a pushy sales person. They go the extra mile in making sure the client is fully aware of their situation and the possible solutions available to them.

When it comes time to make a decision on the right solution the prospect will be attracted more to the sales person they feel indebted to. This is especially useful when you are in a competitive environment or selling against competition. Because the average sales person will not go out of their way to help prospects you can easily use the law of reciprocity to your advantage.

3.Law of Social Proof – The law of social proof has broader implications in terms of the psychology of human behaviour. It can be very persuasive in selling certain products but should not necessarily be used in all cases.

The law of social proof simply states that people look to others, their peers friends and family, before making a decision about something. Have you ever been out to dinner with a big group of people and noticed that there is always one or two people who look at what everyone else is ordering before they order? Well that is social proof.

Social proof is seeking to gain social validation prior to making a buying decision. It can be extremely persuasive in selling to younger generations or in areas like fashion. If everyone starts wearing face-covering sunglasses then when you are out buying sunglasses again you are more likely to buy them as well.

As mentioned earlier, social proof is not relevant in every business situation. If you are selling complex customised high end IT solutions for instance then social proof is less relevant.

Social proof can be used in other ways though, which are important. The use of customer testimonials is a form of social proof. The more testimonials and satisfied customers you can demonstrate to your prospect the more they will feel comfortable about dealing with you. This is in effect social proof at work.

4.Law of Scarcity – The law of scarcity plays a large role in the persuasion process in our society. Opportunities and things are more valuable and exciting when they are scarce and less available to you.

Whenever choice is limited or threatened, the human need to maintain a share of the limited commodity makes us crave it even more. Scarcity drives people to action, making us act quickly for fear of missing out on an opportunity.

You see the law of scarcity at work at the Myer annual Christmas stock take sale when three thousand people all compete to get the plasma TV screen for $100.

The key is to learn how to create a sense of, or actual, scarcity around your product or service. You can do this through different pricing structures, limited offers, limit your service availability, release limited numbers of each product and so on.

5.Law of Contrast – The law of contrast is introducing two vastly different alternatives in succession. By contrasting two alternatives it can distort or amplify our perceptions of things. Generally, if the second item is quite different from the first, we will tend to see them even more differently than they actually are. As a master persuader you can use this contrast to steer your prospects toward the solution you believe is right for them.

One of the most effective ways to use the law of contrast is to present three possible solutions to your prospect. The first is a low cost cheap solution that does not meet all of the prospects requirements. The second solution is the ideal solution priced possibly higher than the prospect is expecting. The third solution is a high priced solution with excessive features that is well out of the price range of the prospect.

By presenting the three solutions the prospect will gravitate towards the second option presented, even though it is more expensive than they had expected. By contrast with the other two solutions it is more acceptable at the higher price.

Had the second solution been presented in isolation then it would not have been as attractive to the prospect, yet in the light of the other two options it is far more acceptable.

6.Law of Expectations – The law of expectations use expectations to influence reality and create results. Individuals tend to make decisions based on how others expect them to perform.

You can establish expectations in the mind of your prospect quite easily. As a result your prospects feel an unconscious need to live up to those expectations.

An example of this is the car salesperson that says to his prospect ‘you are going to love how this car handles around corners’. This plants the expectation in the mind of the prospect. They now focus on this aspect of the new car when test driving it.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Which is a more powerful motivator?

The fear of loss … or … the possibility of gain?

This is a really important question to ponder. It can impact all of your marketing materials.

Knowing which to include into your marketing materials (and when) is one of the keys to writing persuasive sales letters, motivating emails, and cash creating web sites.

Most people who do not understand the unconscious motivating triggers will usually not include either of these which is a mistake.

So which is the more powerful motivator?

According to persuasion expert, and author of the book ‘The Science Of Influence’ Kevin Hogan it is the fear of loss that is more motivating for people.

Kevin says …

‘Fear of loss is a much greater motivator to most than the possibility of gain’.

I think it is important to note though that the possibility of gain is also a powerful motivator to many people.

The key is to build both into your sales letters and websites.

With the fear of loss you want to create a sense of urgency. You can do this by limiting the supply of your product or service. Get creative with this and think about ways that you really can restrict the supply of what you are offereing.

This creates a fear of loss in the reader.

Careful though … it has to be genuine … you can’t create the impression that you are going to limit the supply of your product or service if you clearly are not going to do that.

Make sure you also use the possibility of gain in your sales letters.

This can be as simple as mentally taking your reader into the future and asking them to imagine how great life will be when they are using your product or service.

As an example …

Imagine how different your business will be when we work together to set up the right marketing system for your business and attract a steady stream of new clients to you.

This is a great example of the possibility of gain.

Challenge is … I can only work with 10 clients at any one time ( I have a couple of openings right now) … this is the fear of loss.

If you want the opportunity to take up one of these openings then click here.

You need a balance of both the fear of loss and the posibility of gain in all of your marketing materials. Learning how to use these powerful motivators in an elegant way takes time, trial and error and refinement.

Go back over all of your marketing materials and look for opportunities to build in the fear of loss and the possibility of gain.

You will see improved results when you do.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Have you ever wondered …

I am sure you have. Its an interesting thing to ponder.

What is it exactly that moves prospective clients to become paying clients for your service? If you could answer that question … if you knew specifically what it is that persuades your prospects to say yes to your service then you could double or triple your number of clients.

Its mostly unconscious …

If you were to ask most of your clients what was the trigger that motivated them to finally say yes to you … most of them would struggle to articulate it.

In this weeks Profit Minute Radio program we are going to talk about those unconscious triggers. You will want to listen in … it could help you to massively increase the number of clients you have.

Full details are here:

http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/profitminute

Popularity: 13% [?]

SOLD!!!!

That’s right … your clients (and prospective clients) hate to be sold. They don’t like to be interrupted by telemarketers at home in the evening, they record TV onto their digital drives and skip the ads when they watch it when it suits them, they are guarded and skeptical of anything you have to say about your products or service (no matter how good they are) and they haven’t got time to review your website, marketing collateral or follow up emails.

They hate to be sold …. BUT … and this is interesting … they still LOVE to BUY!

Think about it … aren’t you like this?

If someone is trying to sell you something and you don’t really need or want it what is your natural reaction? Most of us want to turn and run, right? We hear the voice of our parents from when we are young telling us not to sign anything etc etc.

Contrast this when you have a need or desire for something.

If you have a particular need for some service in your business then what do you do today?

Yes … you probably Google it.

You do some research … you click and flick. That is where you click on the web sites that come up in your search and make a 30 second assessment if you believe that site has what you are looking for and then you give it the flick if it does not.

When you come across that one site that appears to have the right solution to your needs you maybe make contact or research some more.

The point is … today when we have a need or desire we research for a specific solution and are happy to make contact when we believe we find it … and are more than happy to make a positive purchasing decision ie we love to buy.

So how does this apply to your business?

Well if you are still using interruption marketing today and trying to sell your products or services to people who don’t want them then … well good luck for the future! The web is changing everything.

The key to marketing your business in the future is to position yourself as an expert service provider in a specialised niche and gain visibility within that niche.

When your prospective clients go searching for your solution you need to show up.

When they land on your web site you have 30 seconds … the strategy behind your web site will determine if you have any chance of building a relationship in those 30 seconds or not.

You will need to ensure your total marketing strategy facilitates the purchasing process that they buyer wants to follow.

Your marketing strategy needs to make it easy for your prospective clients to say yes to you.

Does your marketing strategy do this …. find out here?

Popularity: 17% [?]

Is your marketing getting you the RESULTS you are looking for … or would you like more clients right now?

Does the thought of having to market your business and you send shivers down your spine?

Most small business owners are not entirely comfortable with having to get out there and win new business. So they run a few ads (which typically do poorly), go to a few networking events, tinker with their website and hope that someone refers them on.

This is not a strategy for SUCCESS which may explain why many small businesses do not reach their full potential.

So why is it that we don’t like the sales & marketing process?

Continued

Popularity: 12% [?]