As a business owner, here’s an interesting statistic you need to be aware of. According to Forbes, 90 percent of startups will fail. And this number could be significantly higher since many business owners don’t register their businesses until they find a measure of success.
But think about this for a minute. Would you want your son or daughter to walk into a battle knowing that there was a 90 percent chance they wouldn’t make it through the day? Well of course not.
But business schools today are churning out students who know little to nothing about the nuts and bolts of growing a business.
I know people that have an MBA in business and some that have taught hundreds of business students at the university level and they all tell me that 90 percent of what is taught today is basically useless theory.
Would you like to know the secret to effective and successful marketing?
Would you like to know how you can generate all the leads your business can handle?
Because here’s a secret that business owners don’t know or understand.
You must be able to enter the conversation taking place at the head of your prospect. Or another way to look at it is to address the number one question on your prospects mind at just the right time.
So how do you do this. You know, it’s actually quite simple when you understand the fundamentals of marketing. The conversation that is taking place in every prospect’s mind revolves around two major points. There’s a problem they have and they don’t want and result they want but don’t have.
Now believe it or not there is a marketing formula that we follow that takes these two points into account and spits out a message so compelling. It practically forces your prospects to buy what you sell.
It’s called the Conversion Equation and it looks like this:
- Interrupt
- Engage
- Educate
- Offer
The Interrupt is your headline which means it is the first thing someone sees when they visit your website, reads your marketing collateral or hears you speak on an audio video or a live presentation. When someone asks you what you do it’s the first words out of your mouth. That’s your headline. And must address the problem your prospects have that they don’t want.
The Engage is your sub- headline which is the second thing your prospects see or hear. It must address the result your prospect wants but doesn’t have.
The Educate is the information you provide, either verbally or in writing that presents evidence to your prospects that you and your products or services are superior in every way to your competition. Unfortunately, most businesses don’t differentiate themselves from their competition and that’s why you must innovate your business to create what we refer to as a market dominating possession. You must make your business unique. It must stand out from the crowd. It must make your prospect say to themselves that they would be an absolute idiot to buy from anyone else but you, regardless of price.
And finally, the Offer. You must create a compelling offer that makes it so irresistible your prospects can’t turn it down. But here’s another critical fundamental of marketing. Because of the saturation of marketing messaging these days most prospects have become numb to most marketing. Following our conversion equation can dramatically overcome this. But even with this powerful tool in play it will still take multiple touch points before your prospects will buy what you sell.
For most businesses today it takes anywhere from 20 to more than one hundred touch points before a prospect makes their buying decision. Using our conversion equation reduces the touch points to somewhere between 5 to 12 points of contact.
But here’s the key. Most businesses don’t follow up with their prospects at all. And this provides a huge window of opportunity for any business that does follow up. But to have the opportunity to get your message in front of your prospects five to 12 times. you must find a way to collect their contact information and that’s the purpose of your offer.
Most businesses offer something that only appeal to prospects we call now buyers now buyers are your prospects that are ready to make an immediate purchase. And unfortunately, now buyers make up less than 1 percent of the total number of prospects that are in the market to buy what you sell.
These businesses typically offer prospects a free consultation. A discount. A coupon. A free assessment. A complimentary quote or the biggest mistake of all, their phone number. For most businesses, all of their marketing material their website their business card all lists their phone number as their sole offer and that only appeals to that one percent of now buyers the remaining 99 percent of viable prospects are invested again and gathering information about what you sell. They’re searching for information because they want to determine who is offering the best value.
You see prospects don’t shop price they shop value. And the only reason prospects consider price at all is that most businesses don’t give them any other value proposition to consider except price.
Remember what I said earlier about making your business unique and creating a market dominating position. Most businesses don’t do that. And since they and all of their competitors look exactly the same, prospects are forced to shop price.
So consider this, what if you could create a market dominating position for your business that addresses both the problems of your clients and the results you provide. And you incorporate it into all of your marketing efforts including your web site. If you did this, by what percent would that impact your business. I’ve had clients tell me that it would double their business. These are the fundamentals we teach you in our coaching program. The information we provide is cutting edge and world class. Apply what will teach you and you will literally dominate your market.
Have a great rest of the day!
