Sales – Page 43 – Phil Bernstein's Advertising, Marketing, and Sales Training Blog

What Other Problems Do Your Customers Have?

In the wine department of the Hollywood West Fred Meyer store is a device that looks kind of like a clothes hamper full of slowly circulating ice water. A sign on the device says,

“Free Chilling Service — 25 Times Faster Than a Refrigerator”

You just put the bottle in the water and come back in a little while. 3 minutes for “cool”, 5 minutes for “cold”, 7 minutes for “ice cold”.

Somebody at Fred Meyer realized that for some of their shoppers, a good wine selection solves one problem — what to serve at the party — but leaves another potential issue — the guests are arriving in less than an hour and the white wine’s warm.

By offering to solve this second problem at no extra charge, Fred Meyer’s positioned itself as the first option for this segment of customers.

We’re all in the problem-solving business.

People with transportation problems go to car dealers.
Homeowners who need to find a buyer hire a real estate agent.
People who believe they look old or unattractive go to a clinic for botox or lipodissolve.

In many cases your customers are consciously aware of the primary problem they need to solve, but may need to address other issues as well.

Sometimes these issues are a barrier to doing business. The Red Cross, recognizing that many people feel they’re too busy to give blood in December, recently announced a program called “You Give, We Wrap.” Donors bring their holiday gifts to the center, and Red Cross volunteers will wrap the packages while the donors are giving blood.

Sometimes these secondary problems can even be an opportunity for extra profit. When you buy a gift from Amazon.com, they’re happy to wrap it — for an additional $3.99 per package.

Whether you’re trying to generate extra revenue or just position yourself as the first choice for your clients, it makes sense to ask — what other problems can I solve?

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Like what you’re reading? Download my free white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How To Fix Them.

When People Complain About Your Advertising

“Most ads aren’t written to persuade, they’re written not to offend.” — Roy Williams

Not long ago an ad agency pulled a home improvement commercial off the air in Portland and Seattle because several listeners had called the client to complain about it. The client was concerned that he was offending potential customers, and the agency is now scrambling to come up with something else.

So what happens when some people don’t like your advertising?

Sunny Kobe Cook, whose relentless pitches for Sleep Country USA in the 90’s irritated thousands, once told a seminar audience that she would occasionally work behind the counter at one of her stores.

Customers would walk up to the counter after choosing a bed, hand her their credit card, and then do a double-take. She described the typical encounter like this:

Customer: You’re Sunny Kobe Cook!

Sunny: Yes, I am.

Customer (leaning forward, whispering): I hate your commercials!

“They’re standing in my store,” said Cook, “and making a purchase for a thousand bucks or more. I want everyone to hate my commercials like that!”

Cook annoyed people with her voice and relentlessness. Rob Christensen, by contrast, deliberately pushes the envelope of good taste. Christensen runs Apple Auto Sales of Charlotte, North Carolina. In his TV ads, he plays “Reverend Rob”, a televangelist who will “HEAL your credit.” They’re cheesy, poorly-acted, and have the ability to offend on multiple levels.

They also sell cars. You can watch one here.

According to Mike Drummond of the Charlotte Observer, Christensen has been running these ads since 1997. Viewers have complained, and some stations have refused to run the spots.

Christensen airs the commercials on stations who will accept them, and takes his money to the bank. “I’ve had people tell me they hate my ads — hate them,” Christensen told Drummond. “And yet they still bought a car from me.”

Roy Williams echoes the sentiment:

Ninety-eight point nine percent of all the customers who hate your ads will still come to your store and buy from you when they need what you sell. These customers don’t cost you money; they just complain to the cashier as they’re handing over their cash.

A caution is in order here: An annoying campaign may get you noticed, but you can’t forget to sell within the commercial. The Sleep Country and Apple Auto Sales commercials were more than just exercises in irritation. Each one contained a powerful sales message and a call to action.

But you shouldn’t reject an idea simply because some folks might not like it. They don’t have to like it — they just have to buy.

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Got a question? Wanna argue? Email Phil Bernstein here.

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Free Book Alert

If your business involves sales of any kind, the Internet is your best friend. You can now walk into an initial call armed with a remarkable amount of information on your prospect — industry trends, personnel moves, product lines, and more.

The Internet can be an even better friend if you know some tricks and shortcuts to get to the data you need. Sam Richter, President of the James J. Hill Reference Library in St. Paul, MN, makes his living helping people find this information. He’s working on a book called Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling — Web Search Secrets for The Inside Scoop on Companies, Industries and People.

Near as I can tell, the book hasn’t been published yet (Chris Lytle’s newsletter tipped me off to its existence without mentioning how to get it, and a search of Amazon, Powell’s and Barnes & Noble came up empty), but a little digging got me to a web site where you can download a working draft.

The site says that the draft contains about 50% of the tips that will be in the final version, so you’ll still have to reach into your wallet to get the whole thing when it’s done. But there’s a lot of really useful information in the draft.

For example, I’d never heard of Yahoo’s Site Explorer feature, which breaks up your target’s site into subdomains and lists any sites that link to it. Go to https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com, plug in a URL you want to research, and watch it go to work.

Free is a very good price for the draft version, and I’ll be shelling out for the real thing when it’s ready.

One note before you hit the “Print” button, though — it’s 127 pages. Go easy.

Like what you’re reading? Download my free white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How To Fix Them.

Trying to Sell Without Selling

Thursday’s Wall Street Journal has a fascinating article about Unilever’s efforts to promote Axe deodorant by producing a television series called “The Gamekillers”. It details the sometimes contentious negotiations between Unilever — who wanted to make sure that viewers got the connection between the program and Axe — and MTV, who feared that an explicit connection would turn viewers off.

The end result was an entertaining show that may or may not have contributed to Unilever’s bottom line. Axe sales increased 60% in 2006, so obviously Unilever did something right. But without any response mechanism besides a Gamekillers Myspace page, how do you measure the results?

My white paper, “The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them” is still available at no charge. It neither recommends nor opposes creating your own television series, although right now I’m leaning against the idea. Click to download your copy

The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes

I recently completed a 13-page white paper called “The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them.” It’s a study of some of the most common ways that companies waste their advertising dollars — along with suggestions to make those dollars work harder and smarter.

Among the subjects I cover are:

Why trying to reach the largest possible audience can actually hurt your results.

What your prospects are really interested in (hint: it’s not you),

How many topics you should cover in each ad

The one item that must be in your advertising if you want to generate results

Why you should stop agonizing about reaching “The Right People” — and what you should concentrate on instead.

Why you may be leaving money on the table even if your marketing generates new customers.

You can download a copy of this report at no charge by signing up here.