“But then the big grocery chains popped up everywhere in the 80s and 90s. They started selling cakes for $10 and $15, and that put many of my competitors out of business. Not only were they pushing a cheaper product, but they also offered customers something most of us couldn’t: the convenience of picking up a birthday cake while they shopped for groceries.”

According to Jim, other than cutting prices (which didn’t work), most local bakery owners didn’t know how to react. Only a few survived. And those that did, including Jim’s bakery, still struggle to make ends meet.

How sad. These businesses were local institutions, some of them for three and four generations.

But as I listened to Jim, I couldn’t help but wonder if he really knew and understood his target market. Was he chasing after the wrong crowd? I’m not an expert on the bakery business, but here’s what I know:

* Jim’s bakery is in an older part of town that’s being revitalized.

* High-income professionals are moving in, buying up all the older homes and updating them. In turn, home prices are skyrocketing.

* These folks appreciate the finer things in life and are willing to pay for them — art, great food and wine, organic fruits and vegetables, delicious desserts made from scratch.

* Fine restaurants are popping up everywhere, catering to this discriminating crowd.

And yet Jim’s store looks like it hasn’t been updated since the 1970s. Worse yet, he’s still chasing the $15-cake market. The same group that prefers convenience and low prices.

It seemed to me that Jim’s best potential customers are the people who would never buy a cake from a grocery sore. In other words, his new, affluent neighbors. Discriminating consumers who appreciate a homemade treat made from scratch, using only fresh, high-quality ingredients.

Price is not an issue. I bet most would pay $30 to $40 for a beautiful, homemade cake. And because most are health-conscious, when they do have the occasional sweet treat, they want it to be delicious!

(In fact, I recently saw a documentary on Warren Brown — the lawyer-turned-baker from Washington D.C. that did this very thing successfully: he markets high-end, made-from-scratch cakes and desserts to a young, affluent crowd. Check out: www.CakeLove.com.)

Where am I going with this … and what does it have to do with marketing software?

Here’s the deal: If you don’t know what your target market is — if you don’t understand who your best prospects are (and I mean if you don’t know EVERYTHING about them) — you’ll waste a heck of a lot of blood, sweat and tears marketing to those who will never buy from you.

Of course, you may be targeting several markets. But if you can’t properly identify all your audiences, you’ll end up chasing after the wrong crowd. You’ll waste your time promoting your products and services to someone who — to continue the analogy — would rather pick up an uninspiring, $15 cake at Wal-Mart.

This is a powerful exercise. In fact, one of my clients recently doubled annual sales once they realized their best target market was one they never thought would be interested in their products.

So, what are your best target markets? Can you clearly define them? Can you get narrower in your description? How are you addressing each of these audiences in your marketing communications? Do you truly understand their objectives, key pain points and potential buying objections?

Whether your products sell for $100 or $1 million, make sure you’re absolutely clear about who’s going to “get it.” Then, go to market with a message that resonates with this crowd.

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What about your inside sales team? At this stage, how aggressive are they with prospect follow up?

Here’s the issue: Today’s busy and overworked buyer doesn’t have the time or patience to absorb a great deal of information about products and services, especially early in the buying process. At this point, the less you send, the better.

Yet the natural reaction of so many software companies is to do the opposite: flood inquirers with too much information.

Too Much — And All at Once

So here’s what happens. The email with the requested information is too long or contains too many attachments or links. So the buyer “sets it aside” to read later (they were in the middle of something when they received it). They end up forgetting about it, and their interest eventually fades.

Or maybe the information packet you sent them is bursting at the seams, so they again set it aside to review later. Or maybe your inside sales team is hungry and aggressive and overwhelms (or scares!) the prospect away by trying to do too much too soon (i.e., trying to get the buyer to commit to an appointment too early).

Fact is, there’s a direct correlation between the amount of information buyers want and where they are in their buying process. For example, at the early stages there’s only an identified need, and often not very well defined. At this point, prospects are merely scanning the horizon for possible solutions. Their goal? To narrow down the list of choices — an overwhelming challenge when so
many vendors are firing away every piece of collateral in their arsenal.

Put Yourself in Their Shoes

So what do buyers do when they receive too much information from too many sources? They do exactly what we would do in the same situation. They naturally gravitate to the most appealing and digestible set of information. The packet or email that contains just enough to help them identify potential solutions to their problem.

And this is critical because the vendor that can communicate the right message clearly and succinctly will often help shape the selection criteria.

This month’s takeaway:

Resist the temptation to send too much. At the early stages of a sales cycle, send only the bare minimum. Qualify the prospect well.
Then send only what they need to easily determine if you can potentially solve their problems. This goes for print and digital content as well as phone follow up.

Of course, as you move forward in the selling process with the prospect, the amount and depth of information required will increase.

But early in the cycle, less is more.

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Enjoyed this article? Feel free to use it on your website, print publication, or e-newsletter. All I ask is you kindly attach the following credit, and also let me know where the material will appear:

“Ed Gandia helps software and high tech companies write direct response and marcom pieces that feed pipelines and drive revenue. Ed’s focus on producing results-oriented copy stems from a successful, 11- year career in high tech and industrial sales. To subscribe to his free e-newsletter on copywriting and lead generation, go to www.EdGandia.com/GetMoreLeads”

Need help writing powerful white papers, case studies, sales letters, web copy, ads, or other marketing materials? Looking for some expert search engine optimization (SEO) advice that won’t break the bank?

I’d be happy to review your existing materials or discuss a marketing problem you’d like to solve — at no charge.

Call me at: 770-419-3342, or drop me a line at ed@edgandia.com

Found this information helpful? Why not forward it to a colleague?

Yet, surprisingly, this “next step” mentality is not as prevalent in B2B marketing. Besides the offer or call to action in an email campaign or direct mail piece, marketers sometimes fail to give prospects other options. For example, an invitation to place a call or send an email. Or an offer to download another informative document. Or a web page where they can go to learn more. Maybe
even some kind of quiz, poll, or conversion calculator.

In other words, a fallback position that, in the end, could be just as effective as the main call to action — or, in some cases, even *become* the call to action.

The Shocking Power of the “Next Step”

Probably the most startling example of the power of the next step, and why it’s so effective, is contained in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.

In his book, Gladwell describes the fear experiments conducted by social psychologist Howard Leventhal in the 1960s. The results of this study are absolutely fascinating. And the implications for marketers are tremendous.

According to Gladwell, Leventhal wanted to see if he could persuade a group of college seniors at Yale University to get a tetanus shot. To do this, he divided the subjects into two groups and gave each a booklet describing the dangers of tetanus and the importance of inoculation. In the booklet, he also clearly stated that the university was offering f-r-ee tetanus shots at the campus health center.

But not all books were the same. Some students were given a “high fear” version, which described the disease very graphically. This version included pictures of tetanus victims having seizures and undergoing painful treatment involving catheters and nasal tubes.

The “low fear” booklet was much more subdued. It still described the disease and its risks, but used a much softer approach and included no pictures.

The Results

At first, the results were fairly predictable. When given a questionnaire after reading the booklet, all students appeared to know a great deal about the dangers of tetanus. Those who were given the “high fear” version were more likely to say they understood the importance of inoculation. Most even stated they were now planning on getting the shot.

But here’s where things get interesting. One month after the experiments, only 3% of all subjects (both “high fear” and “low fear”) had actually gone to the campus health center to get a tetanus shot.

Surprising? Leventhal thought so.

To dig deeper, he conducted the experiment once again with a new group of subjects. Except, this time, he made a very minor modification to BOTH sets of booklets. In this round, he added map of the campus to every booklet. The map showed university health center clearly circled and even a list of times when shots were being administered.

This seemingly minor changed had a tremendous impact on results. After reading the modified booklet, 28% of the new subjects got inoculated. Also surprising, just as many low-fear subjects as high-fear subjects got inoculated.

So, why did such a subtle modification to both sets of booklets — the addition of a campus map and health center hours, in essence, the “next step” — do the trick?

Make it Practical and Memorable

According to Gladwell: “The students needed to know how to fit the tetanus stuff into their lives; the addition of the map and the times when the shots were available shifted the booklet from an abstract lesson in medical risk, to a practical and personal piece of medical advice. And once the advice became practical and personal, it became memorable.”

The lesson for marketers: Don’t underestimate the power of even the simplest “next step” in any marketing piece — especially in documents where you might not normally do this, such as press releases, white papers or case studies.

Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. Try to imagine what other relevant information he or she might find useful, practical and, if possible, memorable at this point in their buying cycle. Then, offer them some choices and see what happens.

You just might be surprised at the results.

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Book Review: Lead Generation for the Complex Sale

I recently read Brian Carroll’s book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale”>Lead
Generation for the Complex Sale. If you’re in B2B sales or marketing, and you deal in a complex sale, this is an absolute must-read.

As Carroll points out, the only way to put an end to the internal sales and marketing blame-game, and start producing results that drive revenue, is to take a more holistic approach to lead generation. An approach that starts with mutually defining (by both sales, marketing and other stakeholders) what makes a lead “sales-ready.”

Only then can a company develop and execute a truly effective, multi-modal approach to lead generation. And only then can a company start seeing exponentially better results without a commensurate increase in effort, complexity or budget.

No flaky theories, abstract ideas, or hard-to-grasp concepts in this book. It’s all meat — and written by a guy who eats his own medicine every day. Highly recommended.

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Enjoyed this article? Feel free to use it on your website, print publication, or e-newsletter. All I ask is you kindly attach the following credit, and also let me know where the material will appear:

“Ed Gandia helps software and high tech companies write direct response and marcom pieces that feed pipelines and drive revenue. Ed’s focus on producing results-oriented copy stems from a successful, 11- year career in high tech and industrial sales. To subscribe to his free e-newsletter on copywriting and lead generation, go to www.EdGandia.com/GetMoreLeads“

Need help writing powerful white papers, case studies, sales letters, web copy, ads, or other marketing materials? Looking for some expert search engine optimization (SEO) advice that won’t break the bank?

I’d be happy to review your existing materials or discuss a marketing problem you’d like to solve — at no charge.

Call me at: 770-419-3342, or drop me a line at ed@edgandia.com