October 30, 2008

Halloween Humor and an Object Lesson on Trust and Marketing

I talk a LOT here about the importance trust plays in marketing your product or services.  Establishing trust with your marketing is especially essential if you’re selling “nothing but air” a.k.a. making an intangible major sale.

Trust is hard to win and easy to lose. In the world of Web 2.0, transparency is the key.  For example, In the “old days” (pre-web), if a business owner got a reputation for lying and ripping of his/her customer,  he or she could always pick up and start anew in a new location.  However, in the world of Web 2.0, your reputation can follow you ALL over the world!

Here’s a bit of Halloween Humor making the rounds these days which offers a thinly veiled object lesson on trust and marketing.

A cabbie picks up a  Nun.  She gets into the cab, and notices that the VERY handsome cab  driver won’t stop staring at her. She asks him why he is  staring.  He replies: ‘I have a question to ask, but I don’t want to  offend you.’

She answers, “My son, you  cannot offend me.  When you’ have been a nun as  long as I have, you get a chance to see and hear just about  everything.  I’m sure that there’s nothing you could say or ask that  I would find offensive.'”

“Well, I’ve always had a  fantasy to make out with a nun.”

The nun responds, “Well, I could probably oblige you under two conditions.  First, you have to be single and second, you must be Catholic.”

The cab driver blurts out, ‘HOT DOG!!!  Yes,  I’m single and Catholic!’

The nun says.   ‘Pull into the next alley.’

The make out scene that followed in that alley would make a hooker blush.

When they get back on  the road, the cab driver starts crying.

‘Why is wrong?” the nun asked.

‘Forgive me but I’ve  sinned.  I lied and I must confess; I’m married and I’m Baptist.’

The nun replies, ‘That’s  OK.  My name is Kevin and I’m going to a Halloween  party.”

It’s a beautiful thing when a liar gets taken by a con artist.

It’s not a beautiful thing when good people get taken by “gurus” and “experts” who don’t know enough to know they don’t know anything!

That’s why I’m a REAL fan of blogging.  See, there’s no better vehicle to build trust than with a blog.  It’s hard to fake expertise over the course of a couple hundred blog posts!

If you’re here and you’re offering “real deal” services, then get a blog.   There’s no better way to demonstrate the breadth and depth of your knowledge!

Filed Under: Blog, Building Trust with Blogs, Business Basics, Testimonials Build Trust Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
September 8, 2008

Selling Nothing But Air

What are you selling?

Make the mistake of asking a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman that question and he’ll whip out his cleaning machine and be into his sales pitch faster than you can scream, “NO!”  If his sales pitch were a bullet, you’d be dead before you hit the floor.

Ask that same question of a doctor, or an attorney, or any other kind of “service professional” and you would probably be met with a blank stare followed by the response,  “I’m not SELLING anything.  I’m a [fill in the blank].”

Unfortunately, NOTHING and I mean NOTHING is further from the truth. If you’re in business, you’re selling something – PERIOD!

If you’re in business and you can’t pull out  a product to hand to a prospective customer for review, then chances are strong that you’re in the business of selling nothing but air.

  • Your education – nothing but air.
  • Your experience – nothing but air.
  • Your services – nothing but air.

Sometimes referred to as “knowledge professionals”, many of us who live and work on the web are selling nothing but air.  We are joined in the “real” world by dozens of service professionals whose services can not be wrapped and mailed.   The list of those selling nothing but air includes plumbers, dentists, attorneys, doctors, chiropractors, electricians, acupuncturists, realtors, writers, accountants – the list goes on and on.

If this were a paper for a professor in business school,  I’d be using the more “technical” term for selling “nothing but air” and I’d call it the intangible sale.  Then, I’d begin prattling on about the strong connection between MAJOR SALES and INTANGIBLE SALES.   I would point out that while not every Major Sale is an Intangible Sale, every Intangible Sale is by nature a Major Sale.

Thank goodness this isn’t a term paper on Web Marketing 101!

Just as a refresher, there are two types of “sales” your business can make.  There are Minor Sales which are sales that don’t warrant a lot of time or energy on the part of the buyer.   Almost anything offered for sale in a Wal-Mart would qualify as a minor sale.  Even the few items that are sold by Wal-Mart that would meet the criteria for a Major Sale are reduced to Minor Sale status thanks to Wal-Mart’s permissive return policies.

A Major Sale is one where the buyer’s financial and/or emotional investment is significant.  As a result, the purchase warrants significant time and research into alternatives. In the Major Sale, another key factor is that there is the potential for a long-term relationship between you and/or your business and the customer.

In other words, in the Major Sale – the consequences of making a purchasing mistake are high.

  • Choosing the wrong doctor can be a matter of life and death.
  • Choosing the wrong tax professional can mean the difference between business success and business failure.
  • Choosing the wrong divorce attorney can mean the difference between splitting your assets or turning them all over to your soon to be ex-spouse.
  • Choosing the wrong Realtor can mean the difference between buying a house the floods or buying one that is high and dry.

Our town of Port St. Lucie, Florida was making national news after Tropical Storm Fay rolled through.  We got  a lot of rain dumped on our fair city over the course of a few days, exposing to the world a critical flaw in our fair city.  Explosive growth combined with poor planning by city officials = exceptionally poor storm water drainage.  As a result, much of the city was shut down by extensive flooding.

I was getting a manicure last week and he conversation turned to Fay and the extensive flooding that resulted.  I asked my manicurist if she was affected by the flooding.  Her response, “We had a REALLY good realtor who told us when we began looking to buy a house up here about the problems the city has with drainage.  As a result, we purchased our house with the possibility of flooding in mind.  Our house sits high and dry thanks to our realtor’s advice.”

Attention: All Realtors – especially those of you who are “afraid” that the internet is going to replace you-  it won’t if you understand what it is you’re REALLY selling.

Three years later, a manicurist in a popular day spa is still singing the praises of her exceptional realtor – the one who guided them as they made a Major Sale Purchase and kept them from buying a home that was susceptible to flooding.

This is why when you’re in the business of selling nothing but air why it’s so important to build TRUST with prospective clients/customers.  We live in an age which can be defined as a “No Trust Zone“.  Building trust is an essential part of making the sale when you’re selling “nothing but air”.

Realtors – you are selling nothing but air  a.k.a.  – your expertise of your local housing market.

Attorneys – you are selling nothing but air  a.k.a.  – your expertise at negotiation and persuasion.

Doctors – you are selling nothing but air  a.k.a.  – your expertise of the human body.

Accountants, you are selling nothing but air a.k.a. – your expertise and knowledge of the tax code.

Once you recognize the fact that you’re selling nothing but air, it sets the stage for creating physical product you can put in someone’s hands.  Writing a book, an eBook or even a blog is a great way to “bridge” the trust gap and demonstrate your expertise.

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing Magic Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
August 22, 2008

Strategic Internet Marketing: Making the Intangible Major Sale

Blogs are a GREAT strategic internet marketing tools and should be included in every independent service professional’ marketing tool box!

If you’re selling “nothing but air” (a.k.a. selling your knowledge and/or services), your blog can be a great cost effective way of attracting your ideal clients to your practice.

In order to understand the “Why” behind why a blog can be a great tool to promote your business when you’re selling nothing but air, you need to understand the two types of sales your business may be making.

The Ultimate Major Sale: Selling the Intangible

When you’re selling your services, you’re making the most difficult sale of all : the Intangible Major Sale.

In my book, Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results, I cover the fact that there are TWO types of sales your business can make. There are Minor Sales which are sales which don’t carry life altering consequences. Buying office supplies is an example of a Minor Sale. There are few, if any consequences from making a purchasing mistake when it comes to buying copier paper. There isn’t a significant investment of time, energy or money unless you’re buying copier paper by the semi-truck load.

On the other hand, there are other purchases that do carry life altering consequences if you make a purchasing mistake. Choosing a doctor, buying a house/car/motor home or investing your life savings are all examples of Major Sales. A significant investment of time, energy or money are all important elements in the Major Sale. However, not surprisingly, another key element in determining whether it’s a Major or Minor sale is the possibility of a developing a personal relationship. Even in there’s not a significant investment of money, if there’s the possibility of “getting to know you” in the course of doing business, then that transaction is elevated in the realm of the Major Sale.

As you have probably guessed, when people are making a decision which qualifies as a Major Sale, they need a LOT of information.

However, there’s a type of Major Sale for which I haven’t come up with an appropriate “name” yet. For now, I’ll call it the Intangible Major Sale. The Intangible Major Sale takes the traditional “Major Sale” to a whole new level.

While purchasing a motor home is a significant investment, you at least have the benefit of being able to walk inside the vehicle. You can look under the hood. You can take it for a test drive. This is one of the reasons it’s difficult to sell a car, a motor home or a house solely via the internet. There’s something about needing to lay your hands on an item that is 2 – 3 times your yearly salary before you write that check or sign those loan papers.

So, when you take a Major Sale but you remove the ability to touch, smell, see and feel the object, you elevate the level of trust you must build with the client before you can close that sale.

Selling Your Expertise

When you’re selling your knowledge, in essence you’re selling “nothing but air”. Your prospective clients can’t touch your expertise. They can’t smell your expertise and it’s possible for them to see your expertise in action and not recognize the magnitude of the display!

Often the truly skilled make the execution of their knowledge in action appear to be easy and effortless.

A few year ago, my husband was chosen to serve as a juror on a medical malpractice case. When the two teams of attorneys entered the court room, they both looked the part.

If anything, the team of prosecuting attorneys were more formidable in appearance. They traveled “en masse” and there were three attorneys followed by five “assistants”. Meanwhile, the defense attorney’s team was comprised of just two lawyers.

Aside from the size of the teams, the two appeared equally matched. Each member of both teams were impeccably dressed. When each lead attorney gave his then her opening remarks, my husband said there was little difference between the two.

At the beginning of the trial, both lead attorneys were well spoken, well groomed and well presented and appeared to be equal in the quality of the representation they provided their clients.

However, by the end of the 2nd day (of a 5 day trial), my husband’s perception of the two teams of attorney teams had changed radically. He reports that by the end of the second day of the trial, there was no doubt which team was going to prevail. The defense attorney had a well defined plan and was executing that plan with finesse. Meanwhile, the defense attorney’s team plan appeared to my husband to be defined as “throw as much sh*t and see what sticks.”

My husband came home saying, “Boy! If I ever need a lawyer, I’m calling that defense attorney!” He reports that other members of the jury uttered similar sentiments.

That is the essence of the Intangible Major Sale.

Prior to sitting through the trial, if anything, you might have decided that the prosecuting attorney was the better litigator -after all, he brought with him a larger team. However, in the end is was the defense attorney and her assistant who won the respect of everyone in that court room that week.

We all want it to be like it is in the movies. The “good” attorney is well spoken and makes a great impression while the “bad” attorney is wearing a cheap suit, smells like cheap cologne and smells faintly of whiskey.
In other words, you really can’t judge an attorney by his/her appearance.

Which is why, the joke amongst the newly divorced is “I may have a good attorney – but my ex has a GREAT attorney. If I only knew then what I know now, I’d have hired his/her attorney to represent me!”

This is what it’s like when you’re selling nothing but air.

You can look the part. You can talk the talk. The question is, can you walk the walk?

That’s why testimonials play such a HUGE role for the independent service professional who is selling his or her knowledge – a.k.a. “nothing but air”.

It’s also yet another reason why blogs are a GREAT way to build the trust needed to land new clients when you’re selling your intangible services.

Try as you might, it’s tough to “fake” that kind of expertise over the course of 200 or so posts.

So if you wonder why consultants and other independent service professionals who have blogs earn more than others -(I wish I could remember where I read that now) – this is the WHY behind that phenomenon.

If you’re selling nothing but air and you want a way to demonstrate your expertise – expertise that you would like people to spend their hard earned money to access – launch a blog. It’s just one way you can demonstrate your expertise.

Filed Under: Blog, Web Site Success Tagged With: , , , , , , ,