Tag Archives: selling

11 ways to build credibility for your business

By Aaron Hoos on May 17, 2013 in Business

Prospects are more likely going to turn into customers when they feel that they will be buying from a company that is credible. The more credible you are — the more trust and authority that prospects ascribe to you — the more likely you are going to win their hard-earned dollars when they are ready to buy.

So how do you build credibility for your business? Some entrepreneurs are fooled into believing that any marketing builds credibility but this isn’t the case. Many businesses market but only a few build credibility.

Here are 11 ways you can build credibility for your business. Mix and match them to build your own unique credibility (even if your competition is already doing some of these).

#1. CRITIQUE OR EVALUATE SOME ASPECT OF THE INDUSTRY

Every industry has its popular aspects and its shadowy underbelly. Your competition is trying to shine the light on the best parts but you can build credibility by being honest and up-front and showing quantitative comparisons or frank critique about the industry.

One example is a grocery store near my house: They usually have a couple of shopping carts by the front door, loaded with products, showing how much you’d pay at their store compared to a couple of the other major chains. It’s an effective way to position themselves as the low cost option.

#2. SHATTER MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS

Consumers are outsiders. They only encounter your industry and your business when they need your product or service. Therefore, they develop myths and misconceptions. You can build credibility by educating them about these myths and misconceptions.

A good example here, in my opinion, is Chris Brogan. Brogan does a great job of shattering the misconceptions of social media by coming back to the ideas of listening, building trust, and connecting to your network rather than focusing on the number of followers or how to explicitly sell on social media.

#3. REVEAL SECRETS OF THE INDUSTRY AND YOUR BUSINESS

This is similar to the above idea, I guess, but it’s different enough that I wanted to include it separately. Every business and industry has secrets. They aren’t always bad, they just haven’t been explained to customers. Pricing is one secret. Ingredients is another common secret. And while you may want to keep some parts of your business a secret for competitive reasons, you might gain credibility with your prospects by revealing some secrets.

One example is from McDonalds. In this video posted on Mcdonald’s Canada’s YouTube site, the McDonald’s Executive Chef explains how to make a Big Mac, and he reveals the ingredients that go into the “secret” sauce (which, he points out, isn’t really a secret at all).

#4. CREATE INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS

Many industries suffer from “same-as” syndrome, where all the competitors offer examples the same product or service as every other competitor. I have been very critical of the real estate industry for this very reason but I could list a number of industries that suffer from this problem: Financial advisors, dentists, chiropractors, optometrists, locksmiths, roofers, mechanics, and I could go on and on. You’ll build credibility if you break out of the mold and offer something different. It doesn’t have to be massively different — even just slightly different is good. (The Business Model Canvas and Blue Ocean Strategy are both good ways to innovate your business model). And click here to read my best advice on innovation.

I’m going to piss some people off by mentioning this example: Property Guys is providing a very innovative solution in the real estate industry. (Note to my real estate friends and clients: Don’t let their growing success annoy you. Rather, let it spur you on to further differentiation in your business).

#5. SHARE CANDIDLY

Many businesses maintain a barrier between themselves and their customers. I think there are a number of reasons that this happens (depending on the business, I’d guess that profitability, receivable-collection, competitiveness, privacy, and safety are all potential reasons). But customers want to connect with the businesses they buy from, and they are more likely going to buy from people they know, like, and trust. And when things go wrong, customers feel like they can reach out to a person instead of a faceless corporation. You can build credibility by being yourself. Or, if you have a large company, you can build credibility by having a representative be the face of your company. But as you’ll see in a moment, it doesn’t have to a specific person. The point is to share.

One example of a business that shared candidly and built credibility with their sharing is Domino’s Pizza. They have had an amazing transformation since their pizza turnaround commercial. That’s just an example of how one company used sharing in a one-off way. I think Twitter and Facebook give businesses the opportunity the share on an ongoing basis.

#6. SURPRISE WITH MORE INSIGHT THAN YOUR COMPETITION

Businesses put a barrier around what they know. There is a very distinct scope of information in a business’ marketing and a very distinct scope of information in their deliverable. The internet has really challenged many businesses to rethink how much they share before they deliver their deliverable. Some businesses share, for free, as much as 90% of the value they provide customers for free, leaving the 10% as their monetized value. This is smart but it’s not widespread, which means that many businesses can build credibility by educating their market and providing further insight.

One example was given by Perry Marshall a couple of years ago. (I’d like to it directly but I can’t find it). Perry described a local home repair company that produced a book — a beautifully bound, full-color book with pictures and how-to instructions. Perry rightly suggested that any home maintenance/renovation company could produce a similar book for their type of work — a plumber could produce a book about basic household plumbing; an electrician could produce a book about basic household electricity; and so on. They wouldn’t even have to give away the “secret sauce” of their business but rather just establish credibility by showing people how to care for that part of their home. You may be able to do the same thing in your business.

#7. DEMONSTRATE YOUR SOLUTION

I have a secret fascination with product demonstrators. They’re like carnies. They entice people to their booths and show them how sharp their knives are or how absorbent their shammy is. They need to do this because these products sell well when they are demonstrated. We have gotten away from demonstrations in our infoproduct world but products are still being demonstrated. Can you demonstrate some aspect of your product? You’ll build more credibility if you do.

I recently heard a consultant who demonstrated his methodology on a recorded call with a client. He got their permission first (of course), and then performed his consulting process on them while recording the call. Then he used the call to help sell the consulting service he was selling. This is a brilliant way for a service-based business to demonstrate a solution to build credibility.

#8. CREATE BEST PRACTICES

As industries grow, old businesses exit and new businesses enter. The growth is organic and messy. Years later, industries become complicated and fuzzy and even sometimes difficult to understand. You can build credibility by creating industry best practices. Even if other businesses don’t follow them, you’ll still position yourself as a pioneer. Your best practices don’t have to be all-encompassing or industry-wide. You just need to pick one thing and establish best practices. Codify them and establish yourself as an industry leader.

Many of today’s “gurus” in the world of B2B services have done just that. Seth Godin created what is ultimately a set of best practices around permission marketing. Dan Kennedy created what is ultimately a set of best practices around direct mail. Chris Brogan created what is ultimately a set of best practices around social media. I just wrote a report for a client who is building a certification process in an industry that has none.

(Note: It’s easy to overlap this idea with the “create an innovative solution” idea, above. But in this example, you’re not actually doing something new, necessarily; you’re just codifying it for others).

#9. PROVIDE DEEP ANALYSIS OF YOUR PROSPECT’S SITUATION

Successful sales people understand their prospect’s problems and use that knowledge to sell more effectively. The more you know about your prospect, the better. But often, that knowledge of the prospect’s situation is gained and then used to sell. But you can build credibility by gaining that knowledge and then feeding it back to your prospect. You’re not telling them that they feel a certain way. Rather, you’re telling them why they feel a certain way, and you’re listing and quantifying the many, many, many factors that contribute to their problem.

One example of a company that does this well is SAP. They’re a huge software company and they write a lot of whitepapers and reports. Those reports focus on the problem their customers have; not just the problem but the deeper, underlying reasons for that problem, along with the “cost” of the problem. They gain credibility by exploring the problem in-depth and, of course, positioning their software solutions as the answer to their customers’ problems.

#10. EMPATHIZE WITH YOUR PROSPECTS

Your target market doesn’t want to buy from you. And, in fact, they don’t even care about what you’re selling. They’re thinking of themselves and their problems or needs and how those problems can be solved or those needs fulfilled… not only that, they’re focused on themselves and they have much bigger lives than the problem that your product solves. They’re also thinking about how they’ll pay for their kid’s braces and they’re trying to remember to pick up milk on the way home from work. They don’t want to buy from you. They want to solve a problem with the help of someone who understands. You can build credibility by understanding — activity listening and seeking to see through their eyes.

I hate to say this but I’m having trouble thinking of an example here. I see it happening a bit… but not nearly to the degree that it could happen.

#11. BORROW YOUR CREDIBILITY FROM OTHERS

All of the examples I’ve given so far are credibility-builders that come from you. But your credibility doesn’t have to come from you. There are many ways that you can build credibility by “borrowing” it from others. For example, you should collect testimonials, write case studies, take before and after pictures, encourage customers to provide reviews and to tweet about you and provide a backlink to you on their site. If you’re an author, get a foreword written by someone famous. If you own a restaurant, get a food critic to visit. If you have awards, credentials, and degrees, these can all help with your credibility.

We see this in the film industry all the time: When a movie is about to be released, the trailer is full of accolades by critiques and film festivals, and it will list actors and actresses who have won (or even been nominated) or major awards.

Customers buy from businesses that are credible. Mix and match from these credibility-builders to help you establish authority and trust with your target market!

The 2 things that your prospects and customers are desperate to hear from you

By Aaron Hoos on May 8, 2013 in Business

I think businesses make the sales process too complicated. They present their offerings. They overcome objections. They ask for the sale. They deliver.

These same businesses see themselves as one choice out of many and they often sell into that mindset with marketing and sales communication that answers the question “why choose us”.

And although that sales process and the one-choice-out-of-many mindset does exist, I think prospects and customers are actually desperate for something else…

They’re desperate to hear two things:

  • Prospects and customers want to be told what to do
  • Prospects and customers want to the confidence to act

This point was driven home for me recently with an equity newsletter I was writing. I’m pretty clear in my newsletter that I do not give out stock advice. I can’t legally tell people what stocks to buy or sell and I’m very strict about avoiding that situation. But I frequently get emails from people asking, “which stock should I invest in?”.

This point was further driven home by a real estate investing client of mine. He trains other investors and his students frequently ask him questions like, “should I invest in Minneapolis or Ohio?” or “should I flip houses or wholesale houses?” And as he helps guide people to the answer, he encounters another problem: His students are afraid to move forward. They’re scared of different things that could go wrong and it halts them from taking action.

People are looking to be told what to do and they’re looking for the confidence to act. Let’s look at these ideas a little closer:

THEY WANT TO BE TOLD WHAT TO DO

Prospects and customers want to be told what to do. Here are some examples from my own work, writing for business, finance, and real estate audiences:

  • Entrepreneurs want to be told exactly how to start and grow their business.
  • Equity investors want to be told what equities to invest in.
  • Real estate investors want to be told how to invest in real estate.

Perhaps there are other things they want to be told, and maybe there are more specific things I could have mentioned, but these are the three that I see regularly.

A couple of caveats about what I’ve just written:

  • This has to be done legally (for example: Unless you have a license, you probably can’t tell your customer which equity to invest in).
  • This has to be done respectfully. Our customers want to be told what to do but they want to feel like they’ve done it themselves.

What are your prospects and customers desperate to hear? Chances are, the product or service they buy from you is only part of the solution. They want an answer. A way. A method. A key that unlocks what they were hoping to achieve.

THEY WANT THE CONFIDENCE TO ACT

Prospects and customers get a lot of ideas and advice and suggestions from experts (some of it is free, some of it is paid for) but they don’t always act. There might be a lot of stated reasons about why they don’t act but it really boils down to confidence that they won’t cause more harm by acting on what they know or have bought.

As business owners, we need to not only provide the right solutions to our customers but we also have to empower them to use those solutions — we need to give them the right instructions, motivate them with reminders (which also helps to eliminate buyer remorse), and show them how other buyers are using the product or service successfully.

Your customers buy from you but do they get everything they need? They’re looking to be told what to do and they’re looking for confidence to act. Don’t forget to give that to them!

4 marketing strategies to use when your prospect’s PERCEIVED needs and REAL needs aren’t the same

By Aaron Hoos on April 16, 2013 in Business

Henry Ford famously said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster horses’.”

fasterhorse

Ford was thinking about meeting customer needs with a horseless carriage but if he had stopped to ask his customers what they needed, their best answer would have been a modification of something that already existed.

Henry Ford’s comment is funny but it illustrates a very serious problem that many businesses face: There is a difference between customers’ real needs and perceived needs. This is a problem for businesses because people buy things based on their needs. So if they are buying based on perceived needs, they might buy the wrong thing.

As a marketer, how do you address perceived needs versus real needs?

  • Sell to the perceived problem. Instead of trying to fight the current and bend the prospect to the marketer’s will, flow with the current by building marketing content around the problem your prospects and customers THINK they have. It will take some creativity to achieve and you need to make sure you can do this ethically but it can be done and it’s a way to position your product or service attractively.
  • Position both problems together. In your marketing, try to handle both problems together, linking them in your content to link them in your prospect’s mind. This is sort-of educational and it’s sort-of a branding effort. You want your prospect to think of their perceived problem and the real problem as being closely associated. This can be hard if the perceived problem and the real problem are quite far apart. However, the advantage to this method is that you’ll increase the sense of how dire the situation is and that increases the urgency to buy.
  • Position the real problem as being an even bigger threat. Show your prospects how the problem they think they are facing could potentially be eclipsed by an even more serious problem (the real one).
  • Educate buyers about the perceived versus real need. Show your prospects that the perceived need they have is not really the need that must be solved. Show them that the real need is the need to be addressed and then connect that real need to the product or service you sell. This option is very challenging for marketers to do because you could run the risk of insulting your prospects. That will annoy prospects and send them off to your competitor who will be all too willing to take their money. Avoid insulting your customers by taking a very neutral, educational tone. Bring in respected experts. Treat both as actual problems but simply highlight the one problem that most people address with your product or service.

(Image credit: Curufin)

How to create more effective calls to action

By Aaron Hoos on April 11, 2013 in Business

Any interaction you have with a lead, a prospect, or a customer will likely have some kind of call to action or desired outcome attached to it. Those calls to action or desired outcomes are key to how well your business runs today and how successful it will be in the future.

Here are some desired outcome examples: It might be about educating them about your amazing product or service so they them further down your sales funnel. As they get closer to buying something, your desired outcomes might be to take action and buy now. Once they are customers, you might interact with them and end with desired outcomes of deepening your understanding of them or perhaps asking them to refer you to someone else.

Calls to action help to propel your prospects and customers forward and, ultimately, they help to propel your business forward. So doesn’t it make sense to improve your ability to create better calls to action? In doing so, you’ll improve how your marketing and selling abilities, your networking, your copywriting, and more!

Creating an effective call to action is about understanding what your audience is looking for and showing them how the desired action you’re describing will help them find it. (This is really basic sales stuff and you probably know this part already).

But there’s another aspect to creating effective calls to action that I never really thought about before now: You also need to understand exactly what you are asking the person to do — what behaviors you are asking them to change. Are you asking them to take action once (“buy now!”)? Are you asking them to hire you for some service (“let’s work together!”)? Are you asking them to make a permanent change (“stop smoking!”)?

I stumbled across a really useful tool about this. The tool is called the “Behavior Grid” and it was created by BJ Fogg of Stanford University. The behavior grid is useful for many applications (and I first noticed it in an article about improving the user experience in web design). But I realized that this tool is really useful to help you create powerful calls to action in your marketing and sales efforts (including interactions and copywriting).

Click here to check out BJ Fogg’s Behavior Grid (opens in a new window).

Screenshot of Behavior Grid websiteThe Behavior Grid shows the 15 different types of behavior changes someone could make. Down the side of the grid are the three possible scopes of change — one-time, over a period of time, or permanent (from now, on). Across the top of the grid are the 5 possible types of change — do a new behavior, do a familiar behavior, increase behavior intensity, decrease behavior intensity, and stop existing behavior.

So when you are thinking about the call to action you want to ask your lead, prospect, or customer to do, you would figure out the scope of the change you are asking them to do and then you would figure out the type of change you are asking them to do. “Buy now”, for example, is a one-time new behavior if you are asking a prospect who has never bought from you before.

Once you’ve figured out the scope and type of behavior then click on the intersecting square in the grid to get more information about the change and tips about triggers and motivation to help you compel the action.

Click here to check out BJ Fogg’s Behavior Grid.

One step all sellers need to take before discussing pain points with prospects

By Aaron Hoos on February 8, 2013 in Business

In this post, as in most of my posts, I’m using the term “sellers” somewhat generically. When I say “seller” I mean anyone who markets or sells — whether you own an online business or an offline one, whether you’re a copywriter or a door-to-door fundraiser.

One of the basics of “selling 101″ is the need for sellers to identify and discuss pain points with prospects. It’s in just about every sales book I’ve ever read and every sales training course I’ve ever attended. It’s an essential step in the path to a successful sale because once you’ve uncovered those pain points, you can describe how they can be solved by your product or service.

As important as this “highlight-the-pain” concept is, there is a component missing from the concept and I have only recently read a great explanation about the missing link.

I recently cleaned out my bookshelf (to make room for some great new books!) and dusted off a book called Solution Selling by Michael Bosworth, written in the 1990′s. It’s been years since I skimmed the book (I’m not sure I’ve ever read, to be honest) so I thought I should actually sit down and go through it.

Early in his book, Bosworth discusses pain points and the importance to sellers of highlighting the pain. Classic. But he goes a step further and discusses the concept of “latent pain”. Latent pain, Bosworth says, is the pain that a prospect feels but…

  • Either doesn’t realize it’s a pain
  • Or has failed to find a solution so they have just grown to accept or accommodate the pain

Some examples (these are my own, not Bosworth’s) might include: Someone who has come to accept a low rate of return on their investments because they don’t know of a safe alternative that provides better returns; someone who keeps dumping oil into their leaky engine because they think the repair will be more than they can afford; or in the case of the target market for my Real Estate Investing Copywriter brand, a real estate investor who isn’t aware of the impact that copywriting might have on their ability to do more deals.

In the examples above, we see the lack of awareness of the pain or the accommodation of the pain as two factors contributing to a situation where someone simply doesn’t “feel the pain”. And as Bosworth suggests, a salesperson who goes to sell to these people will encounter resistance and even confusion because the person is not aware (or have become immune to) the pain point.

So the first step before talking about pain points with prospects — and especially before making assumptions about what pain points might exist — is to transition the prospect’s mindset from latent pain to felt pain. That is: To use the conversation (or the copywriting or however you sell) to first help the prospect discover that there is indeed pain. Then, and only then, should a seller turn the conversation to discussing the cost of the pain (and ultimately the solution).

This concept of latent pain can help to renew old prospects who didn’t seem interested in your product or service in the past, and it can increase your potential target market to people who might have latent pain, rather than just those for whom the pain is a pressing concern.

Empower your staff to do deals!

By Aaron Hoos on February 3, 2013 in Business

I get calls from time to time from a carpet cleaning company. They’ve cleaned my carpets in the past and periodically they call to ask if I want them done again. Normally I don’t like these calls but it’s a good reminder to do my carpets and they are a good company so I’m okay with it.

So recently I received a call from the company asking if I wanted my carpets cleaned, and telling me about an “amazing” 3-room deal for some fixed price. The telemarketer gave me a few more details and I agreed, and then said: “I have 6 rooms I want cleaned. How much is that?”

To her credit, she was very professional but she said something that alarmed me a bit. She said: “One moment and I’ll pass you over to my manager.”

Her manager!?! I wasn’t asking for anything crazy. Heck, if she just doubled the deal, I would have been fine with that.

Anyway, the manager came on the phone right after and confirmed my question then punched his calculator and came up with a number that, to my benefit, turned out to be less than double the deal (huzzah!). So I ordered and they showed up the other day and cleaned my carpets and did a good job.

But heck, why doesn’t the company just empower its staff to do their own deals?

Presumably these are minimum wage staff who are perhaps paid a bonus or commission for every deal they close. So empowering them to do their own deals will most certainly give them more money.

On the other hand, I get that there’s a risk that the company will give away the farm. When I first started in sales, I asked my manager to put together the deals for me and finally he got sick of it and empowered me to do the deals myself. I was freaked out but at first I ran the deals by him to make sure I wasn’t giving something away for too little. Then I gained some confidence. And when I became sales manager, I did the same thing to my staff.

Empowering your staff to do deals is easy and it will free up your time to do other things. Here are some tips to help:

  • Give them parameters. In some cases, you can give them a maximum and a minimum to work in. In some businesses, it might be as simple as just giving them a metric to use. In the case of the carpet cleaning company, the manager should have said something like: “The deal is $100 for 3 rooms. Sell that. But if they want more rooms, we’ll do $25/room” (or something like that; I have no idea what metric they charged me and maybe THAT is why they don’t tell their staff).
  • Educate your staff. Help them to know the value of doing more deals and offering to do additional rooms. Even if they don’t get a direct financial benefit from each additional sale they make (although I think they should!) help them to see that more sales increases the likelihood of job security and it makes the business stronger, which adds even more job security.
  • Role play. Give them a few scenarios to practice. In very short order, they will be able to do some of the most common deals without breaking out the calculator and putting the client on hold.
  • Reward them. Sales is hard work. People should be rewarded for the effort. Even if you don’t pay on commission, a bonus structure (heck, even some earned time off) is a good way to motivate people to do more deals.

Fall in love with ‘no’ — Follow-up post

By Aaron Hoos on January 30, 2013 in Business

Recently, I wrote a post about why business owners and sales people (and especially financial advisors) should fall in love with no.

You should go read the post but, to summarize, I suggested that “no” isn’t as bad as we tend to make it out to be and a bunch of “no’s” are just part of the journey towards “yes”!

Shortly after writing that post, I spotted a link on Twitter about someone who has created a technique for falling in love with no. It’s pretty awesome and I think you should read it.

His name is Jia Jiang and he owns a company called hooplus.com and he blogs at a site called entresting.com. His blog is built around a concept of “Rejection Therapy” in which he is attempting to make 100 odd or even audacious requests with the “hope” of becoming immune to rejection. He writes:

I am going through 100 days of Rejection Therapy, aiming to have one rejection per day by making crazy requests. My goal is to desensitize myself from the pain of rejection and overcome my fear.

Among his requests so far, he has tried to borrow $100 from a stranger, ask a girl out to dinner, slide down a firepole at a fire station, challenge a CEO to a staring contest, have Jeff Probst sing a song to his son, make an announcement on a Southwest flight, and more. Some are weird, some are way out there, some are pretty awesome. You can see his rejection scorecard here and following along on his blog here.

I think this is awesome because Jiang has correctly identified the importance of desensitizing himself to the pain of rejection… which goes along with my assertion that we have to fall in love with “no” instead of fear it. A sales person could very well create his or her own “Rejection Therapy”. You don’t have to just become immune to the fear of “no” in a sales setting… why not become immune to the fear of rejection in any setting? Surely that will have an effect on your sales efforts, too!

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