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    Sell What The Customers Want, Not What You Have

    Posted by Sant Qiu in : Marketing Maneuvers on January 31, 2008 , 4comments

    Not too long ago, we celebrated my father-in-law’s 60th birthday at a much talked about and well reviewed steakhouse. When my wife was ordering, she requested for her steak to be “well done”. Instead of taking down her request, the waiter informed us that the restaurant recommends for their steaks to be served “medium well”. As she doesn’t like raw meat, she insisted to have her steak “well done”. The waiter refrained that as theirs were prime cut steaks, “well done” wouldn’t do it justice.

    So my wife asked, “Does your version of “medium well” mean that the steak will bloody and red on the inside?” She asked that question 3 times and each time, the waiter kept on replying her, “Normally people eat steak done medium well at the most. That is how you should eat the steak. That’s what we recommend.” In the end, she gave up and said, “Ok, I’ll have it medium well, just please make sure that the steaks are not bloody and red on the inside.”

    Well, the steak came prepared according to the ‘recommendations’ of the restaurant and was bloody and red on the inside. My wife didn’t really enjoy her steak and she also felt peeved that the waiter didn’t listen to what she was saying. We won’t be going back there.

    Isn’t that interesting? Here’s another interesting story…

    Recently the newspaper featured an interview with the Managing Director of Human Resources Services for South Pacific at FedEx Express. She recalled an incident where her friend wanted to buy an orange from a fruit juice stall but the service staff at the stall refused to sell her one. She would only sell her orange juice. In the end, her friend gave up and didn’t buy anything from that stall.

    Comparing that sales experience with her native country of Hong Kong, she said, “In Hong Kong, the staff will sell you an orange just to get your business. So I feel Singapore can learn to be more flexible and have the attitude of “sell what customers need” rather than “sell what we have”.

    Did it hit you yet?

    Most entrepreneurs, marketers and salespeople focus too much on their own products. They tend to follow a strict, inflexible sales pitch, regardless of who they are selling to. Since they have spent so much time learning about the product’s features and technical details, they simply regurgitate what they had memorised instead of tailoring their product knowledge to fit each individual customer’s needs.

    They forgot about the most important thing - What the Customer Wants. The sales pitch is NOT about the product and its features, it is about the customer.

    While having in-depth product knowledge is essential, it is only useful when it can used to support the sales pitch. Being inflexible is one of the biggest mistakes a marketer/salesperson can make. They might alienate and even turn off the customers like the examples mentioned above.

    If they want it “well done” and not bloody, give them that. If they want the orange, sell them that… and a cup of juice along with it.

    No matter how good you think your product is, if they don’t enjoy it, they won’t come back. And if you frustrate them, they will probably spread the word. But they get what they want, they will most probably appreciate your customized service for them and come back again.

    Are you selling what your customers want? Or are you selling what you have?

    How To Charge Premium Prices By Reinventing Your Product

    Posted by Sant Qiu in : Marketing Maneuvers on January 27, 2008 , 2comments

    One of the first things I help my clients do is increase their prices while at the same time increasing their customers. This happens with almost all of the clients that I’ve worked with. There are several reasons why I use this as one of my main strategies when doing an overhaul of their marketing system.

    1. Products/services that command premium prices are typically perceived by consumers as having higher quality and value.

    2. Increasing the price of the product/service gives you more flexibility to pile on ‘value-added’ or ‘free’ gifts that can often close the deal.

    3. Most of the time business owners tend to under-price their product/service because they mistakenly think it is the only ‘marketing’ edge they have over their competitors. (This is especially if they are newcomers in the industry.)

    When I was interviewing one of Singapore’s celebrity chefs, Chef Milind Sovani of The Song Of India, for my upcoming book ‘Secrets To Dominate Your Niche’ (that I’m co-authoring with a multimillionaire entrepreneur), he shared his thoughts on charging premium prices. He said, “If you want to be the best, then you’ll either have to exist at the top or at the bottom. This is because there is too much competition in the middle, and there are too many people existing in the middle who can do everything.”

    As a successful chef and restaurant owner who has changed the face of Indian food with his premium, fine dining Indian restaurant concept, Chef Milind certainly knows what he’s talking about.

    If you’ve been under pricing your product or service, here are a few ways you can reinvent it so you can start to charge premium prices and compete on your own level.

    Create your own standards of comparison: You’ve heard of the saying “You can’t compare apples to oranges.” But if you want to succeed in marketing your product/service at a premium price, then that’s exactly what you need to do. You can’t compete in a market where your product can be compared with every other similar product. That’s comparing apples with apples. Instead of blindly competing on the same level, create your own standards of comparison.

    That’s one of the usual techniques seminar leaders use when they sell their packaged information in CD/DVD sets. Instead of comparing their package with their competitors’ packages, they compare it with the price people have to fork out to attend the live seminar itself (which usually cost much more). In that sense their CD/DVD package is ‘heavily discounted’ while still delivering the critical information prospects are interested in.

    Itemize the ‘work’ that goes into your product/service: The luxury market is good at creating ‘perceived’ premium value for its highly priced products and services.

    Be frank now… would you be willing to pay US$325 or more for a 90 x 90 cm piece of cloth? Well, millions of people would and have for the legendary Hermès silk scarf. Why? Because other than the brand name, Hermès has created an elaborate and often repeated story around the creation of a Hermès scarf. The media and consumers have all lapped up all the details that the company had revealed about the process and work that goes into the making of a Hermès scarf.

    Whenever an article is written about the Hermès scarf, some or all of these facts invariably get mentioned as well:

    Now that you are also privy to these facts, does it change the way you ‘value’ a Hermès scarf?

    Pile on a highly attractive free gift: This gimmick is often used in the skincare and cosmetics industry, especially during the festive season. Marketers of big brand beauty products understand the principle of packaging an attractive free gift to sell a higher value product or a set of products. To get women to splurge an extra $80 or $100, they include a designer-like makeup pouch or handbag as a gift if they spend above a certain amount or buy the promotional product or package of the month.

    The key to applying this strategy successfully is to choose a free gift that is highly desirable in nature and something that is perceived to be of premium value that one cannot purchase anywhere else.

    I hope some of these strategies have inspired you to take a new look at your pricing and make some changes to the way you package your product/service. Remember: it takes about the same amount of time and money to sell a cheap product compared to a premium product. So use your time and effort wisely!

    Web 2.0 vs Old Marketing Techniques - The Real Truth!

    Posted by Sant Qiu in : Marketing Maneuvers on January 18, 2008 , 3comments

    There are 2 split camps in the Internet Marketing world right now. One is pro web 2.0 marketing and the other is an advocate of the old ‘traditional’ ways of marketing. So which one is better? As a marketer, here’s my take on the issue:

    First of all let’s define both terms more clearly:

    ‘Old marketing’ refers to mostly tried and proven direct response marketing style; focusing largely on ad-driven lead generation activities, JVs, persuasive copywriting, etc. These strategies are highly predictable and can be tested and measured relatively easily. However, in general people are wary of ads and perceive them as not credible. So because old marketing strategies are mostly ad-driven, they are seen as a form of communication / information dissemination that is not very credible.

    Web 2.0 refers mostly to the newer form of web communities that consist of more interactive social-networking sites such as blogs, forums, social bookmarking, RSS feeds, etc. With the explosion of web 2.0, especially blogs, many marketers are adopting web 2.0 strategies, claiming they work better than the old strategies.

    To me, web 2.0 marketing is like a lot like/(basically) Public Relations marketing. They focus on getting favorable exposures and coverage in the media. The explosion of blogs and forums means there are more ‘media owners’ with (perceived) independent opinions. And because they are perceived to be independent, their opinions are perceived to be much more credible than advertisements that are obviously biased. These bloggers, forum contributors and social-networkers are critical influencers in their own niche areas of interest. And because of that, their opinions are important for the marketers wanting to market to those niches and their readers. Web 2.0 can be highly effective and powerful in building a brand and reputation because of their perceived credibility. As Rich Schefren stated in his Attention Age Doctrine and Stephen Covey wrote in The Speed of Trust, getting the attention and trust of your target market is critical. However, as you can imagine, this marketing strategy is extremely unpredictable as you are dealing with so many individuals’ opinions.

    Here are just some of the potential benefits of web 2.0:

    Get instant credibility: When influencers in their niches endorse you and write a favorable coverage about you or your product, you get instant credibility. This has greater value than advertising because editorial is considered more credible and authoritative than advertising. In fact, some studies have shown that this form of coverage is perceived to be about 7 times more credible than advertisements. It also attracts public interest, creating awareness, new business enquiries and referrals.

    Gain trust easier: When people read about businesses in the media they are perceived as market leaders and are more dynamic and more likely to be trusted. This shortens the business introduction and sales process considerably.

    You will gain fame much faster: Nothing will launch you into fame faster than several positive editorials in various media published around the same time. Just take a look at the William Hung global phenomena. Once it got picked up by a few media owners, the rest followed and it took on a life of its own. This is the kind of PR blitz a business would hope for. And how did it all started? Someone set up a website about William Hung immediately after his ‘money’ She Bangs “I’ve done my best…” performance. And it sparked a wildfire!

    Once published you can use it forever: Most of the time the media will be available for a very long period of time. E.g. A blog entry will always be available on the Internet and easily searchable as long as it is not deleted/taken down. This means that the more you are mentioned positively out there in the WWW, the more likely a potential customer will come across all those materials and become interested to do business with you.

    You can get if… for FREE: While advertisements are usually expensive, web 2.0 techniques can be economical and highly cost effective. You can even reach out to a wide mass audience for free by providing great content. This can create longer term results compared to traditional advertising.

    BUT! Here’s the irony of it:

    In this relationship, credibility is inversely proportionate to the predictability of the system.

    The more predictable = The less credible

    Human nature is such that at the end of the day, the ‘media owners’/influencers do have their own agenda for writing favorably/unfavorably about you. Whether it is for personal profit, to benefit their readers or simply to maintain their image of being in-the-know. You simply can’t escape that fact. In fact, more and more blog readers realized that bloggers will write a positive article about someone to put an affiliate link that profit themselves. They even have advertisement rates for those interested in advertising on their blogs.

    This means that their opinions won’t be as independent as what their readers might expect. They can be manipulated. And if they can be manipulated, they can be systemized to produce a predictable outcome. And if the outcome is predictable… it’s no longer as credible. It will become one of the old marketing techniques that can be measured, tested and optimized.

    Readers credit value and credibility to the writers because they are perceived to be independents. However, if they lose that, then it will become just another advertising venue.

    Just imagine, if Rich Schefren’s ‘maven-ism’ (Btw, what’s the difference from ‘guru’, ‘expert’, etc? It’s just another synonym?) can really be systemized, and there are hundreds of new mavens popping out in various niches, will you be as trusting when another new guy releases a new doctrine and claims to be a maven? The more predictable it becomes, the less credible it is going to be.

    That said, you can’t just deny the power of web 2.0. Similarly, those who are ignoring the power of PR are simply missing out big time. Rich Schefren, being a visionary, is able to tap into this and profit big time. And it will be a while before the market is tired of the web 2.0 marketing techniques, so ride on the wave.

    As I said in an earlier post, use both. Use all the strategies that bring in profits. That’s what a responsible marketer should do. Yaro Starak, a pro-blogger and strong advocate of web 2.0 (blogging) agrees in my earlier article.

    Your Money Making System

    Posted by Sant Qiu in : Speed Profit Secrets on January 2, 2008 , 4comments

    It’s appropriate to start the New Year with this article. I’m assuming, and it’s pretty obvious that one of your new year evolution goals is to make money. This simple strategy will help you to increase your income and achieve your targeted goal in a more predictable manner.

    What is the strategy?

    It is the deceptively-simple-yet-extremely-effective conscious creation of a systemized sales process. It is amazing how most of the business owners and clients that I’ve spoken to neglect this very powerful strategy. They create their sales rather haphazardly, relying on short-term promotions most of the time. Are you making the same mistake?

    Without a system in place you’re basically shooting blindly in the middle of nowhere. Without a system for selling, then you’re at the mercy of your prospect’s emotional wimps of buying or not buying.

    Let me ask you a question. If you’re a pro golfer, would you go to a tournament  without researching about the terrain, the competitors, etc? If you’re a pro footballer in NFL or a pro basketballer in NBA, would your team go against another team without researching and knowing their strengths and weaknesses?

    Of course not! Being a professional means that you do all that as part of your job, on top of training your game skills. Interestingly, or rather disappointingly, most businesses don’t act professionally even though it affects the income that they are generating. They don’t spend the time to research their target market (the terrain) and their competitors. And they don’t come up with a system (game plan) to sell (to win).

    When I talk about creating marketing or sales system, I invariably get the question: So what is a system and how can you create one?

    Here’s my interpretations of a system: A system is an organized and coordinated methods/procedures that are designed to achieve a predictable and repeatable outcome. For example, a system can be a lead generation ad on a magazine that offers a free special report. To get the free report they have to provide their details for you to send it to them. The free report will educated and promote your products/services. It will be followed up with a sequence of 7 letters, 5 days apart.

    This means that everyone who responds to the ad will experience the exact same thing. And if the system is bringing in the sales, then you should repeat the whole process again and again.

    Until when? Until it’s no longer profitable.

    The great thing about having a system is that sales become predictable. And this means that you can track and measure the kind of responses and conversions you’re getting from your marketing efforts. Which means that you can always tweak and fine tune to make the system better. Can you see how this one strategy will massively increase your income?

    All pros use a system. Lead generation system, pitching system, closing system. Why do you think seminar speakers always give similar presentations? It’s because it’s a system that they have perfected and know will convert well for them.

    So start creating a selling system ASAP. Your income depends on it.

    New Year’s Evolution

    Posted by Sant Qiu in : News, Updates & General on January 1, 2008 , add a comment

    The new year is here. A new fresh start. A new opportunity to set new goals… or achieve the old ones :) Typically now is the time when everyone who believes in making new year resolutions is making theirs.

    Personally I’m a big believer in setting new goals each year. Though I prefer to think of it as new year’s evolution instead of resolution. ‘Resolution’ has the element of re-solving something that didn’t get solved in the past. While evolution means that you’re changing and improving.

    It’s similar to the Japanese word ‘Kaizen’, which has become a huge management buzzword and philosophy behind popular concepts like Total Quality Management. It means continuous incremental improvements. (Side note: While the Kaizen philosophy is attributed to the Japanese due to their quality revolution while under the guidance of Edward Deming, I can’t help but find the resemblance of the words Kaizen to the Chinese word ‘Gai Zheng’. Their literal meaning: ‘Gai’ to change; ‘Zheng’ be right. After all, the Chinese had a strong influence on Japanese language when they started. Just thought it’s interesting.)

    While I was thinking about the new evolution I’m planning for myself this 2008, I thought of the excerpt of an interview I watched of David Brandon, Chairman & CEO of Domino’s Pizza talking about his business philosophies.

    He said, “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.” There is no such thing as staying the same. And I remembered a similar philosophy of life taught by a mentor, “Either you are growing, or you’re dying. There is no in-between.”

    There is something liberating about thinking and seeing things in such stark black or white. There is no gray areas. No ifs. No buts. You either do. Or you don’t. You’re either progressing towards your goals, or regressing.

    As you’re deciding on your new evolutions this year, have that clear black or white mentality. Either you want to do it and go all out to achieve it, or when you catch yourself thinking “I’d like to achieve that if…” scrap that goal and let it go. You don’t want it enough to make it happen yet.

    And if that’s the case, be comfortable about it and let it go. Focus on the few evolution goals that you’re really passionate and committed to. It’s always better to complete the few important things that matter the most, rather than neglect everything by trying to do everything at the same time.

    One of my evolution goals in 2008: While I’ve been wanting to start my online business, I’ve been caught up too much with my offline consulting work. Now, the start of the new year is a great time for me to finally start. I’ve put this as a priority and I’ll go all out. This is my ‘Year One’.

    What is possible to achieve in one year online, starting from scratch? ;) What do you think? Let me know your evolution goals too. Maybe I can help.

    Happy Wonderful & Prosperous New Year!