tech+info+resources underground

Efficient lead management is the cornerstone to good sales. Without some sort of lead management system, keeping track of follow-up calls, meetings, and details relating to prospective clients can be nearly impossible. With proper lead management tools, all the information you will ever need to convert prospects into clients will be at your finger tips.

One of the first things necessary for good lead management is an efficient tool to organize records with. Whether a company is a one man shop, or a multinational organization, the efficiency of lead management can be essential to the health of the business.

A good lead management system allows business owners to organize and streamline the process of converting potential customers into clients. From the moment of contact, a sales representative should be able to add personal data and notes to client records. Follow up scheduling should be as easy as possible. Making a sale is often a matter of remembering the details and doing what you say you’ll do when you say you’ll do it.

After a good lead management tool has been selected, learn it and use it to follow up quickly. In the instant world of Internet, email and phones, a quick follow-up can make or break a sale. Having a good stock of marketing materials handy to close a deal is also very helpful. Ideally, your lead management software will allow for the sending of marketing material with a few key strokes.

Before you can use your lead management tool, a plan to generate leads is needed. Perhaps it’s an online request form, an 800 number, a catalog, a magazine ad or maybe all of the above. With the right software, Internet leads are easy to track, allowing business owners to see what is working and what is not. Magazine and TV ads are also very effective, but can be harder to track.

When ever you contact a potential client, use your lead management tool to keep track of the details of your conversations. The more personal details you include, the easier it will be to connect with your potential client in the future. Making a personal connection to your client is often the key to making a sale.

Once you make initial contact with a potential client, you’ll want to follow-up. Keep in front of your potential client. Even if the potential client doesn’t need your product or service now, maybe he or she will down the road. If you can manage to get in front of your audience enough for them to remember your company when it comes time to make the purchase decision, they will be likely to choose your company.

Proper lead management without the right tool can be an overwhelming task. With a tool to organize and prioritize all of your lead management tasks, following up with potential customers can be a real pleasure. All their information will be right in front of you, and you will be able to provide them any information they need instantaneously.

Halstatt Pires is with the Internet marketing firm - www.marketingtitan.com - a San Diego Internet marketing and advertising company offering automated web site systems through www.businesscreatorpro.com.

The element of mystery can be effectively employed to involve your audience. We are all naturally curious about the unknown. When we feel we’ve been left hanging, it drives us crazy! We want to know the end of the story. We want our tasks to be completed so we can check them off our list. This is also known as the “Zeigarnik Effect,” named after Bluma Zeigarnik, a Russian psychologist. This effect is the tendency we have to remember uncompleted thoughts, ideas, or tasks more than completed ones.

We see the Zeigarnik Effect on the television news and other programs. Right before a commercial break, the newscasters announce some interesting tidbit that will come later in the hour. This piques your interest and, rather than flipping the channel, you stay tuned. Movies and dramas on television also leave you hanging in suspense. By leaving something uncompleted right before the commercial break, the programs draw our attention, keep us involved, and motivate us to continue watching. We don’t feel satisfaction until we receive finality, closure, or resolution to the message, our goals, or any aspect of our life.

You also see the Zeigarnik Effect in the courtroom. We already know that people feel more confident and impressed with information they discover for themselves over time. This dictates that persuaders slowly dispel information, rather than dumping large volumes of information all at once. A good lawyer does not disclose everything he knows about the case or the plaintiff during his opening statement. As the trial progresses, the jury can fill in the blanks for themselves with the additional information they gradually receive. This works much better than dumping all the information on them in the beginning. Itl holds the jurors’ attention longer and gives the message more validity. The jury discovers the answers for themselves, and is more likely to arrive at the desired conclusion.

For additional information on The Mystery Element, go to Magnetic Persuasion and kick start your success!

Most humans are very competitive. When you package something as a competition, most people will want to be involved. Certainly some personality types shy away from competition, but most people are naturally competitive. Master Persuaders must be able to see how the use of competition works within the group they are dealing with. As you introduce competition into your presentation, you can create rivalry between different entities. Maybe you are using a competition where each individual is competing against himself or perhaps you create competition among the individual members of the group. Maybe you are pitting the group against another group or perhaps you are trying to get them to compete against the status quo.

All of these approaches will create involvement, but the most effective way may be to get the whole group working together against a common enemy. When you can create a unity of competition against an enemy, you will see more energy, teamwork, and motivation toward the goal. The fastest way to set up this type of competition within a group is to either create an external threat or to simply set your group against another group.

A group of researchers wanted to test the effectiveness of competition as a motivator at a summer camp for boys. As you might imagine, it was pretty easy to create an atmosphere of competition. In fact, simply separating the boys into two cabins created sentiments of “we versus they.” The competitive feelings between the two groups grew as increasingly competitive activities were introduced. For example, as they involved the boys in cabin-against-cabin treasure hunts, tugs-of-war, and other athletic team competitions, name-calling and scuffles grew more common.

The researchers then sought to see whether they could use the competitiveness to create cooperation toward something mutually productive and beneficial. The researchers set conditions so that if the boys didn’t work together, they were all at a disadvantage and, conversely, if the boys did work together, all had the advantage. For example, the truck going into town for food was stuck. It required all the boys helping and pushing to get it on the road again. When the boys were told there was a great movie available to rent but no money to rent it, the boys pooled their resources and enjoyed the movie together.

Distraction has been proven to increase your ability to persuade. On the flip side, if the distraction is disagreeable, your persuasive ability will diminish. This means, depending on the situation, you can persuade better with a distraction than with total concentration. Leon Festinger and Nathan Maccoby proved this theory with their landmark study on what are the best distracters. They discovered that food and sex appeal worked the best.

In another experiment, the two men attempted to persuade college students that fraternities are bad. Their presentation was not well received by the students, so they did the experiment a second time. This time they used a funny silent movie during the presentation. The results were clear. More of the students who were distracted with the silent movie changed their opinions about fraternities. In this study, distracting the conscious mind increased the persuasiveness of the message.

Peter considers himself very intelligent. He usually calls and places an order after he has done his own research. Even though he is a customer, you never had to persuade him. You have a great product he has never ordered, but is better than the one he has. Use the Zeigarnik effect to persuade him.

Another aspect of involvement is persistence. If you have ever been in sales, you know that the most successful salespeople are the most persistent; they keep nudging until the sale is made. Most sales reps try to close the sale only once or twice, but we know the average person has to be asked five to six times before a sale takes place. Many people are afraid to ask again and again. We tend to think that if we ask someone to do something and they say they’ll think about, that they will. Well, I hate to break the news to you, but they don’t. We forget. Our lives are busy. That is why repetition and persistence increase your involvement and your ability to persuade.

Master Persuaders can feel the fine line between persistence and annoyance. My general rule is that if you detect even the slightest of interest, keep up your persistence. I was in Mexico recently with a friend. We were enjoying a nice walk through the town, looking at all the shops and buildings. Out of nowhere, a vendor selling bracelets and necklaces approached and disrupted our nice stroll. “No, thank you” did little to deter the pesky vendor. He followed us through the town and through the streets. When we went into a shop hoping he’d leave, he even waited outside the store for us. Again, we told him “no, thank you” and that we had no need for his gold and silver bracelets. “But I have a special deal,” he kept telling us! Well, he was persistent (or we could say a pain in the butt) but it finally paid off. We bought a bracelet and he went home happy.

Conclusion
Persuasion is the missing puzzle piece that will crack the code to dramatically increase your income, improve your relationships, and help you get what you want, when you want, and win friends for life. Ask yourself how much money and income you have lost because of your inability to persuade and influence. Think about it. Sure you’ve seen some success, but think of the times you couldn’t get it done. Has there ever been a time when you did not get your point across? Were you unable to convince someone to do something? Have you reached your full potential? Are you able to motivate yourself and others to achieve more and accomplish their goals? What about your relationships? Imagine being able to overcome objections before they happen, know what your prospect is thinking and feeling, feel more confident in your ability to persuade.

Kurt Mortensen’s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available!

Kurt Mortensen teaches over a hundred techniques to give you the ability to effectively work with every customer that walks in your door. Professional success, personal happiness, leadership potential, and income depend on the ability to persuade, influence, and motivate others. Learning how to persuade and influence will make the difference between hoping for a better income and having a better income. If you are ready to claim your success and learn what only the ultra-prosperous know, begin by going to http://www.PreWealth.com and getting my free report “10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands.” After reading my free report, go to http://www.PreWealth.com/IQ and take the free Persuasion IQ analysis to determine where you rank and what area of the sales cycle you need to improve in order to close every sale!

—Stand out above the crowd by Giving Away Your Best Information

What makes you better than your competition? Let me give you a
hint, it’s not because you are less expensive than your
competition or because of your great customer service. When you
start giving away your services, your ideas, you will see your
sales skyrocket. Consumers have choices. In fact, they’ve got
more choices today than ever before. And it only takes a few
clicks of your mouse to be overloaded with options.

Given the fact that competition is at an all-time high, what can
you do to stand out? Most companies have someone just like them
on literally every street corner. So how do you get noticed?
Just assume that you are standing in a crowd. Everyone’s the
same height, wearing the same clothes, and has the same skin
color. That’s what most companies are doing. They look just like
everyone else.

So, how do you get noticed? There are many things that should be
done. Many of the consultants out there talk about coming up
with an authentic brand, crafting your positioning statement or
unique value, choosing the right Bull’s Eye Market, and
delivering your message effectively. But I want to suggest
something else to consider.

* How do you provide more value than your competition assuming
that your products and services are similar? * Then how do you
let everyone know that you have something really different? *
How do you become a trusted and credible resource and not just
another vendor?

The answer is with information. You’ve got it. All you have to
do is package it and share it. Just look at the number of people
that surf the internet. What are they looking for? Information.

I’m not talking about just any information. I’m referring to
information that will be valuable and beneficial to your
prospects and clients. Start telling everyone how if they do XYZ
their business will increase, their jobs will be easier. Give
them some real meat that can help them, not just skim over the
top because you fear that you will give away all of what you
sell.

—Spill Your Candy on the Floor–Give Away Key Information,
Help Your Customer Get Information

I’ve heard other sales trainers say “don’t spill your candy on
the floor in the lobby.” What they are referring to is the fear
that giving all of your knowledge away means you are no longer
needed. They believe you’ve essentially spilled all of the
goodies so why should someone hire you? I believe just the
opposite, that if we change our approach from selling to giving
information and helping, you suddenly become a necessary part of
what your customer needs. They are hungry for information.

Information that tells them how to fix their biggest problems.
They need that information to decide what is the best approach
to fixing their problem. And they will look on those that
provide that necessary help as a trusted partner and resource.

The best sales process requires that you first build rapport
with the client; after all I’m sure you’ve heard the statement
that people buy from people they know and trust, not from
salespeople. Once they know you and trust you, then they have to
know that what you offer will solve their problem, and finally
that you are credible, believable. All of that is a part of the
“building rapport.” You also are there to help in any way you
can. Selling should be really on the backburner.

So, by providing information you establish rapport, credibility,
and prove that you want to help, not withhold information until
the cash is shelled out. You are truly there to help.

—Give Away as Much Information to as Many as You Can at One
Time

Let’s talk a little about your marketing efforts. Have you
always sent out your direct marketing (emails, letters,
whatever) with a goal of selling something? What would happen if
you sent them out to advertise that you are giving away all of
this free information? Get everyone to attend a seminar on How
to……..[whatever]

I can tell you from experience, both my own and those of the
clients that have followed this procedure that your direct mail
response rates will increase somewhere around 10 times. During
the seminar make sure to give them some real meaty ideas to
improve whatever it is that are clamoring for. You have just
become “the expert” in the industry, in your geographic area,
your community. You will be the FIRST person everyone turns to
looking for help, advice, and….to buy from.

—You will also have shown your value to a roomful of people in
the time that you would normally have spent in a one-on-one
sales pitch.

It sort of goes this way for my sales training and coaching: * I
send out 1,000 postcards advertising my next “Double Your
Business in Weeks” seminar. * There will be 50-60 phone calls
(about 5+% response rate, where before giving away information
it would be 0.5% or less). * I’ll end up with 25-30 warm bodies
in the seats. * 10-15 will actually sign up for the next sales
training session. * Also, I will have a list of the 50-60 people
that called that are on my “qualified leads” list that are
interested in my ongoing helpful newsletters (more information
giveaway), and within 3-6 months many of those will either call
me to join a later session, or send me referrals. And I’ve done
it in the time it would take to make one sales call.

There are lots of ways to give away, or even charge a small
amount, for this information. Public seminars, white papers on
your website, email newsletters, chamber events (offer to be the
speaker at a chamber event, or host a free training, send the
entire chamber an email to drive them to your website for the
information, or call you to send the information), an electronic
file, a CD The options are endless. You don’t even have to stick
to just one way to communicate it. The key here is to use the
information as an enticement for them to contact you, give you
their contact information, and for them to truly want more from
you, much more. Don’t try to sell them, they will be turned off.
Be the helper that is in demand.

If you have a complex or high-cost product or service, many
businesses have had success by offering introductory seminars,
webinars and teleseminars. It allows your potential buyers to
take a test drive before committing to purchase. They can
determine if your approach and values are similar to theirs.

By determining and delivering the information your buyers want,
you will become more valuable and you’ll stand out among your
competition. Of course, you have to make sure that your content
is pertinent and objective. No one wants to read or listen to an
advertising pitch, but they do want insightful information that
makes their life easier or better.

Let’s look at some examples:

* If you provide staffing services, you might put together
information on “Five Mistakes To Avoid When Hiring,” or “10
Interview Tips To Learn What Your Job Candidates Won’t Tell
You,” or “Now You’ve Hired Them…How To Retain Employees
Without Blowing Your Budget.” * Mortgage company, you might
offer a white paper or seminar on “How to get the lowest
interest rates,” “How to Fix Up your house for best resell”. You
might even partner with a local real estate agent to do joint
seminars that would help both of you. * Massage Therapy: offer
information where you talk about the biggest problems someone
might experience, back and body pains, muscle pains, and how to
eliminate them. It could include massages, some techniques that
maybe your personal partner could do for you.

Don’t be afraid that you are giving away your services; this
makes you visible, and THE EXPERT that they will turn to. I look
at it this way: There are always those in your audience that
will never buy your services. They are here to get the free
information. So what? Aren’t you here to help everyone? The
actual sales you get will always be a relatively fixed
percentage of those you talk to, whether it is 10% or 50%. If
your sales rate was 10% in a one-on-one, it’ll be MUCH higher in
the roomful of people, since you are now considered an expert,
not a salesman. And you just talked to a roomful in the time you
normally do one sales call to one person.

—Everything Increases, Marketing Leads and Sales Closes

Everything increases, marketing response will increase, your
sales close rates will increase, and on top of that you are
talking to 20-30 people at once.

What would happen if you stopped going door to door, talking to
one-on-one, and started having 20-30 people come to you every
week, or every month?

Most people tremble when they hear the word “sales”.

This explains why most businesses fail.

No matter what product or service or business you have, if you can’t market it, you’ll fail.

Salesmanship is not an easy skill to acquire.

To improve your salesmanship skill, there are a few qualities you must improve on.

Here are some secrets of super salesmanship to help you.

To excel in any selling situation, you must have confidence, and confidence comes, first and foremost, from knowledge.

You have to know and understand yourself and your goals. You have to recognize and accept your weaknesses as well as your special talents.

The key to understanding your customers is to first understand yourself.

If you don’t know yourself, you’ll not be able to know others and will not be able to sell anything to them.

It is a no brainer!

This requires a kind of personal honesty that not everyone is capable of exercising.

Therefore not everybody can be a super salesman or woman!

In addition to knowing yourself, you must continue learning about people.

People change all the time.

The more they change the more you must revise your knowledge about them.

Just as with yourself, you must be insightful, perspective and able to see not only the trees but also the forest.

In any sales effort, you must accept other people as they are, not as you would like for them to be.

One of the most common faults of sales people is impatience when the prospective customer is slow to understand or make a decision.

The successful salesperson handles these situations the same as he would if he were asking a girl for a date, or even applying for a new job.

Learning your product, making a clear presentation to qualified prospects, and closing more sales will take a lot less time once you know your own capabilities and failings, and understand and care about the prospects you are calling upon.

Our society is predicated upon selling, and all of us are selling something all the time.

We move up or stand still in direct relation to our sales efforts.

Everyone is included, whether we’re attempting to be a friend to a co-worker, a neighbor, or selling multi-million dollar real estate projects.

Accepting these facts will enable you to understand that there is no such thing as a born salesman.

Indeed, in selling, we all begin at the same starting line, and we all have the same finish line as the goal - a successful sale.

Most assuredly, anyone can sell anything to anybody. As a qualification to this statement, let us say that some things are easier to sell than others, and some people work harder at selling than others.

But regardless of what you’re selling, or even how you’re attempting to sell it, the odds are in your favor.

If you make your presentation to enough people, you’ll find a buyer.

The problem with most people seems to be in making contact - getting their sales presentation seen by, read by, or heard by enough people.

But this really shouldn’t be a problem, as we’ll explain later.

There is a problem of impatience, but this too can be harnessed to work in the salesperson’s favor.

We have established that we’re all salespeople in one way or another.

So whether we’re attempting to move up from forklift driver to warehouse manager, waitress to hostess, salesman to sales manager or from mail order dealer to president of the largest sales organization in the world, it’s vitally important that we continue learning.

Getting up out of bed in the morning; doing what has to be done in order to sell more units of your product; keeping records, updating your materials; planning the direction of further sales efforts; and all the while increasing your own knowledge - all this very definitely requires a great deal of personal motivation, discipline, and energy.

But then the rewards can be beyond your wildest dreams, for make no mistake about it, the selling profession is the highest paid occupation in the world!

Selling is challenging. It demands the utmost of your creativity and innovative thinking.

The more success you want, and the more dedicated you are to achieving your goals, the more you’ll sell.

Hundreds of people the world over become millionaires each month through selling.

Many of them were flat broke and unable to find a “regular” job when they began their selling careers. Yet they’ve done it, and you can do it too!

Remember, it’s the surest way to all the wealth you could ever want.

You get paid according to your own efforts, skill, and knowledge of people. If you’re ready to become rich, then think seriously about selling a product or service (prefer ably something exclusively yours) - something that you “pull out of your brain;” something that you write, manufacture or produce for the benefit of other people.

But failing this, the want ads are full of opportunities for ambitious sales people.

You can start there, study, learn from experience, and watch for the chance that will allow you to move ahead by leaps and bounds.

Here are some secrets of super salesmanship that will definitely improve your gross sales, and quite naturally, your gross income.

I like to call them the Super Salesmanship Secrets Of Success (3SOS).

Look them over; give some thought to each of them and adapt those that can improve your selling efforts.

1. If the product you’re selling is something your prospect can hold in his hands, get it into his hands as quickly as possible.

In other words, get the prospect “into the act.” Let him feel it, weigh it, admire it.

2. Don’t stand or sit alongside your prospect. Instead, face him while you’re pointing out the important advantages of your product.

This will enable you to watch his facial expressions and determine whether and when you should go for the close.

In handling sales literature, hold it by the top of the page, at the proper angle, so that your prospect can read it as you’re highlighting the important points.

Regarding your sales literature, don’t release your hold on it, because you want to control the specific parts you want the prospect to read.

In other words, you want the prospect to read or see only the parts of the sales material you’re telling him about at a given time.

3. With prospects who won’t talk with you: when you can get no feedback to your sales presentation, you must dramatize your presentation to get him
involved.

Stop and ask questions such as, “Now, don’t you agree that this product can help you or would be of benefit to you?”

After you’ve asked a question such as this, stop talking and wait for the prospect to answer.

It’s a proven fact that following such a question, the one who talks first will lose, so don’t say anything until after the prospect has given you some kind of answer. Wait him out!

4. Prospects who are themselves sales people and prospects who imagine they know a lot about selling sometimes present difficult selling obstacles, especially for the novice. But believe me, these prospects can be the easiest of all to sell.

Simply give your sales presentation, and instead of trying for a close, toss out a challenge such as, “I don’t know, Mr. Prospect - after watching your reactions to what I’ve been showing and telling you about my product, I’m very doubtful as to how this product can truthfully be of benefit to you.”

Then wait a few seconds, just looking at him and waiting for him to say something.

Then, start packing up your sales materials as if you are about to leave. In almost every instance, your “tough nut” will quickly ask you, Why?

These people are generally so filled with their own importance, that they just have to prove you wrong.

When they start on this tangent, they will sell themselves.

The more skeptical you are relative to their ability to make your product work to their benefit, the more they’ll demand that you sell it to them.

If you find that this prospect will not rise to your challenge, then go ahead with the packing of your sales materials and leave quickly.

Some people are so convinced of their own importance that it is a poor use of your valuable time to attempt to convince them.

5. Remember that in selling, time is money! Therefore, you must allocate only so much time to each prospect.

The prospect who asks you to call back next week, or wants to ramble on about similar products, prices or previous experiences, is costing you money.

Learn to quickly get your prospect interested in, and wanting your product, and then systematically present your sales pitch through to the close, when he signs on the dotted line, and reaches for his checkbook.

After the introductory call on your prospect, you should be selling products and collecting money.

Any call backs should be only for reorders, or to sell him related products from your line.

In other words, you can waste an introductory call on a prospect to qualify him, but you’re going to be wasting money if you continue calling on him to sell him the first unit of your product.

When faced with a reply such as, “Your product looks pretty good, but I’ll have to give it some thought,” you should quickly jump in and ask him what it is that he doesn’t understand, or what specifically about your product does he feel he needs to give more thought.

Let him explain, and that’s when you go back into your sales presentation and make everything crystal clear for him.

If he still balks, then you can either tell him that you think he’s procrastinating, or that overall, you don’t think the product will really benefit him, or it’s purchase be to his advantage.

You must spend as much time as possible calling on new prospects.

Therefore, your first call should be a selling call with follow-up calls by mail or telephone (once every month or so in person) to sign him for reorders and other items from your product line.

6. Review your sales presentation, your sales materials, and your prospecting efforts.

Make sure you have a “door-opener” that arouses interest and “forces” a purchase the first time around.

This can be a $2 interest stimulator so that you can show him your full line, or a special marked-down price on an item that everybody wants; but the important thing is to get the prospect on your “buying customer” list, and then follow up via mail or telephone with related, but more profitable products you have to offer.

If you accept our statement that there are no born salesmen, you can readily absorb these “commandments.”

Study them, as well as all the material in this report. When you realize your first successes, you will truly know that “salesman are made - not born.”

May these sales secrets of super salesmanship help you to improve and sell more of your products and services.

Warmly,

I-key Benney, CEO

I-key, a Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of “Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System”, (foreign currency market) program which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.

Mscsrrr Millionaire Secret Cash System helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000-$2000 free “cash”…

I first taught this technique in
1998. While there have been tons of improvements since then,
today I still see copy on so many websites, sales letters or
emails using a language that only the person who wrote them
understands.

People still
seem to ignore their readers.

Abraham Maslow once commented, “If all you have is a hammer,
everything looks like a nail.” Abraham Maslow may have been a
psychologist, but he probably knew more about copywriting and
particularly selling than what most people cared to admit.

Even now,
most of the copy I critique disobey this important rule the
most. Their sales message doesn’t communicate with their
readers, particularly at THEIR level. Now, I’m not talking about
a socioeconomic or educational level. I’m talking about the
level at which they understand and, above all, make buying
decisions.

They fail to use what I call “upwords.”

It’s an acronym that means…

“Universal Picture Words Or Relatable, Descriptive Sentences.”

Upwords are
words that paint vivid pictures in the mind, or expressions that
describe an idea to which the mind of your reader (or prospect)
can relate to.

I once took a communications course in which I discovered an
interesting example of the way the mind works. As part of a
given lesson, a videotape was shown of a televised newscast
during which a journalist was about to give a live report on a
fire that was devastating a large forest.

The news anchor in the television newsroom said: “We now take
you to Sally Smith, who’s in the station’s helicopter flying
above the scene of the fire.” He then turned around to face the
background screen, which showed a live bird’s-eye view of the
raging fire.

He asked: “Tell us, Sally, how big is the fire?”

In a voice partially drowned by the whizzing sound of helicopter
blades, Sally reports: “John, it’s so big, it’s covering well
over 140 acres of land — now that’s about 200 football fields
back-to-back for you and me.”

As you can see, people think in pictures, not in words and
certainly not in numbers (unless it is told to do exactly that).
The mind hates confusion. It will naturally translate words or
phrases into a visual equivalent.

For instance, if I told you to think of a garbage can, you’re
not going to think of the letters “G,” “A,” “R,” etc. Your mind
will automatically visualize some sort of garbage can.

Microsoft and MacIntosh dominate the marketplace in operating
systems because, rather than typing some elaborate command for
your computer to execute, you can simply use your mouse, point
to an icon that represents the command (or program) and click.

Icons represent commands, which are translated into programs
(i.e., codes or languages) that the computer understands. In the
same way, the mind works very much like a computer does.

People who know little about computers will likely have a
difficult time understanding the various written commands,
scripts and codes that the computer needs to process. But on the
other hand, most of use can easily identify the icons that
symbolize them.

Similarly, the brain instantly translates the information it
receives into something it can easily understand and execute –
something it already knows and can easily refer to. Albeit a
quick one, there is always a translation process going on. And
we must be aware of that.

The challenge facing marketers is certainly that of ensuring
that their copy communicates effectively to its audience,
especially when communicating the benefits of an offer is at the
heart of making profitable sales. The “big test,” therefore, is
to put ourselves in our reader’s shoes.

It is important to communicate using a language that people in
your target market can easily understand and appreciate. It is
Mark Twain who once said, “Numbers don’t stick in the mind;
pictures do.” So, the more you use upwords in your copy, the
more your reader will not only grasp what you’re trying to
convey but also appreciate it at a more intimate level.

And THAT is the level I was referring to, earlier.

Upwords are words and phrases that help messages to be easily
read, understood and interpreted by the majority of the people
to whom the message is targeted, like with the use of mental
imagery, examples, analogies, metaphors, picture words, etc.

For example, a challenge among cosmetic surgeons is the fact
that people will call for a quote over the phone when a doctor
needs to see the patient beforehand to make an assessment.

But obviously, cosmetic surgery is an uncommon process. People
don’t understand why doctors can’t simply give out quotes over
the phone.

So, I tell doctors to use a more common approach, such as
cosmetic dentistry, for example, as an analogy. Why? Because
unlike cosmetic surgery, most people have had their teeth done
at some point. Their brains have something it can remember,
picture and relate to.

So when asked for a quote over the phone, doctors will say:
“Just like a dentist, I can’t give an estimate over the phone
without any X-rays of your teeth” or “without the knowledge of
how many cavities you really have.”

Marketers are certainly in a similar position. Many tend to
communicate in a language that only a few understand. If you’re
a programmer selling your services to business owners, and your
copy is laced with technical jargon that only geeks will
understand, you will obviously do very poorly.

You must therefore mold your message in a way that it can be
easily understood by your target market. Speak their language!

If your market consists of artists, use art examples. If your
market consists of managers, use business analogies. For
example, you sell customer service consulting to florists.

You can say: “Clients are like fresh-cut roses; they need to be
handled efficiently. But if handled improperly, they can prick
your business or simply wilt away.”

Here’s a recent example.

One website I recently critiqued sold “microdermabrasion”
skincare lotion. It’s a facial scrub that smoothes away
wrinkles. But the problem is the fact that she only used the
term “microdermabrasion.” However, nobody understood that. The
only benefit mentioned was “skin regeneration.”

So I realized that her lotion offers three main benefits.

It reduces the appearance of wrinkles, It comes in a easy-to-use
homecare kit, And it’s gentle on skin, or “pH balanced.” But
these are NOT benefits let alone ideas her target market can
easily appreciate. Granted, they may understand what these are,
and they likely understand what “microdermabrasion” is. But they
don’t understand what those benefits are at an intimate level.
So, I told her to change it to:

“Reverse the aging process and give your skin a youthful
radiance with our non-acidic, non-greasy facelift in a jar!
Imagine, no inconvenient clinics. No risks associated with harsh
chemicals peels or injections. No costly doctors or surgeries.
Get beautiful skin in hours in the comfort of your own home!
It’s like the power of a sandblaster applied with the gentleness
of velvet glove!”

Of course, there are many more ways of applying upwords to your
sales copy. Here are some brief examples of how to mold your
message in order to communicate more effectively …

1) Repetitious Words

As the adage goes, “Repetition is the parent of learning.”
Repetition aids comprehension and increases retention,
especially of complex or critical ideas. But the objective is
not to repeat the same words over and over. It’s to use
different examples to illustrate your point and drive the idea
home.

To that end, substitute certain words with synonyms and add new
pieces of information each time the idea is repeated. Here’s an
example to show you. In order to drive the idea that privacy
policies on a website help to increase sales, it can be repeated
with:

“Privacy policies promote purchases,” “Privacy statements
increase sales,” “Confidentiality is a key to online success,”
“Posting a privacy policy is profitable,” etc. 2) Emotional Words

Again, words are not messages in themselves. They are symbols.
Different words mean different things to different people. As
such, they can be interpreted differently. While several words
can be used to communicate a single message, your choice of
words is the most important decision you will ever make. Words
can actually alter the impact of your message. For example:

Instead of “cost,” say “investment,” Instead of beautiful
“teeth,” say beautiful “smiles,” Instead of “skinny,” say “slim”
or “slender,” Instead of “products” or “services,” say
“solutions,” Instead of “cost-effective,” say “return on
investment,” And instead of “house,” say “home.” 3) Positive
Words

As my friend and copywriter, Rachel McAlpine, often says, “Avoid
using negative words — say what it is, not what it isn’t.” I
agree. Rachel is absolutely right on the money.

Maxwell Maltz, who wrote the bestseller “Psycho-Cybernetics,”
states that the brain is a goal-seeking organ. It needs a goal
in order to function. For example, if I told you to NOT think of
a white carnation, you will have hard time since your brain
needs a goal. It will naturally picture what it is supposed to
avoid. The mind needs a reference point. A visual equivalent.

On the other hand, if I asked you to think of a pink carnation
instead of a white one, you will think of a pink carnation. (And
you won’t think of a white one!) I gave your mind a goal rather
than taking one away from it.

By stating what something isn’t can be counterproductive since
it is still directing the mind, albeit in the opposite way. If I
told you that dental work is painless for example, you’ll still
focus on the word “pain” in “painless.”

Here are some examples of using positive words:

Instead of saying “inexpensive,” say “economical,” Instead of
saying “this procedure is painless,” say “there’s little
discomfort” or “it’s relatively comfortable,” And instead of
saying “this software is error-free” or “foolproof,” say “this
software is consistent” or “stable.” One of the most negative
words we use is the word “but.” “Buts” can turn any message,
which in essence may be positive, into a negative. Plus, a
statement followed by the word “but” subtly communicates to
others that what was said up to that point was a lie and what
follows is the truth.

Do you remember when a former girlfriend or boyfriend dumped
you? They probably said: “You’re a really nice guy and I really
like going out with you, but…” (I’m sure you know the rest.)
Consequently, leave the “but” out. Rather, use “and” and then
focus on the positive.

For example, you’re a website designer. Instead of saying to
your client, “It’s a great website but expensive,” say “it’s a
great website AND worth every cent.” Instead of, “it’s a great
website but it’s going to take at least a month to create it,”
say “it’s a great website AND it will only take thirty days to
get it up and running.” Can you see the difference?

We all come from different backgrounds. Each individual has a
unique education, experience and environment. They all condition
our thinking. So use analogies, metaphors and imagery in your
copy that will make your message easier to grasp by that
person’s set of circumstances.

As Jack Trout once said…

“A word is worth a thousand pictures.”