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One of my favorite business books is Doug Hall’s JumpStart Your Business Brain. The book chronicles Hall’s comprehensive study of the effectiveness of marketing messages. He studied thousands of client groups, collected tens of thousands of data points and evaluated over a million customer reactions.
He concluded that the most effective marketing messages have three common characteristics:
- They convey an overt benefit
- They give the buyer a real reason to believe
- They display a dramatic difference from the competition.
In today’s post, we will explore the Overt Benefit.
Because we are inundated with advertisements every day, marketers must rise above the fray and stand out. According to Hall, marketing messages that convey an overt benefit are three times more effective than other similar messages.
What is an Overt Benefit?
Marketing 101 teaches us to avoid selling features but, instead, focus on benefits. Hall takes this advice one step further; don’t sell features, don’t sell benefits, sell OVERT benefits!
An overt benefit is one that solicits an emotion, is brash, bold and sometimes blunt. Strong overt benefits are measurable or quantifiable.
Below are some examples:
- Dominoes Pizza – If you are 30 or older, you may remember when Dominos Pizza first started delivering pizza in 30 minutes or less or the pizza was free. That was crazy! Notice the progression from feature to benefit to overt benefit: Pizza – Delivered – In 30 minutes or free!
- Exterminator – One of my friends owns an extermination company. One day he mentioned his mosquito yard treatment. He said, “It’s safe for pets! You can let your dogs out in the backyard as soon as I treat the yard.” Progression: Pest Control – Kill mosquitoes – Safe for pets!
- Shoeshine – If you work in a busy corporate area or are a frequent flyers, you may come across old-fashioned shoeshine stands. I remember seeing a sign on a stand that read, “2-minute or less!” Progression: Shoeshine – Clean, shining shoes – Done quickly!
- Business Coaching – In my coaching practice, I help business owners get organized, gain clarity, prioritize, get motivated, better manage their time and offer accountability. Ultimately, I offer peace of mind and, hopefully, improved profitability. Progression: Coaching – Get organized and motivated – Peace of mind!
If you find yourself currently selling features or generic benefits and want to take it to the next level, spend some time converting your features to benefits and your benefits to overt benefits. This can be accomplished by asking yourself questions like, why should the customer care? Why is the feature important? Why is the feature necessary? How will the customer/client feel after using your product or service? What is unique about my product or service? Then look for ways to apply bold, brash, blunt and measurable descriptors to your message.
Stay tuned for Part II – Real Reason to Believe
www.Clarity-Coaching.biz | www.TheTermiteEffect.com
I have subscribed to Andy Stanley’s monthly Leadership podcast for several years now. Below are his Five Inescapable Truths of Culture.
- Leaders are responsible for and shape their organization’s culture whether they mean to or not.
- “Time in” erodes “awareness of”. The longer you are in the position of leadership, the less aware you are of what’s going on within the culture.
- A healthy culture attracts and keeps healthy people. Unhealthy people will be repelled by the culture because they will not be tolerated.
- The culture of an organization impacts the long-term productivity of an organization. Expect lower productivity from companies with unhealthy cultures and vice versa.
- Unhealthy cultures are slow to adapt to change.
Check out Andy Stanley’s Leadership Podcast here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AndyStanleyLeadershipPodcast
In Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, he references a poem called “Just for Today” by Sybil F. Partridge that had a profound impact on his life. I thought I would share it with you:
Just for today I will be happy. This assumes what Abraham Lincoln said is true: ‘Most folks are about as happy as they make their mind up to be.’ Happiness comes from within; it is not a matter of externals.
Just for today I will try to adjust myself to what is; not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my family, my business, and my luck as they come and fit myself to them.
Just for today I will take care of my body. I will exercise it, care for it, nourish it, not abuse or neglect it, so that it will be a perfect machine for my bidding.
Just for today I will try to strengthen my mind. I will learn something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought, and concentration.
Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do someone a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two chores I don’t want to do, as William James suggests, just for exercise.
Just for today I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, speak diplomatically, act courteously, be liberal with praise, criticize not at all, nor find fault with anything, and not try to regulate or improve anyone.
Just for today I will try to live through this day only, not tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do things for twelve hours that would appall me if I had to keep them up for a lifetime.
Just for today I will have a program. I will write down what I expect to do every hour. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. It will eliminate two pests: hurrying and indecision.
Just for today I will have a quiet half hour by myself and relax. In this half hour sometimes I will think of God, so as to get a little more perspective into my life.
Just for today I will be unafraid. Particularly, I will be unafraid to be happy; to enjoy what is beautiful; to love; and to believe that those I love, love me.
— Copyright © Sybil Partridge
I recently conducted a workshop called Marketing 101: A Shot of Espresso. It is designed to help business owners and entrepreneurs reevaluate their marketing efforts and provide them with ideas that they can implement for their business.
During this particular session, I told the group that each day I make two, value-added posts to both of my Twitter and Facebook accounts (Clarity Coaching and my book, The Termite Effect). A woman in the front of the room said, “that’s a lot!” My reply to her was “who says that’s a lot?”
I told her that, based on her response, she had already talked herself out of social media as part of her marketing plan. She agreed.
What I witnessed that morning was a perfect example of self-sabotage or self-limiting beliefs. How many of you talk yourself out of stuff before you even get started? It’s sad when you think about it. How many dreams or ideas have you let go by the wayside simply because you thought it would be too difficult?
Honestly, there is enough negativity in the world to keep most of us down as it is. Why would you allow yourself to be another barrier or obstacle to doing something new and exciting?
Next time that little voice inside your head says, “that will be hard” or “you can’t do that” stop what you are doing and say out loud, “WHO SAYS I CAN’T DO THAT?” Warning: You must say this out loud or it does not work!
Just like when you are dealing with a bully, once someone shows their willingness to stand up for themselves, they usually back down. Push back on the self-sabotage and self-limiting bully.
Try this technique for a few weeks and let me know how it goes.
www.Clarity-Coaching.biz | www.TheTermiteEffect.com
Can the old “How-to-Eat-an-Elephant” adage be applied to achieving your goals? The answer is “absolutely yes“. The elephant adage advises one bite at a time. To reach your goals, I suggest that you focus on hitting singles.
What do all great home run hitters have in common? They strike out a lot! That’s what happens when you swing for the fences every time you step up to the plate. The analogy that I like to draw is that your goals are like scoring a run in baseball. One way to score in baseball is to hit a home run. Another strategy is called “small ball” whereby you do whatever you can to get on base and focus on moving the runner ahead of you around the bases. This includes walking, bunting, hitting a single or a double, stealing a base, getting hit by a pitch or focusing on making contact.
Some of the greatest hitters in Major League Baseball history hit less than 200 career home runs.
- Pete Rose, the all-time hits leader, had over 14,000 at-bats, 4,256 hits and only 160 home runs.
- Tony Gwynn, #17 on the all-time hit list, had over 9,200 at-bats, 3,141 hits and only 135 home runs.
- Rod Carew, #21 on the all-time hit list, had 9,315 at-bats, 3,053 hits BUT only 92 home runs.
The idea I want to convey to you is that one of the secrets to attaining your goals is to start with the end in mind, create a plan to step-by-step, day-by-day, make progress toward the goal and then execute the plan by focusing on hitting singles day in and day out (one bite at a time).
Too many of us keep our focus only on the achievement of the ultimate goal. I want to caution you not to fall into this trap. Try to celebrate your progress (your singles) along the way to your goal. Below are some examples:
- If your goal is to run a marathon – celebrate your progress training.
- If you want to pay off debt – celebrate the dwindling balances and interest payments.
- Starting a business? Celebrate each step along the journey to get the venture off the ground.
- Going on vacation? Celebrate the countdown until you go.
- Trying to lose weight? Celebrate each lost pound.
Try hitting singles. Let me know how it works out for you.
www.Clarity-Coaching.biz | www.TheTermiteEffect.com
A fellow coach and friend, Kevin Thomas, recently posed a powerful question that I want to expand on. He asked, “Are you a passion booster or a passion buster?”
When you look at your sphere of influence, which one describes you?
- Do you build people up or tear them down? Discourage or encourage?
- Do you point out the negative or the downside to their ideas and dreams or do you help them think bigger?
- Are you more likely to say “You can’t do that!” or “Wow! Tell me more!”?
- Do you try to pull people down to your level or encourage them to strive for greatness?
- When you first meet someone, do you initially think the worst or the best of them?
What does this have to do with running a business?
EVERYTHING!
Look at your hiring practices: Do you hire people who are smarter than you? Happier than you? More innovative than you? Or do you hire people that make you feel good about yourself; those that you feel superior to?
Look at your customer service practices: Do you look at customer complaints as a nuisance or an opportunity to grow and get better?
Look at your sales practices: Are you an authentic listener or do you dominate conversations? Are you interested or interesting?
Look at your human resources management practices: Do you manage by intimidation? Do you encourage your employees to innovate, think outside-the-box and allow them to fail? Or do you build walls around their responsibilities and make the ramifications of failure so punitive that they operate like robots? Are your employees frustrated or energized? Do you encourage your employees to pursue their dreams even if that means they leave your company?
Dr. Wayne Dyer once said, “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change.”
If you are a passion buster, try changing the way you look at things and perhaps you can convert to being a passion booster.
I recently read an article on American Express OPEN Forum about leadership. They outlined four key attributes of leadership:
- Leaders make decisions
- Leaders meet and greet their people
- Leaders establish a common purpose
- Leaders teach
After reading their list, I came to realize there are literally hundreds of attributes or characteristics that great leaders possess. In my book, The Termite Effect – 25 Common Business Mistakes and Their Hidden Consequences, I weighed in with my personal list of attributes that I thought I would share with you here:
- Great leaders follow The Golden Rule by treating others the way they would want to be treated in a similar situation.
- Great leaders hold themselves accountable just as they would any of their teammates or subordinates. If something goes wrong on their watch, a great leader takes full ownership and responsibility. They do NOT make excuses.
- Credibility. You’ve heard old maxims such as “actions speak louder than words
and “mean what you say and say what you mean”. Both of these speak to how leaders are viewed by those they lead.
As the title of this blog indicates, there are many more definitions of leadership. Please share yours with me.
If you were sitting on a beach armed only with a Smartphone or laptop and you could only spend one minute reading an email that contains the key performance indicators about your business, what would those indicators be?
That is a difficult question for most business owners and entrepreneurs to answer off the top of our heads. Just as a doctor will check your vital signs – i.e blood pressure, heart rate – what are the vital few metrics that indicate to you the health of your business at any given time?
Regardless of whether I work with entrepreneurs or in a corporate environment, identifying those critical few metrics is a important conversation.
Entrepreneurs are notoriously negligent when it comes to measuring anything beyond top line, bottom line, their checking account balance and a few expense items. They spend their waking hours running their business; usually wearing multiple hats and forgoing sleep.
In the corporate world, typically you will have access to more data than you know what to do with. Therefore defining the vital few becomes difficult.
How do you create your personal Sitting-on-the-Beach Dashboard? Let me help you with a short story.
When I served as the President of a Business Network International Chapter, my leadership team and I met with other area chapters to review our goals for the coming year. Most chapters articulated goals around the number of referrals to be passed, a desired amount of closed business to be attained and their membership numbers.
My team realized that we had very little control over those metrics so we took a different route. We set goals for attendance, one-on-one meetings between our members and the number of visitors to the chapter. Our theory was that with increased attendance, better relationships between members and more visitors, we could impact the number of referrals, closed business and membership.
Did you catch the lessons in this story?
Lesson #1 – It is important to look below the surface of each vital metric. Your goal should be to increase your visibility into the inputs or root cause of each key metric. For example, everyone measures revenue but what are the inputs? Price x Sales Volume. How do you sell more?
- You could sell more to your current customers. What percent of your current sales comes from them?
- You could make more sales calls. Who do you call on?
- You could increase your marketing budget or try different marketing techniques. How do you know which marketing works?
Lesson #2 – Pay particular attention to metrics that you have some control over. As in the above example, you have very little control over price. You also have no control over the economy, the weather or consumer preferences. If you focus your measurements on those things that you do control, your odds of improving your business over time increase dramatically.
I challenge you to evaluate what you currently measure in your business. Determine what you should be measuring by looking at the root cause or inputs to each metric and begin measuring those things.
Send me your feedback and success stories as you implement this strategy.
www.Clarity-Coaching.biz/ | www.TheTermiteEffect.com
Given the importance of customer retention outlined in Parts I and II, developing a strategy of renewed focus on your existing customers might be in order.
According to Jay Abraham’s best-seller, Guerrilla Marketing, he argues that business owners should spend the majority of their marketing efforts on existing customers. Here’s how he breaks it down:
- 10% of your marketing budget to market to EVERYONE
- 30% of your marketing budget to market to PROSPECTS
- 60% of your marketing budget to market to EXISTING CUSTOMERS
What is your current marketing ratio?
Do you spend most of your efforts marketing to everyone or prospects?
Do you neglect your current customers?
If you are looking for a way to change your current marketing ratio, spend some time designing and implementing a systematic “Keep-in-Touch” system whereby you reach out to your current customers on a regular basis if for no other reason than to say “Thank You”. Think about all the avenues at your disposal:
- Email
- A phone call
- A handwritten note
- Facebook
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Birthday card
- Take them to lunch
- Drop by their office and say hello
- Refer someone to them
- Send them a news article of interest
- Buy them a souvenir of their favorite college
- Etc
Developing a “Keep-in-Touch” system is a big part of the Clarity Coaching Marketing Strategy Intensive. We help our clients design and implement an easy-to-follow system of maintaining contact with their current customers in a non-intrusive, value-added manner.
www.Clarity-Coaching.biz | www.TheTermiteEffect.com
To continue our discussion about customer retention, let’s examine why it is often neglected.
Do you suffer from Apathy-After-the-Sale Syndrome? It is a common affliction experienced by business owners and entrepreneurs. The primary symptom is a lack of interest in and focus on current customers. The cause of this ailment is due to our natural tendency of getting more satisfaction from hunting, prospecting, and farming for NEW customers than from caring for and nurturing our CURRENT customers. Essentially, you take your current customers for granted.
Don’t you think that it takes a certain level of arrogance to assume that customers will always be with you with no effort on your part?
At Clarity Coaching, we view the customer relationship as just that . . . a relationship. As with any relationship, you get out of it what you put into it. If you work at it, it can grow . . . if you don’t, it won’t!
Entrepreneurs and business owners must be reminded that marketing is not over once you make the sale. Employing a robust customer retention program is a sure-fire way of avoiding Apathy-After-the-Sale Syndrome.
In Part Three, we discuss how to maximize customer retention.
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