
This is my 8th Edition of “Techniques of the Week” which is an ode to simple writing and marketing techniques that can be used immediately with measurable results in the Before, During, and After of your sales process.
This time, we are twisting things up by having The During First, The After Second, and The Before last.
Now let’s be off this long and winding, forever dwindling, well-lit, un-furnished, parallel with trees and rocks, perpendicular to the Oregon Trail, tangent with the Emerald City, running under the Pacific Ocean, and back-around road.
The During
This technique to get more people to know who you are, your business, and actually showoff your service is called the workshop.
What exactly is a workshop, mind you?
A workshop is getting a group of people together to experience your product, service, or knowledge of your business. It can be paid or free depending on the type of prospects you want to attract. As free may give you more prospects, but paid will give you more qualified buyers as they are already proven they have no problem paying and continuing to use your product and service.
The main goal however is to attract, capture, and maintain a healthy number of lifetime new customers.
How does it work?
1. Identify what you want to sell (Ensure you only give them a taste so they are left wanting more)
a. Product – a physical product like acne cream
b. Service – a physical service like a massage or repair
c. Information – a teaser that gives people great information that entices them the buy the entire Infoproduct, like a book, class, seminar, etc..
2. Identify how you want to sell it
a. Give out free samples of what you do and ask for a follow-up
b. Teach them how to do some of it themselves to see it work, but emphasize they still need the work of a professional
c. Give out free information that they can use to see if it’s something they want
d. Educate them on who you are, what you do, and your company goals
3. Create the Event
a. Build an outline of how you want to present your workshop
b. This is theater so you will need to find what atmosphere you want to create
i. Hype, Excitement, and eagerness to buy
ii. Chilled, Laid-back, and a place they want to come back to relax
iii. A place to have fun and let loose
iv. A place to be entertained
v. And many many more.
4. Market it
a. Find out where your target market hangs out and post ads to entice them to show up
5. Have it
a. Do your workshop and ensure you get all the numbers to see how successful it was.
6. Follow-up
a. Ensure all of your new qualified prospects become life-time customers
Workshops – Hold a “How to” workshop to bolster your network profile and land new clients
The After
Some products don’t have much value when they are sold. And the only real way to make a living on them is to service them afterwards. Which is why it is important to include it in your marketing. Because if your business model runs on this concept, you could find yourself wanting as your customer doesn’t know that you service your products. And instead of paying to get it fixed, they instead throw it away and buy a new one from a competitor. Leaving you out a customer.
Therefore you have to emphasize The Service After The Sale. You have to let your customer know that you have servicing of the product in place and it is readily available if they have trouble.
· This could be a Servicing Card that is comes with the product and tells them how to get service, have a discount offer on it so they keep it, and finally thanking them for their business.
· Or actually have the Call for Service Phone # right on the product. So if it breaks or malfunctions. They know who to call.
This is very important to maintain your customer relationship when it is in its most dire straits. As the moment your product breaks, is the moment where your customer is most at risk for abandoning your product forever.
The Service After Sale – Sell a product that needs service afterwards and make a living off servicing
The Before
The key to marketing is to know your prospect before you even meet them. You need to understand how they tick. What makes them zig and what makes them zag. A great blog post that goes over all the feelings and motivations that go into psychological triggers is here. Once you understand their behavior and personality, you can guide their emotions and actions through psychological triggers.
So how do psychological triggers work?
All of us have been affected by what is around us. These influences can come from anywhere, but usually are passed down from our families and the surrounding community around us. And we are susceptible to these influences, especially during childhood. Which is why it is important to know where someone comes from as the individual will very well have the same beliefs and values as the community that raised them.
And those beliefs and values are what is important to using psychological triggers. As one trigger will affect one person one way and another in another way.
For example:
A good psychological trigger is the American Flag.
If you use the American Flag on a piece of copy, it triggers the person reading it to start thinking of America and how proud they are to be an American. Or it could trigger resentment as the person may not feel happy about nationalism. All depends on your audience.
Which brings us back to what a psychological trigger is. It is a word, phrase, sound, or symbol that elicits a certain feeling from the audience. It could be persuasive like FREE or BENEFIT or entertaining like a video of Grumpy Cat or the iconic MGM Studio Lion. It simply sets the tone and mood of what happens next.
How to use them?
1. Outline what you’re writing or acting out.
2. Tag each section of the piece with the feeling you want the audience to feel as they read or watch.
3. Find psychological triggers to put in each section to elicit those emotions from the audience to set the tone and mood for the journey you’re going to take them on.
Psychological Triggers – Use a symbol, word, or item to instill a undeniable thought, feel, or emotion from your client
And there you have it.
Three ways to get people so hyped about your products they will cause mass mayhem through the streets. All for a simple product and service.
So how do you get people hyped up for your business?
Let us know in the comments.