Marketing Differentiation eBook The Goose Bump Effect 2

Following on from the first section preview: eBook The Goose Bump Effect

Marketing Communications

Differentiation reduces advertising spend and increases conversion

Have you seen the number of large companies that advertise absolutely everywhere but are seeing declining revenues, profits or market share? One of the reasons is that the business focus’s more of the budget on marketing communications; more especially advertising promotion tactics.

Now I have a Masters Degree in Marketing Communications, and have never been in the position of running a large multi-national with millions to spend. However I can tell you this much, like any small business owner would agree with me, spending millions on advertising really does not guarantee your business prospects will improve in most cases. (See Woolworths, Game and JJB case study above for reference why promotional spending was useless.)

I’m sure a lot of ad agencies will disagree with you and me, they may even show us awards and stats to prove otherwise. But then, for every great ad that helped a business, how many have spent millions and failed to achieve anything significant in terms of sales?

Differentiation is a must in marketing strategy to determine what exactly the prospective customer will willingly volunteer to buy off-their-own-back. Once you have done this, then advertising what is your differentiated product will increase conversion. 

When you have done the differentiation marketing strategy bit properly, then you will know your customer better than anyone. You will have realistic targets and realistic results. You will likely get better conversion due to better targeting. If you are more targeted then you will spend less on mass advertising. In fact your advertising will be more creative, more focused and may involve specific channels rather than mass mediums due to your knowledge of your target customer.

Differentiation gives you power over marketing, ad spend and budget. You are in control

As you get to know your customer inside out from your differentiation exercise, you will also have a much clearer idea of your ad spend and budget.

This by default will give you much more control over the budget too. You’re less likely to be lead astray by creatives and agencies when you are pitched ideas and marketing channels to go down. On the other side, you will find new channels to use that are worth you investing in. Even if you increase your budget you are more likely to get a return due to your increased knowledge.

Where you once gave your power to other people, now you are in control and can filter out good promotion ideas and the not so good. Now you can relax as you don’t have to sign off that dodgy leaflet ever again for the mail drop (or whatever is your spam equivalent.)

Differentiation makes you visible and everyone else invisible, controlling the light setting for your competitors, while keeping the spotlight on using you.

Differentiation will mean your product and service offer is just what your prospective customer is looking for. Your offer will shine like a beacon amongst the sea of similar competitor offers. If you’re wondering how this is in the customers eyes, let’s use a product example to demonstrate this.

Imagine you get offered ten types of accounting software. You have never liked accounting, you dread doing your books, and each software package looks soooo boring. As you go through the accounting packages, the jargon like: double entry, credit and debit, and journal entry scare the heck out of you. Then you get to the last package and it is made especially for people who want to do it simply, easily, with minimal jargon, needs minimal training, and it doesn’t even look boring. You can see here how powerful differentiation is.

From this accounting software example, all the alarms are going off in the prospective customers head and she is doing cartwheels down the store isle as she makes her way to the till. It’s like the software stands out so much that a spotlight has pointed at that package to guide her to buy, without any need for any slick sales lady to give any opinion or consultatively sell her.

With good differentiation, she cannot see any other product in front of her face. It’s like her periphery vision has been blacked out. If yours is the differentiated accounting software it’s like you can magically tweak the attention given to competitor products.

Competition

Differentiation makes you more memorable

If you’re business is not differentiated, how can you expect customers to remember you when they are ready to buy? Have you ever been to buy a commodity product like a note pad or pen with lots of close competitors and found yourself just buying the cheapest? That’s because you are not looking for a brand or a certain product; you may not be able to recall one brand instantly in that industry or category.

But there are good examples of companies that make sure their product is differentiated from other commodities. Can you think of any brands in industries such as washing up liquid, toilet roll, toothpaste? 

Now think of the times you have been at the grocery store and chosen the brand you know. You might even be well aware of how it is different from other commodities. It makes selling easy, doesn’t it?

Differentiation helps you move ahead of close substitutes and competitors

Naturally when your business is differentiated to suit your target market, when prospects are ready to buy and know about you, you will move ahead to the forefront of prospects minds.

Unless your competitors give away their products and services for free, your competitors will have less chance to convince the same prospective customers to spend with them instead. More impressively, there will be instances where competitors offer huge discounts and it gives your prospective customers even more reason to use your product – because they think your competitor is flogging a useless product in desperation.

Lastly, think of horse racing. You may have seen a photo finish where at least two horses are crossing the winner’s line at more-or-less the same time. Why put yourself through that doubt every time a prospective customer is ready to buy where it is hard to tell which one is the winner? With differentiation, your business will be clearly crossing the winner’s line with other horses behind you.

Differentiation protects you against copying

Many of your competitors will copy the market leaders. It’s just the way of the business world.

There are some differentiation tactics you can create which are really hard for competitors to copy. 90 per cent of your competitors will copy the easy USP’s and try to make it their differentiator. 

That’s why, by using differentiation, you will create truly unique and irresistible value added armour to your offer which competitors cannot or find hard to copy to protect yourself from being commoditised.

Differentiation Case Study: Bob The Cat I’ve met Bob the cat in Covent Garden. You’ll see tourists there taking pictures of the cat that can do many tricks such as a high five and sit on the owners shoulder. Bob travels the streets with his owner who plays guitar as a busker. There is nothing special at all about the guitar player. But the owner has said on television his takings were up 300% since he had the cat sat with him when he plays on the street. If you ever visit London you will hear and see hundreds of street performers, but Bob the cat is one-of-a-kind. That’s why the owner enjoys higher earnings due to his uniquely differentiated way of performing his act: with a performing cat.

                      

Power

Differentiation gives you power to choose which customers you want. Not to attract bad customers as part of your lead generation

With differentiation, you will have more power and control over your offer, over your competitors and your prospective customers. In fact, you will have enough power to further fine tune your offer to meet the needs of who you would consider ‘good customers,’ and repel ‘bad customers.’

Imagine if you could sweep up a lot more ‘good customers’’ whether that means they pay on time, or are less hassle to service, and so on. It will help your business be more profitable as productivity increases dramatically.

Meanwhile, your competitors chase the ‘bad customers,’ you know the ones, always moaning and complaining, arguing over every penny, getting you to call back and go through the invoice again and deal with yet another complaint and threat. While you’re surfing the internet on a Friday afternoon after another good week, your competitors are straining at the pump to meet made-up deadlines due to unforeseen delays created by ‘bad customers’ who just want to double the amount of service time.

Differentiation allows you to control your price offer and profit margins, take away power from the customer

Have you ever wanted to do something or use something and there was only one supplier or version available? That’s what clever differentiated businesses do, and they usually can charge more because you want to use them. 

Why do cinemas still charge a premium for new films when you can see the same film a few months later at about the third of the cost; or bands charge up to £100 for a concert ticket when you can watch the DVD for just over £10, or Interflora charges £50 for flowers when you can a bunch of flowers from Asda for £5? You already know by now that they are the only supplier that can make an offer of superior value: differentiation allows you to raise prices, and increase profit margins. 

As long as the prices you charge are not so ridiculous and your business’s offer is differentiated enough, you have the power to charge what is profitable and what you deserve. Gone will be the days of worrying about competitors and customers threatening to go elsewhere. When you master making a differentiated offer that customers are desperate to have, you have the power.

Long-term benefits

Differentiation creates longer lifetime value

In the long-run, once you have a customer on-board they’ll know about the quality of what you have to offer which helps them. Your offer has been fine-tuned over time to suit their needs so that you get near enough an exact match of what the customer requires. 

Your research can over time ensure you evolve your differentiation. Businesses that follow the methods of differentiation will know their customers inside-out. By doing this, it is very hard for a customer to leave to use a competitor. For example, if Sarah the hairdresser knows you like a quiff like Tintin and does it for you after each hair cut; if that’s your thing, then no other hairdresser is going to take your business away from Sarah. (Yep, Sarah might even watch the Tintin movie for research too.)

A lot of businesses spend money upfront in sales and marketing promotion tactics. Expenses can include sales staff, equipment and office, running costs, marketing promotions such as website, leaflets, exhibitions, ads ... and so on. But service a repeat customer and there is no need to allocate a lot of spending on sales and marketing communications as the customer knows you. It’s just a case of servicing, repeat ordering or introducing them to other products and services. Costs are lower, and each customer will be worth more money per quarter or per annum as they buy more from you.

Differentiation creates referrals

Happy customers are always happy to tell other people when they’ve got a good product or service. If a friend or relative is in trouble, you may notice yourself giving advice if there is a solution you know will work. So expect that your happy customers to introduce new customers to you.

Customers also tend to hang around with similar profile networks, whether its friends or business acquaintances. So if your product suits a certain person, business type or job profile, then your customer will almost certainly know another matching prospect that will enjoy the benefits of what you have to offer. Just think of that restaurant you enjoyed or new web site you are using, can you think of any people who would like to use it too?

Most customers will only buy what they demand is of value, not what you want to sell.

Differentiation improves your customer conversion – mouse trap, monkey and coconut with peanuts

You may have heard that all businesses want to build a better mouse trap, i.e. a slicker, faster, and better way to attract and convert new customers.

There are numerous ways to attract and convert a customer. I’m sure you have seen the same methods used in your industry by competitors, such as: restaurants that focus on a nice table, music, good menu and service; or an accountant that advertises she is fully qualified, has so many years of experience, good service; or a book shop with book categories, chairs, a cafe and price discount offers. If you are doing the same as your competitors, then the cheese on your mouse trap smells the same. If the mouse can only choose one cheese to go for, and there were say ten mouse traps on the kitchen floor, would you not want a better smelling cheese on your mouse trap?

In Africa, to catch a monkey, they use another trap. The Bushmen carve a hole in a coconut and fill it with some nuts. The coconut is also tied to a trap. When the monkey puts its paw in, it has to clench its fist around the nuts. At this point, the Bushmen trap the money. As you can see, a mouse trap with nuts would not trap a monkey. It might injure a monkey, but not trap one. Differentiation will help you build you a better trap that is more enticing and more effective so that prospective customers who are looking for your kind of products and services will find your offer more irresistible than your competitors.

Regarding existing customers, your research should make it easier to acquire new customers. You already have a proven formula that works so you can test out your offer on new prospective customers. Therefore, your conversion rate should be higher. It should be like shooting fish in a barrel in the future.

Differentiation case study: James Bond There are thousands of films involving a secret agent or a hero who saves the day. But none is more profitable and recognisable than James Bond. What is it that Bond does so successfully? Firstly, the writer is Ian Fleming has worked for the British Government as an intelligence officer. So his work is full of insight and authentic. The Bond brand is recognisable and consistent: the Bond music kicks in when Bond does something that is heroic, Bond meets lovely ladies, says great one line jokes, and has the best gadgets. Other films can copy gadgets and a hero, but they can’t copy the music, the title sequence, the story that Bond is the alpha male for the British Secret Service, and the other characters such as Q and M. Bond has been created as the ultimate alpha male fantasy. It is fiction after all. But the consistency of the brand ensures that this fictional character hits the spot every time the male population wants a hit of alpha male fantasy. Nobody does it better!

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Experiential Marketing: Brand Experience for Brand Awareness

Experiential Marketing: Brand Experience for Brand Awareness: by Jason Li 2013 ©

Ever had a brand experience that was awesome?...

So good you HAD to tell a friend?... (like your first school yard kiss)

And it created a lasting feel good memory?... (like when you won something)

That’s why experiential marketing is a great way to convert prospective customers and gain referrals. (Just one marketing differentiation tactic and value creation method in the practical ebook guide The Goose Bump Effect)

Let’s kick off with a case study that highlights this straight away to prove this.

Experiential Marketing Case study: Lego Lego has been around for ages. I used to love Lego. When I was a kid I was inspired by battery motored vehicles I could build as seen on the television adverts. In fact, I was a dab hand at it – after 90 days of trying. The funny thing is, if you just ask me to build a quick card pyramid - I can’t be bothered these days; I’ve no energy, or patience. Sometimes the TV runs and if the programme is not terrible, I’ll let it run... yes I’m a LAZY GIT! But bring out the Lego, and I’m ready for the challenge. Lego is just a special brand experience. You can even visit Lego Land and get really inspired.   Each Lego set can be recreated by any visitor who is willing to have a go. It just takes seeing and liking one Lego set for a prospect to get ‘that urge’ to want to ‘have a go’ at recreating a master piece... and then BAM... before they know it they are at the Lego shop, box under the arm, and debit card flicking out to the smiley person on the till – as cool as the Fonz – a knowingly fleeced Fonz! That’s another sale, with no objection handling, no hard selling, or multiple questions or having to wince everytime that person you like on the phone is calling you. (I’ve been there on a call back with people in the past life, and you know you and them are wasting each other’s time, even though they are interested and talk to you... otherwise they would buy from me already.) PITCHED AND CLOSED in one smooth Lego Land marketing and sales environment. Thank you. And just when you are getting good at Lego, Average Joe or Josephine make that incredible Lego set as seen in the newspapers, and it gets ‘those urges’ going again.

Experiencial Marketing Brand Engagement is Selling

Ever been in a sales process when you are just about to close a prospect? (Or they tell you they are ready to buy?)

If you get lucky, a prospect starts to waffle about how they like your product and other ways they can use it, and of course their objections and why that’s not a problem because it does such a thing to make it worthwhile.

Of course, when you are selling, you have to go through this one prospect at a time. It’s pretty time consuming to go from an initial cold contact, questioning and education, and the rest of the sales process with the many twists and turns of involving other directors and more.

If you are paying for ten telesales, or ten retail sales advisors or ten field sales consultants with cars, then logically your business is closing and hearing the same set of objections from ten prospects at a time, over-and-over again. And that’s a lot of time and cost when you add it all up together.

(So park this time and cost problem as we go through this article.)

Part of selling is building a relationship. If they like you then they are comfortable disclosing company or personal details to your questions. Most sales people are likeable with clients and ask decent questions, and so can build good rapport. (Or else the sales person has to pay for expensive lunches and steep discounts to keep prospects engaged.)

But at the end of the day, what if after all this, the prospect just does not like the product or service your business offers and buys from another business offering a similar but better value package, or think your business is not focussed enough on creating value for the prospect, today or a year down the road?

This is where brand engagement and relationship advertising allows you to showcase your product, service, and company, and is one great way to differentiate your business from competitors.

A lot of people don’t like being sold to. I know sales people that make other telesales cold callers lives hell where I’ve worked when a call comes in, or when I’m shopping with them they give the shop assistant a curt: “I’m fine, I’m just browsing.” (So you’re not the only sales person who hates fob offs themselves, but angrily tells a cold caller to go away with abusive language that’s just short of psychologically stripping someone down, and you won’t help Mr Cold Caller in anyway. Yes, you’ve witnessed it too. And cruelly laughed your head off at that particular time. Wink.)

Experiential Marketing Case study: Nissan Nissan is not the number one selling car in the UK. In fact they’re not in the top three either, but they are gaining popularity. I’ve seen a steady rise on the roads in Nissan owners, and it’s not by accident. Here’s one of the ways Nissan used a brand marketing method to get prospective car owners to try owning a Nissan. In the 02 Arena, which has over 7 million visitors a year and one of the highest footfalls in the UK, there is a Nissan experience centre. The O2 is the world’s number one venue for live music events.  Where better to engage an audience where people are open to new happy experiences where they can create facebook posts for friends so they can ‘like’ away. What’s driving Nissan (Marketing Week) – article opens in a new window.

In a relaxed branded experiential environment, sales people can build rapport, educate, persuade, educate some more, and have decent conversations where there is no pressure and give real value.

People who are at your branded marketing events will have set aside plenty of time to spend there and are willing to disclose all their needs, wants, objections, problems and why they are there.

You see, when selling, if you can get the objections, then your answers are really information to help them justify in making a buying decision... provided you provide the right information.

At your branded marketing experiential event, the prospect can see you are very good and likeable, and as they have relaxed their guard, are more willing to disclose and tell, listen and make a vision of how your product and service can fit well in their life.

And as what you have done to the brand is likeable, they know other decision makers will concur too.

And of course, as you know the target market very well, your company, product and service offer will be extremely strong and very compelling to a prospect that makes an effort to spend time on your site.

Experiential Marketing Case study: Top Shop Do you remember when Kate Moss launched her own designs for Top Shop? She posed in the windows as a model as tourists and the fashion world got a buzz at such a unique event. It worked a treat. The ‘Supermodel in the window’ really differentiated Top Shop from other clothes shops in London. Why is this important? Top Shop don’t claim to offer high end expensive clothing, but the event was memorable and allowed the public to see Top Shop as a leading fashion shop for the general public. Top Shop became a destination for fashionable girls where the target market required affordable clothing. (The ebook has a section on Marketing Strategy and research techniques to test if new products and innovations have a chance of being accepted by your target market).

Experiential Marketig Builds Brand Loyalty

If you are good at understanding your target market and your product/service offer is genuinely the best in the market, you will have more interested people than you think.

Sales guru Nicholas Read calls this latent needs – a similar idea to market research.

If you introduce your brand in the right way you make it a pleasure for prospects to engage and interact with your product. (Making your product a pleasure is a key secret to success – see the ebook Marketing Strategy section.)

In fact, a great experience has in many studies transformed dull boring brands into life. People learn by doing and experience. (Engaging the sense better than your competitors is another secret – see the ebook Differentiation section.)

This will shift attitudes, beliefs and allow prospects to match yours with their long-term held values. Most importantly the prospect will agree with your offer, which is key in getting a prospect on your side as they move through a sales cycle and convert themselves into becoming a customer.

Referrals

Ultimately, a happy prospect will tell others about their enjoyable experience.

In this day and age of social media, this form of word-of-mouth allows you to gain free advertising and broad awareness.

Experiential brand marketing allows prospects to align with the way you want them to see your brand positioning.

And so you can expect facebook likes and Tweets galore if you’ve done your homework correctly and provided an added value experience.

Experiential Marketing Case study: Northumberlandia In the UK there are 1000s of places to go for a walk. Many of the walks are pretty similar so it’s not worth it most of the time to bother travelling to a destination many miles away. But if you want a walk that attracts thousands of people from around the country then you need to create something of great value and is absolutely worth doing to compensate for the travel time. Northumberlandia is just that walk that hits the spot. At Northumberlandia, you are walking over a lady’s body. When you stand on the head you get a great view of the body and can see all the people winding their way around to the head. The 19 hectare public park on Cheviot Hill has been shaped so that you can have a great unique experience which you cannot get anywhere else in the UK. You can try a number of walks, or surf the net for a similar walk, but if you want a walk like this then you have no choice but to go to Northumberlandia. As written on the website: ‘Northumberlandia is a unique piece of public art set in a 46 acre community park with free public access and 4 miles of footpaths on and around the landform.’ It is a project that has been researched and deliberately created to offer a very different walk. Would this entice you to walk Northumberlandia if you liked to go on walks? Would you refer others to this without any resistance or much objection? http://www.northumberlandia.com/ - The Lady of the North. The Land Trust 7 Birchwood One Dewhurst Road Birchwood Warrington WA3 7GB

Bonus: 

How not to engage your prospects. Never, ever do these promotions.

1. A Gangnam style dance to promote a funeral parlour in the town centre.
2. Shock machines to prove heart attack tablets are quick at easing pain.
3. Provide a complement of nasty viruses to promote computer anti-virus software.
4. Create a dangerous assault course to prove pets will do anything to try to get to your pet food.

Further reading:

How to increase profit by creating value

Why London Bridge is England’s worst tourist attraction

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Send Me An Email Sales Objection: The Ultimate Way To Handle It

Send Me An Email Sales Objection: The Ultimate Way To Handle It: by Jason Li 2013 ©

The send me an email sales objection...


It happens to most businesses...

Sometimes it can happen ten times a day...

The “send me an email” or “send me some information” sales objection...

Or they’re never in when you call over-and-over again and you can only send an email...

But don’t worry; there are ways around the objection...

(Like making threats or funny noises down the phone – on second thoughts don’t do this)

And there’s one great way to improve long-term conversions even with this objection.

What sales people are taught to handle the send me (some information) an email sales objection

(Or something along these lines)

1.       We have lots of literature, what exactly is of interest/ suits your needs/ are your problems and I will be happy to send the relevant information to you? (And then try to re-pitch. If the prospect refuses and asks for email – don’t send email.)

2.       If I take 5 minutes of your time I will be happy to send over the exact info you want which will save you hours of reading time. (If prospect won’t accept your offer, don’t send email and move on to next prospect.)

3.       I’ll only take a minute, and if it’s of interest we can carry on the discussion if that’s all right with you? (If prospect won’t even entertain a minute, don’t send an email and move on to next prospect.)

4.       How about I schedule an appointment as it is easier to explain than to read lots of information? (If prospect says no then don't send an email first. Move on to next prospect.)

5.       Perhaps I can call another time if you are busy as it will save you lots of time? (If no then don’t send an email.)

6.       Sure I can send an email. Should I call this afternoon/tomorrow morning 9am to discuss the email? (If prospect says no we will contact you, don’t send and move on to next prospect.)

7.       You might know more useful and better qualifying or schlickkkk sales objection handling phrases.

A story about how a really good sales pro lost a sale (Yep, it was a genuine send me an email)

Let me tell you a real story... and I still shake my head when I think about it (not quite like the characters in the film Jacob’s Ladder.)

So this professional sales person cold calls me. He’s selling leads b2b. He's well trained.

From a cold call starting at “who are you?” he’s got me talking and interested... (I can hear Viper from Top Gun saying in the background: “This kid’s gooood!”

I’m interested for the business who I was working for at the time, and he’s like... asked me 10 questions and taken up loads of my time (WTF). Three times I’ve said send me an email, and he keeps on asking (Maybe I should have tapped the phone to make sure he could hear me?)

But I give him a chance because I’m interested.

He calls me on my busy project day... doesn’t he get it, we don’t make money answering sales calls (I bet he makes little money answering every sales call). We could do this all day long and make no money at all.

So I finally said send me an email and I’ll reply at the end of the week (Da da... gold dust – you now have my email address plus my telephone number. I bet he was high fiving his colleagues in his sharp shiny suit at this point.)

But can you believe it... he doesn't send me an email.

To compound this, my boss at the time was very interested in making more money. My boss spends if you can add value to his business. There was a need for more clients, to grow, for better conversions.

We were prime beef with stickers on our heads; with the words PRIME BEEF printed in capitals.

OMG (first time I’ve ever wrote this as I hate this Hollywood high school phrase).

OMG... I feel so much better now so I wrote it twice because this deserves it.

Yes we would have spent time looking at your website and looked on Google at alternative solutions, plus asked friends who they’ve used or what they thought... but you know what, we would have paid you... and not just once if you were good.

But hey, tell me which business does not look at the whole market before weighing up which vendor will be the supplier.

“SEND ME AN EMAIL Goddamit Mr Cold Caller.”

And if his product was good, over time I would’ve been happy to refer to others about how good they are too.

So why did this happen? How can a business ensure there will be better long-term sales conversions?

(You can stop cringing now if you’ve realised your business daren’t send an email for whatever reason. This article might help sooth that problem – if you really want better sales conversions over the long-run.)

The prospects point of view and why they say send me information on an email sales objection

As sales people, it has been taught to understand the prospects needs and objections. One advantage in sales is that after having conversations with so many prospects in your target market, you do get a feel for their needs and common objections.

Taking this onboard, here are some reasons why people say send me an email, and I’ve tried to do this as if a cold caller called me for during different days and times in the week.

1.       I’ve some interest and want to see what it is so I can learn about it myself at my own pace. You see it’s new to me.

2.       I never buy on the first cold call – have you ever had someone ring you on a Wednesday night after work and then on the first call given your card details over the phone to a cold caller? Really?

3.       I’m interested and just going into a meeting, out on an appointment, need to carry on with my project and look at the subject you’re talking about after this. What’s the rush... are you leaving town next week?

4.       I need to look at what you offer to see if it genuinely helps me, the business, clients, and absolutely adds value, not because you said it’s good and you’re friendly and likeable like all sales people we speak to.

5.       There’s more 100s of more reasons and you may think of some reasons why you can’t take a call when you’re in the bath or making a brew.

Yes, I’ll send an email with information for you

If you genuinely want higher conversion rates over the long-run, then consider this:

1.       You know this already as you work in sales or business development: Only contact people who are in the right target market and are the right type to buy your product, and will find it’s of value in what you offer. Don’t waste time, money, energy, and your good morale on bad target prospects.

2.       If they are not ready now and want an email, don’t be too pushy. Just think of when someone cold calls you after work like the above.

3.       Send an email to people who want an email and keep a relationship with them. You can always ask their thoughts on the email at another time. People have 100s of objections and 100s of unusual reasons to want to buy.

4.       If you’re afraid that your email or link to your website/product/service won’t get a sale, then don’t blame the prospect or your sales technique. You’ve got attention and interest. IT MUST BE THE PRODUCT OR SERVICE THAT'S NOT A GOOD ENOUGH OFFER. Think of it this way, if your target market is interested in a smart phone and your offer is pretty much an average performing smart phone, you’re going to have a low conversion rate.

Remember, you will only buy a new car, new tablet, go to a fancy restaurant, sophisticated pen, plain steel toe capped boots, new software if you find it genuinely adds great value to your life.

Bravado talk such as don’t blame the product/service because it’s you the sales person does not help improve the business or future conversion rates.

Many great businesses innovate year-on-year so that their product/service/packages are absolutely the best and differentiated from competitors. (Yes you read it here. Take the sales hat off and work on creating value. It's like cause and effect theory and the equation is simple. Create more value than competitors and use better marketing differentiation tactics = more sales conversions. A bit of KISS philosophy.)

5.       Why do McDonald’s add new products to their menu and do a refurbishment every few years? So that their seating and furnishings look nicer, more modern and more comfortable; even though they are already the market leaders. It’s because adding more value and marketing differentiation equals more willing customers and higher conversion rates.

I’ve met people who hate McDonald’s then reveal: “Although I do go if I can’t see any other food place to my liking, even though I hate everything they stand for!” I find this really funny that McDonald’s has the potential to convert McDonald’s haters because the sandwich shops or cafes in the area don’t offer enough value, whether it’s the food served, or no wi-fi connection, prefer McDonald’s comfortable seating or whatever the prospective buyer is looking for.

If you add value and differentiate from competitors in a number of ways, once you have made your prospects aware of your business, if they are the right target market then what are your chances of conversion when they are ready to buy?

What are your chances if your product or service is very similar to other competitors which includes a very nice and friendly sales/client relationship manager.

(It happens. I went to a networking meeting and met four different accountants, all very nice, well presented, knowledgeable, and all promised they are in fact the best service in the area. As Jack Nicholson in the movie A Few Good Men says: “You want the truth... You CAN’T handle the truth)

So if your business targets the right prospects, knows what makes them happy, and continuously adds genuine value and develops better marketing differentiation than competitors – why not send the email and keep in contact? You’re already a much better choice for your prospect than your competitors, aren’t you?

Not everyone buys today, tomorrow or next week. But if you truly know your market and which are the right prospects, then you are likely to be keeping in touch with people who will buy at some point.

At least with your efforts you will have better conversion rates over the long-run.

Or you can just not send the email and let the prospect not see what you offer, how you can help them and let them forget about you within the next 48 hours.

Send an email now to find out what’s in their interest

Can your business offer continuously more added value and improve like McDonald’s or do you try to flog a run-down cafe and try to entice people to a place where no-one is willing to sit at the table?

Send an email for feedback

From a marketing prospective, if you get no response, don’t worry. Not everyone is buying today.

But you can call back to get their thoughts. Feedback will let you know how you stack up in helping your target market, and where your offer needs to improve.

If you don’t want feedback and don’t want to improve to make conversions easier for yourself, don’t send the email so you’ll never know the truth – SIMPLES.

Further reading

Creating value: if you're not creating value, you're not going to create a sale.

How buyers use ‘Prisoner’s dilemma' game theory to negotiate

Ebook: The Goose Bump Effect. A Practical Beginner’s Training Guide to Marketing Differentiation Tactics and Value Creation.

Read more ...