Category Archives for "Analysis"

0 How to Manage Multiple Offers

There is no rule about whether you make single or multiple offers.  If you walk into a shop, you expect multiple offers.  There may be a few shops that sell only one thing but I can’t think of any examples.  A shop that sells only cupcakes, will have many varieties of cupcake and it may be academic whether some lines are really cupcakes.  (Giant cupcakes are cakes, surely?)

It’s hard to make a single offer with no variations or alternatives.  Getting it out there may be all you need to find inspiration for variations.

Let’s say you’re a training agency and you have offered a course successfully for several years.  Demand has stayed constant and whilst the course itself has evolved, there has been no need to develop an alternative.

You find your profit margins fall, even though participation in the course remains constant.  You have increased fees but fear further increases might reduce sales.  Here are few things you might consider.

Context

Are there ways to extend and develop the course that were not available to you at the start?  Your context will have changed over the years in at least two ways:

Making Choices Between Multiple Offers

If you have the choice between offering one course or several, it is worth considering how you market your offers.

If you offer one course, the customer has two options, take it or leave it.  Offer two courses, perhaps at different prices, and the customer is more likely to choose one.

You might have several courses on offer but if you’re able to discuss the customer’s needs, you may be able to narrow down your offer to two options.

Note this cuts across the single versus multiple offers and shows how you can structure your offers to market them.  Having just one offer means people can say no (they can always say no of course) whilst several options can be confusing.  Narrowing the choice to between two offers, makes a yes more likely because it reduces confusion and tailors the offer to the customer’s needs.

So, the answer to the question: single or multiple offers?  Have several but try to simplify the choice for customers.  To do this you need several alternatives from which you can select two offers for each customer according to their needs.

How do you structure your offers?

0 Market Position

Your market position forms your approach to marketing.  There are four basic positions: Leader, Challenger, Niche and Follower.  Most small or local businesses are likely to be Niche or Follower.  However, there may be some Leaders or Challengers.

Leaders

The market leader in any market is usually seen to be the business that provides the highest quality products in the greatest number.  They seek to maintain their market position and their reputation.

Someone approaching a leader can be confident they are dealing with an established business and if something goes wrong it has the capacity to put it right.  Leaders are the safe option and likely to be expensive.

They are likely to offer a standard product or service.  If they turn over a lot of customers, the chances are they offer a “one size fits all” approach.

Challenger

These businesses are the closest competitors to Leaders and seek a share in their markets.  The Challenger will try to produce either a higher quality product or service or else they will seek to undercut the Leader in price.

To get to where they want to be, the Challenger will compete with smaller businesses so they can get their customers and build a market share to challenge the Leader.

For many years Apple was the Challenger to Microsoft.  I’m not sure which of these is the current Leader but how did Apple challenge Microsoft?  They used design.  Their computers were well-designed both in their appearance and their operating system.  As Microsoft became bogged down with a system that under-performed, Apple thrived on learning from Microsoft and designing a robust system from the start.  A third element to their success was identifying the type of device that appealed to people, their customers appreciated their latest models as trendy.

Microsoft found itself embedded with traditional users who couldn’t afford to change systems and people like me who simply use what they know, despite its limitations.

Niche

The niche market position is open to smaller businesses.  It identifies a market too small to attract other businesses’ attention.  They offer a high quality product or service specifically tailored to that market.

Their main marketing point is they know their market and so provide excellent service.  When someone in their market encounters their marketing pitch, they know it is for them.

Because they are providing a bespoke service, tailored to their customer’s needs, these businesses can be expensive.

Followers

These are the pile it high, sell it cheap school of marketing.  The idea is to copy the Leader but at low quality so that costs can be kept low.  This can be a borderline dishonest approach and so it is important to keep an eye on reputation.

Whilst some people may stand back through fear of purchasing something substandard, most people will buy because they can afford to take a loss if it turns out to be substandard.

The problem with this approach is that it lacks a creative approach to business, seeking to emulate the success of others.  Are there any circumstances where it can work?

I suppose some people use this approach to generate capital quickly so they can build a niche business.

It may be worth checking from time to time, which of these positions your business occupies.  Given most small local businesses will be niche, this model is helpful not so much for self-diagnosis as helping us understand the market position of other businesses.

Have you experience of working in a market Leader or Challenger?  How does it differ from working in a Niche market?

1 Using Urgency to Your Client’s Advantage

Urgency is closely related to scarcity.  Urgency implies lack of time and in my last post I wrote about being honest about scarcity, of any type.  It is legitimate for things, including time, to be scarce so long as you’re honest and upfront about the reasons.

Once they are convinced of the value of your offer, get the prospect to act as soon as possible.  There is a state of mind, we’ve all experienced it, called “buyer’s remorse” that sets in soon after someone makes a substantial purchase.  You don’t want buyer’s remorse to set in before someone makes a purchase because then they won’t do it.

Hang on, you may be thinking: isn’t it better to allow people time to think it through?  After all, if it is not beneficial, surely it is better they don’t make the purchase in the first place.  There is some truth in this and there may be some value in allowing a short cooling-off period.  But 24 hours should be more than enough.

The problem really sets in where there is a third-party involved in a decision, maybe a management committee.  Your prospect is to be your advocate with them.  Asking your prospect to stay enthusiastic over maybe a couple of weeks and then to sell your offer to a management committee is a big ask!

Advantages to the Prospect

Let’s start by asking why making a quick decision benefits the prospect.  Usually there are plenty of reasons the vendor would prefer a quick sale; slow sales are more work and likely to result in disappointment.  But why does it benefit the prospect?  Let’s assume objectively the offer will benefit the prospect.

How to Accelerate Decision-Making

Stay in Touch

A final word to prospects.  You can change your mind.  If you do, the thing to do is contact the vendor and tell them!  The worst thing small businesses encounter is the warm prospect who goes silent.  Most businesses want to keep communication open, a definite no allows communication to continue.  The cold shoulder does not help that to happen.

Moving things along from a “yes” to payment can be one of the hardest tasks facing any business.  How do you approach this critical stage in your sales funnel?

1 How to Market Using Scarcity

There are two approaches to scarcity and you muddle them at your own peril!  It can be

The latter is to be deplored.  I’ll explore scarcity as a marketing ploy in more detail in my next post because it is a real issue for the entrepreneur.  My firm recommendation is you deal solely in genuine scarcity.

Types of Scarcity

Less Convincing Scarcity

These are sometimes used by online marketers but should be approached with caution.

Take Care Using Scarcity

Be aware, you will turn off potential customers with any constraint for which there is no credible reason.  Be upfront if there is a genuine limit.  “To be sure I can provide the excellent service I promise, I have to limit my client numbers to xx per quarter.”  Something along these lines communicates that you are aware of your constraints and limit your offers accordingly.

Scarcity is a powerful marketing tool when used properly.  Don’t use it unless there is really no alternative.

Can you describe how you have used scarcity successfully?  Or have you used it improperly and been found out?  It is easy to do, without realising what you’re doing!

0 Soft Evidence

While hard evidence is researched and independent, you generate soft evidence as you go about your business. It is sometimes called social proof because those who use your products or services produce it.  Soft evidence, reproduced in your marketing materials, is usually quotations from people who have used your services.

Use soft evidence to show that people are doing business with you and what they say about your business.  It is likely you will have little soft evidence when you start your enterprise.  Everyone has this problem but over time it becomes less of an issue.

Remember soft evidence is an essential output from the work you do.  Think of it as part of the payment for your services or products.  Ask for it at the outset and get agreement to provide it before you start work.

Examples of Soft Evidence

• Testimonials are perhaps the most common type of soft evidence. They can be presented as text, video or audio.  Testimonial interviews are often most effective and can be used in various ways.
• Anecdotal evidence may seem the least convincing type of soft evidence. However, you may find you are able to use this approach effectively.  The place to use it is where you are describing examples of work you’ve done with clients.  Their testimonial might not go into the level of detail where a particular incident, you need to illustrate a point, will be mentioned.  You’re saying, “this is what I did under these particular circumstances”.
• Celebrity endorsements may be helpful I suppose. Your celebrity need not have universal appeal.  If you know someone in your field, with a significant track record, they may be willing to endorse your offer.
• Reviews of your work can be helpful. You could, for example, ask someone to review your blog or ebook.  This could be published as a blog post and quoted on your site.

All of these accumulate as and when opportunities present themselves.  You need to be alert to such opportunities and be ready to ask at the right time.  If you need a couple of sentences, some people may be able to write it on the spot.  Longer documents, such as reviews, take time to prepare.  They can be recorded in about 20 minutes on the spot or drafted at leisure.  The risk is promises of long reviews are not always delivered, so any support you can offer is likely to be productive.

Have you any tips about collecting and publishing soft evidence?

0 Hard Evidence

Evidence is wonderful stuff and hard evidence is the best!

When to Display Hard Evidence

The first thing to note is when to share evidence with a prospect.  It is not generally a good idea to introduce evidence too soon.  The early stages of conversation with a prospect is better spent listening to them and establishing what they need.

A website needs to establish its offer and the benefits to the visitor first.  Evidence at this stage should be minimal.  It might be worth displaying an award or trustmark early on a web page.  But at this stage, if you do it at all, point towards evidence but don’t actually supply it.

Why?  Well, there’s little point introducing a prospect to evidence until they are ready to hear or read it.  Evidence introduced too soon may be seen as a hard sell.  It could put the prospect on the defensive.

The best time to present evidence is at stage 4 on the awareness ladder, after you have introduced and explained your offer.  Evidence helps fill in gaps or answer the prospect’s questions.

How to Display Hard Evidence

If there is a lot of detailed information, it should be available to those who are interested.  However, it is usually best if it is available on request.  So, a key paragraph from a report can be quoted on your website, with a link to the full paper.

Most people will note the link but not follow it.  The fact the information is available is enough.  However, be sure the full report supports the details you quote.  There is nothing worse than providing information that contradicts your main account.

If you link to a web page on someone else’s site, keep an eye on it!  If they move the information, you will need to revise the link.

You can provide hard evidence in summary on your website and in your literature.  If you are going to do this, make it accessible.  So, use graphs, charts and diagrams.  You can use key quotes and of course Frequently Asked Questions.

What is Hard Evidence?

Hard evidence is backed by clearly sourced research.  Like everything else it is a matter of judgement.  So, an independent source is usually better than the results of your own research but selectively quoting independent evidence might devalue it, whilst well-designed personal research might carry real persuasive power.  If you are using independent source material, quote from it and offer a link to the original.

There may be other options. Evidence can be considered hard if it is well-researched and ideally independently generated.  It is not always available and so don’t worry if you can’t produce hard evidence, there is always soft evidence to consider.

Have you good examples of using hard evidence in marketing?

0 The Proposition Value Triangle

This post focuses on how to discuss the proposition value triangle with prospects.  Check out my recent post about the Value Triangle if you are not familiar with it.

It is important your prospect understands they can have two out of high-quality, low-cost and high-speed.  I tell my prospects that if they sign up with me they get a service tailored to their needs at a relatively low cost.  So, if they want a website I can offer them low-cost (about a tenth of the national average charge from a web developer of £10-15 000).  I offer quality in the sense that by working with me they will understand how their website works and how to use it to support their marketing strategy.  They sacrifice speed, as work on their website might take 6 months or longer.

If they are seeking speed, I recommend a web developer.  I might on occasion suggest they sign up for one of my packages so that I can help them prepare a brief for their web developer.

Note how I can explain the value triangle without mentioning it.  It is a model to have in mind and use to guide you in your conversation.

Another approach is to ask the prospect which two of the three criteria are most important to them.  You can then talk them through the implications, helping them find a good referral if you cannot meet their needs.

So, let’s look at each response the prospect can present:

High-Quality, Low-Cost

This is likely to be the most common response.  If the prospect presents this, you need to find out what they mean by high quality.  If they’re seeking a website, are they thinking about technical wizardry or a website that delivers for their enterprise?

Your aim is to clarify what the prospect means by high quality.  Sometimes, this will be a revelation to the prospect as much as it is to you.  It is vitally important you listen to the prospect because if your understanding of high quality is not what the prospect wants, you will disappoint them.

If you can provide the high quality product or service they need, make them an offer.  Otherwise you need to make a referral.  Your low-cost package will be an alternative to other suppliers.

The prospect at this stage needs to understand what you are offering.  “Yes, we can achieve the quality you want but as this is a low-cost offer, there are some things you won’t receive.”

For my offer, low speed may be an advantage.  The focus is on working alongside the prospect to help them learn how to market their business or organisation locally.  I am offering a consultancy, not a web developer service and this means the prospect does the work, with my support over 3 – 6 months.  The plan is by working with me, the prospect will walk away with greater understanding and able to carry the work forward.  This naturally takes time and if it is what the customer needs, it can be a good deal.

High-Speed, Low-Cost

This is the low quality option.  Why should anyone want low quality?

Well actually, low quality can be really useful.  There are industries that offer fast, adequate products online.  Examples are oDesk and Fiverr – Google them if you’re interested.

One of these services designed the three-dimensional cover for my ebook.  It cost me under £10 to get the design and have it converted to three-D.  It took a few hours.  They offered six options to choose from.

Now, it is not ideal.  But my ebook just needs something eye-catching and fairly professional looking.  It does the job.  May be something else would bring in more conversions but is it worth the time, effort and money to find out?

It would be if I receive a lot of online traffic, perhaps promoting the ebook via Adwords or Facebook.  But most of my sign-ups are local and they sign up for a variety of reasons usually following conversations with me.

High-speed, low-cost is useful for trying things out.  There is no point spending hours on something that is not going to work.  Sometimes a quick and dirty solution can result in enough information to refine things later.

High-Quality, High-Speed

And this of course is where the big money is!  If you can provide a high quality product or service at great speed, there will be people who can pay for it.  Often the person who pays for this type of offer values time.

They don’t want to commit their own time to developing this service or product, sometimes because it is too technical for them and taking time to learn it might cost more.  Also, simply because they want to deploy their time elsewhere.

Maybe they are launching something new and need online support for what they are doing quickly.  Whilst it is usually possible to plan ahead, sometimes an opportunity presents itself and the customer needs to purchase someone else’s time.

So, each of these three options represents reality and most people will use each from time to time.

How do you use the value triangle when discussing your proposition with a prospect?

0 How to Help Prospects Understand the Value of Purchasing Support

In my previous post in this circuit questionnaire sequence, about the Proposition, I suggested organisations need constant developmental change to be successful.  Most organisations need help to think about change strategically.  Whatever you are selling, you need to be aware of this.  Is your prospect aware of the need for change or clinging to the false comfort of business as usual?  Do they understand the value of purchasing support?

The hardest point developing a consultancy relationship is the gap between someone expressing interest and committing to a purchase.

The issue is not the quality of your offer but their lack of conviction it is right for them.  They may be keen to sign up. However, if there is an unavoidable period between this decision and payment, their initial ardour can cool.  Often this delay is because they need to consult with a management committee or family member.

If the decision-making period becomes too long, the first enthusiasm is bound to wane and your prospect, who is your advocate with others you almost certainly have not met, needs to maintain their enthusiasm to see it through.

It seems there are two issues here: their enthusiasm and the length of the delay.

At the outset some delay can be positive, eg it may be helpful to have a cooling-off period.  If the prospect is still enthusiastic after a short period of reflection, it may be a good thing.  Where delivery depends on the positive attitude of the prospect, they need to be certain they’ve signed up to the right thing.

Some Approaches to Mitigating the Delay

So, here are a few thoughts:

A Couple More Issues to Consider

The circuit questionnaire suggests two other things it may be possible to do:

Offer a Bit Extra

For the single person enterprise, this can be daunting.  But the big advantage of any small operation is the ability to offer that bit extra.  For example, I am currently putting a lot of effort into networking in the business and community sectors.  This means I have a lot of valuable information and contacts I can make available to my local clients.  This experience may also be of value for clients in other parts of the country, where I can help them make similar contacts in their area.

It is a narrow path.  You want to sign up the right prospects who understand and value your offer.  You can lose valuable prospects or win prospects who turn out to be the wrong clients.  The latter is potentially more damaging.  It is far better for the latter group to connect them with a business better suited to their needs.

Have you had experiences where you have lost potentially valuable clients or signed up the wrong person?  What did you learn from these experiences?

0 Using the Yes No Matrix

Last time I asked how do you prove the benefits you claim for your offer can be delivered?  Assuming your approach is effective, the yes no matrix can help you anticipate objections and respond to them.

It works like this:

The table helps the vendor marshal their arguments.  Work through the four central cells for your own offer.  Your answers in all four cells can inform your marketing of your offer by helping you anticipate objections and so work out how to respond to them.

Each of the quarters in this table can be turned to your advantage.  I’ll illustrate this with notes I made some time ago for my business.  My business has moved on so I can comment on these notes as if they were someone else!

Advantages of Saying Yes

At the time, I saw benefits for a client’s organisation and for their website.  I wouldn’t break things down in the same way now but it is interesting to see what I identified at the time:

Organisation

To some degree these benefits miss the mark; they don’t quite express the benefits.  Let’s work on this business and see how its benefits can be better expressed.  This is a useful exercise for you.  Write down your benefits, leave them for a few weeks and then revisit and improve them.

Organisation

These are not final statements for any business but they illustrate how you can target the advantages of your offer to meet the needs of your potential customers.

Costs of Saying Yes

Here are my historic answers:

The point to be made here is to be upfront about the costs of saying yes.

Advantages of Saying No

This is a poor answer.  This last quarter in the matrix is about reinforcing the value of the offer to the customer.  You are offering a benefit of great value to them and so they lose out if they say no.

One major issue for a lot of organisations is the status quo appears to be comfortable.  It is possible to continue bumbling along until the money runs out, never taking up the challenge to reach your full potential.

The Moribund Organisation

These two bullets illustrate the typical practices of a moribund organisation.  Carrying on as you are with no innovative change is a recipe for catastrophic failure.  The alternatives any organisation faces is to grow or to fail.  Ultimately, you may be discerning whether your particular offer is right for the potential customer but they need to understand that if they choose ‘no’, they must go to an alternative offer with a better fit.  Sometimes you may be able to help them find that better fit.

Any marketing is a skill in helping the potential customer express what they need and then finding a good match for them.  They are seeking help and must not simply decide to abide in the status quo, which has never worked.  Without vision organisations perish.

How can you help organisations understand they need constant developmental change?

4 How Do I Demonstrate Benefits?

I have written about benefits before.  They are important because you sell benefits, not products, services or causes.  Through your offer you demonstrate your offer’s benefits.  The problem is many people are not clear about their offer’s benefits.  How do you demonstrate benefits?

Identify Benefits

One big advantage to identifying benefits is it goes some way to proving them.  Digging deep into the benefits of a particular offer is likely to result in something that rings true.

The circuit questionnaire suggest using the words “which means that” to dig deeper into your benefits.  Here is my attempt from some time ago:

A web presence that works for your organisation

Which means that:

Your organisation will be more effective at getting its message across

Which means that:

It will raise more funds, increase membership, build partnerships

Which means that:

New opportunities will open up for it through multiple feedback options

Which means that:

Its understanding of its own purpose will deepen

When I wrote this, my offer emphasised assisting clients with developing their web presence.  My current offer focuses on local marketing, integrating in-person and online marketing approaches.

These days I would start with local marketing instead of web presence.  I suspect, after the first two or so iterations, I would find much the same benefits.

On first reading, more funds, members and partners might seem the most attractive line.  Indeed, it is a benefit I might feature on a website.  Potential clients may be seeking one or more of these and seeing them listed as a benefit might encourage them to read on.

In contrast, the last line offering a deeper understanding of their own purpose might lack any kind of draw in the cold light of a monitor screen.

However, during a marketing conversation, it could be compelling.  If the client is thinking through their own marketing approach, and realises they don’t really understand their own purpose, such a benefit might seem beneficial.

So, take note this approach can result in a range of answers to the question, what are your benefits?  These answers may all be helpful if deployed at the right time or in the right place.  (If you don’t know the right time or place, you’re in great company.  The only way I know is trial and error, occasionally assisted by split testing – a massive and important topic.)

Look at it this way: I could show someone a few techniques that might help them attract more members.  All they would need to do is apply them and the chances are they would work.  However, if I can help them understand their purpose, deepen their understanding, perhaps they would find their own methods for increasing membership.  They would no longer rely on me to suggest approaches.

Many businesses sell products but market a lifestyle:

“When you buy our beer, you’re supporting people who take great pride in crafting beers using traditional methods.  Furthermore, they work collaboratively, according to co-operative principles so that many people work together to bring a whole way of life to your table.”

I’m not claiming this copy is brilliant but note, what is objectively a bottle of beer can be sold as a work of art or a way of life!

Demonstrate Benefits

If you’re selling beer, your customer gets a bottle of beer.  So long as it tastes good, the customer is happy and may come back for more. The offer is cheap enough to allow the customer to risk not liking it.  If they find a dead spider in the bottle, they may complain but in general the beer proves itself.  If they don’t like it they’re more likely to try another type and unlikely to complain.

As the customer invests more money or time in the offer, they are more likely to seek proof your offer can actually deliver the promised benefits.

If the offer is a service delivered in different ways to each client, it can be difficult to show how the benefits can be delivered.  The vendor may be confident their approach is effective but how do they convey this confidence to their customer?

There are several options and they all depend on the offer being sound in the first place.  I’ll cover these in future posts but today I’ll show how it works.

The vendor needs a specific approach, a formula if you like, which can be applied to any problem to produce the desired approach.  This way the vendor can show how their approach can solve the customer’s problem.

I use the circuit questionnaire to help the client uncover the deeper dynamic of their offers, use the information to design a marketing strategy and then we may work together to deliver the strategy, making adjustments as we go.

You will note this explanation moves from benefits to features.  Benefits sell but features prove it is possible to achieve the benefits.  The discerning customer will seek the features so they can assess whether the promised benefits are credible.  This is not simply listing features but showing how the features work together to deliver the benefits.

How do you prove your offer results in the benefits you claim for it?