Archive for the ‘Selling’ Category

Whether you’re a professional copywriter, a marketer, a sales person or your business hires copywriters, marketing people or salespeople you’ll know that when it comes to promoting your product or service people often focus on trying to write copy or communicate only the benefits of a product … how the product or service will transform the buyer’s life in some way. How it will help buyers solve that problem.

Trouble is, not every product is perfect. In fact, many products have a flaw … a flaw that, if not written about or communicated in the right way, can detrimentally effect sales.

What’s the solution? Read the rest of this entry »

It never ceases to amaze me how the most memorable copywriting lessons often eventuate from the most simple activities.

A month ago, my vacuum cleaner died so I went down to my local shopping centre to buy a new one. I walked inside the store wanting to buy a fairly economical $150 vacuum cleaner. While I was waiting in line I overhead a conversation the sales guy was having with a customer. He was talking about vacuum cleaners with “power-heads” and how great they were.

My mind started ticking as I thought of my angelic (but “dirt magnet”) little boys and how much “gunk” was probably hiding at the base of our carpet.

Anyway, soon it was my turn to be served so I asked the salesperson about the power-head vacuums. He asked me questions about my house and my kids. He talked to me about the options. Next, he demonstrated a vacuum cleaner to me using the famous but still very effective, “vacuuming sand off the carpet” demonstration.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s irritating. Ask most people how they feel about being sold to and this is the answer you’ll probably get. Today, more than ever, people don’t like being told what to do. That’s why sales tactics of a decade ago simply aren’t working today. And that’s also why sales people and copywriters today are approaching the sales process in a different way.

When Theodore Roosevelt was New York Governor he achieved what many people believed to be the impossible. He managed to develop a great relationship with political heavyweights, yet at the same time manage to get these same political heavyweights to vote for a number of sweeping reforms that they were often bitterly opposed to.

What was his secret?

Read the rest of this entry »

Sales “scientist”, Elmer Wheeler was an absolute master of understanding how buyers think and understanding how  to really connect with a buyers’ hopes and fears, conversationally.

In the following article, Mr. Wheeler talks about “penetrating the cloud”. In other words, it doesn’t matter whether we are walking down a street or scanning through a newspaper, we are all walking around in a fog. It’s then the job of an advertisement, to penetrate that fog. If it doesn’t, your advertising dollar has been wasted. If it does, you have captured their attention and you’re one step closer to generating a sale.

Here’s an excerpt from our “College of Copywriting” Freelance Copywriting course where Elmer Wheeler talks about this in detail …

Read the rest of this entry »

In my opinion, small business owners are true heroes. Not only do they employ over 60% of the workforce but they also have to overcome huge personal challenges to become successful. And lets face it, the odds are stacked against them with 90% of new businesses failing in the first 5 years.

But when you think about it, just about every large business can trace its origins back to one or two people with a good idea.

For instance, Henry Ford started the Ford motor company at around the age of 40 working from his kitchen table. The Google guys, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell all started much younger and from their bedrooms or garages.

So what makes the likes of Henry Ford, the Google guys, Gates and Dell succeed like crazy when so many of their counterparts are slaughtered along the path in their pursuit of wealth and independence?

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re in Oz you’ll know it’s the start of a new Financial Year so it’s a time to start reflecting on how well you did or didn’t do in the last 12 months.

To celebrate the New Year here’s a small gift that could be worth a lot to your business. It’s something that many businesses have found to be massively profitable for their businesses over the years.

I hope you find it to be useful too.

Perhaps you have heard of the business growth equation (otherwise known as the 5 ways to increase the profitability of your business).

Read the rest of this entry »