WHAT ALL BUSINESS OWNERS GET WRONG ABOUT SELLING THEIR PRODUCT

You know, I was in the middle of the 4th floor in Harrods last weekend when something deeply dawned on me.

I had been through 5 different underground stations to get there, avoided multiple potential stabbings, and probably saw 100s of advertisements along the way. 

Pretty much an average day in London.

But here’s the almost spooky part: I couldn't remember a SINGLE ad that I went past. 

Can you imagine that? All these companies spend tons and tons of cash on fancy agency fees and pasting their logo everywhere, trying to get your attention… only to be ignored!? 

It almost defies physics. 

So I started thinking about how this is even possible. 

What even makes an ad memorable? 

What advertising method actually SELLS a product? 

And I can bet my left leg that each and every one of those ads was missing this one underused selling technique, that is honestly like putting your profits on steroids. 

Let me share it with you. 

Get more eyes on the prize. 

You know what every top salesman's favourite radio station is? 

W-I-I-F-M

WHATS. IN. IT FOR. ME.

It’s important for you to understand this because it’s the # 1 motivator behind everybody's decisions. 

It doesn’t matter if you’re the Dalai Lama or Taylor Swift: whoever you talk to or sell to will ALWAYS have this bias. 

Every. Single. One. 

“Ok great, but what’s that got to do with marketing your business?” 

Well, quite a lot actually. 

You see, if you’re not giving your audience something interesting within the first sentence of your ad, they’ll bounce. 

Just like that.

If you do not do your very best to stand out in a good way, you'll fall into the noise of every other company trying to compete for your ideal customer's attention. 

And the single greatest sin in marketing is… 

…doing the same s*!t as everyone else. 

So how do you avoid doing this?

Give the people what they want. 

Right now, I’m assuming you could name 5 reasons why a customer would consider your services. 

And I’m not talking about industry insider knowledge that only your competitors would know about… 

…I’m talking about stone-cold benefits.

Reliving pain. Giving happiness. That kind of thing. 

You need to show yourself capable of those things in your advertising, and you need to make it as clear as possible. 

If I’m running an ad for chiropractors to generate more clients, the first line on that ad IS NOT going to be “relieve pain for a brighter, and safer future”, cause what does that do for my prospect? 

If I say something like “Does your back hurt?”, that's going to get attention WAYYY quicker because you're implying a solution by asking it; you're getting on their level.

Now you don’t need to be a chiropractor to start talking about people’s problems. 

In fact, you could be a doctor, a lawyer, a politician, capybara farmer; it doesn't matter. 

There are always problems that your ideal customer wants to fix; You just have to figure out what those are. Think about them. Write’em down if you need to, because that is how you sell to your people.  

Take it easy,

Daniel Gilbert.