What People REALLY Want

And How To Give It To Them

People rarely buy what they buy. Come again?

It’s true — what people buy goes far deeper than tangible products and services. What people really buy are the intangibles beyond what you can see and touch, such as image, security, freedom, peace, and joy.

Are you giving your customers what they really want? Do you know how to?

If all motorcycle enthusiasts wanted was a motorized two-wheel vehicle, then why do some buy BMWs and some buy Harley-Davidsons? It’s not about the steel and the mere functionality; each of these bikes carries an image. A BMW quietly states sophistication, comfort, and style. A Harley roars, “I’m tough and dangerous, a person to be reckoned with!”

Car buyers want far more than a car; they want a car that proclaims who they are, something that defines them. Mercedes drivers want prestige. Toyota Prius drivers define themselves as sensible and environmentally conscious. Jeep drivers love the image of rugged freedom and virile activity.

Most of our purchasing decisions are made to define ourselves to the world, rather than to fulfill basic survival needs. Abraham Maslow gave us insight into the human psyche with his “heirarchy of needs.” If you’re trying to fulfill basic needs, you’re way behind the curve of civilization. We’ve conquered survival; now we want self-definition and -actualization.

If you’re selling soap, don’t sell soap; sell environmental consciousness. If you sell food products, don’t sell food; sell health and wellness. If your product is men’s shoes, don’t sell men’s shoes; sell the image of debonair. If your business is women’s hair products, don’t sell shampoo; sell carefree and sexy.

How To Give People What They Want

The how is simple: speak to the intangibles in all of your marketing communications. Help your customers define and enhance their desired self-image by buying your product.

Consider this example of a Bowie knife from Lone Star Cutlery, an online retailer of sport and collectible knives. The current description is nothing but this list of tangible features:

• High Carbon 440 Steel Sabre Ground Clip Blade
• Beautiful India Stag Bone Handles
• Brass Guard and Pins
• Full Tang Construction
• Tan Leather Belt Sheath imprinted with “BEAR & SON”
• Bear & Son Limited Lifetime Warranty

Now watch the knife come alive with the following sample description:

Easy, partner — this 9-inch bad boy bites. If you eat gourmet French food daintily, bask in classical music, and tour in a luxury sedan, this one ain’t for you. This beauty is the Harley-Davidson of cutlery, the rough-and-tumble backwoods brawler for only the toughest of customers.
 
When you grasp the solid handle and test the balance you’re going to feel the wind in your hair from the plains, see the blue western sky, and ache to be on a wild and dangerous hunt. Yes, sir, there’s power in this broad steel — and only the bravest dare wield it.
 
And if that’s not you, it’s best if you slowly back away from this here Bowie…

Of course, you and I both know that this knife will never be used on a “wild and dangerous” hunt; it’s going to sit in a display case and rarely be touched, if at all. But what does it matter — buyers want more than the actual knife; they want the image that the knife represents.

The sample description above sells them what they really want, beyond the steel and bone. They want to feel a surge in their self-image when they pick up the knife.

Ready to explode your sales? Sell your customers what they really want — the intangibles of image and feelings. Speak to their self-definition, rather than to their survival needs. Vividly demonstrate why buying your product is a perfect expression of who they are.

People don’t buy what you see — they buy who they are. Do you know who your customers are? Are you helping them to enhance their self-image?

One Guaranteed Technique To Make Your Readers Care

There’s a simple three-word trick that can make all the difference in your written presentations. The technique is a smooth transition from features to benefits, which means that your readers will be hooked as you show them why your message matters to them, on their terms and in their language.

This technique is a foolproof way to get details out of your head and into theirs, which means that your readers will feel your concern for them, resulting in a greater likelihood of them doing business with you.

Hint: I’ve already used the three-word technique twice.

Do you see it?

Here are the three words that will take your marketing to the next level:

“which means that…”

It’s that simple. Individuals and businesses often tell prospects why they (the presenters) are so great, but the approach fails to demonstrate why it matters to their audience. Adding “which means that” is how you translate your features into benefits for your readers. It shifts the focus away from you and onto your readers.

Here are a few real-life examples — without the “which means that” technique — taken from existing websites:

1. Realtor: “Before beginning my real estate career, I taught junior high and high school and was full-time mom for many years.  I am very active with area schools, camps, church, moms’ clubs, little league and other family activities.”

2. Attorney: “Criminal defense lawyer Bill _____ is one of the top criminal defense attorneys in the state. Bill  is experienced in all aspects of criminal cases. His depth of knowledge and reputation as an ethical, tough advocate, has won him the respect and admiration of judges, colleagues, and clients.”

3. Dentist: “Dr. _______ has had extensive advanced training, especially in the areas of TMJ disorders and cosmetic dentistry.”

Now let’s look at these examples after adding the “which means that” technique:

1. “Before beginning my real estate career, I taught junior high and high school and was full-time mom for many years.  I am very active with area schools, camps, church, moms’ clubs, little league and other family activities, which means that I identify your family home with the piercing insight that only an experienced mother can offer. You’re going to jump for joy when I unveil the home that envelops your family with fun and warmth.”

2. “Criminal defense lawyer Bill _____ is one of the top criminal defense attorneys in the state. Bill is experienced in all aspects of criminal cases. His depth of knowledge and reputation as an ethical, tough advocate, has won him the respect and admiration of judges, colleagues, and clients. All of which means that you can trust Bill to champion your cause and fight for your rights with strength, integrity, and wisdom. With Bill in your corner you’re going to feel safe, secure, and confident.”

3. “Dr. _______ has had extensive advanced training, especially in the areas of TMJ disorders and cosmetic dentistry, which means that your mouth and jaw pain will vanish under his tender care born of experience.”

Forgive me for being blunt, but your readers don’t care about you. They care about themselves. Every time you tell them why you’re qualified to meet their needs, make sure you add “which means that,” followed by a statement detailing why it matters to them.

Translating the features of your qualifications into specific benefits to your audience shows them that you care about them, which means that they’ll be drawn to you, resulting in more money and more clients for you. Learn to shift the focus of your written message away from you and onto your audience and you’ll have more business than ever.

How To Grip Your Website Visitors In the Vise of Persuasion

Every time I write a website I use the following checklist to ensure optimal effectiveness.

First, understand the ends of these means: 1) surprise and delight readers; catch them off guard to enhance the experience and insert your business into their memory, 2) vividly illustrate why potential customers should buy from you, and 3) answer their questions on their terms, thus increasing their likelihood to buy, 4) the ultimate goal is to persuade visitors to buy your products and/or services (as opposed to simply inform).

Most of these principles apply to every other form of written content as well.

1. Pick the right angle/strategy.

The “angle” can be a metaphor, a tagline, a core idea that all your content wraps around. In the case of my website, the angle is the vision of the Information Age as a vast sea of content requiring the skillful navigation of a seasoned captain to succeed. The angle for Real Estate Marketplace is “Legendary Service,” which conjures dramatic images of warriors and saints.

The strategy needs to be expansive enough to fit all content, yet focused enough to speak to the core of the value that you offer.

2. The “WIFM” rule.

Your visitors enter your radar asking the question, “What’s in it for me?” Most websites are written about the person/business that the site is designed to tell about. Yes, you build a site to tell people about you, but it must be written to be about your visitor. How do you meet their needs? What’s in it for them if they use you? How do you make their life better? The home page especially needs to illuminate the benefits to your readers.

Future Now, Inc., an elite New York-based company specializing in website conversion, offers a free tool, the We-We Monitor, that reveals how well your website focuses on your customers, as opposed to yourself. Try it out on your website now — the result may surprise you.

3. Translate features into benefits.

Some features of my MacBook Pro laptop computer are the 15″ monitor, the 2 GHz Intel Duo Core processor, and 1 GB of memory with 667 MHz of RAM. I don’t have a clue what most of those mean. But what I do know is that my computer is fast. I know that it can process a lot of information and run a lot of programs simultaneously. I know that it loves to digest pictures and videos. In other words, I don’t care about the features; I care about the benefits that those features provide. And so do your customers.

If you’re a graphic designer, a feature is that you’re proficient in Flash. The benefit to your customers is that you make their website come alive with excitement. If you’re a hair stylist, a feature is that you use Redken salon products. The benefit is that your customer’s hair will shimmer like the night sky. If you sell Jeep Wranglers, a feature is the 202 hp 3.8 liter V6 engine; the benefit is that drivers will be flabbergasted as they crawl up a boulder-littered incline like it was child’s play.

4. Cater to personas.

A persona is the sum total of how a person thinks, the types of questions they ask and answers they want to receive, how they view the world, and how they define themselves. There are four basic personas (based on the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator): Methodical, Spontaneous, Competitive, and Humanist. Your website needs to cater to all of them, and there are specific writing techniques for doing this.

This needs much more explanation, but here’s the short version: Methodicals want the fine print and details, Spontaneous types want to get quickly to the benefits, Competitives want to see your competitive advantage, and Humanists want personal interaction and testimonials.

5. Persuasion Architecture.

Persuasion Architecture means designing website navigation and writing content so that visitors are persuaded to take action in a style that feels completely natural to them. It’s the art and science of increasing website conversions. The goal becomes to get visitors what they want, rather than forcing them to do what we want them to do.

The home page is critical to this and should accomplish two primary goals: 1) show visitors what’s in it for them, and 2) provide links within the active copy taking them to every other page on your site where they can get more details. Remember that each persona will want to go to a different place; persuasion architecture gives them the ability to go where they want to go — not where you think they should go — without confusion or resistance.

6. Instill the vision.

It’s proven that people will not — in fact cannot — take any action that they have not already envisioned in their mind. Does your copy instill the vision of what it will feel like for potential customers to interact with your business? Does the vision inspire each of their senses? The more clearly a person can envision taking a particular action the more likely they are to take that action in reality.

7. Exploit verbs.

Verbs explode your copy, transforming passive content into active content that leaps from the page and into the mind. The Wizard of Ads and foremost advertising guru in the nation, Roy H. Williams reveals the secret, “Double the verbs; whack the adjectives.” Predictability is enemy #1 in the Information Age, and mastering the use of verbs is half the battle of delighting readers with unpredictability.

To recap:

1. Pick the right angle.
2. The WIFM rule.
3. Translate features into benefits.
   
4. Cater to personas.
5. Persuasion architecture.
6. Instill the vision.
7. Exploit verbs.

Now, what do you need to change on your website after reading this checklist? And how can I help?

The ONE Secret To Make Your Message Effective

How To Become the Center of Attention

There are millions of people with tons of advice, techniques, and strategies for how to reach your audience and get them to take action. Yet, if we’re drowning in such advice, then why are so many marketing campaigns, books, speeches, articles, blogs, and other content painfully ineffective? Why does it seem so hard to get others to take action?

This is a must-read article if any of the following are true:

• You are a marketer, writer, entrepreneur, politician, or leader and you want to increase your ability to impact your audience, lead your organization, and make a positive difference.
• You’ve struggled with getting your message across in the past and have wondered why.
• You have an excellent product, service, or message that you know people will benefit from, but are having a hard time selling it.
• You have a passion for a particular message, but more often than not people seem to tune you out.
• You want to learn how to increase your conversion rate on your website and marketing campaigns.

When it comes to marketing, publishing, websites, public speaking and all forms of content creation and distribution, there’s one secret that supersedes anything else you’ve ever heard on the subject. Learning and applying this one secret will make a bigger difference in your style and presentation than anything else.

Are you ready for it?

Let me give you a hint: Why are you still reading this article? You’ve made it this far for a reason–what is that reason? Is it because I’m such a great writer? Is it because you like my website? Is it because you think I’m a cool guy?

Does it have anything to do with me at all? Of course not. You’re still reading this because you have your own needs, struggles, and issues that you’re dealing with and you’re looking for answers. It has nothing to do with my writing style or my charismatic personality, charm, or wit. It’s all about you and your needs. I’ve promised to help you meet your needs and answer your questions by giving you a secret that will increase the effectiveness more than any other factor. You haven’t made it this far because of me; you’re here because of you. You might care about my credibility, but only as it relates to your purposes.

Have you figured out the secret yet? Lean in closer while I whisper it in your ear. Here’s the secret: It’s not about you.

That’s it. It’s really that simple. It’s not about you — it’s about your audience. It’s about your customer, or potential customer. It’s about their needs, desires, passions, fears, perceptions, sense of belonging, personality, sense of humor, tastes, preferences, and aversions. It’s about giving them what they want, not what you want.

The Golden Rule says to treat people how you want to be treated. The Platinum Rule says to treat people how they want to be treated. The Golden Rule is great for avoiding conflict and war, but horrible for marketing. No one cares that your product is the best and that it was the result of your years of toil and passion. They only care if it happens to coincide with what they want.

To give a tangible example of this secret, I’ve visited a few websites of freelance writers to extract and analyze two writing samples. Consider the differences between the two:

Example 1: “I enjoy working with people and I love to write. The combination gives me an edge in the freelance writing industry. I’m outgoing enough to ask all the right questions and lucky enough that I never get bored doing my job. I believe any piece of writing is worthy of perfection…I have always gone the extra mile for my clients. You will find that I am meticulous, that my work is original, and that I will consistently produce above and beyond expectations.

Example 2: “I am here to make your life easier. Partner with me for your writing needs and give yourself the freedom to focus on other aspects of your business. If you are looking for an experienced freelance writer who is committed to your satisfaction, you have found her! I look forward to helping you achieve more with words.”

The first one isn’t written too badly, but notice that “I” is used eight times with only two references to the writer’s potential clients. In an effort to sell you on her services, she has told you all about herself. In the second example, the writer references herself just four times while referencing you, the potential client, six times. The first person wants to tell you how great she is; the second shows you that she’s all about meeting your needs.

For some reason we think that to sell people we need to tell them how great we are. The reality is just the opposite — you must show them how in tune to their needs you are. They only reason they care about how great you are is if your perceived greatness coincides with what they’re looking for and the particular pain that they’re feeling that your product, service, or message will alleviate.

Learning that it’s not about you and writing to the perspective of your audience will impact the effectiveness of your message more than any other factor. Stop being self-centered — make your message customer-centric and you will quickly become the center of attention for your audience.

Why Should You Blog?

A blog is absolutely indispensable for most business owners: it will help you draw unprecedented traffic, establish yourself as an expert and as a trusted friend to your customers, allow you to create more value, gain more customers, gain and share testimonials, and earn more money.

Having a blog allows you to have ongoing conversations with customers, where any other customers and prospects can personally witness how you deal with concerns, answer questions, and provide value.

You can also create polls and surveys to quantify your effectiveness and get real-time feedback on what your customers like and want to see improved. This type of interaction also tends to create a sense of community amongst users, and community translates into loyalty, and loyalty means increased sales.

A blog gives you more transparency, honesty, and accountability, and your customers will respond to that. It also happens to be one of the best ways to drive up your ranking in Search Engine Optimization, which means increased traffic to your site.

In short, a blog for a small business owner means more traffic, more customers, more feedback from the market, increased value to customers, and ultimately more revenues.

“These are all good things,” I can hear you say, “but I’m not a good writer!”

This is one of the best parts of the whole deal: you don’t even need to be a great writer to have a world-class blog and draw tons of traffic! Let me write your blog for you professionally.

This is an excellent service for small business owners who want to leverage a blog, but simply don’t have time to give it justice. Simply fill out this short form describing what you would like to write about, I will ghostwrite it for a nominal fee, and you get all the credit and benefits!

“What if I’m not a business owner,” you say. “Why should I have a blog?

Even if you don’t have a business, with a blog you can stay connected with family and friends, publish your passions and values to the world, network, create community, educate, share, create, discuss, and most of all, have tons of fun!

Best of all, with blog templates, your blog can also be a fully functional website, complete with a product store, static pages, forms, pictures, links, and more!

Most importantly, however, you should know that maintaining a blog can actually be an excellent business for you, as many professional bloggers literally generate $4,000 per month or more from their blog alone. Who knows, this might end up being a full-time job that you love and that makes you an excellent living!

Isn’t it time for you to start your blog? Contact me today for help!

Why Write A Non-Fiction Book?

Surprising Truths About Book Publishing

When people approach me about writing a non-fiction book, my advice often disappoints them because of their expectations about the publishing world. There seems to be a pervading myth that simply publishing a book, on its own merits, is enough to bring fame and fortune to any author. This may come as a surprise, but if your purpose in wanting to write a book is to make money, then read on as I shed some light on the real truths behind book publishing.

The truth is that very few non-fiction authors make much money from their book alone. Publishing a book and getting nationwide distribution is an exorbitantly, and in most cases prohibitively, expensive process. It’s time and energy intensive, and will take massive amounts of resources. In fact, non-fiction authors will spend anywhere from $400-800,000 before they even break even with book sales (anywhere from 200-350,000 copies sold). So if it’s that difficult and expensive, what’s the point of publishing a book anyway?

There are two main reasons to write and publish a non-fiction book, and to make money certainly isn’t one of them. The two reasons are to market your business and to gain credibility.

Reason #1: Marketing

Unless you have a baseline business platform, other than your book idea, to drive traffic to, there’s very little point in publishing a non-fiction book. You won’t make any money and it won’t be worth the effort. The successful non-fiction authors are those who understand that their book is nothing more than a marketing tool to drive traffic to their business, and who exploit this knowledge effectively.

For example, Stephen Covey’s books drive traffic to Franklin Covey, T. Harv Eker has Peak Potentials Training, Mark Victor Hansen and Robert Allen’s book The One Minute Millionaire markets the Enlightened Wealth Institute, Killing Sacred Cows by Garrett Gunderson and myself leads to the Freedom FastTrack process, marketing guru Seth Godin built Squidoo, Ken Blanchard’s company is a global leader in workplace learning and productivity, just to name a few.

The real money to be made from publishing a book doesn’t come from the book itself; it comes from the business that the book is designed to market. So what does this mean for you? You should spend far more time and effort developing a legitimate business, rather than writing a book.

Besides, you don’t even need to write the dang thing yourself — that’s what guys like me are for. You build your business, and let me get your book written. Your time is much better spent focusing on your business, products, and services. This approach will ultimately result in far more dollars to you than trying to make money from book sales alone.

Reason #2: Credibility

In the Information Age, your audience is drowning in information. They’re constantly bombarded with television, radio, books, advertising, Internet, blogs, music, etc. So why should they listen to you, especially when there may be countless competing factors sending them conflicting messages? When faced with information overload, people listen to and buy from those they deem to be credible.

Think about it: why are quotes so powerful? It’s not because of what is said in a quote that makes it relevant and important to you–it’s because of the credibility of the person saying it. When you hear the words, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” the quote sticks with and impacts you not because of the actual words, but because you know they came from Gandhi, a man who earned ultimate credibility on the subject of changing the world. Your neighbor could say the same thing, but unless he has credibility on that subject, the words will impact you far less and you will quickly forget them.

The phrase “Imagination is more important than knowledge” could be seen as nothing but a trite adage, but coming from the mind and mouth of Albert Einstein, it carries substantial weight and meaning.

Credibility is a precious commodity in the business world, and it’s one that, once gained, will dramatically increase your bottom line. There’s something about being a published author that gives a person instant credibility. Imagine being at a party and meeting three new people. Suppose the first two people you meet are incredible businessmen (or women), and the third is actually far less accomplished than the first two. But if you learn that the third is a published author, suddenly you pay more attention and give more weight to their words. And the chances are high that the published author, despite any of their other accomplishments, is the one that you will remember months later.

Conclusion

If you are thinking about writing a non-fiction book, my advice is that you must first understand that publishing a book is not a good way to make money in and of itself. You absolutely must develop a world-class business that the book is deliberately designed to market, and it’s through increasing traffic to this business that you will make your real money. And by gaining credibility, which comes from being a published author, the chances of getting people to consistently buy from your business are considerably greater.

In other words, what you need isn’t a good idea for a book, but rather, a good business to market. So what’s your business, and how can I help you market it by ghostwriting your non-fiction book?