For Real Marketing and Business Success “Ignore” What Clients & Customers Are Saying…

“Your Marketing’s Not Optimal (and You’re Probably Leaving Wealth
and Money On The Table and In Your Competitors’ Wallets)
Until You Really Listen To Your Customers/Clients …

And Then Ignore Them!

What?

That probably violates everything you’ve ever been taught but
without thinking about this you’re not getting the most from
your marketing. 

But…

You’ve always been told that the majority of entrepreneurs, businesses, and
marketers are unsuccessful in their marketing, in part, because they fail to
listen to their client/customers.

They develop products and services that THEY love but that their customers
don’t really want or care about.  And they advertise and market in ways that
don’t resonate with the client/customer. Or that assume too much.

In short, that we fail to listen to our buyers/prospects.

And, if you’re in one of my coaching groups, private consulting groups, or
you’ve ever heard me speak, read any of my books or reports, or purchased any
of my products about copywriting, persuasion, influence, or marketing if I do say
over and over again that is important to either personally listen to your clients or
customers or listening on the calls of your salespeople to your client’s customers
to discover the language that they used to describe their problems and what they
really want in terms of their solutions.

And, as far as that goes it’s true.

So why, in the name of all that’s holy, would I say that we have to ignore
them or risk failure or at best underperforming marketing?

Well, there’s a strong argument to be made that, while we must first listen carefully,

methodically, and systematically, we must then IGNORE what we heard and
they’re saying before we launch our optimized  marketing .

Why?

Well we learn a lot about our customer/client concerns, motivations, hopes and fears
by listening.

And very few of us ever do that.  So when you do you get an edge.

But, many times clients and customers also use certain language to express objections
when they really mean something completely different.

And almost nobody realizes this and the few that do get such a huge edge on
the competition that they are propelled into the 20% of the market that gets
80% of the profits.

So you might be saying…”Give me an example.”  Fine.  That’s a good
and fair question.
So here’s one.

The price objection as a mask for the “legacy” or the
“guilt” objection.

When older clients/customers are confronted with a high price for something
that they really desire they may express price resistance that is really a cover
for something else – guilt or the desire to leave a legacy.

By this I mean that the older client feels guilty spending $8,000, $10,000
or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on a vacation home, luxury automobile,
time share, or other “optional” expenditure. These expenditures could even be for
something as simple as a high quality high-end hearing aid, a hair transplant, for
plastic surgery, vacation, or other luxury when they have children and grandchildren
who are struggling to make tuition payments or home payments.

In a younger demographic this might be guilt over needing to pay for expensive
college tuition so that kids don’t start life with staggering student loan debt!

Either group may express this objection/concern simply as a price objection when
it really something altogether different.

So if we listen ONLY to what they say and we stopped right there we might miss
something very very important.  And if we address only the price objection but
not the real and underlying legacy or guilt objection we will have inferior marketing,
and inferior selling.  And as a result they will underperform and we spend more
than we have to for inferior results.

So what’s the solution?  The process?  And how to get from here to there?
To become radically more persuasive?

OK.  Stop you’re badgering. I’ll share something that’s made me
very successful…

First, and you’ve say this before and you may even be saying “I already know that”
(but don’t shut down because you’re probably not really doing it):

You have to identify your products and services that you most enjoy delivering, that
your best at delivering.  And of those you want to segment and identify the ones that
produce the highest profit margins for the effort and resources expended.

This alone might skyrocket profits without increasing time worked.

This is where 80% or more of the profit probably already comes from.
And this is what we should be focused on.

Next, you have to identify the “perfect clients/customers” that buy those leveraged
products or services.

You don’t run of and indiscriminately try to market or sell it to people that aren’t
highly motivated to get it that particular set of products.

Typically, the perfect client is one that doesn’t take a lot of selling, that comes
to you when they’re already to buy, that respects you and your process, and who
is willing to pay you the price you’re asking or more for the solution you’re offering.

Once you’ve identified this mix of product/service and perfect client/customer only
then should you reverse engineer the data that you have about them.

Having a profile of this client it’s now easier to develop effective marketing materials,
and how to reach them and to attract and convert them.

So we’ve identified the correct products and services that will focus on marketing on
we identified the best clients or customers for that product we’ve identified what
they share in common and how to reach them.

The next step is to identify, to the greatest extent possible, the language that
they use to describe their problems concerns worries and the language that they use
to describe their desired solutions. Very few people do any of the steps but most people
don’t listen to the client at all.

In this case I am suggesting that we listen to them very carefully.

But, having listened to them it’s then important to ignore
what they have to say as well. 

By this I mean we have to consider whether they’re saying something that they
don’t really mean or their objecting as a cover for some underlying thing that they are
failing to mention out of embarrassment or a desire not to confront it.

This requires us to really consider the psychology of the individual buying group,
their age, concerns and what else might matter but be embarrassing or hard to confront.
And then we have to be able to answer those objections as well.

We cannot stop at the price objection. Or we will fail them and ourselves.

In the guilty about luxury, or legacy example, we’d also want to say for example:
“many clients in addition to price are also worried about…”

And we have to have answers for each and everyone of those “secret objections” .

Hard work.  Well not really.  And when you get good at this, you’re profits will soar,
your marketing costs will actually be lower, and your life will be better.

Finally, your competitors will not know what hit them or how to solve the problem.

Enjoy your success!

Dave Frees

P.S.  If you’d like to learn more about becoming more persuasive or
influential, or about how power, persuasion, and psychology can build
your business, practice and profits I have a resource for that.
PERSUASION2PROFIT.

P. P.S.  Want to learn from me directly?  I have fewer than 3 live events per
year for small groups of entrepreneurs, lawyers, doctors and business owners. 
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