Okay, let's discuss the last component of the marketing equation here briefly; I already told you earlier in the program that every marketing piece should contain a risk lowering offer to encourage the prospect to take the next step, and that that offer should generally be to receive additional information—or in other words, to further educate the prospect—to build your case.

 

Here's the key: The right offer allows you to capture a large percentage of all FUTURE buyers in addition to the "NOW" buyers. Realize, there is an educational process that the prospect goes through from the moment he begins thinking about buying your product or service to the point when he actually puts down his hard-earned cash. We call this the Educational Spectrum. Think of the educational spectrum like a straight horizontal line stretching from left to right. At the far left hand side of the line is a point, "Point A." This represents the point where the prospect first considers the idea of either buying what you sell, or if they already buy what you sell from another vendor, it represents the point where they first consider switching vendors. Not the point where they actually switch or buy, but the point where they even get a glimmer of a thought of switching or buying. Now, at the very right hand side of the spectrum is "Point Z" where the sale is consummated and money actually changes hands. But see, there's a lot of things that have to happen between point A and point Z. If we go back to Point A, and then go just a little bit to the right, say to point C or D, we might have a step where the prospect starts to notice ads for the product or maybe starts to casually browse that product in the store. Somewhere around point D or F the prospect might BEGIN to gather information on a few competitors. this could be done by whatever means are appropriate in your case.whether that be calling around, searching the web, or whatever.

 

Cruising through points L M N O P might be some hard-core research and comparison. The prospect might also start soliciting the opinions of friends, family members, or co-workers for recommendations. Moving on to maybe point R or S, the prospect makes the decision to buy. Or in other words, he says, "Okay, I'm going to do it. I'm going to buy one of these. or, I'm going to switch who I buy from. I'm not just thinking about it anymore. I'm done talking and I'm ready to start buying." The key here is that the prospect hasn't necessarily decided WHO to buy from just yet, and may not be in a position to buy just yet. Once you get down to around points T, U, and V, these points on the spectrum represent the prospect's decision to buy a specific brand or buy from a specific company. But even still, the prospect might not take action if circumstances aren't just right yet. Finally, point Z is where the decision is done and money changes hands. Now realize, at any given time there could be hundreds or thousands of prospects at various positions along the educational spectrum of buying what you sell. And no sale is complete until they reach point Z and give you money. even if they decided to buy from you somewhere along the way. You can see a diagram of the educational Spectrum on page 20 of the companion volume.

 

So why am I bringing telling you this? Very simple. Because the vast majority of marketing and advertising efforts are only geared toward the prospects who are hanging out at the very right hand side of the educational spectrum, down past R and S who have made the decision to buy and who are ripe for marketing that can sway them to buy from a given competitor. But here's the problem with that. At any given moment in time, the number of prospects on the right hand side of the spectrum—the ones ready to buy right NOW—those prospects only represent no more than 1 to 5 percent of all those who are ultimately going to buy what you sell. You've got 95% to 99% of your prospects who are in the thinking about it and gathering information mode, but when they are attempting to gather that information, you don't give it to them. This is where the fourth component of the marketing equation becomes absolutely huge: Your offer will give you the opportunity to provide additional Educational information—or what we also call control information—to the gathering-information-mode prospects, and in the process, capture valuable information about who these people are so you can then pro-actively market to them on an ongoing basis. This allows you to control your target market.

 

Remember earlier I talked about the home builder. I said that all of the ads for new home builders are full of smiling happy people and floor plans and pictures of homes and price ranges and maps to neighborhoods. You should already have a good idea from listening to this program that the ads need to interrupt, engage, and educate the prospect about what they need to know when buying a new home. But here's what they also need: A compelling offer to get more information on a low-risk basis. Think about it: Who's looking at those new home builder ads in the paper? Well, there's prospects at all points on the Educational Spectrum looking, that's who. You've got one group of buyers who will be making a buying decision in the next say, two weeks to four months or so. Those are considered to be the "Now" Buyers, and the ones who would be more likely to respond to any ad—good or bad—because their urgency factor is high. They might be willing to drive 45 minutes and subject themselves to the agony of enduring the starving sales person because they need to buy right away.

 

But let me ask you this: Do you think there's anyone else looking at those ads who's time horizon might be a little longer than say, four months or more? Do you think there are people who are just trying to get a feel for the market, see what's out there, what price ranges are, etc.? Are there any people who may not actually decide to buy a new home for 8 to 12 months or more. or people who may not even be considering moving, but just having a dream session? How do we capture these people and get them into our sales systems? The answer is the offer.

 

Take a look at some of the home builder ads shown on page 2 and 3 of the companion volume. If you don't have the companion volume, you can always look at these online at www.mymbook.com. Look at the ad with the headline "Homes of Distinction." I know you're probably feeling nauseated right now after looking at this ad and knowing what you know about platitudes and institutional advertising, but I need you to focus here. Concentrate with me. This is an ad for a community with several builders, not just a single builder. So what's the offer in this ad? It's got the obligatory little map that shows you where to find them and the phone numbers for each of the individual builders that have homes in that community. So tell me this. what's the next step that you should take in the buying process that's low risk? There isn't one. This ad is hugely under-potentialized. Does it interrupt? No. Does it engage? No. Does it educate? No. Well, we've basically already struck out, but then for good measure, they swing and miss on the fourth component of the marketing equation as well because it doesn't have an offer and there's no way to get good information. If you're sitting on the educational spectrum, hanging around anywhere from say point A to point LMNOP, your brain will barely get into beta mode, if at all, and it will forget about this ad before it ever sees it consciously. Nice waste of money.

 

Now look at the ad on Page 20. This is a revised ad for the same home community with the crummy ad. You'll instantly notice that the headline and the subheadline serve to actually interrupt and engage. Here's the headline that keys a major hot button, which is a kid-friendly community.. "The Only New Home Community In Frisco/Plano/McKinney With Homes From The $180's To $400's That Was Designed Specifically For Professional People With Small Children." Then to satisfy the readers' brains' need for clarifying information, we use the subheadline, "6 Playgrounds, 5 Swimming Pools, 4 Community Centers, 3 Basketball Courts, 2 Sets Of Hiking Trails. All Surrounding One Brand New Frisco ISD Elementary School Make The Trails of Eastland The Most Kid Friendly Community In The Entire DFW Area." Does that subheadline clarify and give more information? Does it promise to further educate the reader if they continue to read? If you were on the educational spectrum and thinking about moving into that general vicinity, and if you had small children, do you think you'd be dialed in to what they had to say? Answer: You couldn't NOT be sucked even if you tried.

 

Okay, so now we need to educate. and we do that by providing more detailed information about the amenities listed in the subheadline, and by providing pictures as visual evidence of the quality of the facilities. So now, what about the offer? Remember, the vast majority of the people who see this ad will be somewhere on the left-hand side of the Educational Spectrum. they'll be in anywhere from curious mode to casual mode to gathering information mode. Many of those folks will be favorably impressed with what we've said so far and would be inclined to visit and take a look.. But not until they get more serious about buying a home. That's why we have the offer: It's an offer for the reader to receive a free report called "Ranking Kid Friendly Communities In DFW—How They Stack Up & What To Look For" So what do you think? If the ad hit your reticular activator and you became interrupted and engaged based on the headline, and you became educated through the information we provided, do you think you might request that free report? You say, I'm older and don't have kids so this doesn't work for me. I'm not interested in a kid friendly community. Shame on you for saying that. I'm not asking you to buy a home. I'm asking you to project yourself into "John Smith's Eyes" and see what the prospect would think. This is one of the major attributes of successful marketers. their ability to see the world through john smith's eyes. You've got to be able to see that this set of headlines, case building information, and the offer are exactly what would get the prospect to take action. And once that happens, we now have a never ending flow of leads to nurture. We'll talk about how to maximize those leads later when we get to the tactical part of your marketing plan. I'll show you how to implement what we call a hopper system that can automatically follow up and cultivate prospects into customers.

Okay, now let's wrap up this entire discussion of the marketing equation with a couple of case studies that tie all of the concepts and components together. Remember at the very beginning of this program we talked about a moving company that increased it's monthly lead flow from 70 to 955 without spending any extra money? Let me give you some of the details of that situation and show you exactly how they pulled that off. I'll tell you right up front, that because of the success of the program, the owner of the company merged with a second, then a third, and finally a fourth moving company within 6 months of implementing the marketing equation into her business, and finally sold out after 10 months. Let me tell you about the owner. She was a German immigrant who came to this country with broken English and a desire to live the American Dream. She married an American, and they started looking around for opportunity. Somehow they decided to start a moving company. For 12 months, the owner, her husband, and two of their close friends worked for about 15 different moving companies, filling every position from packer to loader to scheduler to receptionist. They learned what customers liked, what customers didn't like, where the moving companies fell short of customer expectations, and they made notes on things the various companies did do well. After a year of what I think you'd agree was pretty in-depth marketing research, they figured out what the perfect "inside reality" for a moving company would be like, and launched AAbsolute Movers.

 

She intuitively knew that victory goes to the one with superior forces at the point of contact, which for the moving industry, she correctly identified the battlefield as the yellow pages. So the first thing they did was commit to that $3,000 a month ad like we talked about earlier. Their original ad—the one they created themselves—was the typical, expected, platitude-filled ad that looked like everyone else's. Local and long distance moves. Commercial and residential. Loading and unloading. No distinction, no separation, no inkling as to their inside reality. After a year, the ad was only generating an average of 70 calls a month, and most of those callers would ask the most hated question in business. You know, right.. "How much do you charge for a move.." Then if they were lucky enough to have the prospect LET them, they would traipse out to the prospect's house, inventory their stuff, try to explain how wonderful their moving system was compared to everyone else's, and after a year, they'd done approximately $120,000 in sales.

 

By the time we met the owner at one of our Monopolize Your Marketplace Seminars, she was desperate. Her yellow pages ad was due to the publisher two weeks earlier, and they had granted her something like 4 extensions to the point where the ad absolutely had to be turned into the sales rep by the next morning at 10 am or she'd flat out miss the book altogether. Okay, you've been listening to this program now for what, a couple of hours now? You know that platitudes shouldn't go in the ad. You know the marketing equation goes dictates that interrupt plus engage plus educate plus offer equals good results. So how would you write the ad?

 

 

Well, let's start right at the top. Interrupt. To effectively interrupt, We've got to find out what things are annoying, irritating, frustrating, and otherwise problematic for most people who move. See, if we can identify and articulate those, we'll flip the switch in John Smith's reticular activator and get him snapped out of alpha mode and into beta mode. So what are the hot buttons? Come on.. I'm using this example—moving—because most people have moved before and can identify or at least guess what those irritations, frustrations, and problems are. You should at least be able to muster a guess.

 

Okay, here's a real quick list; First and foremost, don't break my stuff! What about if your stuff does get broken. wouldn't a hot button be getting those things replaced in a timely manner and with no hassles from the moving company? Here' one: What about charges for the move that are added on after the move is done that are more than the original quote. What about timing? Is it important that if the mover says they'll be there on Tuesday morning at 9 am that they don't roll in to get started at 2:30 in the afternoon? Of course. These are the hot buttons.

 

Now remember, the number one question being typically being asked by prospective customers when they call a moving company from the yellow pages is "How much does the move cost." Okay, you call mover A and the cost for your move is one thousand dollars. Mover B says 15 hundred dollars. Which do you choose? Well, here's what you probably don't know. Mover A is cheaper, but they're also going charge you an extra twelve hundred after they've already moved your stuff, so it's actually going to be $2200. plus they're going to break half your stuff and make you jump through a nasty set of hoops to even file a claim to get it replaced. And if you do get it replaced, you'll be lucky to get 10 cents on the dollar for what it's actually worth. What would you rather pay? $1,000 to mover A or $1,500 to mover B? See, the outside perception of the two companies is IDENTICAL. They had basically the same dumb ad, but there are real differences in the Inside Reality of the two companies, and you can't find that out until it's too late! Are you starting to see how this works? You say, well, I'm smarter than that; I'd ask mover A for some references. Great, you can talk to their mother, their cousin, and their dog. They'll all say good things. And since 95% of all customers don't call any references anyway, most will they'll never discover that Mr. Winkles on that reference list is actually a dog in the first place.

 

Let me tell you a few things about some of the things you may not know about the moving industry that will shed some light on this marketing problem that the owner of the moving company was having. Are you familiar with the insurance practices of the moving industry? You've got three kinds of insurance, did you know this? Number one is called self-insured; meaning if they break your stuff if you can find them and if they've got any money left they'll give you a new one. Good luck. It's illegal; it's only a small percentage of companies—maybe 5%. Then there's a larger percentage of moving companies that have what's called per pound replacement insurance. Meaning if they drop your television set, they'll give you between 20 and 60 cents per pound, with an average of about 40 cents per pound. Your TV weighed 40 pounds; so they'll give you 40 cents per pound, meaning you get $16 to replace your TV. Are you now excited? Guess what percentage of companies have that kind of insurance? 90% Would you need to know that to make a good informed decision when it comes to moving or do you not really care? Then there's the third kind of insurance which is called, oh, actual insurance. Full replacement. If they break your stuff, you get a new one. This is standard procedure for less than 5% of moving companies. Guess what kind of insurance our client's company offered standard? That's right. Full replacement insurance. Yet in her ad she had the same platitude that every other moving company had, "FULLY INSURED."

 

Take a look at the companion volume that came with this program on page 21. We've got a couple ads here that literally came straight from the yellow pages that I think you'd agree are fairly representative of the kind of ads you'd find in any category in any yellow pages. Do either of these ads address any of the hot buttons we just listed and discussed? Here's an ad with the headline "Starving Students." First of all, do you really want Starving Students moving your stuff? Does the image of two the two idiot supposedly starving kids in the picture instill confidence that your stuff is going to be safe? It says they offer local, long distance and office moves. Well I would hope so, what other kinds of moves would there possibly be!?! I'd say that's drearily common place and lacks power to evoke a response. They pay their people a quality bonus if they meet high standards. I guess that's okay, but the fact is, in their ad, in the subheadline, they claim that they "Dedicated to delivering a lower final bill." So here's a great example of a company that's slashing it's own financial throat by ignoring everything that's actually, in reality, important to the customer, and only giving them the variable of PRICE to consider. The next ad is for ATB Moving which proudly proclaims that it is locally owned and operated. We're so proud of them for that. Because I can draw a logical conclusion from that that if a company were locally owned and operated then they probably would have actually real, full replacement insurance instead of rip off per pound insurance, and that they probably won't drop and break my stuff, and that they probably won't quote me one price and deliver a final bill with a different price. They do say that there are "no hidden charges.." This is platitude and puffery 101. They trudge on: Dedicated to satisfaction. Fully Insured. Professional Packing Service. Full range of materials and supplies. Free estimates. Would you honestly pay somebody $79 to come give you an estimate? Of course not. Then there's the real clincher: "Look for the Squirrel." Now there's a hot button. If that's your hot button.looking for a squirrel, you've got issues. I don't even know what that means. But wait, there's even a second clincher, in case looking for the squirrel didn't do it for you: "We make moving fun." We've talked about platitudes and puffery, but this is a whole new category. I can't say what we call this because it wouldn't be appropriate to use that kind of language on this program. But I can tell you this, you'll need hip waders to get through it.

You say, that's just the yellow pages,  Our marketing is better. Well, maybe you don't tell people to look for a squirrel, but I'd be surprised if you stuff uses the marketing equation. Nobody knows how to fix these problems. but guess what. You do now. And I want you to consider what a huge competitive advantage you will hold when you DO implement this. Are you starting to see how the title of this program, "Monopolize Your Marketplace" is a real, literal statement? When you implement this into your marketing and into your business, better results are absolutely inevitable.

 

You think the marketing equation sounds so simple; you might even have yourself fooled into thinking you already implement it. You're right, it is simple, but let me ask you this about these sample-moving ads: Where are the headlines that snap the prospect out of Alpha and into Beta? What about the hot buttons? Where are they? Where's the talk about not breaking my stuff in any of these ads? Where's the dialogue that talks about replacing my stuff if it does get broken? Where's' the discussion about being on time? Where's the iron clad guarantee that these companies won't charge me more after the move than they quoted before the move? Where is all that? Again, I ask you, where are the hot buttons?