| Make an Offer, Not an Announcement |
by Herman Holtz.
Abstracted from the new book, "The Consultant's Guide to Getting Business on the Internet", by Herman Holtz, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright by Herman Holtz.
Achieving Maximum Sales Impact
The assumption made by those who are not marketing professionals is that an offer is a statement/description of the product or service the seller wishes to sell, and it may or may not include other information, such as the price (although probably most who define the word offer as such a description would include the price in the definition). Defining your offer as a description of what you want to sell is a serious first mistake in sales technique. To achieve maximum sales impact, especially at the opening, the offer should be defined and presented as a description of what the prospect really wants to buy, the end-result, a benefit. The prospect may not even be conscious of this true desire until you articulate it and bring realization (the "Aha!" effect) about. Everyone has unconscious desires, and one of the greatest marketing talents one can have is the ability to identify those unconscious desires and express them in making a sales appeal.
Identifying The Desire
The late Elmer Wheeler, heralded as America's greatest salesman, had this talent. Probably his most famous dictum to all sales people was "Sell the sizzle, not the steak", but he had other such wisdom to impart, such as "Make them thirsty if you want to sell them lemonade". On one occasion, he sold a large stock of out-of-style "long John" underwear by displaying them with a large sign that promised, "They don't itch".There are three points to note here:
- Identify the most motivating benefit you can think of.
- Make it an emotional benefit
- Make it a promise, not an announcement
Think of your service not in terms of what it is, but in terms of what it does - does for the client, that is. Examine your service in terms of what benefits it delivers and what problems it solves. Discriminate carefully between an announcement and a promise, because it is the promise that is the true offer.
"Automobile for sale" is therefore not an offer. It is an announcement. "A comfortable and secure feeling on the highway" is an offer. "Diet plan for sale" is not an offer. "New, slim figure in 30 days" is an offer. "Your friends will envy you" is an even better offer. What the customer wants to hear, consciously or unconsciously, is what you propose to do for him or her: the benefit you promise to deliver. And it works in every sales situation, business to business as well as business to consumer-citizen. Your client is someone with problems to solve and desires to satisfy.
There must be a major benefit in the purchase of every product and service, or no one would buy it. In fact, there are usually several benefits, major and minor ones. You must distinguish the major one from the minor ones, and select one as the main benefit. Focus is important.
Focus On The Product
Be clear in your own mind on what you are offering. You won't make it clear to others until you have it in sharp focus yourself. Think it out. Test it. Satisfy yourself, that it is, in fact, something that the typical client prospect will want most ardently, and by which he or she is likely to be motivated. The better the job you do with this - the more effectively you strike a nerve with your offer - the more motivated your prospect and the more successful your marketing effort will be.Lately, it seems that more and more marketers are becoming aware of something expressed as a "USP". That originally referred to Unique Selling Point or Unique Selling Proposition, but has since proved to be a highly versatile expression that can also stand for Unique Service Proposition, Unique Service Program, and other articulations of USP. The concept, however, is the same in all cases, and again, it is of special importance here because it is a key to attracting visitors to your site to see your presentation.
Identifying Uniqueness
The idea is simple enough. Our society is one in which every product and service that is successful in winning public support, and competition will grow rapidly, producing similar products and services. Perhaps all the versions of the product or service will be equivalent to each other in quality and value, perhaps not, but the buyer really has no way to know, and is therefore dependent on what the seller says about the product or service. The seller who offers the product or service with some unique benefit has an advantage in having given the prospect a powerful reason to favor that product or service over competing products and services.The unique item may be a characteristic of the product or service, but it may also be something else. Most common is the claim to offer the lowest price and the highest quality, or to point to some special feature. What is important is that the unique item represent a benefit to the buyer, and that the benefit be an important one. Montgomery Ward offered the first unconditional money back guarantee offered to mail order buyers, and that was enough to win him a great many customers immediately. Joe Karbo was the first to lament how poorly he had been doing, verging on bankruptcy, until he discovered the marvelous product he was offering for sale, and he created a second USP by being the first to include in his advertising a certificate signed by his accountant certifying the truth of his claims of rising from poverty to wealth.
Of course, these were immediately imitated, when they proved to be successful marketing gambits, so a USP that is successful does not remain unique forever, and the alert marketer is always in search of a new USP.
One important note here: unique needs definition. A USP need not be truly unique or truly one of a kind and unlike anything else in existence. It needs only to be unique as far as the client is concerned. If it is the first time the client has encountered it, it is subjectively unique. You may borrow ideas from anywhere, as long has no competitor has done so before you.
Herman Holtz: Writing-Consulting Services For All Needs. Go to http://www.bellicose.com/freelance/ for tips on copywriting and information on his new book for independent entrepreneurs "The Consultant's Guide to Getting Business on the Internet: How to Network for Clients and Business Opportunities"
Copyright (C) 1996 IRL