The Marketing Secrets Series: Proven Strategies to Boost Sales and Marketing Results in Any Economy
By Collin Dayley
Welcome to the first installment in a series to explore the secrets to boosting your marketing and sales effectiveness.
Secret #1: Truly understand and define your "Perfect Prospect."
I'm not talking about a basic demographic understanding like age, gender, vertical industry or title/role. I'm talking about digging deep into the story they tell themselves to build a customer avatar that can give you a competitive advantage.
To build the avatar of your Perfect Prospect, you need to understand the conversation they're having with themselves. What are their hopes, fears, and desires? What are the internal obstacles that are preventing them from taking action?
The most important thing to understand about your Perfect Prospect is what they fear and worry about. Countless split tests have shown that more people respond to offers that promise to reduce pain and eliminate fear, worry, risk. But the truly motivating pain/fear isn’t always the most obvious. You’ve got to dig deep to truly understand and empathize with what keeps them up at night.
Are they worried about being judged by their peers or spouse? Are they afraid of failure or getting fired for making a bad decision? These fears play a big role in their decision-making process and understanding them can help you craft a message that speaks directly to their concerns.
Here are seven (7) questions you can ask to help you start gaining this deep understanding.
How do you think your peers or loved ones would judge you if you made the wrong decision?
What are the potential consequences of making the wrong decision for you and your business/family?
How do you think you'll feel if you do/don't take action to address this issue?
How have you tried to address this issue in the past? What worked and what didn't?
How do you measure success when it comes to addressing this issue? What does a successful outcome look like for you?
What do you hope to achieve by addressing this issue? What are your long-term goals and aspirations?
What are you trying to avoid by making/not making this decision?
Ultimately, you need to know more about your perfect prospect than anyone else - even themselves. Once you have this deep understanding you can draw a straight line from their needs to your product or service. And that's where the magic happens - by differentiating your solution in a way that speaks directly to their concerns, you can create a competitive advantage that's hard to beat.
So, if you're shooting in the dark when it comes to your marketing and sales efforts, it's time to start digging deeper. By understanding your Perfect Prospect on a deep level, you can create a value proposition that truly resonates with them - and that's the key to success in virtually any market or economy.
Conduit Partners has developed tools to help you get the deep customer insights you need. Interested in learning more? Click here to schedule a quick introductory call.
About the Author: Collin Dayley is a Founding Partner at Conduit Partners and a lifelong marketing and sales practitioner. He honed his craft through 30-years working in agencies and for clients including, McCann Erickson, J. Walter Thompson, Wunderman, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Apple, Centerpoint Energy, and many more.