instance, if you recently purchased gutters for your home, you are not going to be interested at all in an advertisement for gutters. Gutters? The answer is no—C pile.
However, life’s choices are not always that simple.
Sometimes in business no doesn’t mean no. It just may not mean yes. Instead, it may mean, “Let me think about it.”
And though neither “no” nor “maybe later” is a successful sale, there is a huge difference between the two, and a successful business recognizes the opportunity of a “maybe later.”
Of course, this means first recognizing the possibility of “maybe later” as an answer. And that’s a challenge for many businesses that don’t understand the basic psychology of a customer—EVERY customer.
options equal opportunities
Everyone is afraid of being sold.
And though the chances of a customer actually acting impulsively when something is interesting can be high, your first impression is not your only opportunity to reach a customer. Of course, that first impression is where OUTRAGEOUS has the most power, but there is a second part to it—the memorable part. Besides meaning “look here,” OUTRAGEOUS means “remember.”
And so simply understanding that the B pile—the “maybe later” pile—even exists is a start towards figuring out what to do with it.
Let’s first look at two facts:
| FACT #1: | People want an alternative to “yes” or “no.” There are things that interest us but not enough to make an immediate decision. |
| FACT #2: | People often want information without the pressure human interaction brings. Sometimes it’s just easier to read or listen to a recording at your own convenience. The “Allergy Relief Hotline” in Larry Conn’s yellow pages ad is a great example of that; you can get more information without feeling threatened or being sold something by a live answer. |
Understanding these two facts can set you on the path towards knowing how to deal with being in the B pile and getting the potential customers to take you from the B to the A pile.
So, we’ve seen two facts. Here is …
| FACT #3: | If you ignore them, they will ignore you. You may be in the B pile, but you are not alone. Your potential customer is concerned with many things, and you are most likely not at the top of the list. Hey, it’s not right. But it’s life, and it’s business. |
People want to be reminded that they are important. Everyone wants love. But as much as that, they want options—ways to respond and times to respond. It’s, of course, important to have deadlines (see chapter 5), but it’s just as important to let customers know that they can browse, shop, and buy AT THEIR CONVENIENCE.
Information, especially in our modern connected times, is incredibly easy to provide in an astonishing variety of formats, including:
• phone recordings
• Web pages
• Webinars
• tele-seminars
• free reports
• articles
• brochures
|
|
OUTRAGEOUS exercise Look at the list below. Check off the ones you can use in your business to provide your prospects and customers with more nonthreatening information about your products and services: ____ Phone recordings ____ Web pages ____ Webinars ____ Tele-seminars ____ Free reports ____ Articles ____ Brochures Now list all of the other places you can provide your prospects and customers with more nonthreatening information about your products and services: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
Although your goal of OUTRAGEOUS advertising is to get immediately into the A pile, you must keep in mind the overall concept of what you are doing.
You are actually brand building by default when you land in the B pile. Either you are remembered or you are not. And the best way to be remembered, of course, is to offer something so good that the customer wants to directly respond. And so like all the great arguments, mine is circular, and my circle encloses your profits.
options equal profits
Once you figure out that you actually can move people from the “maybe later” B pile to the “yes” A pile, you can then discover amazing ways to leverage your position. By simply not ignoring this customer option, you are ahead of 90 percent of all businesses that think in terms of “yes” and “no.”
Yet “maybe later” is a tricky category that requires due diligence. One of the best ways to move people into the A pile from the B pile is through sequential marketing, which we will talk a lot about in chapter 9.
And though that customer who put you into the B pile is a challenge, I look at this person as someone who actually wants to be a customer. How can you ignore someone like this?
My message is that you can’t and you shouldn’t ignore a “maybe later” customer because that customer is really a great prospect.
It’s just a matter of paying attention until you are paid profits. Customers who think “maybe later” are thinking of reasons not to buy, and your job is to give them reasons to buy.
How do you give them such reasons?
Well, you give them options on how to find you, and then you remind them, over and over in OUTRAGEOUS ways, that you are their best option for whatever it is that you sell.
Sizzling Outrageous Summation
1) Branding is too expensive for 99 percent of all businesses.
2) Direct-response advertising must always have an offer and a deadline.
3) Direct-response advertising can lead to brand building, but you never want to buy brand-building advertising.
4) There are three possible responses to every ad: “yes,” “no,” or “maybe later.”
5) When you pay attention to the “maybe later” customers, your profits will soar.
3) Applying OUTRAGOUS Advertising
When I was first learning all these techniques that I am now teaching you, a disaster struck my menswear store. Well, it could have been a disaster. Instead, it was an OUTRAGEOUS success.
I came into the store one morning and discovered a sprinkler had malfunctioned and we had three inches of water in the store. I called the insurance company and made a quick settlement,