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Marketing Quick Tips
Overcoming Suspicion & Doubt
In Today's Marketplace - people are more guarded, skeptical, and weary than ever. Thanks to years of dealing with misleading - or flat out dishonest - companies who will say, and often do, almost anything to trick people into buying from them. Weary of getting ripped off. Guarded of being harassed by salespeople. And skeptical of offers that have an asterisk (*) next to them. People are generally extremely suspicious of anything you say - that is ... unless you can back it up.
Evidence Gives Everything You Say Substance And Power. Knowing what's important to your prospects and validating what's important to your prospects is not the same thing. Your customers may put a high value on 'Lowest Price' or 'Great Service' or 'Best Quality'. But spewing out platitudes like "We've got the lowest prices in town, we beat everyone's price, our service is world class, and our quality is second to none." doesn't do anything to build confidence in buying from you. Why? Because your prospects want and need PROOF. They want to see and hear evidence - cold, hard facts - that the claims you're making are actually true.
So, What Evidence Can You Provide? Here's a short list:
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1. Articles & Press Stories - Are there articles or press stories written
about your company, your product, or your service? Or have you,
or someone in your company, written anything that's been printed
in the media? Get a copy of them from the publisher and use them. |
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2. Charts & Graphs - Can you put together charts or graphs that show
visually the benefits of using your product or service? Or perhaps,
that show the consequences of not using them? Can you include or
use 3rd party data to further support your conclusions? |
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3. Comparisons - How do you compare to your direct or indirect
competitors? Can you create a 'Consumer Reports' style guide
that makes it easy to evaluate all the considerations side-by-side? |
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4. Photos & Videos - Can you show photos or videos of the work
you've done? Or of the appearance, behavior, and performance
standards of your company? |
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5. Testimonials - How many personal testimonials from your
customers can you show? Hundreds? Dozens? Just One?! And No -
using platitudes like "ABC Inc. is great. They gave us such great
service." does Not count. Only use testimonials that give specifics.
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"I've used at least 10 different (product) vendors. And never have I found a vendor that could provide (Hot Button) like I've been hoping for. I saw on XYZ Corp's website that they could (perform Hot Button) and quite frankly I didn't believe it, so I gave them a small test order. When (performance happened), I immediately placed a full order worth $XX,000. That was X months ago, and they still (perform on Hot Button) every single time." |
Quick Tips Index
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