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The Cycle Of Persuasion Vs The Cycle Of Loyalty
Shout. Your agenda. Short term gain. 50% off. Buy now pay later. Big funnel gathering the most prospects. Or…. Talk in whispers. Your customer’s agenda. Building trust over time. Products and services people can’t help talking about. “A few people loving you up close and about those people being eno
10 Reasons People Buy Your Product Or Share Your Idea
People buy your product or share your idea because….. 1. It makes them feel…better, smarter, more beautiful, healthier, safe, loved and on and on. Online courses, Jimmy Choo shoes, perfume, gym membership, life insurance, organic fruit. 2. They are looking for a shortcut. Information, more time, eas
Your Biggest Obstacle
“Here’s what I’ve got.” Joe said, as he held out his product to me. It wasn’t just a product though. This was something that had consumed him and five figures of his hard earned cash for months. The market research he’d taken as a green light to get going a year earlier hadn’t paid off.…
Sales Is…..
sales noun 1. The exchange of a commodity for money; the action of selling something. 2. A quantity or amount sold. Actually sales is understanding how your customer wants to feel, not what she wants to buy and doing everything you can to get her there. Image by Ed Yourdon.
Winning In The Story Economy
Back to my hair salon. Sally shows up on time. She gets through two colours and three trims buy lunch, then waits impatiently for the hands on the clock to turn the next four hours until closing. Carmel makes five minutes to chat to the pensioner who took two buses to get there. She remembers…
Credentials And The Fraud Police
If I had a dollar for every person I know who is making a difference doing something they care about yet feels insecure about their right to be doing it, I would be funding a very nice round the world trip. There’s the interior decorator who longed to be a stylist but doubted that she…
Tina Roth Eisenberg On Trusting Your Gut And Following Your Passion
Have you ever had an idea you thought might work that still hasn’t seen the light of day? If you’ve longed to bring something you’re passionate about to life it might be time to watch the video chat I had with Tina Roth Eisenberg. Tina is a Swiss designer based in New York who runs…
The Third Secret Of Great Marketing
It’s the reason Dropbox’s revenue hit $240 million in 2011 despite giving away their product for free and how Instagram has grown to 100 million users. Stand in your customers’ shoes. Start with their story. Image by Trey Ratcliff.
The Death Of Retail. The Symptom Is Not The Problem
Georgina owns and operates a speciality gluten free food store in Brisbane and like many retailers she’s experiencing a problem. Increasingly people are coming to browse but not to buy. The perception is that if I can get it cheaper or faster online why would I make the trip to your store? So Georgi
The Exponential Value Of Being More Than
So I’m standing at the service counter of the hair salon receiving the bad news that my usual stylist is sick today. “What are you having?” the receptionist enquires. “If it’s just a cut everyone here is capable.” Of course she’s right. Most clients don’t leave with blue hair they didn’t want. Most
Brand Vs. Branding
Branding is….. “The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers’ mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.” —The Business Directory Branding in the traditional sense was designed to create recognition and awareness of commodities. It
The Most Important Question You’re Forgetting To Ask
From the outside looking in The Lego Group had a hugely successful business a decade ago. It was a beloved brand that seemed to be surviving the digital age. The balance sheet told a different story though and Lego had more years in the red than in the black between 1998 and 2004. Part of…
What’s The Point?
Business isn’t about transactions and giving people the thing they want. That box of chocolates, an upgraded phone or the business class flight. And marketing isn’t about selling them your facts. It’s about giving people a story to believe in and one that they want to tell. Just like Evan’s. (Take t
The Second Secret Of Great Marketing
I signed up to an email list of a brilliant and famous author over a year ago and hadn’t hear anything since. No blog posts. No regular email. Nothing interesting or relevant to me. Nothing to look forward to. No connection to each other. The author had my permission but it wasn’t much of a…
Tell The Story You Want To Tell
You are not the first person (or the last) to admit that you’ve ended up doing the wrong thing. For the wrong people. For the wrong reasons. Something that didn’t bring you the joy you thought it would. If you’ve ever wound up at the end of a path that you have chosen and wondered…
Three True Stories
To all of Arthur’s family, We were so sorry that everything ended up so badly for you all last week. It is so difficult when owners are prepared to do anything to cure their pet’s problem and it’s still not possible. Thank you for allowing us to try. He was part of your lives for…
If You Build It Will They Come?
I spent most of yesterday at Startup Weekend and was excited to hear the feedback from the judges during the final pitches. There were elegant apps and well developed presentations. Some teams had a product ready to roll out this week and others had nothing more than a well validated idea about what
Why You Don’t Want To Be The Impulse Buy
Have you ever watched people shopping at the airport? They amble distractedly fingering this, picking up that. Nine times out of ten they put things back. Sometimes the packaging, or maybe the boredom gets the better of them and the buy something they had no intention of buying. It’s a win for the m
Why Is Giving Easier Than Taking?
From my first day at school (the day after I turned four,I don’t think my mother could wait a minute longer), we were taught that giving was a great thing. It was a convent school and every day Sister Collette would come around with a box and collect our pennies for babies in Africa. They…
The First Secret To Great Marketing
The first secret to great marketing is knowing where to start. “Marketers have to move upstream now. We have to stop being the last step in the process and start being the first step.” —SETH GODIN Most marketers start by thinking about what they want their customers to do. “Buy now”, “click this”, “
