Aaron Hoos

A couple of years ago, I received a bunch of junk mail in my mailbox and just about threw some of it out when a bold headline told me that I could save money by buying a new (more efficient) furnace. Until that point, I was happy with my furnace because it heated my house adequately. But when the letter showed up in the mail, I suddenly realized that I had a problem I didn’t even know about (inefficient heating). I ended up buying a new furnace because of that letter.

As a financial or real estate professional, you offer solutions to a variety of problems. Unfortunately, your prospective clients don’t always know that they have a problem until you point it out to them. The challenging part is to point out the problem in a way that highlights the pain… not necessarily the problem itself.

If I received a letter in the mail that told me I had an inefficient furnace, I would have discarded the letter along with all of my other mail. Furnace efficiency is the problem but I didn’t care about it and I would have no way of knowing whether or not I had an efficient furnace. But the letter didn’t focus on the problem, it focused on the pain. My wallet. It told me that an inefficient furnace was costing me money and I could spend less each month by buying a new furnace. The next step was to have a salesperson come by my house and help me calculate how much I would save. I was skeptical about this step but I have to admit, the numbers were very real and quite compelling… and that’s what convinced me to buy a new furnace.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

First, know who your target market is. (“Everyone” is NOT your target market). Rather, your target market is a specific group of people. Use my 55 Target Market Questions to help you figure out who your target market is and what they are like. Once you know who they are, you can market to them more effectively. Note: It’s possible to have a few target markets. That’s okay… but you do need to define each one and fill out the 55 questions for each of those markets.

Second, know what problem you solve for your target market. I call it “the pickaxe factor” of your business. A few examples: Investment professionals provide the expertise to help someone build their wealth more than they could do on their own; Insurance professionals provide a way for people to preserve their wealth and minimize the impact of dramatic life events; Real estate professionals help people find the perfect home by navigating the overwhelming number of houses on the market and the complicated sale process.

Third, figure out where your target market experiences the pain of their problem. Do they notice it in their wallet? In their enjoyment of life? Do they lose sleep over it? Will their children suffer because of it? The possibilities are wide open (although for financial and real estate professionals, they tend to be focused on just a few similar factors… mostly wealth, peace of mind, opportunity, comfort-preservation… but there are others). If you have more than one target market, you need to figure out where each target market feels the pain.

Fourth, highlight that pain. In all of your marketing and communication with your target market, highlight the pain they feel in a compelling way.

[Image credit: AprilBell]

Whether selling through written word or speaking, people respond better to your sales presentation when you sell them on the benefits of your product or service.

There are lots of ways to communicate a benefit but the most persuasive sales benefit I’ve ever seen looked like this (and I’ve written it for a real estate investor but it applies to anyone)…

“Discover the 3 steps you need to take within 45 minutes of investing in a property to increase its value by 25% immediately”

Let’s deconstruct this benefit to see all of the parts:

• Strong, compelling action verb: Discover…
• Easy-to-implement action: …the 3 steps you need to take…
• Timeframe to perform the above action: …within 45 minutes of investing in a property…
• Measurable benefit: …to increase its value by 25%…
• Timeframe to realize the benefit: …immediately.

(For more reading on the topic, check out: 37 ways to improve your sales skills).

I’m writing a book. I’ve been working on it off and on for a while (more “off” than “on” if I were being honest with myself).

I need to actually get some traction on it. Rather than writing it piece by piece and then finally revealing it at the end, I might benefit from some feedback from you… so I’m going to start writing it publicly and sharing it as I go. So as often as humanly possible (hopefully every 2 weeks or so), I’m going to publish another chapter on my blog.

The book is called The Sales Funnel Bible and it’s about how businesses can grow by focusing on their sales funnel.

A brief history of the Sales Funnel Bible

In case you’re curious, my interest in sales funnels started back during my MBA. I wrote my dissertation on a business strategy tool I’d developed called the Business Diamond Framework — a tool businesses could use to develop strategy throughout their business and make sure it was aligned with their organizational hierarchy as well as their value chain. (Okay, the full description is way more complicated but you get the idea).

That dissertation sparked an interest in building a framework for businesses that would ultimately increase success. And although my Business Diamond Framework was useful for larger businesses and higher level strategy, I found the simple sales funnel to be the most immediately beneficial for the financial entrepreneurs and real estate entrepreneurs I work with every day. What’s more, sales funnels are pretty well known as a concept but not a tool, so I think there is a lot of opportunity for any business that is armed with some sales funnel knowledge to really grow.

If you want to read more about sales funnels, check out the following blog posts…

• What is a sales funnel?
• Why is a sales funnel funnel-shaped?
• How does a sales funnel work?
• Why use a sales funnel in your business?

And be sure to come back and visit my blog to read the The Sales Funnel Bible chapters as I write them!