For any business owner to become successful today, they must provide their prospects with an experience focused on seven very basic fundamentals. Fail to do this and you will never build the business of your dreams.
Let’s quickly discuss these fundamentals. It’s critical that you commit these to memory and remember them for the rest of your life as a business owner. They’re based on fundamental human nature… and will be as applicable 500 years from now as they were 500 years ago.
Fundamental #1 – Everyone wants the “best deal.”
Your prospects, no matter who they are or what it is they’re buying, always want the best
deal. That doesn’t mean the lowest price… it means the most value for the price they pay. They will gladly pay twice the price… as long as they perceive they’re receiving four times the value when they compare it to the price.
The key words here of course are “perceived value.” So what exactly do prospects value? They value finding the solution to their biggest problem, frustration, fear or concern. And that brings us to…
Fundamental #2 – Always market to the negative.
Never forget that the vast majority of human beings will do anything to avoid pain… but very little to gain pleasure.
One of the biggest mistakes I see business owners make every day is they try to market to the positive… and avoid the negative like the plague. That’s the worst thing they can possibly do. Chiropractors keep trying to market wellness to their prospects. Prospects don’t care about wellness… they care about feeling pain. They care about the fact that they can’t stand up without excruciating pain shooting down their spine. That’s what they will respond to when it comes to marketing.
Prospects don’t want to lose weight in order to feel better and regain their health. They want to lose weight because their doctor told them if they don’t, they won’t live another five years… or they hate the way they look… or the way they’re treated… or the fact that their self-esteem has been damaged.
Show them the solution to these so-called “hot button” issues, and they will buy from you forever.
Fundamental #3 – Prospects buy based on emotion.
This is a big one. Human beings make buying decisions based mostly on emotion. They only use logic to justify their purchase. This ties in directly with marketing to the negative. Prospects either want out of pain or they want to avoid pain, and that resonates with them emotionally.
If you were a child psychologist who specialized in helping parents with emotionally disturbed and out-of-control kids, which of the following headlines in an ad would immediately grab your attention? The one that says “I can help you rediscover the joy and happiness your family deserves?” Or… “Would you like a 5 minute solution that will end the yelling, screaming and belligerent attitude of your child forever?”
That’s kind of a no-brainer, isn’t it? Market to the negative, and make it as emotionally compelling as possible. Hit your prospects squarely in their hot buttons, and you automatically make an emotional connection.
Fundamental #4 – Make your business “unique.”
One of the biggest problems business owners face when trying to make that emotional connection is that different prospects have different hot buttons. That’s why it’s critical that you separate your business from your competition. You must find a way to stand out from the crowd. The best way to do this is to create a “niche” market for your business. That means your business has to stop trying to be everything to everyone.
If you were a left handed, blond haired, blue eyed golfer with a horrendous slice, and you
decided to seek professional help to improve your golf game, who would you call? The professional with the ad in the paper that says I help golfers improve their golf game. Or the pro with the ad that says I help left handed, blond haired, blue eyed golfers with horrendous slices get rid of their slice permanently within 3 days or you don’t pay.
That’s what we call a “niche” market… and you will attract every prospect within that niche because you offer what they WANT… not what they need. When you try to be everything to everyone, you’re nothing to no one. When you select a niche market… a niche based on your passion for what you do, you instantly become “unique,” since your competition is trying to be all things to all people.
Prospects are looking for the expert. They demand the best. Positioning your business into its own niche market positions you as that expert. It’s a concept known as preeminence, and it begins to create value for what you do. And speaking of value…
Fundamental #5 – Create “extraordinary value.”
Have you ever shopped for something and found yourself looking for the lowest price? Ever
wonder why? As we stated earlier, all human beings, no matter who we are or what we do, we all want the best deal. But what is the “best deal?” Is it really the lowest price?
There’s that old saying that you get what you pay for. Would I shock you if I told you that
your prospects could care less about price? They shop price because they’re forced to. Let me explain. What prospects really want is the best “value” for the price they pay. They’re more than willing to pay double the price if they perceive that you’re giving them four times the value. Now they know they’re getting the “best deal.”
So then why does price seem to matter so often? It’s because so few businesses are actually “unique.” They all look the same… and they all say the exact same things. They say things like “we’re the best, we have the lowest prices, the highest quality, the best selection, the most convenient hours and locations and we’ve been in business since 1431 B.C.”
We call these platitudes, and they mean absolutely nothing to your prospects. That’s because everything just mentioned was about the business, and your prospects don’t care one bit about your business. All prospects care about is themselves. They want to know how they will benefit from what you sell. How will their life improve if they purchase your product or service?
If what you sell solves a problem in their life… or if it removes a major frustration, fear or concern, then they see your product or service as “valuable.” Again, we call these problems, frustrations, fears and concerns “hot buttons.”
So after you select your niche market, you must find out what the “hot buttons” are for that niche market. And then ask yourself openly and honestly if your business offers a solution for those hot buttons. If you don’t, you need to “innovate” and create a solution. If
you do offer a solution, is it unique… meaning is it really different from your competition… and does it offer extraordinary value? Or is it the exact same solution your competition offers?
If it is, then you and your competition are doomed to forever compete on price. You must
“innovate” your business to create a unique, extraordinary solution that separates your business from all competitors. You see, there’s no magic involved in selling. All you have to do is find out what your prospects really “want,” and then give it to them.
Prospects love to buy, but they hate to be sold to. When you know and understand exactly what they want, and then you innovate your business to give them what they want, you make your business the obvious choice for them to buy from. They want to buy what you sell, and don’t need to be sold on anything.
Your job as the business owner is to make sure your business offers them exactly what they want, and that means positioning yourself in a niche market, and then innovating your business to give that niche exactly what they’re looking for. That creates “extraordinary value.”
Fundamental #6 – Be able to communicate your uniqueness and extraordinary value.
You must create a highly targeted, laser-focused message aimed specifically at the prospects in your niche market so you can tell them you have exactly what they want. We refer to this message as your Compelling Competitive Advantage™ that gets delivered in an “elevator pitch.” It’s basically a ten to thirty second mini-commercial for your business.
We often refer to this as your “million dollar message.”
That’s what you can make when you get this right. We have had clients in the past that went from five figure annual incomes to six figure monthly incomes within sixty days of developing their highly compelling elevator pitch. But again, that pitch has to highlight the way you overcome their hot buttons in a unique way that offers extraordinary value. When you say your elevator pitch to a prospect, and they respond by saying “how do you do that?” then you know you have a terrific elevator pitch.
Fundamental #7 – Prospects buy what they want… not what they need.
This is another big one to never forget. This one ties back to the fact that prospects buy
based on emotion and they only use logic to justify their purchase. When you “need” something, you’re drawing a logical conclusion. The problem is this. Prospects may or may not buy what they “need”… but they always buy what they “want.” Where needs are
based on logic, “wants” are based on emotion. Here’s an example.
You look at your 3 year old car and notice the tires are almost worn slick. So logically you say to yourself, oh no, I need new tires. Oh heck, they’ll last a few more months. Even though you need new tires, you don’t want them. Why? They’re not cheap to replace… it’s inconvenient for you to take the time to hunt for the best deal on tires… then you have to make an appointment to have them changed, and then there’s the inconvenience of having to have it done while you wait two hours for the work to be completed. In short, it’s a hassle.
Now consider this scenario. You just purchased a brand new car, and as you’re leaving the dealership, you see the same car you just bought with a new style of tire on it that really compliments the car. In fact, it doubles the beauty of the car in YOUR eyes. You “want” those tires.
Even though they’re twice as expensive as the ones you have already purchased… and the hassle factor is the same as the first scenario… you WANT those tires… and so you will have them. The first situation involved logic, and the second situation involved emotion. So never forget that prospects buy what they want… not what they need.
It all goes back to emotion. If you can create marketing messages that hit these major fundamentals, you will absolutely dominate your competition.
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