http://www.admissionsblog.net Strategic marketing and advertising advice Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:58:08 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Strategic marketing and advertising advice Charlie Moger's ADmissions no Strategic marketing and advertising advice http://www.admissionsblog.net/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://www.admissionsblog.net http://www.admissionsblog.net/the-most-expensive-answer-you-should-know/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-most-expensive-answer-you-should-know http://www.admissionsblog.net/the-most-expensive-answer-you-should-know/#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:26:53 +0000 Charles Moger http://www.admissionsblog.net/?p=2981 http://www.admissionsblog.net/the-most-expensive-answer-you-should-know/feed/ 2 Buying signals,conversion,sales,selling Buying signals come in varying sizes and weights. The most obvious of them, aside from when a customer reaches for their wallet is when they ask, “How much is it?” - Whether the sale is won or lost in this moment of truth rests on the readiness of you... Buying signals come in varying sizes and weights. The most obvious of them, aside from when a customer reaches for their wallet is when they ask, “How much is it?” Whether the sale is won or lost in this moment of truth rests on the readiness of your reply. I found myself on the customer end of an almost-buying experience last week that went south after I asked .... “How much to mulch my yard?” A seven-man crew toiled in a neighbor’s yard last Saturday. “FLOWER BEDS ONLY” read their hand-lettered sign. Aside from cleaning gutters, there’s no chore I like less than tending flower beds. My interest compounded each time I passed that crew while running errands. Curiosity got the best of me on the seventh pass. I stopped and offered my buying signal, “How much to mulch a yard?” John, the man running the job, gave an all-too-typical answer: “That depends,” he said, before launching into a list of considerations, conditions, and variables. With every word he cultivated uncertainty until my need to leave reached full bloom. Nodding politely, I said, “thanks,” and left. Sale lost. “How Much” has one answer Correct answers advance a sale. Wrong ones detour around it. When a customer asks, “how much?” they’re on the go-ahead side of deciding to buy. So, help them go the distance: tell ‘em how much, but don’t stop there! The right answer is the price—followed seamlessly by reasons that build value in the customer’s mind. Price is not a punchline Quite the contrary, it’s the most potent qualifier you have. Put it up front. Scare off the time wasters. Cold? Maybe. But, how much is your time worth? “Mulch is $14 a foot, plus $25 an hour for installation. We use freshly ground mulch, no dies, no fillers. It’s enhanced with magic juju beans. Your house will win lawn of the month all year. You’ll get that promotion. Your kids will admire you. Now, how many beds do you have?” Had John said anything even close to that, they’d be working at my house by now. But, he didn’t. Doubt douses persuasion's fire Unanswered How-much’s create loopholes. They plant doubt by telling customers you either don’t know what you’re talking about, or don’t believe in your product. Building value, on the other hand, leverages their desire, stokes the fire, and moves you toward the sale. 5 ways you can win when asked "How Much ?" Put price up front: “This mulch is $14 a foot....” Bridge to value: “because our mulch is freshly ground, your plants...” Invoke testimonials: “the Smiths two houses up hire us every year...” Take it away---a bit: “there’s cheaper mulch out there---and if that will do for your yard, we may not be a fit for you....” Get them involved: “How many beds do you have?” Get to know your How-Much Success demands drill. Find someone you trust. Practice your how-much. Out loud. Repeat until it rolls off your tongue naturally as your name. Then, get prepared to explain why you’re making so many sales. My beds, by the way, got the mulch they needed. Our lawn guy answered my “How Much” with a number and built value. He got my business because he knew his number. What’s yours? Charlie Moger's ADmissions no 4:11 http://www.admissionsblog.net/its-not-whats-under-the-hood-that-moves-you/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=its-not-whats-under-the-hood-that-moves-you http://www.admissionsblog.net/its-not-whats-under-the-hood-that-moves-you/#comments Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:10:47 +0000 Charles Moger http://www.admissionsblog.net/?p=2914 http://www.admissionsblog.net/its-not-whats-under-the-hood-that-moves-you/feed/ 3 anchor,anchors,associations,brand,classical conditioning,customer,customer value,customers,dog meat,dogs,existing customers,ford // - There's something new under the hood of the 2013 Ford Mustang. But, you won't see it in ads. Instead, Ford understands anchoring to what's under your hood is more likely to move these cars. - Gear heads would prefer hearing how Mustang’s 5. // There's something new under the hood of the 2013 Ford Mustang. But, you won't see it in ads. Instead, Ford understands anchoring to what's under your hood is more likely to move these cars. Gear heads would prefer hearing how Mustang’s 5.0-liter got kicked up a notch, thanks to the 444-horsepower Mustang Boss 302. Or, that engineers adapted multiple designs to realize a whopping 420 horses. Or, that the GT Track package, available for the stick-shift–equipped GT Mustang with a 3.73 axle, provides an engine cooler, upgraded radiator, performance friction brake pads, the Torsen differential found in the Mustang Boss 302 and the same ingredients as the Brembo Brake Package with 14-inch vented front... yadda, yadda, yadda. All my wife just wants to know is, can she get pink pin striping? Fact is, customers like her greatly outnumber the gear head cognoscenti. Ford's digital hocus-pocus only expresses literally the pictures already conjured in many a mind's eye.  Satisfying our need for personal expression touches a place deep within us. Associating the Mustang with what is personally meaningful to each customer is a thing of beauty. It's called anchoring. And, with this spot, Ford sinks theirs deep. Anchoring is best illustrated through Ivan Pavlov's research of conditioned reflexes which won him a 1904 Nobel Prize and the eternal gratitude of marketers everywhere. You remember: show a dog meat, ring a bell, dog salivates. Repeat until the dog will salivate for the bell even when meat is removed from the equation. Repetition didn't get the result. It's not training. It's the meat. Dogs love meat. Pavlov started with something dogs already wanted. You think potatoes would have net the same result? While parading a handful of personalized Mustangs down the street, Ford gets under our hood, tapping into our associative anchors along the way. The red one, the green one, the almost pink, but really black one; we see ourselves somewhere in the mix, fulfilling our drive for self expression.  It's something humans love even more than meat. The exact opposite happens where ads promote facts and details the advertiser deems important. It's an easy trap: selling what you wish customers would care about. That's a dead-end road. Instead, shift gears: look for ways to link brand associations to what's already valued and deep in the heart of your customer. Let's say you're selling a house. Five bedrooms and three and a half baths doesn't sell real estate. (How I wish it would.) It's more about how a house feels when you walk in, the impression it makes, the step up from what came before---that's why people buy a house. Significant purchases are made on primarily personal (read: emotional) grounds. Where in that mix are years in business, family ownership, excellent customer service, The GT version's Brembo Brake package? That may be your anchor, but it's not the customer's. Watch the ad again. See what Ford is selling: while tipping its hat at the Boss 302, and Shelby Cobra, the ad focuses on colors, custom grilles, and attitude. That last part isn't printed on any window sticker. But, look closer and it appears---reflected in the window, the Mustang within you. That's the test: when customers see your message, will they see themselves reflected back---or just a list of options pasted to a window? Charlie Moger's ADmissions no 3:56 http://www.admissionsblog.net/right-turns-blue-specs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=right-turns-blue-specs http://www.admissionsblog.net/right-turns-blue-specs/#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:19:31 +0000 Charles Moger http://www.admissionsblog.net/?p=2864 http://www.admissionsblog.net/right-turns-blue-specs/feed/ 0 alternate routes,create new,creates,dailies,fresh perspective,interruption,new ideas,new perspectives,patterns,perspective,self,turns // - Every now and then you need right turns. If what you're doing seems a matter of life and death, you need a right turn. If you're content that all is going according to plan, you need a right turn. If you're aggravated at the progress you're making, // Every now and then you need right turns. If what you're doing seems a matter of life and death, you need a right turn. If you're content that all is going according to plan, you need a right turn. If you're aggravated at the progress you're making, you need a right turn right now. This is a right turn. This isn't a how-to, do-this-and-get-that story. I promise you one next time. Want to get more out of those nuts-and-bolts stories? Take more right turns. If taking this one bugs the bejesus out you, then you probably need it worse than you know. Right turns aren't detours. They're self-selected alternate routes. They're interruptions to your daily pattern. Adding one to an otherwise routine drive brings a fresh perspective. Try it out: take a random right along your daily drive. You'll be surprised how the unexpected sights impact your day; one may even unlock a solution, or open a window to new ideas. I'm a big believer in right turns. After all, we're each of us a stew of routine and right turns: a spit-shined marine who excels at ballroom dancing, or a weekend heavy-metal head who spends her days as a buttoned-down office clerk. Jesus was love and light, but took a sharp right to crack a mean whip clearing moneychangers out of the temple. Where there are right turns, there's depth. There's authenticity. There's something fresh and unexpected. It's a matter of perspective. Our personalities, our lives, our businesses, benefit from our willingness to take an occasional right turn. Ride the same path long enough and it becomes a rut; dry, dusty and predictable. Worst yet, do it long enough and you'll start to believe it's not only important, but the only right way. There's a name for people like that: hard-asses. Any way but their way is a detour, a delay, a waste of time. They're the ones boiling over with rage because the guy in front of them is going too slow through the car wash. The sun doesn't rise and fall in accordance with your plans, successes or failure. It's easy to forget, as Carl Sagan says in the video above, that we're all riding on a little blue spec. From that perspective, your right turn is an indiscernible change of course. So, where's the risk? Banish "detour" thinking and take that next turn. Right turns--and even left ones--bring fresh air into your life and business. Your North Star will ultimately bring you back on course. But, you'll return with fresh juju for what is possible, or maybe even a better understanding of why you chose this path in the first place. "You could not step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you." --Heraclitus, Greek philosopher Charlie Moger's ADmissions no 2:59 http://www.admissionsblog.net/herman-cain-smoking-his-critics/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=herman-cain-smoking-his-critics http://www.admissionsblog.net/herman-cain-smoking-his-critics/#comments Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:46:20 +0000 Charles Moger http://www.admissionsblog.net/?p=2840 http://www.admissionsblog.net/herman-cain-smoking-his-critics/feed/ 1 http://www.admissionsblog.net/forever-among-the-crazy-ones/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=forever-among-the-crazy-ones http://www.admissionsblog.net/forever-among-the-crazy-ones/#comments Fri, 07 Oct 2011 22:11:28 +0000 Charles Moger http://www.admissionsblog.net/?p=2823 http://www.admissionsblog.net/forever-among-the-crazy-ones/feed/ 1