The USP is your unique selling position (or point), and it clearly describes what makes you different from a competitor. You need to make sure you can tell prospective customers why you are the best choice for them.
A strong and successful marketing message needs three components: it tells a compelling story, is persuasive, and explains what makes you stand out versus your competition. People don’t connect to the hype that is sometimes associated with marketing. They steer clear away from obnoxious, loud messages, and are drawn to stories that are true (or seem like they could be true), and that have a strong message.
Customers are experiencing information overload much of the time, so the amount of attention that they will give you is limited, which means your messages must be focused on the customer and grab their attention.
Building the Relationship
When you consider how you will go about turning prospects into customers, as well as how you will retain your customers, you are really talking about building and maintaining relationships. We build these relationships by developing trust and operating with integrity.
About Rapport
Rapport has been defined as a sense of mutual understanding, respect, and friendliness. It is the presence of a co-operative relationship based on trust and honesty.
Rapport means showing someone that you understand and respect them as a human being and that you support them. This doesn’t mean that you have to agree with everything that they say. It means that you can understand where they are coming from and why they believe in particular things.
It is important to understand when it is appropriate to create rapport and how deeply you want it to go. Let’s say that you are a telephone customer service representative. You probably want to create a good rapport to help the customer solve their problem, but since your interaction will be short, you don’t need to get to a deeply personal level. And, if you are negotiating, you might need to break rapport in order to make the best decision. As a small business, all of these elements are important.
Often, it’s not so much what you say as how you say it. Let’s look at some ways that you can establish and maintain rapport.
Find common ground.
Whether you are in a customer service role or a manager about to have a conversation with one of your staff, finding common ground helps to establish rapport. Some of us really struggle with small talk, but you will find that it is a helpful skill in finding common ground – something you share with the other person.
When a customer calls you and says that a product has broken and they are frustrated, simply saying, “I understand. I don’t like it when things break either. It’s really annoying. Let me see how I can help you,” lets the person know that you get frustrated when things are broken. If you went to the same school, both love animals or have the same favourite restaurant, these things help to establish common ground and provide a starting place for further conversations.
Use direct language and deliver a message that is clear, calm, and direct.
Be confident in your message. This means that your tone of voice, vocabulary, and rate of speech convey your feelings. Be careful not to back down (at least not immediately) if you are discussing something that is important to you. Be considerate of other people’s ideas, but don’t quickly give up on yours, especially when you have it all well thought out.
Factual descriptions and relevant details are more likely to be heard.
Look at this generalization: “Joe never gets his work finished.” Compare it to something specific: “Joe has not met his goals for an entire month.” Which is more likely to be heard?
Use repetition respectfully to keep things on track.
Conversations can easily get off track, especially if they get emotional or if someone is trying to steer the conversation away from what you felt was important. Don’t be afraid to restate your purpose during an interaction.
Body language says it all.
Be as aware of your nonverbal messages as you are about your verbal messages. Also, consider other people’s communication style. Are they direct or indirect? Passive or assertive? Make sure to also take into account their filters, assumptions, and beliefs. This will help you to keep your message clear.
Influence and Persuasion
The Power of Persuasion
Are you easily persuaded? If someone tries to talk you into something and is using all the powers of influence, what is your reaction?
When you are ready to buy something particular, you may find yourself more easily persuaded than at other times. However, when it comes to activities other than making purchases, we are often exposed to more subtlety. Choosing paint colours for your home or office where there is consensus required can result in more people trying to persuade you of one particular colour or another. Or, perhaps you are the one who prefers to be convincing others and is presenting clear arguments to get what you would like. People who successfully persuade to make a living include salespeople, fundraisers, recruiters, and advertisers. It is helpful to consider the techniques they use in order to be successful.
While there are plenty of techniques that people employ, research conducted by Robert Cialdini over many years became the focus of his excellent book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. The factors that he associates with persuasion are discussed below.
Predictability
People respond to what they expect. If they get a coupon, they expect that they are getting a reduced price, even when the terms of the coupon don’t necessarily mean that is the case. If they know that one store is usually cheaper than the other, they tend to buy without checking prices closely. This principle also reflects the impression that high prices are associated with quality products, even though the product may not change.
Reciprocation
This principle describes how we respond by giving back one thing when we are given something else, especially a gift. This is something we see when people send thank-you notes after receiving a gift, as well as the offer of taking a new car for a test drive before you buy it. (Since the salesperson has been kind enough to arrange a ride – a gift – the purchaser may be more receptive to the car.)
Some other examples:
If your neighbours invite you over for a meal, you return the gesture.
If a friend invites your child to a birthday party, you return the gesture for their child when it is your child’s birthday.
Consistency and Commitment
After we make a decision, our actions will support the choice we made even when we are faced with the knowledge that a better choice might have been a good idea, or when we have to wait a long time for delivery. When it comes to creating gaming systems and smartphones, manufacturers know that they can market the next release as soon as the last one is on the store shelves because their customers do not just need one gaming system or one smartphone. They want to keep up with what is new and they want to use current, leading-edge products that meet their needs.
Social Evidence
Marketers work with what works. Although many people dislike the idea of a laugh track (a pre-recorded loop of people laughing that gets played in many television comedies), marketers know that the laugh track engages people in the program. Laugh tracks even help engage listeners when the jokes are bad! The canned laughter makes us laugh because it triggers a response that says, “Hey, you are supposed to find this funny!” And so we laugh.
We respond to statements that something is a “best-selling” item, even though the tag line does not tell us anything about the quality of the item. If you have ever watched a telethon for public television or a charity, you’ve seen the screen roll with names of everyone who donated, which is a way of saying to people, “Hey, look at what your neighbours are doing. Your name needs to be here too!”
Authority
We tend to believe people who are in positions of authority and trust, whether they actually earned that trust or not. We trust doctors, police, and firefighters. We also trust actors who are dressed as people with authority. Actors do shampoo, makeup, and beauty promotions, and people buy the products even when the claims are unproven or the products are toxic because we want to believe that they know what they are talking about.
Liking
You already know that you will buy from or be convinced of something by people that you like. This is the likeability factor. Customers will return to shop at stores with friendly or attentive staff because they are likeable, even if the prices are a little higher than the competition if the competition provides lousy service.
Home shopping parties such as Tupperware, Pampered Chef, Epicure, and others have capitalized enormously on the likeability factor. Instead of buying from an unknown sales person, people come to the party to put up with a demonstration, flip through catalogues, look at samples, win prizes, and buy products. While the salesperson is really the one selling, party-goers spend in order to support the hostess, who also happens to be their friend. The friends know that the more money that they spend, the more “free” benefits that the hostess receives in exchange for hosting the party. People at the party are well aware of this, and will also leverage reciprocity by asking this particular hostess to attend the party that they book.
Scarcity
Scarcity is a great technique to drive people’s need to have things. Commercials promote upcoming products, and manufacturers will deliberately release small quantities in order to drive up interest in the product. They will even use excuses like having design challenges, materials challenges, or something equally ambiguous. Meanwhile, customers are trying to find one of the scarce copies in order to be part of the special group that has the product.
If you collect loyalty points, you see scarcity at work when the program offers its members a “deal,” like being able to buy a highly desirable smartphone that you can only get with the program and is not available in any store. People without enough points can combine points and cash to purchase the item, but unless you are a member of the program, you will not be able to participate.
Self-Interest
Everything that we undertake includes some component of self-interest, and persuaders are very conscious of this. As a standard, people want to get (or believe they have) a good value, and even a great deal, every time they invest energy or spend money on something. Even people who volunteer for altruistic reasons often understand the virtue of reciprocity for their good deeds.
Testing and Revising
We know that small businesses do not often have a big marketing budget, so when it comes to some of these activities, you want to do them very economically. When testing and revising the potential for your ideas, there are some inexpensive, handy things you can do.
Ask people what they need.
Survey people in your target market, your community and do your research well. As much as possible, we recommend that you carefully evaluate your local environment, do small production runs, offer samplings, and really know the potential of your marketplace to buy what you have to offer.
Be careful who you ask and how much you disclose.
You don’t want people to steal your ideas and launch them before you get the chance.
Be cautious about your family and close friends.
Some people want to support you wholeheartedly so they won’t tell you what they honestly think if your idea seems half-baked or your ideas need more money than you have. At the same time, some families are totally unsupportive and they will try to discount absolutely everything you say.
Your USP
A strong and successful marketing message needs three components: it tells a compelling story, is persuasive, and explains what makes you stand out versus your competition. People don’t connect to the hype that is sometimes associated with marketing. They steer clear away from obnoxious, loud messages, and are drawn to stories that are true (or seem like they could be true), and that have a strong message.
Customers are experiencing information overload much of the time, so the amount of attention that they will give you is limited, which means your messages must be focused on the customer and grab their attention.
Building the Relationship
When you consider how you will go about turning prospects into customers, as well as how you will retain your customers, you are really talking about building and maintaining relationships. We build these relationships by developing trust and operating with integrity.
About Rapport
Rapport has been defined as a sense of mutual understanding, respect, and friendliness. It is the presence of a co-operative relationship based on trust and honesty.
Rapport means showing someone that you understand and respect them as a human being and that you support them. This doesn’t mean that you have to agree with everything that they say. It means that you can understand where they are coming from and why they believe in particular things.
It is important to understand when it is appropriate to create rapport and how deeply you want it to go. Let’s say that you are a telephone customer service representative. You probably want to create a good rapport to help the customer solve their problem, but since your interaction will be short, you don’t need to get to a deeply personal level. And, if you are negotiating, you might need to break rapport in order to make the best decision. As a small business, all of these elements are important.
Often, it’s not so much what you say as how you say it. Let’s look at some ways that you can establish and maintain rapport.
Find common ground.
When a customer calls you and says that a product has broken and they are frustrated, simply saying, “I understand. I don’t like it when things break either. It’s really annoying. Let me see how I can help you,” lets the person know that you get frustrated when things are broken. If you went to the same school, both love animals or have the same favourite restaurant, these things help to establish common ground and provide a starting place for further conversations.
Use direct language and deliver a message that is clear, calm, and direct.
Be confident in your message. This means that your tone of voice, vocabulary, and rate of speech convey your feelings. Be careful not to back down (at least not immediately) if you are discussing something that is important to you. Be considerate of other people’s ideas, but don’t quickly give up on yours, especially when you have it all well thought out.
Factual descriptions and relevant details are more likely to be heard.
Look at this generalization: “Joe never gets his work finished.” Compare it to something specific: “Joe has not met his goals for an entire month.” Which is more likely to be heard?
Use repetition respectfully to keep things on track.
Conversations can easily get off track, especially if they get emotional or if someone is trying to steer the conversation away from what you felt was important. Don’t be afraid to restate your purpose during an interaction.
Body language says it all.
Be as aware of your nonverbal messages as you are about your verbal messages. Also, consider other people’s communication style. Are they direct or indirect? Passive or assertive? Make sure to also take into account their filters, assumptions, and beliefs. This will help you to keep your message clear.
Influence and Persuasion
The Power of Persuasion
When you are ready to buy something particular, you may find yourself more easily persuaded than at other times. However, when it comes to activities other than making purchases, we are often exposed to more subtlety. Choosing paint colours for your home or office where there is consensus required can result in more people trying to persuade you of one particular colour or another. Or, perhaps you are the one who prefers to be convincing others and is presenting clear arguments to get what you would like. People who successfully persuade to make a living include salespeople, fundraisers, recruiters, and advertisers. It is helpful to consider the techniques they use in order to be successful.
While there are plenty of techniques that people employ, research conducted by Robert Cialdini over many years became the focus of his excellent book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. The factors that he associates with persuasion are discussed below.
Predictability
People respond to what they expect. If they get a coupon, they expect that they are getting a reduced price, even when the terms of the coupon don’t necessarily mean that is the case. If they know that one store is usually cheaper than the other, they tend to buy without checking prices closely. This principle also reflects the impression that high prices are associated with quality products, even though the product may not change.
Reciprocation
This principle describes how we respond by giving back one thing when we are given something else, especially a gift. This is something we see when people send thank-you notes after receiving a gift, as well as the offer of taking a new car for a test drive before you buy it. (Since the salesperson has been kind enough to arrange a ride – a gift – the purchaser may be more receptive to the car.)
Some other examples:
Consistency and Commitment
After we make a decision, our actions will support the choice we made even when we are faced with the knowledge that a better choice might have been a good idea, or when we have to wait a long time for delivery. When it comes to creating gaming systems and smartphones, manufacturers know that they can market the next release as soon as the last one is on the store shelves because their customers do not just need one gaming system or one smartphone. They want to keep up with what is new and they want to use current, leading-edge products that meet their needs.
Social Evidence
Marketers work with what works. Although many people dislike the idea of a laugh track (a pre-recorded loop of people laughing that gets played in many television comedies), marketers know that the laugh track engages people in the program. Laugh tracks even help engage listeners when the jokes are bad! The canned laughter makes us laugh because it triggers a response that says, “Hey, you are supposed to find this funny!” And so we laugh.
We respond to statements that something is a “best-selling” item, even though the tag line does not tell us anything about the quality of the item. If you have ever watched a telethon for public television or a charity, you’ve seen the screen roll with names of everyone who donated, which is a way of saying to people, “Hey, look at what your neighbours are doing. Your name needs to be here too!”
Authority
We tend to believe people who are in positions of authority and trust, whether they actually earned that trust or not. We trust doctors, police, and firefighters. We also trust actors who are dressed as people with authority. Actors do shampoo, makeup, and beauty promotions, and people buy the products even when the claims are unproven or the products are toxic because we want to believe that they know what they are talking about.
Liking
You already know that you will buy from or be convinced of something by people that you like. This is the likeability factor. Customers will return to shop at stores with friendly or attentive staff because they are likeable, even if the prices are a little higher than the competition if the competition provides lousy service.
Home shopping parties such as Tupperware, Pampered Chef, Epicure, and others have capitalized enormously on the likeability factor. Instead of buying from an unknown sales person, people come to the party to put up with a demonstration, flip through catalogues, look at samples, win prizes, and buy products. While the salesperson is really the one selling, party-goers spend in order to support the hostess, who also happens to be their friend. The friends know that the more money that they spend, the more “free” benefits that the hostess receives in exchange for hosting the party. People at the party are well aware of this, and will also leverage reciprocity by asking this particular hostess to attend the party that they book.
Scarcity
Scarcity is a great technique to drive people’s need to have things. Commercials promote upcoming products, and manufacturers will deliberately release small quantities in order to drive up interest in the product. They will even use excuses like having design challenges, materials challenges, or something equally ambiguous. Meanwhile, customers are trying to find one of the scarce copies in order to be part of the special group that has the product.
If you collect loyalty points, you see scarcity at work when the program offers its members a “deal,” like being able to buy a highly desirable smartphone that you can only get with the program and is not available in any store. People without enough points can combine points and cash to purchase the item, but unless you are a member of the program, you will not be able to participate.
Self-Interest
Everything that we undertake includes some component of self-interest, and persuaders are very conscious of this. As a standard, people want to get (or believe they have) a good value, and even a great deal, every time they invest energy or spend money on something. Even people who volunteer for altruistic reasons often understand the virtue of reciprocity for their good deeds.
Testing and Revising
We know that small businesses do not often have a big marketing budget, so when it comes to some of these activities, you want to do them very economically. When testing and revising the potential for your ideas, there are some inexpensive, handy things you can do.
Ask people what they need.
Survey people in your target market, your community and do your research well. As much as possible, we recommend that you carefully evaluate your local environment, do small production runs, offer samplings, and really know the potential of your marketplace to buy what you have to offer.
Be careful who you ask and how much you disclose.
You don’t want people to steal your ideas and launch them before you get the chance.
Be cautious about your family and close friends.
Some people want to support you wholeheartedly so they won’t tell you what they honestly think if your idea seems half-baked or your ideas need more money than you have. At the same time, some families are totally unsupportive and they will try to discount absolutely everything you say.
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