1. Reach 'em where they live! Grab 'em where
hair is short. Create a 2-prong penetration into your customer's consciousness. Experience a double-edged blockbuster benefit. First, guarantee specific outcomes. Don't market your product or service. Instead, market what your customers identify as their desired outcomes of your product or service. (In this article, I'll simply say "service".) 2. Second, beat your promise, right from gitgo. You gotta deliver when you market outcomes. So, give more than your previous best. Raise bar again. And again. Raise bar on you.
I've been doing this since Day One back in 1978. Promise a real, measurable return on your client's investment in your offer. (Call it that. It's not a fee. It's an investment. It's an investment in outcomes of your work.)
3. Why market outcomes instead of services? Because services are commodities. Outcomes are not. Outcomes are far more valuable. Research value of desired outcome to client. Then, when you're with person who can say yes, rub salt in wounds of way things are. Make it hurt.
4. Now, romance outcomes you can deliver. Be an evangelist. Compare what they have now with what you are prepared to deliver. Ask which they prefer. The answer is obvious. (See "Selling Dream," by Guy Kawasaki.)
5. How about implementation? Create a detailed paint-by-number System that, when wisely engaged, produces desired outcomes. Title it The _______________ System. Or call it The ______________ Operating Guide. Make it easier and more natural to succeed in creating desired outcomes. Build accountability for taking prescribed actions into this implementation instrument.
*** Some situations may be beyond your skill level, beyond your experience level. Beyond possible. Be judicious. Before you commit, consider whether you can guarantee desired outcomes. Don't go in over your head.
Measurable outcomes:
1. Guarantee a real return. A measurable return. A bankable return.
Here's an example. In early 1980's I delivered a lot of sales trainings. I guaranteed decision-makers a 12% increase in sales within 30 days of my program. If they didn't get this measurable result I'd come back for expenses only and do some more training free. This promise cost me nothing.
That's because I not only showed my students how to paint mouth-watering, alluring, seductive (and true) pictures. Pictures of benefits of benefits their customers would enjoy after taking recommended actions. Then I went well beyond that. I showed my students their personal benefits when they sold way I modeled.
When you speak with decision-makers, always cause your listeners to imagine, to picture, to envision, to visualize themselves experiencing their life after they do what you want them to do.
Like this: See yourself, you, reader (and I do mean you,) after you allow yourself to accept-and to don-the mantle of your true power. See yourself lighting up faces of your customers when you illuminate them with your how-to's and your why-to's. See them inspired. See them breathing hard. See them eager to get out there and use ideas you gave them.
That vision you hold inside you enlivens inner you. It reflects on outer you. You carry yourself differently. You stand taller. You move more dynamically. The look in your eyes is more steadfast. Your voice has a new and bolder ring. You reach people at a deeper level of their consciousness. You vivify your delineations.
Non-measurable outcomes:
Some outcomes are hard to quantify. Let success be as seen through buyer's eyes. If decision-maker does not see desired outcomes within a reasonable time, be willing to undo transaction.
