How Are You Making Products Relate to People?
Before you can start talking about benefits of a product, before you can start talking about features in a product, you first need to establish rapport with your potential customers.
This is what content marketing is all about. It is connecting with your readership at a personal level. I am not talking about calling them on the phone and asking them to be your friends. That would be a little over the top.
Hence, if you start right into a sales presentation talking about all widgets and gimmicks with your potential email list, your list will begin to dwindle because your potential customers will delete your email, they will not want to listen to you, and probably unsubscribe.
Believe me, it has happened to me and I thought it was a bad ad so I tried to spruce it up and I sent out another email ad to my list the next day. I had about 20 people unsubscribe in two days! I quickly knew I was doing something wrong, but did not have the answer right away.
Hard Selling is Cold Calling - Burrrrrrrr! Bah Humbug!
You see hard selling will not work over an email if you have not established any rapport. It is as bad as a phone call to a person you have never talked to before.
Listen. Remember how do you felt when someone calls you up out of the blue or knocks at your door and they instantly begin to sell you something without even catching a breath?
Is your guard up or down?
Do you feel like your time is being wasted and you want to get rid of that person ASAP?
I know because that has happened to me.
But what if that person got your attention by doing something a little different? The person was just being pleasant and began telling a short personal story of how they struggled at one time in their life or had some other issue they solved.
Would that get more of your attention?
You probably would because that person is actually taking a short time to relate a pain that you may have had yourself.
Despite whether the person wanted to see a presentation, they gave it more time than 3 seconds.
The questions is, "Are you making products relate to people's problems and desires?"
Do This... Do That... Be Snappy About It...
For a moment, I would like for you to think back to a time when you are being told what to do and how to do it.
Perhaps it is where you had a boss that was a micro manager and that person always told you what to do, how to do, and when to do it.
Did you not feel incredibly boxed in and uncreative? How did that make you feel and were you open to it or closed to it.
What if you are a master seller and you talk person into something? That person will be resentful because it was not their idea, but the salesman's idea. They will have buyers remorse and that leads to refund and unhappy people.
Telling a story causes a person to relate that story to themselves of which they make a decision to purchase not the salesman's idea for them to be hard-sold on the product.
That leads to a happier customer and more lifetime value of a client.
Can you see how this relates when you're trying to sell something based on features and benefits right off the bat?
It's true that nobody really likes being told what to do all the time for every little thing. We all like to have room to make our own decisions.
However, if you can share how to relate a personal experience or story which is basically an attention grabber with your product or service this will help you write much better emails, blogs, and video blogs (vlogs).
Being a Veteran, I appreciate my career working for our military personnel and the Department of Defense. My professional career has been a combination of IT Project Management, Quality Management, and Software and Web Quality Assurance in the private and public sectors.
