Amazon Prime: Online Marketing by Prime – Amazon.co.uk

Amazon Prime: Online Marketing by Prime – Amazon.co.uk: by Jason Li 2013 ©
 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT (For Marketeers Regarding Amazon Prime)

“Try Amazon Prime FREE for one month: Unlimited FREE One-Day Delivery on millions of eligible items; Express Delivery for £4.49 per item (delivery before 1pm).”

“Over 300,000 popular Kindle Books to borrow for free, as frequently as one book per month and with no due dates.”

(Taken from Amazon Prime)

 

Amazon Prime – what you have just read is about a service that is changing the world forever.

It’s the single most important business copywriting and strategic marketing reveal that you must analyse and understand if you want your business to succeed.

So Am I Promoting Amazon As A Secret Amazon Prime Employee?

No... Although - I admit straight away: I LOVE AMAZON.

For me... first came the internet, and then came GOOGLE and Amazon as the world’s most useful internet services in the world.

And it’s going to be for the foreseeable future possibly humankinds most valuable consumer supplier of goods and services.

Here’s Why (And How Amazon Prime will do this)...

Amazon has played its card in how it is going to get even more rich, and you’re about to see why this is with Amazon Prime.

What is Amazon Prime?

There’s some clue in the opening paragraphs so I’m going to state how important it is and have you read it again:

“Try Amazon Prime FREE for one month: Unlimited FREE One-Day Delivery on millions of eligible items; Express Delivery for £4.49 per item (delivery before 1pm).”

“Over 300,000 popular Kindle Books to borrow for free, as frequently as one book per month and with no due dates.”

In summary, at the time of writing in June 2013, customers get to borrow free Kindle Books and enjoy free delivery. Plus there are streamlining movies services too.

So you see, for those who understand how effective direct marketing and strategic marketing is... Amazon is going to be

The De facto World’s Greatest Direct Marketing Business!

Here’s some stats to prove it:

Amazon was launched in the United States in 2005.

(Taken from Wired.com) In the fiscal year of 2012, analysts at Morningstar suggested that Prime members grew from 7 million to nearly 10 million. Prime membership was greatly boosted by promotions to customers who bought a Kindle Fire.

In total, Amazon had about 182 million customers during the year, so Prime members make up about 4 per cent of the total customer base.

So here is the significant bit about profit: Prime customers accounted for $78 more in profit before interest and taxes per customer than non-Prime customers, as revealed by Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottoy.

And now the comparison bit: The average Amazon customer when calculating the operating profit from the 182 million customers is $10 per customer.  So Amazon Prime customers are about

SEVEN TO EIGHT TIMES MORE PROFITABLE

than a non-Amazon Prime member.

And now for the insane bit: about a third of Amazon’s profit come from just 4 per cent of customers who buy stuff on Amazon.

So how does Amazon go on to be the de facto direct marketing business on the internet?

Amazon Prime is capturing all the people in the world:

a)      Who have money to spend.

b)      Who are happy to buy direct... that is online.

c)       By offering people with money the convenience, opportunity to save money, and the service of wider selection of goods; so that it is easy to just go to one-stop Amazon to see if what the buyer wants is listed by searching Amazon’s product database.

d)      By keeping in touch with people who keep on spending by being constantly relevant...Prime members keep revisiting... and spending.

Once you’ve got used to buying books, Amazon’s fantastic web designers and copywriters make it easy for you to notice other items in other categories by:

·         Promoting other books.

·         Promoting non-book items such as brand name watches to streaming films to baby toys.

Emails

The secret power of Amazon is in emails.

Amazon sends you regular emails on all sorts of categories to tempt you to buy special offers. It’s really hard for consumers to resist.

Just think of near enough every item that are resold in retail shops (eg. Your Armani watch or Nike T-shirt) in the most popular and largest locations. Think of John Lewis, or Oxford Street in London, or even the Trafford Centre in Manchester. Amazon will likely have the item available.

Think about it, you can kit out your whole home by buying off Amazon without having to leave the sofa.

But Amazon Destroys Business

Isn’t that what locals always say when a successful innovative business comes along.

(Hey... there’s nothing better than a local business with tradition and history.)

In fact, we’re lucky we live in a free market system and innovation is here to improve customers’ buying power, or else monopolies can dictate products and prices.

So yes, you may not like your Tesco’s taking customers from local businesses, but look at it this way... if there are two restaurants on the same street, and one is busy and the other hardly has any patrons...

Is It The Restaurant That Is Struggling That Is Wrong

Or Obviously It’s The Consumer Who’s Wrong?

So the question must be posed? Is it big businesses that destroy local businesses, or consumers who are not considerate and change to shop at big businesses; or the local business who cannot be bothered to innovate and improve? Hold that thought.

Amazon Prime Innovation

Remember the paragraph describing the services of Amazon Prime?

Amazon would have spend months analysing the customer research data to come up with their new compelling strategy of capturing the segment of

The world’s most CONSISTENT SPENDERS in the online direct marketing category

During a history of innovation and technology to improve humankind, humans cannot resist technology.

You see – humans choose the easy option when faced with similar choices (a consumer psychology tip that can help you win orders by just mastering this technique alone – it’s in the ebook The Goose Bump Effect in more detail.)

Here are some examples to prove it:

·         We wore clogs and moved onto shoes.

·         Transport was once by horseback, now it’s by car, bikes, trains, airplane (and skateboard).

·         Messages were sent by letters, and now sent by text, social media or email.

·         Once we drove into town to buy books or a film... now you just search Amazon.

And this is where we are today: Innovation, convenience, better pricing, wide selection of goods and so on and so on.

That’s why Amazon Prime is the most important development in direct marketing.

Scared by Amazon Prime?

You don’t have to be. You just need to keep being systematically pro-active.

Here’s some ideas that might help your business:

·         Don’t ever stop innovating even if you are top of the tree.

·         And don’t forget the importance of direct marketing. Keep in contact with your customers.

·         Make sure you systematically collect data and research your customers.

Thanks for reading. Please share this article with friends who like Amazon.

 

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What is ROI?: Jedi Return on investment methods for more profit

What is ROI?: Jedi Return on investment methods for more profit: by Jason Li 2013 ©

Are you a leader in your business... or a director?

Do you want to direct your business to more profits?...

Better conversion rates from marketing communication campaigns such as advertising, web site revamps, brochures, rebranding or email campaigns?...

Then here are some nifty ways to gain a better return on investment from your marketing communications spend.

How to calculate return on investment (ROI)

Why delay, let’s go through how to calculate return on investment

(return-capital)/capital) x 100%        = rate of return

(£110 - £100)/ (£100) x 100%        = 10%

So now you know what return on investment (ROI) is, so how you can use it to improve your business?

Rate of Return

Everytime you do something in your business, do you know the expected and actual rates of return?

Let’s say you do a promotion such as a 100 leaflets that are door dropped in your local area... what numbers are you expecting convert into sales, what numbers did you really get, how did you get to these estimates in the first place?

When you spend £2,000 on a website revamp, what rates of return are you expecting? Sure, the web site really looks great. Most web designers truly are fantastic visual artists. But I’m asking you as the boss and leader the hard question... what rate of return were you expecting from your £2,000 investment?

If you employ sales people, again you will have expected rates of return?

Add up all your sales efforts and marketing communication campaigns costs over the year and be truthful, what rates of return are you expecting?

Do your sales and marketing campaigns improve your turnover; improve profit margins and overall profit?

If the rates of return are low, like 500 cold calls to an order, even though you are certain you are targeting the correct target market, could it possibly be because the previous investment in developing your service and product was more than a year ago; so it means your offer is gradually not creating enough value for your target market TODAY?

When was the last time you added more value? How did it affect your rates of return after you improved the offer? If you can’t think of how to fine tune your product and service offer, have a look at the Goose Bump Effect ebook preview.

In fact NO... read on... you don’t deserve a free preview. You still believe that it’s not the product or service or your total offer that needs to improve. In fact, you want to spend more money on branding because it makes your ego feeeeeel guuud. So carry on reading.

Customer’s rate of return

So now you understand your own rate of return measurements.

In fact... it is almost certain you never purchased anything without trying to really estimate what you got in return.

So if you bought 1000 sales leads data for £100, you expected after all your expenses possibly £500 profit.

If you buy a nicer car, you want the hot guys/girls on the pavement to squint to see you through the window as you pull up at the lights. (Now that’s ROI because you want to be noticed by fit ones; yeah.)

And that way, my friend, is pretty much how your customers are thinking.

Your customers are trying to work out their rate of return from your product and service. (How many lovely people they can attract.)

Yes, you want the sale, more customers, more conversions, more revenue and more profit.

Yes, the customer knows you are keen for them to sign the papers, type in their card details, or send a purchase order... don’t you think they’ve ever been sold to in their life before?

But if you want better conversion rates, more money, more profit, less wastage of leads, to reduce the number of prospective customers who sign with competitors, and reduce the number of interested prospects with money to spend walking away and looking at other products and services to improve their business and lives... now is your chance.

“What sold well last year or yesterday might not sell as well tomorrow or next year.”

Look here dude. Either you keep your head in the sand, spend more on advertising, buying more lead data to give your demoralised and commission famished sales staff; get more stress, get more wrinkles, watch friends and family do better... Or, make that change to help your clients enjoy a product or service that is obviously of even better value than before.

Did these clients get a good enough rate of return on investment?

Marks and Spencer

I co-created a World Cup football board game as a freelancer that sold in over 200 Marks and Spencer stores. This included the research and game design to ensure it was in line with the demand of the market.

M & S wanted an exclusive football product to attract customers to their retail stores only.

On the Ball sold 10,000 copies in year one and was a top five selling product.

Competitors included: The Apprentice, Deal or No Deal, The Price is Right and Countdown.

No money was spent on TV advertising to promote the game, you could only know about it if you noticed it in the store. I had to rely on the methods in The Goose Bump Effect ebook to ensure that it hit the spot in terms of what buyers are looking to pay for as it sat amongst many big brand name board games.

My game only had one shot of being: noticed, picked up, the pictures and copy on the back read by the prospective customer... then it was either a) put back on the shelf or b) put in the basket. That my friend is the sales cycle. Anything else is delaying that decision of a or b.

Some AIDA magic:   A attention I interest D desire A Action

Boom!

It was positioned as a family game (a big point of difference – again explained in the ebook how to get this dead on to match what the market is demanding) and packed with unique humour and action cards for players to physically carry out fun tasks – no other board game around really offered much in the way like this at the time.

KashFlow

KashFlow was already a leading online accounting software to the small business sector.

Within 3-4 years about 300 accountants were recommending KashFlow to their client base after a launch of an accountant’s portal.

But sales growth had dropped off, whole sales teams would come and go, with new teams built from scratch.

I carried out some research to provide a 2^nd opinion.

To give you a picture, the main competitors included the giant Sage, Xero, Free Agent/Iris, QuickBooks and more.

Leading up to the year before I joined, KashFlow had won awards as a leading accountancy software, but had just missed out recently.

It was fairly obvious to see why.

The first thing is that other software houses upgraded their software much more quickly in the last year or two. The meaningful differences and value gap when compare to competitors was shrinking.

Secondly, when a prospect went on either software provider’s website, you see the same USP’s: easy-to-use, 30 day free trial, monthly payments, real-time... and so on.

How can any consumer choose?

So I developed a marketing plan based on adding value to blow other software houses out of the water. The plan was based on not just doing your accounts quicker, but tasks quicker too.

In case you’re asking, no I’m no technical guy, and was only a facilitator on this one. None of the integrations or upgrades were my direct idea... mainly because I don’t know the tech market.

I verbalised the philosophy that the software can follow as a theme to add value and differentiate.

The upgrades included MailChimp integrations for sending email campaigns from the same database, integration with DropBox, and click a link from the invoice facility to send your customers to your bank so they can pay directly online without you having to chase customers for taking card details. These examples would help the user enjoy more productivity through software automation of tasks. These were clearly outlined to prospective users as a USP for busy entrepreneurs.

Finally, a change to waive the fee charged to accountants for the portal brought about another 300 accountants to start recommending the software to clients within 3-6 months of taking away the fees. It only took five of the accountant’s clients to subscribe to cover the accountant fee. Given the fact that some accountants have several hundred clients, in the long run this would get over the hurdle of accountants worrying about the upfront fee. Once accountants had a client on board, the feedback was almost always good. So this got over a major deal breaker as most accountants would not pay a fee to recommend a software... so taking away this fee worked really well, especially as almost every decent accountancy practice has more than five clients.

Boomerang Couriers

One day as a marketing strategy business advisor I was sent by the enterprise agency to see a lad in Preston who had a courier business, based on volume discounting for pallet collections.

He was struggling, and he was desperate for help as a new business.

After analysis of the competitor landscape verses his business offer we found a very popular post office offer that he could improve on in both how he provided the service and price.

Now he could go on to spend money on advertising such as leaflets and within 6 weeks he had two new part-time staff on shifts handling enquiries and collections.

The ROI on Sales and Promotional Spend when getting marketing strategy right

So the importance of strategic demand marketing is starting to make sense now, huh?

Here’s a story:

Imagine if you just decided to spend thousands on a new brand concept complete with new logo, new company colours with an ingenious new brand concept.

Then your design consultants revamp your website... costing another thousand pounds (potentially).

And so your SEO, keywords and social media are now built around your new brand concept.

Yes, you’ll get some new site visitors, because new brings in adventure seeking types (a segment who constantly look for new).

Some may even buy your product because it hits the spot. Many won’t.

So you spend copious amounts of money on sales staff, telesales, field sales, sales managers and trainers. No-one has a clear cut answer why one month is great and another is not so good.

Can you imagine how much money, anguish and time is wasted in generating revenue using this method?

Compare this to a friend of mine who makes bespoke products. He follows new trends and adjusts to meet demand. Effort and costs are minimal: success and conversion rates are high.

Now picture this story of a tool supplier to artists:

This supplier could argue that because artists want to draw and use different colours, then their biros would meet their needs.

Does that read wrong to you?

(OK, the business will get lucky occasionally and sell a set or biros to complement his pencils or water colour paint pots.)

Yet many businesses operate this way.

That’s why thousands of prospects in your market reject you.

What if the product was adjusted to suit prospects demands more closely?

What would your ROI from sales staff and website conversion or SEO be now?

I’ll leave that to you.

Only you can say if it’s better to be in line with what prospective customers are seriously demanding to purchase.

(Or carry on improving and changing everything else from your desk layouts, to staff, to the type of carrier bags used at exhibition stands, to what the brand stands for... everything but the main product which the customer is paying for.)

The importance of Product ROI

Let’s say your product gets an ROI of 20%.

You spend £100,000 a year on business costs. The service elements to your product/package are also included; such as techies/developers or if you are lawyers then the law team.

And you earn £100,000 annually.

So without any promotional costs added, the product itself gets an ROI of 20%, let’s say from referrals.

So you earn £120,000 annually.

Now you want to promote your business to increase revenue. So you hire SEO, website developers, leaflet and print ad consultants, plus spend on newspaper ad space etc.

If your product is not aligned with demand, it is possible your total ROI on your product will now reduced.

Why?

Total costs go up; cash flow, profit margin and ROI for your product will drop down to almost negligible.

So if you spend £20,000 on promotion, then total costs would be £120,000.

But your additional revenue was only £10,000.

After the adding the additional costs, let’s compare with the increased revenue, say £130,000.

Then your ROI is now just 8.333%

So if you have a tactic of spending more on promotional costs and advertising to bring in more revenue, then this is going to become more inefficient for the business.

 

Can you think of businesses that suffered results like this? Businesses like Woolworths comes to mind.

On the flip side, if your product is what your target market is seriously demanding to buy, then any new promotion to prospects who were not aware of your exceedingly good product will likely buy.

Therefore, your ROI will be higher that the scenario before.

Ultimately

ROI is all about ROI on sales conversion for your product or service.

 

ROI is all about ROI for every product or service in terms of how it has been created to meet demand. If you make it and they don’t buy it, you have no return on your investment.

If you build houses and you get no sale from a viewing... Forget blaming the brochures, the lifestyle pictures and the reps uniform. Why does the HOUSE not meet demand?

No one here set up a business to virtually invest most of their money and time as an ad agency business managing art work and signing off Illustrator files.

No one here originally set up a business in order to go onto spend most of their time thinking about branding rather than filling that gap they saw in the market.

And definitely no one here from a trade started a business because they fancied becoming a cold caller and rejection-proof sales person.

So why neglect the real reason anyone is buying from you?

Are prospective customer’s sales objections about you or really about what your business can offer in terms of value?

If you truly want greater ROI, make sure you concentrate more effort on what you have to offer.

If you care for your target market and offer them exceptional value and differentiate the right way, and the prospective customer knows they will get exceptional ROI, your conversion rates have a better chance of improving.

Final words:

Please share this article if you have a friend who you might think a strategic demand marketing approach could help them.

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Experiential Marketing: Brand Experience for Brand Awareness

Experiential Marketing: Brand Experience for Brand Awareness: by Jason Li 2013 ©

Ever had a brand experience that was awesome?...

So good you HAD to tell a friend?... (like your first school yard kiss)

And it created a lasting feel good memory?... (like when you won something)

That’s why experiential marketing is a great way to convert prospective customers and gain referrals. (Just one marketing differentiation tactic and value creation method in the practical ebook guide The Goose Bump Effect)

Let’s kick off with a case study that highlights this straight away to prove this.

Experiential Marketing Case study: Lego Lego has been around for ages. I used to love Lego. When I was a kid I was inspired by battery motored vehicles I could build as seen on the television adverts. In fact, I was a dab hand at it – after 90 days of trying. The funny thing is, if you just ask me to build a quick card pyramid - I can’t be bothered these days; I’ve no energy, or patience. Sometimes the TV runs and if the programme is not terrible, I’ll let it run... yes I’m a LAZY GIT! But bring out the Lego, and I’m ready for the challenge. Lego is just a special brand experience. You can even visit Lego Land and get really inspired.   Each Lego set can be recreated by any visitor who is willing to have a go. It just takes seeing and liking one Lego set for a prospect to get ‘that urge’ to want to ‘have a go’ at recreating a master piece... and then BAM... before they know it they are at the Lego shop, box under the arm, and debit card flicking out to the smiley person on the till – as cool as the Fonz – a knowingly fleeced Fonz! That’s another sale, with no objection handling, no hard selling, or multiple questions or having to wince everytime that person you like on the phone is calling you. (I’ve been there on a call back with people in the past life, and you know you and them are wasting each other’s time, even though they are interested and talk to you... otherwise they would buy from me already.) PITCHED AND CLOSED in one smooth Lego Land marketing and sales environment. Thank you. And just when you are getting good at Lego, Average Joe or Josephine make that incredible Lego set as seen in the newspapers, and it gets ‘those urges’ going again.

Experiencial Marketing Brand Engagement is Selling

Ever been in a sales process when you are just about to close a prospect? (Or they tell you they are ready to buy?)

If you get lucky, a prospect starts to waffle about how they like your product and other ways they can use it, and of course their objections and why that’s not a problem because it does such a thing to make it worthwhile.

Of course, when you are selling, you have to go through this one prospect at a time. It’s pretty time consuming to go from an initial cold contact, questioning and education, and the rest of the sales process with the many twists and turns of involving other directors and more.

If you are paying for ten telesales, or ten retail sales advisors or ten field sales consultants with cars, then logically your business is closing and hearing the same set of objections from ten prospects at a time, over-and-over again. And that’s a lot of time and cost when you add it all up together.

(So park this time and cost problem as we go through this article.)

Part of selling is building a relationship. If they like you then they are comfortable disclosing company or personal details to your questions. Most sales people are likeable with clients and ask decent questions, and so can build good rapport. (Or else the sales person has to pay for expensive lunches and steep discounts to keep prospects engaged.)

But at the end of the day, what if after all this, the prospect just does not like the product or service your business offers and buys from another business offering a similar but better value package, or think your business is not focussed enough on creating value for the prospect, today or a year down the road?

This is where brand engagement and relationship advertising allows you to showcase your product, service, and company, and is one great way to differentiate your business from competitors.

A lot of people don’t like being sold to. I know sales people that make other telesales cold callers lives hell where I’ve worked when a call comes in, or when I’m shopping with them they give the shop assistant a curt: “I’m fine, I’m just browsing.” (So you’re not the only sales person who hates fob offs themselves, but angrily tells a cold caller to go away with abusive language that’s just short of psychologically stripping someone down, and you won’t help Mr Cold Caller in anyway. Yes, you’ve witnessed it too. And cruelly laughed your head off at that particular time. Wink.)

Experiential Marketing Case study: Nissan Nissan is not the number one selling car in the UK. In fact they’re not in the top three either, but they are gaining popularity. I’ve seen a steady rise on the roads in Nissan owners, and it’s not by accident. Here’s one of the ways Nissan used a brand marketing method to get prospective car owners to try owning a Nissan. In the 02 Arena, which has over 7 million visitors a year and one of the highest footfalls in the UK, there is a Nissan experience centre. The O2 is the world’s number one venue for live music events.  Where better to engage an audience where people are open to new happy experiences where they can create facebook posts for friends so they can ‘like’ away. What’s driving Nissan (Marketing Week) – article opens in a new window.

In a relaxed branded experiential environment, sales people can build rapport, educate, persuade, educate some more, and have decent conversations where there is no pressure and give real value.

People who are at your branded marketing events will have set aside plenty of time to spend there and are willing to disclose all their needs, wants, objections, problems and why they are there.

You see, when selling, if you can get the objections, then your answers are really information to help them justify in making a buying decision... provided you provide the right information.

At your branded marketing experiential event, the prospect can see you are very good and likeable, and as they have relaxed their guard, are more willing to disclose and tell, listen and make a vision of how your product and service can fit well in their life.

And as what you have done to the brand is likeable, they know other decision makers will concur too.

And of course, as you know the target market very well, your company, product and service offer will be extremely strong and very compelling to a prospect that makes an effort to spend time on your site.

Experiential Marketing Case study: Top Shop Do you remember when Kate Moss launched her own designs for Top Shop? She posed in the windows as a model as tourists and the fashion world got a buzz at such a unique event. It worked a treat. The ‘Supermodel in the window’ really differentiated Top Shop from other clothes shops in London. Why is this important? Top Shop don’t claim to offer high end expensive clothing, but the event was memorable and allowed the public to see Top Shop as a leading fashion shop for the general public. Top Shop became a destination for fashionable girls where the target market required affordable clothing. (The ebook has a section on Marketing Strategy and research techniques to test if new products and innovations have a chance of being accepted by your target market).

Experiential Marketig Builds Brand Loyalty

If you are good at understanding your target market and your product/service offer is genuinely the best in the market, you will have more interested people than you think.

Sales guru Nicholas Read calls this latent needs – a similar idea to market research.

If you introduce your brand in the right way you make it a pleasure for prospects to engage and interact with your product. (Making your product a pleasure is a key secret to success – see the ebook Marketing Strategy section.)

In fact, a great experience has in many studies transformed dull boring brands into life. People learn by doing and experience. (Engaging the sense better than your competitors is another secret – see the ebook Differentiation section.)

This will shift attitudes, beliefs and allow prospects to match yours with their long-term held values. Most importantly the prospect will agree with your offer, which is key in getting a prospect on your side as they move through a sales cycle and convert themselves into becoming a customer.

Referrals

Ultimately, a happy prospect will tell others about their enjoyable experience.

In this day and age of social media, this form of word-of-mouth allows you to gain free advertising and broad awareness.

Experiential brand marketing allows prospects to align with the way you want them to see your brand positioning.

And so you can expect facebook likes and Tweets galore if you’ve done your homework correctly and provided an added value experience.

Experiential Marketing Case study: Northumberlandia In the UK there are 1000s of places to go for a walk. Many of the walks are pretty similar so it’s not worth it most of the time to bother travelling to a destination many miles away. But if you want a walk that attracts thousands of people from around the country then you need to create something of great value and is absolutely worth doing to compensate for the travel time. Northumberlandia is just that walk that hits the spot. At Northumberlandia, you are walking over a lady’s body. When you stand on the head you get a great view of the body and can see all the people winding their way around to the head. The 19 hectare public park on Cheviot Hill has been shaped so that you can have a great unique experience which you cannot get anywhere else in the UK. You can try a number of walks, or surf the net for a similar walk, but if you want a walk like this then you have no choice but to go to Northumberlandia. As written on the website: ‘Northumberlandia is a unique piece of public art set in a 46 acre community park with free public access and 4 miles of footpaths on and around the landform.’ It is a project that has been researched and deliberately created to offer a very different walk. Would this entice you to walk Northumberlandia if you liked to go on walks? Would you refer others to this without any resistance or much objection? http://www.northumberlandia.com/ - The Lady of the North. The Land Trust 7 Birchwood One Dewhurst Road Birchwood Warrington WA3 7GB

Bonus: 

How not to engage your prospects. Never, ever do these promotions.

1. A Gangnam style dance to promote a funeral parlour in the town centre.
2. Shock machines to prove heart attack tablets are quick at easing pain.
3. Provide a complement of nasty viruses to promote computer anti-virus software.
4. Create a dangerous assault course to prove pets will do anything to try to get to your pet food.

Further reading:

How to increase profit by creating value

Why London Bridge is England’s worst tourist attraction

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Send Me An Email Sales Objection: The Ultimate Way To Handle It

Send Me An Email Sales Objection: The Ultimate Way To Handle It: by Jason Li 2013 ©

The send me an email sales objection...


It happens to most businesses...

Sometimes it can happen ten times a day...

The “send me an email” or “send me some information” sales objection...

Or they’re never in when you call over-and-over again and you can only send an email...

But don’t worry; there are ways around the objection...

(Like making threats or funny noises down the phone – on second thoughts don’t do this)

And there’s one great way to improve long-term conversions even with this objection.

What sales people are taught to handle the send me (some information) an email sales objection

(Or something along these lines)

1.       We have lots of literature, what exactly is of interest/ suits your needs/ are your problems and I will be happy to send the relevant information to you? (And then try to re-pitch. If the prospect refuses and asks for email – don’t send email.)

2.       If I take 5 minutes of your time I will be happy to send over the exact info you want which will save you hours of reading time. (If prospect won’t accept your offer, don’t send email and move on to next prospect.)

3.       I’ll only take a minute, and if it’s of interest we can carry on the discussion if that’s all right with you? (If prospect won’t even entertain a minute, don’t send an email and move on to next prospect.)

4.       How about I schedule an appointment as it is easier to explain than to read lots of information? (If prospect says no then don't send an email first. Move on to next prospect.)

5.       Perhaps I can call another time if you are busy as it will save you lots of time? (If no then don’t send an email.)

6.       Sure I can send an email. Should I call this afternoon/tomorrow morning 9am to discuss the email? (If prospect says no we will contact you, don’t send and move on to next prospect.)

7.       You might know more useful and better qualifying or schlickkkk sales objection handling phrases.

A story about how a really good sales pro lost a sale (Yep, it was a genuine send me an email)

Let me tell you a real story... and I still shake my head when I think about it (not quite like the characters in the film Jacob’s Ladder.)

So this professional sales person cold calls me. He’s selling leads b2b. He's well trained.

From a cold call starting at “who are you?” he’s got me talking and interested... (I can hear Viper from Top Gun saying in the background: “This kid’s gooood!”

I’m interested for the business who I was working for at the time, and he’s like... asked me 10 questions and taken up loads of my time (WTF). Three times I’ve said send me an email, and he keeps on asking (Maybe I should have tapped the phone to make sure he could hear me?)

But I give him a chance because I’m interested.

He calls me on my busy project day... doesn’t he get it, we don’t make money answering sales calls (I bet he makes little money answering every sales call). We could do this all day long and make no money at all.

So I finally said send me an email and I’ll reply at the end of the week (Da da... gold dust – you now have my email address plus my telephone number. I bet he was high fiving his colleagues in his sharp shiny suit at this point.)

But can you believe it... he doesn't send me an email.

To compound this, my boss at the time was very interested in making more money. My boss spends if you can add value to his business. There was a need for more clients, to grow, for better conversions.

We were prime beef with stickers on our heads; with the words PRIME BEEF printed in capitals.

OMG (first time I’ve ever wrote this as I hate this Hollywood high school phrase).

OMG... I feel so much better now so I wrote it twice because this deserves it.

Yes we would have spent time looking at your website and looked on Google at alternative solutions, plus asked friends who they’ve used or what they thought... but you know what, we would have paid you... and not just once if you were good.

But hey, tell me which business does not look at the whole market before weighing up which vendor will be the supplier.

“SEND ME AN EMAIL Goddamit Mr Cold Caller.”

And if his product was good, over time I would’ve been happy to refer to others about how good they are too.

So why did this happen? How can a business ensure there will be better long-term sales conversions?

(You can stop cringing now if you’ve realised your business daren’t send an email for whatever reason. This article might help sooth that problem – if you really want better sales conversions over the long-run.)

The prospects point of view and why they say send me information on an email sales objection

As sales people, it has been taught to understand the prospects needs and objections. One advantage in sales is that after having conversations with so many prospects in your target market, you do get a feel for their needs and common objections.

Taking this onboard, here are some reasons why people say send me an email, and I’ve tried to do this as if a cold caller called me for during different days and times in the week.

1.       I’ve some interest and want to see what it is so I can learn about it myself at my own pace. You see it’s new to me.

2.       I never buy on the first cold call – have you ever had someone ring you on a Wednesday night after work and then on the first call given your card details over the phone to a cold caller? Really?

3.       I’m interested and just going into a meeting, out on an appointment, need to carry on with my project and look at the subject you’re talking about after this. What’s the rush... are you leaving town next week?

4.       I need to look at what you offer to see if it genuinely helps me, the business, clients, and absolutely adds value, not because you said it’s good and you’re friendly and likeable like all sales people we speak to.

5.       There’s more 100s of more reasons and you may think of some reasons why you can’t take a call when you’re in the bath or making a brew.

Yes, I’ll send an email with information for you

If you genuinely want higher conversion rates over the long-run, then consider this:

1.       You know this already as you work in sales or business development: Only contact people who are in the right target market and are the right type to buy your product, and will find it’s of value in what you offer. Don’t waste time, money, energy, and your good morale on bad target prospects.

2.       If they are not ready now and want an email, don’t be too pushy. Just think of when someone cold calls you after work like the above.

3.       Send an email to people who want an email and keep a relationship with them. You can always ask their thoughts on the email at another time. People have 100s of objections and 100s of unusual reasons to want to buy.

4.       If you’re afraid that your email or link to your website/product/service won’t get a sale, then don’t blame the prospect or your sales technique. You’ve got attention and interest. IT MUST BE THE PRODUCT OR SERVICE THAT'S NOT A GOOD ENOUGH OFFER. Think of it this way, if your target market is interested in a smart phone and your offer is pretty much an average performing smart phone, you’re going to have a low conversion rate.

Remember, you will only buy a new car, new tablet, go to a fancy restaurant, sophisticated pen, plain steel toe capped boots, new software if you find it genuinely adds great value to your life.

Bravado talk such as don’t blame the product/service because it’s you the sales person does not help improve the business or future conversion rates.

Many great businesses innovate year-on-year so that their product/service/packages are absolutely the best and differentiated from competitors. (Yes you read it here. Take the sales hat off and work on creating value. It's like cause and effect theory and the equation is simple. Create more value than competitors and use better marketing differentiation tactics = more sales conversions. A bit of KISS philosophy.)

5.       Why do McDonald’s add new products to their menu and do a refurbishment every few years? So that their seating and furnishings look nicer, more modern and more comfortable; even though they are already the market leaders. It’s because adding more value and marketing differentiation equals more willing customers and higher conversion rates.

I’ve met people who hate McDonald’s then reveal: “Although I do go if I can’t see any other food place to my liking, even though I hate everything they stand for!” I find this really funny that McDonald’s has the potential to convert McDonald’s haters because the sandwich shops or cafes in the area don’t offer enough value, whether it’s the food served, or no wi-fi connection, prefer McDonald’s comfortable seating or whatever the prospective buyer is looking for.

If you add value and differentiate from competitors in a number of ways, once you have made your prospects aware of your business, if they are the right target market then what are your chances of conversion when they are ready to buy?

What are your chances if your product or service is very similar to other competitors which includes a very nice and friendly sales/client relationship manager.

(It happens. I went to a networking meeting and met four different accountants, all very nice, well presented, knowledgeable, and all promised they are in fact the best service in the area. As Jack Nicholson in the movie A Few Good Men says: “You want the truth... You CAN’T handle the truth)

So if your business targets the right prospects, knows what makes them happy, and continuously adds genuine value and develops better marketing differentiation than competitors – why not send the email and keep in contact? You’re already a much better choice for your prospect than your competitors, aren’t you?

Not everyone buys today, tomorrow or next week. But if you truly know your market and which are the right prospects, then you are likely to be keeping in touch with people who will buy at some point.

At least with your efforts you will have better conversion rates over the long-run.

Or you can just not send the email and let the prospect not see what you offer, how you can help them and let them forget about you within the next 48 hours.

Send an email now to find out what’s in their interest

Can your business offer continuously more added value and improve like McDonald’s or do you try to flog a run-down cafe and try to entice people to a place where no-one is willing to sit at the table?

Send an email for feedback

From a marketing prospective, if you get no response, don’t worry. Not everyone is buying today.

But you can call back to get their thoughts. Feedback will let you know how you stack up in helping your target market, and where your offer needs to improve.

If you don’t want feedback and don’t want to improve to make conversions easier for yourself, don’t send the email so you’ll never know the truth – SIMPLES.

Further reading

Creating value: if you're not creating value, you're not going to create a sale.

How buyers use ‘Prisoner’s dilemma' game theory to negotiate

Ebook: The Goose Bump Effect. A Practical Beginner’s Training Guide to Marketing Differentiation Tactics and Value Creation.

Read more ...