Hey, let’s face it: in the world of marketing and sales, there are a lot of misconceptions, a lot of erroneous “conventional wisdom” and a lot of beliefs I’m convinced are flat out wrong.
Here’s one, a BIG one, you might have fallen for…
“…but my customers are different”.
You might think along these lines. You might say to yourself: “Buyers in my town are not like those in other towns”. Or, “an emotional appeal might work for you, but my buyers are logical”. Or, “my buyers don’t read long copy and content.”
And on and on…
I think you get the idea. If you believe “my customers are different”, you may think you are the only one who feels this way.
Well guess what? You’re not. This is a common misconception. And it causes a lot of businesses to suffer.
Falling for this erroneous notion just might destroy your marketing and sales results!
Sorry to burst your bubble, but your customers are not different.
There are certain things that do not change from market to market, or from generation to generation.
People buy to solve a problem or reach a goal. They aren’t buying your product, they’re buying what your product does for them, for the benefits it gives them.
David Ogilvy, referred to as “The Father of Advertising” said, “Consumers do not buy products. They buy product benefits.” I agree with him. Last I checked, Ogilvy enjoyed a quite successful career!
People, and yes this includes your customers, respond to stories. So find a way to include stories in your marketing and sales.
People, even in the B2B world, make buying decisions emotionally, and seek to justify their decisions with logic. It doesn’t matter whose customers they are, if your only approach is “It’s the logical choice”, you’ll fall flat.
You might find this idea that people buy emotionally hard to believe, but it has been scientifically verified. And it’s not just buying decisions. In general, people make decisions emotionally. Studies have concluded that people who suffer damage in the part of the brain that generates emotions are unable to make decisions.
Here’s another area where “your customers are not different”: They want to be entertained. Legendary marketer and copywriter Dan Kennedy has said that “People buy more and buy more happily when in good humor”.
Want more evidence of this? Consider the story of Bill Glazer. Bill owned menswear stores in Baltimore before he became a very successful marketing strategist. And Bill is a MASTER copywriter. He once wrote a sales letter to send to his mailing list which included doctors, lawyers, engineers and “serious professionals”.
He could have easily said “My customers are different” and stuck with the same, boring, ineffective marketing tactics used by so many. The type of tactics pretty much guaranteed to fail!
But Bill is too astute for that. What did he do? He hand-wrote a 5-page sales letter on legal paper using a fun, tongue-in-cheek, humorous attitude and tone of voice. It had big letters, small letters, scratchouts, hand-drawn arrows, and on and on. You can see it here. I really recommend you take a look!
It was fun, it was silly, it was zany. It grabbed attention. And guess what? It sold products like crazy! According to Bill, “this advertisement was my most successful ever.”
Now…
Before you can influence and persuade your market, you have to get their attention. And what is more likely to grab and keep attention? Boring, generic “me-too” marketing? Or Bill’s OUTRAGEOUS sales letter?
So here’s my advice: do not fall for the very costly notion that “my customers are different”. People are people. They respond to emotional appeals. They are not as logical as they like to think they are. They buy to solve problems and reach goals. They crave appreciation and a feeling of importance. They respond to stories, And they LOVE to be entertained!
Market and sell accordingly. I DARE you!
Thank you for reading. Have a great day!
John
johnrugh.com 