To increase sales and build your business from this point forward you must discover the 80% of what your prospects are not telling you.
Your prospects and customers only want you to know 20% of what’s on their minds, yet they want you to give them what they need, want and desire.
It’s a paradox.
What are you to do as a business owner who is trying to grow your business and you need more customers or clients in order to increase sales in greater number?
On Friday I attended a business mastermind group in Lancaster where I met a doctor who practices in the area of muscle and joint pain.
I absolutely LOVE it when people ask; “What do you do?”
I feel l like a kid walking into a candy factory when I hear that question!!! My heart rate goes up and the excitement level kicks in. I really do love the question.
“Dr. “…”, did you know that 20% of a business’ customers will never tell them what is on their mind. It’s the job of the business to discover what the other 80% is.”
You should have seen his eyes. They opened up and the smile on his face was worth the weight in gold.
He looked at me and said.
“Don, that’s exactly like my medical practice. When I meet a new client they don’t want to say much. Perhaps they are afraid of what I will tell them? Maybe they are embarrassed about something? In a 20 minute consultation, 15 minutes is spent on earning their trust so that I can get to the 80% of what I really need to know in order to help them.”
Are you ready to learn what your prospects and customers are not telling you and increase sales so that you can communicate to and with them more relevantly, and increase your sales?
What does “relevantly” mean?
It means:
“Talk to one person through creating content for one person, as if that one person is the only person in the world.”
Another way I like to express it is talk to one person, who has one problem / need / want / desire and solve or fulfill it.
The World is Changing Rapidly in Marketing
The world is changing quickly.
Gone are the good old days where you could just purchase an ad on a billboard or in a newspaper and the crowds would contact you in mass because they saw your advertisement and increase sales.
The problem is that media is more fragmented than ever, their audiences are lower as a result and yet the cost is still high to advertise.
Many businesses have either significantly reduced their offline marketing budgets or they have left the realm of advertising for digital marketing.
Many are investing large sums of their marketing budgets on their website, content marketing, video, Google Adwords, Facebook ads, Linkedin ads, and virtually every other type or form of digital marketing one can think of.
Breaking Through the Digital Clutter and Noise In Order to Increase Sales
While the getting was really good for several years (early 2000’s – 2014), the amount of content in the form of blog articles, content, video, images, podcasts and email being generated every day has eclipsed a person’s ability to consume even 1% of it.
As far back as 2010, Eric Schmidt, the current Chairman of Google, said:
“We create as much information in two days now as we did from the dawn of man through 2003.”
Again, that was in 2010.
Two years later in 2012, look at the explosion that went beyond the staggering numbers of 2010. Look at this infographic from “Data Never Sleeps” in 2012:
By 2014, it was even more staggering. Again, “Data Never Sleeps” put out another impressive set of statistics in 2014.
According to their 2014 study, every minute:
- Email users send 204,000,000 messages
- Google receives over 4,000,000 search queries
- Blog writers post 1400 new blog posts
- Facebook users share 2,460,000 pieces of content
- Twitter users tweet 277,000 times
- Amazon makes $83,000 in online sales
- Whats App users share 347,222 photos
In his book “The Content Code”, Mark Schaefer says it best:
“The content/social media/mobile revolution is entering a mature phase. The factors impacting your ability to cut through and be noticed – namely the amount of content available and our capacity to consume it – are in transition.”
Mark goes on to say that there are forecasts of an approximate “500 percent estimated increase in the amount of information on the web between 2015 and 2020.”
That is explosive growth!
Keep reading, because I’m going to share with you what I believe is the most important way you can break through the content shock and increase sales.
Piecing Together the Growth and the Opportunity
You would think that with growth like this that might lead you into a bad place?
Maybe or maybe not.
It certainly WILL lead you into a bad place if:
- You don’t know the 80% of what’s on your customer’s mind.
- You don’t know how to communicate with them in their language and based on their experiences, thoughts and emotions.
- If you working under assumptions instead of data.
- Create the same, self-centric content that your competitors and everyone else is creating.
It certainly WILL NOT lead you into a bad place if:
Recommended for You Webcast, August 25th: Leveraging Your Existing Customers For Growth
- Your content is in your passionate voice and reflects the interests and needs of your prospects and customers.
- If the content consumer (website, social media, videos, etc) believes that your point-of-view or your insights are unique compared to what they have seen across the web.
- You help them to feel you understand your audience by solving one problem, meeting one need, or fulfilling one desire, for one person in each piece of content.
The Hardest Part of Marketing
The hardest part of marketing is not technology. By itself, technology will not increase sales but it can help make sales easier if approached properly.The technology can do nothing for you if you haven’t already done something for yourself.
The technology can do nothing for you if you haven’t already done something for yourself.
That one thing is… create your own unique message that is relevant and meaningful to those who need what you offer and are able, willing and ready to buy from you.
This is a massive challenge for most businesses.
It feels easier to jump straight to strategies for:
- Website design and content
- Social media
- Video
- Marketing campaigns
- And much more…
However, creating strategies with an empty message likely diminishes the impact of the website, social post, video, email, etc.
Why?
It’s like my doctor trying to help me without the necessary information to do so.
The sad reality is that your marketing becomes more of an advertisement or brochure that is focused on the business instead of on those the business is trying to attract who are able, willing and ready to buy.
Your prospects need a trigger and since they don’t know your business from the one they just left on another website, you’re all competing for the same thing: traffic, views and a few sales.
I have bad news for you… traffic and views do not equal success in a business sense!
Now, if you get a lot of the right traffic and the right views, combined with the right message and calls-to-action that bring in revenue, of course it equals success.
That’s the type of success you’re looking for.
Unfortunately, most businesses are not making a lot of money through their online endeavors. They are too busy giving away free as a strategy instead of creating a message where people say to themselves “OMG, how did they know…?” and take action.
Like I once did, you’ve bought into the notion that if you just create “epic” content you’ll do great.
But “epic” is relevant.
To whom is it relevant?
To you or to your prospects?
While I want tons of traffic, my aim is the right traffic that is able willing and ready to buy.
Marketing with a Message is the Key to Increase Sales
When the doctor asked me “What do you do?” I didn’t tell him word for word what I do.
Instead, I gave him a word picture I knew would peak his interest. In fact, whenever I say the 20%/80% statement it peaks immediate curiosity.
But I can’t stop there… it has to connect relevantly to his own story.
He told me exactly what his story is… the experience with his patients.
He is now engaging with me. He had his “OMG, how did you know…?” moment.
How did I know that is what he experiences every day?
Better yet, how was I able to illustrate for him that his marketing was falling flat using that one idea or illustration?
All I did was connect the dots for him and then he bought the rest on his own.
We immediately moved from marketing to sales because he experienced it and embraced my message on his terms.
Your website, social media, video, email… it has to do the same thing and it has to happen quickly or they will be gone. They will go back to where they came from and continue looking.
Here is the reality. Your website visitors are not looking to buy (unless you’re an ecommerce platform), they are looking for free solutions or ideas.
They are not coming to your website with the credit card in hand, or their phone in hand, or their hands on the keyboard to give you their email address.
They are coming for free because we’ve conditioned them to come for free.
There is nothing wrong with that… so long as your value is in alignment with them and you allow them to experience that “OMG, how did you know…?” moment that inspires them to do something.
Don’t Allow FREE to Equal Broke or Out of Business!
Wouldn’t you like to be able to give them something and get something in return and increase sales?
Win-Win situations are always good for both parties.
Namely, you earn their business in the form of some green cash in your bank account and they get their personal problem solved, need met or desire fulfilled.
If you connect with them personally and emotionally right out of the gate you just entered a completely different world full of opportunity and profitability.
How Can I Connect with My Site Visitors So Personally and Break Through the Content Shock?
Connecting with your audience at a personal level is a mindset that comes from hundreds of years of mass marketing imprinted upon our minds.
It’s not just storytelling; it’s a personal experience you create for each consumer of your content that connects their need with your product or service.
Breaking through is more about your message than it is the strategies that you are told to employ every time you talk to a web designer, social media expert, blog adviser, or marketing agency.
Sure, they might address your message on the surface, but it’s down deep where it has to come from. So much so that you feel it, live it, breathe it and give it away passionately.
The key is to discover the 80% of what your prospects and customers are not telling you and then connect the dots for them if you want to increase sales.
In my FREE webinar titled “The 5 Step Formula to Attract Your Audience, Increase Sales and Position Your Business for Success!” I’m going to share with you can create the foundation of your business through a life changing message.
Here is a 1:19 video that will explain the webinar in simple detail:
If you’re ready to tap into the 80% of what your customers are not telling you to become more relevant in your message and increase your sales, this webinar is for you!
If you have a thought or comment please leave a comment below.
Increase Sales by Discovering the 80% Customers are Not Telling You
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