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There are a million examples of this concept at work all around us everyday. My local Starbucks tempts me with a tray of cut-up cookies and muffins on counter. Several photo studios sent me freebie coupons to capture image of my beautiful new baby last year. A month ago, I saw a salon offering free haircuts at an outdoor fair. A virtual assistant I met offered prospects two free hours of work to help them feel true relief that comes with delegating administrative tasks.
This has been going on forever. I remember story I was told when I was first hired by corporate offices of Circuit City. Sam Wurtzel started company in 1949 when he saw first television tower being constructed in Richmond, VA. Television was just being introduced in many cities. He would go door-to-door to offer families free use of a television for a week. During that visit, he would have a nice chat with family making sure to find out what show was their favorite. If they accepted offer to keep television for a week, he would wheel it into their living room right there on spot. Now, these were times when most families had never seen a television, so this was big news. The family would start telling all of their friends and neighbors about this wonderful new television they got to use for a week for free with no strings attached. They would invite family and friends over to watch their favorite show all together. It was an event.
But guess who showed up right before show came on? That’s right – Sam. From there, it went something like this … “Well, I’m here to pick up your television. I hope you enjoyed it this week. Oh, your favorite show is just coming on? I’m really sorry, but I have to take television back now.” You get it. He approached them exactly when their interest was at its peak. They knew how it felt to watch television, and they liked it!
What can you take from Sam’s story to apply to your business? What could you do to enable prospects to FEEL benefit of your business? Provide a limited-time trial? Offer a product sample? Give them a free hour of service? Be creative. Brainstorm with other business colleagues to come up with ideas for each of your businesses.
Just remember - you can TELL prospects all you want about yourself and your business. It’s when they FEEL benefit that they’ll start calling you.
Kimberly Stevens is a Business Coach who developed the FastTrack MBO (Mastering Business Ownership) Program as a series of ebooks and teleseminars to help business owners increase sales, maximize profits & improve their overall rate of success. Learn how you can experience the MBO Program for free by sending a blank email to: mailto:kim4-20129@autocontactor.com or by visiting http://www.askthebizcoach.com/fasttrackmbo.htm