We are all cluttered thinkers, our minds preoccupied with numerous thoughts, feelings, and unresolved information. You can see that clearly as you walk down any city street. Faces are contorted with angst, inner dialogues, and multilayered emotions. People even walk and move in an uncoordinated way. Examine your own thinking, and youll see that hidden agendas, conflicts, and internal upsets constantly interfere with the clarity of your logic. This is both an opportunity and an obstacle for salesmanship. It is an opportunity because you can offer people something that they need to improve their lives, ease their pain, and end their confusion. Your product may very well provide the relief that your customers need. It may be a way for them to make more money following a specific technology. It may be a way for them to develop will power and self confidence. It may be something that makes their lives easier to organize, maintain, and evolve. It may be a way for them to get rest, relief, and peace. Or it may be a way for them to recuperate energy, health, and well-being. Yet you also have an obstacle. They cant see you, hear you, or even respond to youagain, because of their preoccupation. As a psychologist this happens to me quite often. People write to me about some difficulty they are having. I write back, proposing a simple, common-sense and highly-doable solution. Then they write back repeating their complaint, completely ignoring the solution. In other words, they werent even able to understand that they had been presented with a solution. The way most marketers try to break through this preoccupation is to increase their marketing signal to break through the customers internal noise. They amp up their marketing messageplaying on the customers spectrum of desires with a hammer. Its called hype. In their desperation, customers often respond in the way that the marketer desired. Encouraged, the marketer then rolls out the next pitch with the same tactics. Eventually, however, even this does not work. The customer becomes numbed out, tone deaf, and utterly indifferent. In addition, everybody else is assailing the customers sensibility, trying to attract their attention, with the same dramatic techniques. A better approach is to tone down the customers inner noise, rather than raise your own marketing signal. How do you do this? You simplify and clarify your message at every point of contact. Rather than hype things up, you present your information in an increasingly simple and direct way. Whether youre into internet marketing, network marketing, mail order or sales, you will always have a better response if you simplify your marketing message. This is why USPs, slogans, and other techniques are popularthey give a handle to the brand or product. Sometimes even an unusual company, brand, or product name can awaken a whole train of familiar associations in the customers mind. However, the principle is more important than the technique being used. And the principle is keep it short and simple. If your message is clear, it will be received and acted upon. Your sales will improve. And if you get really good at this, they will soar! |