Message
#104
“Advertising is a young mind’s business, not a young man’s business. It isn’t how old you are – it’s how bold you are. How resourceful and resilient;
how clever and courageous!”
Maxwell B. Sackheim
(1890-1982)
Today, I’d
like to talk about the basics of direct marketing. Why? Because of all the
business skills, I consider direct marketing the most important. If you can
master the fundamentals of direct marketing, you know how to sell anything. And
if you can sell anything, you can do anything.
Direct
response marketing means that you attempt to persuade your prospect to respond
directly – in some specific way – to your sales effort.
Typically,
direct response marketing includes direct mail, direct advertising, free
standing inserts, direct radio, direct television, and so on. Direct response
marketing differs dramatically from conventional advertising in that
conventional advertising is primarily concerned with promoting awareness of and
interest in a product or service. It does not attempt to stimulate a direct
response.
It
takes a lot of talent to get someone to respond directly to your sales
proposition. Since you don’t have the advantage of personal contact, you must
employ a battery of psychological techniques to substitute for the intimacy and
personal power you could create in a one-on-one selling situation.
These
psychological principles are the foundation of all selling, but they are
easiest to understand (and most necessary to employ) when you are separated
from your prospect by a television, radio or the US Postal Service. And that’s
why I favor direct response marketing. If you master that, you have the basis
for mastering all other forms of selling.
1.
A good understanding of why and how people buy things.
2.
The
ability to make a big, tempting promise.
3.
The
skill to show that promise as a picture, to advance it with propositions and to
support those propositions with proof.
4.
The
ability to distinguish between features and benefits.
Let
me put it as a fact: We buy most things not because we need them but because we want
them.
Sure
you buy food because you need to eat. But if you buy anything other than
generic foodstuffs, you are paying extra money to satisfy your wants.
Housing?
Yes, you need shelter. But you don’t need that Mediterranean duplex you’ve had
your eye on.
Clothing?
Loin cloths went out years ago.
Rule: The secret to selling is to create in your prospect a desire to buy that is so strong that it feels like a need.
Here’s
how:
1. To make a sale, you need to make a PROMISE. And that promise has to relate to something your prospect WANTS.
If
you owned a butcher shop, it wouldn’t do much good to put a sign on your window
that said, “Dead Cow Meat for Sale.” If you were even dimly aware of the
psychology of selling, you’d probably do something more like, “Prime USDA
Choice Steak Now On Sale.”
You’ve
got to make a promise. And the
promise should be big enough and strong enough to attract a lukewarm prospect.
Remember, success happens at the margins. It is easy to sell those who are
predisposed to buy what you’re selling. It is impossible to sell those who are
steadfast against it. The difference between mediocrity and success lies in
between – in selling those who are neither pre-sold nor dead set against…the
people in the margin.
2. To make your promise vivid, transform it into a PICTURE.
If,
for example, you were selling chocolate cake, you might want to show your
prospect a picture of the cake itself, with a slice overturned and a nice tall
glass of milk or cup of coffee on the side. If you were selling something more
complicated than cake (such as membership in a music club), you would need to
create a subtler, more sophisticated picture (one in which the prospect sees
himself enjoying and benefiting from the music).
3. To advance your selling effort, you need to make certain PROPOSITIONS or claims.
If
cake were the product, you might claim that it is light and sweet or thick and
creamy.
4. You would then need to support such claims with PROOF.
Perhaps
your cake is made with only natural ingredients, it won the Betty Crocker award
for delectability, etc.
People Buy Things for Emotional Reasons.
To Sell Things, You Need To Stimulate Those Emotions.
To
stimulate your prospect’s feelings, present not the FEATURES of the product/service, but its BENEFITS. Tell your
prospect how the product/service will help him. Show him how that will happen.
For
example, the features of a particular sports car might include power steering,
an oversized engine and an advanced breaking system. The benefits would be the
ability to take a tight corner, to hit sixty-miles-an-hour in five seconds and
to stop on a dime.
By
focusing on what’s in it for the prospective driver – and not what’s in the car
itself – you can evoke the deeper feelings (I want to be seen as powerful,
sexy, etc.) needed to make the sale.
As
I said in the beginning of today’s message, this is a very brief introduction
to a very important area of knowledge. No matter what you do in life, you will
need the skills to sell. Direct marketing skills are some of the best.
If
you are interested in becoming a modest expert in direct marketing, and doing
so in record time, I recommend strongly that you check out a business
called the American Writers & Artists Institute which teaches the
principles of direct marketing in a very effective, easy-to-follow program.
I know this program works because I designed it myself. Call 561/278-5789 for
more details
MMF
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