| Hello,
Below is a quick email that I feel is worth sharing with you.
Do you know Seth Godin? He’s the marketing genius behind several brilliant best selling books and has a great podcast called Akimbo.
Godin wrote a book called Purple Cow back in 2003. Its core theme was making your business so remarkable in terms of what it does that it stands out from the competition.
He influenced the likes of the founders of Purple Bricks and thousands, maybe millions of others. He’s a man worth listening to.
Industry figure John Paul reminded me of Godin this week with an email he sent out.
Here it is in full:
When marketing, most agents want to quick win, the easy buck, pick up the phone and get the business.
That does happen, but not all that often
Most of the time, the person isn’t ready to buy or engage in our services.
They have no need for us….. just quite yet!
So, why do we, when we are told no thanks, do we metaphorically speaking, say “see you later” and don’t place any importance on the prospect or potential client.
The fact we didn’t get a quick win, we should place just as much if not more importance on the prospect than if they said “Yes, here’s my business”
We need to play the long game with the person.
If we nurture that client, over say a 12 month period, when they are ready to come back to us, then not only will we have turned that client around BUT since they will have been receiving our communications on a regular period they will have bought into our values and service BEFORE even doing business with us.
This, therefore, means we have fewer objections over price.
True Story
We have measured it and the evidence is overwhelming.
When you phone people and ask for the business there and then, the advantage is with them in terms of negotiation. They have what we want, business
If they come to us, they did so for a reason and they want what we have, the service
Negotiation is always easier when the customer comes to the service provider
Think back to car garages, yes we get a little discount, but believe me the discount is already built into the price.
Seth Godin, author of several amazing marketing books says “Successful marketeers always play the long game”
That’s what you need to look at yourself as a marketer NOT an agent in this circumstance.
What’s your long term game – How do you communicate?
Next week, keep your eyes peeled as ill explain what we do
Thanks
JP
JP is also worth checking out and has a podcast called Leadership Revealed.
Talking of podcasts if you only listen to one this year make it Akimbo by Seth Godin, the episode is called Sample Size and contains a 90-second section which may well change the way you view your marketing strategy – completely. It’s from 17.01 minutes into the podcast and covers algorithms and building a tribe of followers.
Seth knows stuff.
Jerry |
