Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

We all want to sell more, I mean, that’s what all this marketing stuff is about. There is a secret to selling more of just about anything to just about anyone, but it’s not really about your product or service – the secret to selling anything to anyone is to help them get what they most want.

I know, brilliant in it’s simplicity, right? Of course everyone knows that, every marketing guru worth their salt tells you to push benefits over features, human desires over product descriptions. The thing is, even this line of thinking stops well short of what I’m talking about here because it’s still usually focused on you and your products.

No, what I want to suggest you start looking at is what is it that your customers and prospects want most, discover that and find ways to wrap your business in helping them get that, and you will sell more of your products and services as a result of that focus.

So, maybe an example will help illustrate this thinking. If you are an auto dealer, you might think what people want most is a cool new car. Some people may indeed want that most – they may need that name brand set of wheels to feel better about themselves, but I’m guessing larger numbers really just want a reliable, functional, fairly priced, trustworthy vehicle that, perhaps feeds their set of values, but mostly does the job.

What those same people MOST want is to fall in love, get a new job, feel better, make more money, have more time, and gain a sense of control in their lives. Heck, it’s the human condition. So, what if addition to offering reliable, functional, fairly priced, trustworthy vehicles you also found ways to make yoga classes, life-coaching, gay singles night, investment “how to”, cooking sessions and tax preparation part of the way in which you helped people get what they most want, while clearly differentiating your dealership from the pack.

Let’s look at a B2B illustration that’s near and dear to me. If you’re a CPA with small business customers, what do they most want? Maybe it’s to make sense of a balance sheet, but mostly it’s to get more customers and get home earlier in the evening. So, you’ve figured out how to tap the Internet and social media to get more customers and you love playing around with these new tools. Why not help your customers set-up a blog, learn how to use Facebook, or optimize their websites for local search?

Or, how about building a network of trusted advisors that can help your business customers in many phases of business and systematically bring your customers together for sessions with your mastermind group of advisors.

When you become a total resource to your customers, when you help them achieve their business and personal goals – you will sell more of anything to anyone – and the best part is, you won’t have to sell a thing.

Posted by: John Jantsch on Feb 27, 09 | 8:08 am
Category: Referral Marketing, Small Business, Small Business Marketing | Tags: , customer needs, sales