Here's an old (old as in I'm not making it up) marketing dictum that I believe should be a mantra for all small business marketing efforts.
It was as true yesterday as it will be tomorrow when it comes to explaining consumer behavior.
We'll look at each of these individually, but I think you'll see that by approaching your marketing with all of these in mind will lead you to the results you're after.
People Don’t Believe What You Tell Them
How many of you are selling your products or services by telling your customers what it can do for them or why they need it?
This Yo-Yo is the best Yo-Yo money can buy! I think you're going to be so happy with this Yo-Yo you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
They Rarely Believe What You Show Them
So if telling them doesn't work - maybe show them?
Watch the Yo-Yo go up and down, see it's fun. Up, down, up, down. Walk the dog. Want to buy it now?
They Often Believe What Their Friends Tell Them
Ah, here we are finally getting to the meat of what good marketing should be doing - creating word of mouth. If my buddy is using your product, and likes it, that means something to me!
Dude, check out this sweet Yo-Yo I bought - I don't know how I ever lived without it! WHAT? You haven't got one yet? Are you living in a cave?
They Always Believe What They Tell Themselves
The crux of all effective marketing lies right here. If through your campaign you can get individuals to believe themselves that they need your product or service, it's sold.
That is a pretty sweet Yo-Yo, and I hear the chicks really dig a guy that knows how to Yo - why am I living without one of these? I'll take two.
Make this Your Mantra
What the above says to me is that you need to position what you’re selling in front of your potential customer in such a way that they sell themselves on it.
That's right - starting selling to your customers in such a way they sell themselves, and you'll start to see the results you want from your marketing. Whether you're selling Yo-Yo's or not.
Photo Credit: Sarah_Jones
Similar Posts:
- The Easiest Way to Sell Stuff EVER
- 5 Tips to Organize Successful Promotional Giveaways
- If You Want More Sales, Exploit the Numbers
- Small Business Marketing – Easy as 1-2-3
- Three Pillars for Word of Mouth Success
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Good post and makes you think of how you come off to your customers. Makes you take a step back and look at your own business and others small businesses. How many products out there get to the last step “They Always Believe What They Tell Themselves” and how did they do it is the real question? I think I will print this and put it on my desk so I read it often.
I think it helps if you can make the customer understand why they need something. A lot of sales people will pitch something to clients in a generalized way that doesn’t accentuate the needs of the client. Or they pitch it in a way that says “this is too complicated for you to understand, therefore you need x product or z service to help you.”
Providing social media services, for example, I see a lot of people who just don’t understand it, and the only advice they have from friends is “yeah, I have a personal Facebook profile where I trade sheep on people’s farms” which makes no sense to a business owner. I have to show them real examples of businesses, like themselves, that use social media successfully. Then they are able to explain to themselves why the need it, and they go for it.
So true! Explains why so much of traditional and modern marketing theory relates to psychology!