Build Tremendous Value Into Your Offers
In order to (figuratively) grab your prospects and make them listen to what you have to say, it's critical for you to understand and remember what they want the most: value and benefits. That's basically it, at least at first. They don't care about your company or you, much less your products or services, except insofar as those things give them what they hunger for. If the benefits of what you offer make it worthwhile to them, they'll happily give you their money in exchange.
Remember: it's always about what the customer wants. Not what you want or think they should want, but what they really want; and not necessarily what they need, either, because all we truly need as human beings comprises a very short list: food, water, shelter, companionship, and a little medical care.
Our desires are what truly drive us. Most humans are selfish people, even when we're trying to do good things. It's even selfish to give people gifts sometimes, because you feel good when you do it. I'm not a big believer in true altruism; I think we mostly do good things because they make us feel good. Fortunately a lot of people, including some super-rich individuals, feel good supporting charities -- and God bless them for that. Even if they do it so someone will name a hospital after them, it's all to the good.
As business people, we're here to serve our customers, and so we should constantly be looking for ways to qualify them and get them interested in what we have to sell. We can't do that by talking about our products and services in a mundane way. We must try to make them exciting, to give the prospects a reason to buy. For example, professional dentists (the smart ones!) will sometimes include something like this in their advertising copy: "Win friends and influence people with your new smile!" They'll tell you why your smile is an important part of you; and as a result, some people will start thinking about their twisted or missing teeth and say, "I really should do something about those, because I'd like to be able to smile more and have more friends."
My mentor once wrote an ad for a chiropractor that began, "I'll make your pain go away." He then went on to talk about different kinds of pain: leg pain, back pain, arm pain, arthritic pain, and pain from old injuries. He went into depth about them, with the idea of agitating the readers. They're already in pain, and now they're reconsidering all their different pains and saying, "I'd better go see this chiropractor. She wants to make my pain go away." That's a powerful message.
Or take the flower shop advertisement he also did. The central message was, "Wives and girlfriends love roses. Happy wives and happy girlfriends make your life so much better." Now, that really hits a guy over the head. There's a picture of a woman kissing a man on the cheek, looking sensual, and it gives him the impression of, "Hey, all you have to do is stop at our flower shop, get a dozen roses -- and experience great things as a result."
Regardless of what products or services you offer, you have to deeply consider how you're going to get people excited about them, and give them good reasons why they should. People know they need certain things, but you need to hit them with their wants; and when you do that well, great things do happen. So remember: as you build tremendous value into your offer, don't forget that part of that value is based on a prospect's deepest wants -- and out of those wants comes his purchase.
Channel their natural tendency to think of themselves first. Think deeply about what you're trying to do as you put together your next offer to increase your online or direct mail sales, or to get people into your store. Look at your goals in light of what your customers want, and do your best to bring those together -- but always make sure the prospect's wants and needs come out on top. Deliver them the benefits or solutions they're seeking. By and large, people only care about what's in it for them -- what they can get out of the situation now.
The only power you have in your marketplace is what you can do for the people you serve. That's it; there is nothing else. A benefit is the emotional end result of whatever it is you're offering. So ask yourself: what are they really searching for? Why do they buy what you sell? In a general sense, what people are looking for is the most benefit they can possibly get for the least amount of money. That's why you have to build tremendous value into everything that you're offering. You have to spend a lot of time thinking about who your customers are and what they're searching for, getting inside their heads and hearts in almost the same way a psychiatrist does with his patients.
So get to know your target market at an intimate, emotional level. In some ways, you have to understand them more than they understand themselves. That requires constant thinking and an awareness of why they want the kind of things you sell, which requires you to go beyond and beneath the superficial.
Remember: it's always about what the customer wants. Not what you want or think they should want, but what they really want; and not necessarily what they need, either, because all we truly need as human beings comprises a very short list: food, water, shelter, companionship, and a little medical care.
Our desires are what truly drive us. Most humans are selfish people, even when we're trying to do good things. It's even selfish to give people gifts sometimes, because you feel good when you do it. I'm not a big believer in true altruism; I think we mostly do good things because they make us feel good. Fortunately a lot of people, including some super-rich individuals, feel good supporting charities -- and God bless them for that. Even if they do it so someone will name a hospital after them, it's all to the good.
As business people, we're here to serve our customers, and so we should constantly be looking for ways to qualify them and get them interested in what we have to sell. We can't do that by talking about our products and services in a mundane way. We must try to make them exciting, to give the prospects a reason to buy. For example, professional dentists (the smart ones!) will sometimes include something like this in their advertising copy: "Win friends and influence people with your new smile!" They'll tell you why your smile is an important part of you; and as a result, some people will start thinking about their twisted or missing teeth and say, "I really should do something about those, because I'd like to be able to smile more and have more friends."
My mentor once wrote an ad for a chiropractor that began, "I'll make your pain go away." He then went on to talk about different kinds of pain: leg pain, back pain, arm pain, arthritic pain, and pain from old injuries. He went into depth about them, with the idea of agitating the readers. They're already in pain, and now they're reconsidering all their different pains and saying, "I'd better go see this chiropractor. She wants to make my pain go away." That's a powerful message.
Or take the flower shop advertisement he also did. The central message was, "Wives and girlfriends love roses. Happy wives and happy girlfriends make your life so much better." Now, that really hits a guy over the head. There's a picture of a woman kissing a man on the cheek, looking sensual, and it gives him the impression of, "Hey, all you have to do is stop at our flower shop, get a dozen roses -- and experience great things as a result."
Regardless of what products or services you offer, you have to deeply consider how you're going to get people excited about them, and give them good reasons why they should. People know they need certain things, but you need to hit them with their wants; and when you do that well, great things do happen. So remember: as you build tremendous value into your offer, don't forget that part of that value is based on a prospect's deepest wants -- and out of those wants comes his purchase.
Channel their natural tendency to think of themselves first. Think deeply about what you're trying to do as you put together your next offer to increase your online or direct mail sales, or to get people into your store. Look at your goals in light of what your customers want, and do your best to bring those together -- but always make sure the prospect's wants and needs come out on top. Deliver them the benefits or solutions they're seeking. By and large, people only care about what's in it for them -- what they can get out of the situation now.
The only power you have in your marketplace is what you can do for the people you serve. That's it; there is nothing else. A benefit is the emotional end result of whatever it is you're offering. So ask yourself: what are they really searching for? Why do they buy what you sell? In a general sense, what people are looking for is the most benefit they can possibly get for the least amount of money. That's why you have to build tremendous value into everything that you're offering. You have to spend a lot of time thinking about who your customers are and what they're searching for, getting inside their heads and hearts in almost the same way a psychiatrist does with his patients.
So get to know your target market at an intimate, emotional level. In some ways, you have to understand them more than they understand themselves. That requires constant thinking and an awareness of why they want the kind of things you sell, which requires you to go beyond and beneath the superficial.
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