I talked in an earlier post about the need to have “Something Good To Say” in your marketing and to be able to provide definite proof to your customers and prospects as to why they should choose you.

The above ad is one I did for a painting contractor client that eliminated all his competitors and let’s go through each element of this ad to see why it was so effective.

All the other competitive ads just had pictures of houses and painters and were full of platitudes like “free estimates” best quality” and so on.  No ads provided any reason as to why to choose that advertiser to to do your painting job.

We talked to customers and determined what the biggest concerns were and then innovated Rick’s business so he was demonstrably better than everyone else.

The Headline

It all starts with a headline to grab the reader’s attention and make them want to read more.  If you are looking for a painter, the “4 mistakes” headline will grab your attention and make you want to read more – that’s the headline’s only job.

The Sub-Head

Telling the reader that we will make sure you don’t make those mistakes keeps them engaged and wanting to know more.  That’s the subhead’s only job.  They can see the body copy of the ad has a numbered list addressing each of those issues.

Body Copy

The body copy addresses each of the customers “hot button concerns” individually and educates them as to how we will address each concern.

Point # 1 – deals with doing the job right and not mislead or trick you.  Most painting contractors are not members of the BBB – which assures the customer of an honest company and a dispute resolution system.

On top of that, very few painters are members of the PDCA trade association that specifies how the surface preparation and painting job itself is to be done to assure a quality result.

Out of the 477 painting contractors in the Denver only 10 contractors are members of both – my client is one of those 10.  We got rid of 467 competitors already!

Point # 2 – deals with a pet peeve of many homeowners who hire contractors – them showing up on time.  Many don’t even show up on the right day, much less the right time.

So how do we assure our customers we are different?  How about a $50 cash payment if we are more than 30 minutes late?  Absolutely nobody in the market would do that – we are now established as the best choice already – but we have more . . .

Point # 3 – How about painters who bait and switch and whose final bill is much higher than their bids?  We not only guarantee that will not happen but we also offer a 3 year quality guarantee and if an additional coat is needed we didn’t include in our bid, we will do it FREE!

Point # 4 – Another big complaint from customers – painters who leave trash and cigarette butts in the yard, play loud music or are rude to the homeowners or use crude language.  Our stated quality standards point out these things and assure the homeowner our painters will not do any of those things.

Point # 5 – Another outstanding benefit nobody else offers – how about a free interior decorator to advise the homeowner on paint colors and textures!  We got this done at no cost to the client either because the decorators were happy to do that for free in hopes of getting a more in depth consult.  A true win – win.

If you were looking to hire a painting contractor, would you choose anyone else?  Most people didn’t and this marketing campaign took a flat lined sales curve to double in just one year.

Call-To-Action – The forth component of any good ad is a call to action that captures the prospects information so we can market to them ongoingly if they are not ready to buy today.  The FREE Report with 15 point checklist to help a homeowner evaluate a contractor worked very well for that.

We also included the owners photo to build trust and the logos of the BBB and the PDCA.

Do you have a lot of competitors?  Need to differentiate yourself from them and become the obvious choice for your prospects?  Get in touch and let me explain how this process can help your business no matter what industry you are in.

Call or text me at 303-884-0859 or email joemcvoy@gmail.com

Most business owners don’t how to do effective marketing.

The purpose of this post is to outline this process in a simple way and show how we do this for our clients.  There are 5 steps.

1. Understand your Customer and their Needs

This means verifying your assumptions about your customer’s hot button needs by talking to actual customers.  You want to find out the most important things they want when buying what you sell.

For example, a home improvement contractor’s customers usually want these things: they want you to show up on time, they want you to charge what you promised, to do quality work, stand behind that work with a guarantee and keep their workplace clean and not leave trash all over.

What do your customers want?  Do you know?

2. Determine whether Innovation is necessary

How do you deliver on your customer’s needs?  Are you demonstrably better than your competitors or not? If you are just the same as everyone else you compete with, then you need to innovate the make yourself better.

This process of actually being better than your competitors is necessary so you will have something good to say in your marketing.  Marketing that just uses platitudes and says what everyone else says is a waste of money.

The key to effective marketing is to “Have something good to say”, “Say it well”, and “Say it often”.

Innovation can create that something good to say.

We have a systematic process that we use to help our clients do this so you do innovation on the issues that matter to your customers.

3.  Create your Strategic Marketing Plan

Strategy comes before tactics.  In marketing, this means developing what you say, how you say it and who you say it to.  You need to do this before creating any ads, web pages or marketing communications.

“What you say” means how you communicate your superior ability to deliver on your customers hot button needs (that you just developed by innovating as needed in the previous step).

“How you say it” is copywriting that needs to clearly and persuasively communicate why you are the best choice and . . .

“who you say it to” is your target market.

4.  Create your Tactical Marketing Plan

This has three sections – Lead Generators (include ads, landing pages, social media pages and ads, direct mail campaigns, lead magnets, referral programs, emails, etc) that bring prospects into your marketing funnel.

Marketing Tools (brochures, web sites, scripts, signage, audio content, video content, newsletters, white papers, reports, and more) further educate your prospects once they are in your funnel.  Then,

Follow-Up Systems (sequential follow up systems using email, direct mail, telemarketing, and any other multi-step follow up sequences).  Follow up sequences are intended to stay in touch with prospects by providing helpful and welcomed information over time so that when a prospect is ready to buy they will choose you.

All the components of your tactical plan educate the prospect as to how to buy what you sell and how to make the best decision for their needs whether it is you or not.

When you help people make the best decision for them, this builds goodwill and trust so that when the time comes to make a buying decision, you are the only logical choice.

5.  Create the Sales Plan

The goal here is to “franchise” your sales system by systemizing the process using marketing tools.

This will make sure you get the optimum results every time. We want to turn your company into a selling machine that doesn’t have to rely on superstar sales people but improves the performance of all.

This process does the sifting and sorting of prospects to deliver the best prospects to sales staff and also includes the creation of “knock-down” lists of key target accounts and the plans to get them closed.

Maximize & Optimize Strategies

Think of these as bonus strategies but also critically important.

– Perpetual Selling Strategies are designed to get customers to come back over and over again to provide a steady stream of sales and profits

– Joint Ventures leverage other companies customers and relationships for your mutual advantage.

– Upselling and Cross-Selling increase the profits of each sale.  You can consider including products and services that you do not provide yourself but that your JV partners offer.

– Referral Systems – we have over 30 different systems we can incorporate into your business.  Most businesses believe referrals are their absolute best prospects so don’t leave getting referrals up to chance, proactively install systems to create them!

Contact me at joemcvoy@gmail.com or by phone/text at 303-884-0859 for information on how we can help you to do all this for your business.

Most marketing totally sucks and does not differentiate the advertiser from their competitors at all.

This short post will give you three evaluations to apply to your own advertising or marketing pieces to see for yourself if it’s any good or not.  Almost all marketing out there uses only platitudes – in other words, words and phrases that are meaningless.

Does yours?  Let’s see . . .

Evaluation # 1 – “I would hope so . . .”

Are the statements in your marketing or advertising just stating the obvious?  If you you repair cars, do you say things like we fix any make or model of car – well, I would hope so – that’s what you do, right?

Any statements just stating what your business does do not set you apart from any competitors, they just state the obvious.

A CPA that says they do personal and business taxes, we find all the deductions you are entitled for, we file electronically on time every time.  That’s exactly what every other CPA on the planet does . . .  very unremarkable and a waste of your money saying it.

Evaluation # 2 – “Who Else Can Say That” 

Does your marketing or advertising say things like “in business 30 years, best service, top quality work, free estimates, customer service always available, best service after the sale, etc, etc, etc.

Who else can say that – actually every one of your competitors can and does – these platitudes do not set you apart from anyone.

To be clear, the point is not who else can do it but who can say it.

A competitor may suck at delivering what they claim but that’s not the point, – this evaluation is about who else can and does say it not whether they can deliver.

Evaluation # 3 – “Scratch Out, Write In Test” 

Take one of your ads or brochures – scratch out your name and write in your competitor’s name – is the ad/brochure still valid?

Now, do it the other way, take a competitor’s ad, brochure or marketing piece and scratch out their name and write in yours – still valid claims?

You fail!

No matter how good your inside reality may be, it is not being communicated to your prospects and customers if your materials fail these three evaluations.

In order to have something good to say in your marketing, it may require you do some innovation in your business to make sure you have something good to say.

We help companies do that by first determining what your customers want and need, what their hot buttons are, what their frustrations are surrounding buying whatever it is that you sell and then fixing those problems.

Once that is done, we have something good to say your competitors can’t say and you get much more business as a result!

The steps explaining the innovation process are the subject of a different post but just know we have to make sure you are in fact better than your competitors before doing any advertising and promotion!

Call 303-884-0859 or email joemcvoy@gmail.com to find out how we can help you make your marketing effective instead of sucking!

If so, does everyone know that or are you a “Best Kept Secret” in your own marketplace?

There are really two different sides to your business…

There’s the “inside reality” and there’s the “outside perception.”

The inside reality has to do with all the things your business does that makes you valuable to your customers… from a product, operations, and management standpoint.

It’s what gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The reason we call it the inside reality is because there’s a good chance that the reality of what you do, and the customers’ perceptions of what you do, aren’t necessarily the same.

You’ll find that these two words—reality and perception—are very important to this process of winning in business.

The inside reality encompasses everything you do and everything you are that makes you good. It’s all your skills, your people, your expertise, your service to the customer—before, during, and after the sale—your systems, your operational procedures, your commitment to excellence, your passion, and the way you conduct your business.

If you asked your customers why they bought from you, they could tell you something quantifiable, specific, and instantly obvious.

If the “inside reality” is about what you do and what you are that allows your business perform better, then the outside perception has to do with how customers and prospects perceive your company.

An invariably, the inside reality and the outside perception are different.

See, regardless of how good you are, or how good your “inside reality” is, your prospect is more than likely going to be, initially at least, apathetic.

And it’s not because they don’t like you or they think your business is bad, or anything like that… it’s because trying to figure out how good you are is the last thing on their priority list.  Ask yourself this question–How many competitors, either direct or indirect, do you have in your business?

Whatever that number is, that’s how many choices your prospects have, and how many businesses they have to sift through to try to make a buying decision. And that’s assuming they want to buy what you’re selling!

The problem is that most businesses don’t have the ability to communicate via advertising and marketing their “inside reality” to the outside world. They can’t lead prospects to the conclusion “I would have to be an absolute fool to do business with anyone else but you.”… even if they ARE good.

Now, there are a whole host of books, workshops, and trainers that try to help you with your “outside perception.” You’ve got books like Guerrilla marketing, Marketing Warfare, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing… and you’ve got sales and marketing gurus galore that all try to help you make your business look good to the outside world.

The problem is, that none of these books or trainers pays any attention to how good your business actually is. They are all almost strictly technique oriented.

But I have a big problem just teaching techniques… let me tell you a quick story to illustrate why…

My friend, Rich has a little boy named Sam, and sometimes they go to McDonald’s drive thru together and get French fries.

When Sam was really little, like 2 or 3, sometimes the French fries would come out too hot for him to eat, so he’d ask his dad to cool them down. Well, how do you cool down a hot French fry when you’re in the car? They invented a technique: they would hold the hot fry up to the air conditioner vent and crank it up for a few seconds until it cooled off.

One time Rich looked over and saw little Sam holding a French fry up to the a/c vent. But there were two problems—one, the French fry wasn’t hot, and two, the air conditioner wasn’t turned on!

Little Sam was executing the technique to perfection—it’s just that the situation was totally wrong; he couldn’t understand what conditions had to exist before that technique would work.  Or in other words, he didn’t understand the principles, just the technique.

And that’s how it is with sales techniques and marketing techniques and advertising techniques.

Take direct mail for instance.

Back in the 70’s, guys started coming out of the woodwork teaching techniques for tricking people into reading their junk mail. Remember the technique of sending your sales letter in a plain white #10 envelope with no return address? People would get it and go, “Wow! A letter from someone who forgot to write his or her return address! I wonder who it is!” Then they’d open it.

What do you do with a white #10 envelope now with no return address on it? You pitch it without even opening it! You know it’s junk. You know it’s a waste of your time. But people are still using that technique—just like a 3 year old holding a cold French fry up to an a/c vent that’s not even turned on

And that’s what most sales and marketing programs teach you to do…. implement a bunch of little techniques to trick people into believing that there’s some kind of value in doing business with you. Techniques, I might add, that frequently don’t work when you try to use them in the real world. But you’ve got to work on both of the perceptions in your business.

If you concentrate all your efforts on the “inside reality” but you can’t do marketing very well, you’re setting yourself up for frustration.

You’ll be pulling your hair out trying to figure out how anybody could be so STUPID to use your competitors when you’ve obviously got the better deal. Or if you’re focusing all your efforts on the “outside perception,” that could lead to problems, too.

Here’s what I’ve found from years if doing this – most businesses could stand some improvement in both areas…. but they struggle the most with the “outside perception,” or in other words… with all of the competition that exists, they have problems differentiating themselves in the marketplace.

Regardless of your situation, or where you’re at now, that’s what the my system is all about… improving the inside reality and outside perception of your company.

About 25% of the system deals with innovation and how to make your business competitive from a product, operations, and management standpoint; and then about three-quarters of the system deals with how to do the marketing—whether that be advertising, direct mail, web-based, or whatever—so that it effectively separates you from your competitors in the minds of the prospects.

The great business philosopher Jim Rohn probably summed it up best in his lecture about communications. He was talking about personal communications, not business communications, but I think the principles are identical. He says to be a master communicator, all you’ve got to do is follow this simple three-step process:

First, have something good to say. Second, say it well. And third, say it often.

Does that make sense to you? Have something good to say, say it well, and say it often.

I can show you how improve the “inside reality” of your business so you have something good to say.

I will show you how to improve the “outside perception” of your business, or in other words, how to say it well so people will buy from you.

Can you see why it’s imperative that these two factors be considered at the same time? Just teaching you how to innovate leaves you with a wonderful, innovative company that nobody knows about. Just teaching you sales or marketing or advertising will drive in business that won’t stick around because there’s no value.

You have to consider both the inside reality and the outside perception. You have to first have something good to say, and then say it well.

Call me at 303-884-0859 or email joemcvoy@gmail.com and let me show you how to do this in your business.

So, you have a business and you are good at what you do, so you get a few referrals . . .

but not as many as you would like, right?

Although I have over 10 systems I use to help clients systemize the getting of referrals, today we are going to talk about just one of them.

Geese

I guess, I need to back up a bit and tell you what geese have to do with referrals.

Let’s call your ideal client/patient/customer a “golden egg”

You want more golden eggs – we all do.

So which would you rather have – the golden egg, or the goose that laid the golden egg?

Who will be laying a lot more.

Of course, we all want the goose.

So how does this apply to getting referrals?

Easy

You want to find the people (geese) who know people who can be your golden eggs.

An example might help.

Let’s say you have a landscaping and tree service.

Instead of only going to leads group meetings where you are hoping to find potential clients from referrals from home business owners, the Mary Kay lady in the group, the lawyer, insurance agent or accountant who are there looking for small business or individual people as clients, how about this?

One of your geese – and you will probably have many – might be a landscape architect.

Those people are doing the design of landscaping, which presumably needs taken care of after it’s all installed.

Another might be the facilities managers for hotels, country clubs or other businesses that have property with trees on it they are responsible for maintaining.

So, the way to think about this is to figure out what groups or associations those people might belong to and hang out with.

Now, just to make your brain really hurt, you can go one more level up and look for the grandma goose!

What’s a grandma goose you ask?

Well, that’s the goose who knows and is connected to large numbers of your geese!

So, continuing with our example, the grandma goose could be the head of a local trade association or group of facilities managers or group of landscape architects.

Now that person would really be a find.

So after identifying and locating maybe 5 or 6 grandma geese for different niches where your geese live, next you need to find a way to meet with, get to know and build trust with those people.

You can do your research by checking out their LinkedIn or Facebook accounts to learn about them personally, find out their interests, likes, etc

One tip, if your grandma goose is the head of a local association, trade group or something, it’s actually best to target the former Chairman or CEO, not the current one.

The current person might be very busy, but the previous head has stepped down and is probably much more available and equally well connected.

How to develop relationships with these people will be the topic of another post – this one is long enough as it is . . .

Wouldn’t you like it if you could make your competitor’s advertising and marketing invisible? It would be much easier to get sales then, wouldn’t it?

With all the advertising exposures we’re exposed to every day, our brains deal with it by ignoring anything that isn’t important and relevant to us at that time. Here’s an example you can probably relate to.

Think back to the last time you were getting ready to buy a car. You probably noticed all the TV ads, newspaper ads, Auto Trader magazines and everywhere else car advertising appears. You were in the market to buy a car, so all those advertising messages were important and relevant to you.

What happened after you bought the car? Did you notice any more car ads? You weren’t in the market any more so the ads became invisible to you.

So what does this have to do with making your competitor’s ads invisible?

Lots.

If you can develop a trusting relationship with your customers so that they already know where they’ll go next time they need your product or service, then they won’t even notice any of your competitor’s advertising or marketing.

So how do you do this?

By doing the thing you’re probably not doing now – keeping in touch with your customers to build and strengthen your relationship with them. Did you know the biggest reason people or businesses change suppliers is not the product quality, price or even service, it’s because they don’t feel appreciated?

You can show appreciation for your customers by sending them birthday cards, holiday cards, and making personal contact on the phone. When was the last time any business you do business with communicated with you personally?

In all the years I’ve been doing marketing consulting, I’ve never seen any client who understood this or kept in touch with their customers anywhere near as often as they should. They typically only think about getting new customers and spend all their money there, ignoring the customers they already have, and losing them along the way.

Whenever I tell clients to do this, the objection I always get is that it’s too time consuming and although business owners understand the need to keep in touch with their customers, they just don’t do it.

The good news is that there is now technology that can do this for you. You can send out handwritten greeting cards with your own message and signature automatically to your customers for only a dollar or two – and that includes the stamp.

To learn the details, email me at joemcvoy@gmail.com