Have a great product or service but simply can’t get traction in the market? 
You’ve tried advertising, going to networking functions, cold calling, sending out emails or even physical mail. But nothing much comes back in the way of interest.
If so, you could be making one or more of these 4 mistakes that will doom you to failure, frustration and a waste of money.
Relevancy:
Is your offer relevant to your audience? Of interest to them? If not, why would they take notice especially when bombarded with hundreds, possibly thousands of other daily distractions?
Your message:
Your prospects generally fall into 3 stages. Understanding their mindsets at each stage is key to your success. Given this you need different levels of messaging for each.
- Sidewalk: They may not know they have a problem, but what you offer could pique their interest. Or they know the problem exists but aren’t yet convinced they need to solve it.Your job is to crank up the awareness of their pain. These people won’t spend a lot of time on this so don’t bore them with detailed information. You’ll just turn them off. Slowly, slowly does it.At this level involvement devices like Checklists and Quizzes, as well as short articles which highlight their issues work well.
- Slow Lane: They know they have a problem and have a medium commitment to solving it. They want to inform themselves as to solutions and will spend more time doing so. Your content needs to reflect this, giving them more detail.Depending on your audience, one to two thousand word articles, short video courses (each about 5 minutes), podcasts around 10 to 15 minutes work well. Remember, at this stage they may not be ready to commit to spending lots of time with you.
- Fast Lane: These prospects have a high commitment, solution oriented mindset. They want to solve the issue now and will spend considerable time researching providers while consuming content. And once they’re satisfied you can help, they’ll take action.Here I’d offer longer content. Comprehensive whitepapers, webinars, seminars and strategy sessions with you where you personally go over their issues and how you could solve them.
Consistency:
A key to your success is keeping in touch regularly. You don’t know where your prospects sit on the Sidewalk, Slow and Fast Lane continuum. Your job is to stay at top of mind, encouraging them to move forward.
And finally…
Targeting:
There’s no point in sending Lamb Roast recipes to Vegans. You must determine exactly who your target market is and know that they’ll be interested in your offer. And even if your offer could appeal to a broad audience, it’s a huge mistake to use the same message for “everybody”.
Here’s an example from our files:
Steve is passionate about improving leadership in large organisations. His coaching program helps senior leaders achieve better productivity with their teams. And he gets quantifiable results.
Steve’s program takes a radically new approach.
However, many of his potential clients fell into the Sidewalk or Slow Lane. They knew they had issues, but were generally conservative and not necessarily open to new ideas.
Recognising this the material we created included short articles, case studies, and a comprehensive whitepaper.
Steve bought a highly targeted list which we slowly drip fed with material designed to highlight the issues and present possible solutions (his program).
As Steve bought a stand at an upcoming conference for CEOs in this industry, we created and regularly sent delegates articles and videos we felt they’d be interested in. And suggested they come and meet with Steve at the conference.
At the conference, a CEO came up, said Steve had been highly recommended by another client.
He’d read all Steve’s material, felt comfortable with him and essentially signed up on the spot for a 3 year deal worth almost six figures.
Another two organisations at the same conference were also extremely interested in the program.
There are a couple of points to note here.
A recommendation is very important. But it is generally not enough to get a new client over the line.
You must have marketing material which fully explains the issue your target market is facing, what your solution is, how you go about it and the outcomes they can expect.
This must be backed up with case studies and testimonials. All of which we created by extensively interviewing his clients.
For a complex product or service, it can take a considerable amount of time to warm an audience up. To get buy-in.
The regular keep in touch mechanism we implemented accomplished this. Steve needed to turn up at the conference and be seen. People want to buy from people they are comfortable with.
One last thing.
Marketing and sales are not the same activity.
Marketing raises awareness that you, your product or service exists and can help your prospects’ solve their problems, achieve their desires etc.
But marketing never sold anything. You must also have sales skills and a structured process to move a person from “interested” to becoming a client.
If you feel you’re lacking in either department, we can help. Our Lead Generating and Sales Mastery Programs will give you both the material and the tools to consistently bring in new business.
Call us on 0414-913-334 for more information.
Rashid & Barbara.
