Have I got an amazing special for you!

You just know those words are going to be followed by a pitch, don’t you?

First, I’ll get the rant off my chest: telling me that you have $10,000 worth of ‘products’ for only $297 is selling, period. It’s not special, it’s not a gift. In fact, if these are electronic products with zero cost to reproduce, there’s no such thing as a ‘special’ price because even if I only give you a nickel, your profit margin on that sale was 100%.

Folks looking for yet another tricky advertising gimmick (you can tell them a mile off because all their prices end in ’7′) are delighted to imply that they’re giving you a gift, some amazing mega deluxe special extra deal, in order to make a sale.

Let’s stop corrupting what the words ‘gift’ and ‘special’ mean. Don’t you dare imply you’re doing someone a favor, and then ask them for money. Making a smaller profit isn’t a favor, it’s business.

Remember when you used to be able to ask someone out for coffee in order to get to know their business better? Smart folks realised that by unselfishly learning about others in order to send them qualified prospects, our networks grew and in the long run, it came back around to us.

Selfish folks figured this out, and started asking networking victims out to coffee to ‘learn about your business.’ And then, as soon as they’d trudged through the formalities, the hard sell started. Pitch pitch pitch.

Try asking someone out for coffee so you can learn about their business. Watch the panic in their eyes, the scramble for an excuse. Selfish sellers have done their best to suck the juice out of an unselfish but brilliant method of organically, humanly, growing your business.

Promise me that you, yes you, reading right there, will never resort to deception, no matter how subtle, in your marketing or your business. Promise me that if you offer a gift, it is truly a gift, with no thought of return. Promise me that your ‘special’ price is actually less than what you’ve actually sold for in the past, and explain why you’re reducing the price (otherwise, it just looks like you couldn’t sell it for a hundred so you’ll try fifty.) Promise me that you’ll stop ending prices in the number 7 because even if it works, it’s psychological trickery and it’s unethical and immoral.

Find someone who’s corrupting the gift culture which has been fundamental to civilization for thousands of years, and send them a link to this post. Let’s make sure everyone everywhere knows that we’re not gonna take it anymore. At the very least, the lazy clowns will have to find something else to corrupt.

Rise above the garbage and noise. You’re better than that. You know that, of course, but you’re afraid. I get it.

Sometimes being a hero is hard.

While studying real estate I stumbled across the difference between business ethics, and ethics in the real world. They’re not necessarily the same.

Many industries, like real estate, have created a code of ethics for their members; a firm set of rules by which they must abide. And, as long as the follow those rules, they are officially ethical.

Thing is, two 6-year-olds on the playground know the difference between right and wrong, between fair and cheating. If your industry has a code of ethics, its purpose is not to provide loopholes, to let you get away with sleazy behaviour because it’s not officially sanctioned by the code of ethics.

Don’t ever misbehave just because there’s not a rule saying it’s wrong. Ask your 6-year-old. Or mine. They’ll tell you what’s fair.

Recently a personal interaction reminded me of an anecdote I read some years ago about tea. (I love tea, but this may be my first business lesson about it.)

When tea first arrived in England it was expensive. Not, a little bit pricey expensive, but prohibitive, only for the rich expensive. But it caught on quickly, because, well, it’s great.

One woman in the south took a full pound of her expensive cache and sent it to her sister in the north, telling her how marvelous it was. Her sister boiled it, dumped the black liquid off and served it like a vegetable. She wrote back about how terrible it was.

She’d prepared it like a vegetable, which she understood, instead of seeing it for what it was: something entirely new.

Some business folks hear about the ‘new marketing’ and assume it’s just more of the old marketing, except online. They still want instant results, measured in dollars return on dollars invested. They want ways to convince people to buy, no matter what they’re selling. They spend time and money bolting a website and blog and email autoresponders onto their old-school advertising.

They’re dumping the tea and eating the leaves, and then they wonder why it doesn’t work.

If you help your clients with their marketing efforts, you may, like the first woman in the story, assume that they’ll know how to brew a pot of social media marketing. Erm, tea. Whatever.

But, like the second woman, they don’t. They can’t. Because it’s so foreign to them, they have nothing to connect it to. Give information away, with no firm plan for monetising it? That don’t make no sense!

Had the first woman included some simple instructions along with her glowing praise, the story may have had a happier ending. Don’t leave anything to chance. Clients who are new to the new marketing will need a lot of hand-holding, a lot of encouragement and explanation and nudging.

Don’t assume they get it, unless you actually see them drinking the tea.

Joel and I attended one of our monthly networking meetings the other night and then continued with a brainstorming session with our good friend Kari Hagensmith. It had been a while since we’d been able to meet with Kari in person. So we had quite a bit to catch up on. Our networking meeting started at 6 pm and by the time we said goodbye to Kari it was after midnight!

We sure had a great brainstorming session. Kari uses the term ‘mind splats‘. To quote her, “There is nothing like brainstorming with people you trust to listen to your mind splats and help you form them into something coherent.” Kari takes a piece of paper and a pen and just starts jotting down all these words that come to mind and then we start piecing them together to form ideas for business names, tag lines and marketing messages. Each and every time we’ve done this with Kari we’ve all come out with great new ideas.

Pick a trusted friend or colleague and get together for your ‘mind splat‘ or brainstorming session.

Comments?

I’ve been talking with virtual assistants this week about defining their ideal client. When I ask my coaching clients to describe their ideal client as specifically as possible, the descriptions are still very vague. They are something like this:

“My ideal client is a self employed entrepreneur in a service related industry.”

“My ideal client is a business entrepreneur in the professional services.”

“My ideal clients are solo entrepreneurs.”

These are very vague and speak to a general audience. Even once a coaching client understands the need to target a very specific audience, they tend to speak to the group rather than an individual.

When my partner Joel coaches virtual assistants to define their ideal client, he helps them get very specific. Rather than targeting a general audience, we focus on targeting an individual. Here are 3 simple ways to focus your marketing messages to an individual:

1. Write a detailed paragraph of your ideal client: their gender, age, occupation, likes, dislikes, family situation and other details.

2. Name your ideal client. Make this individual real to you.

3. Go find a picture of that ideal client in a magazine. Cut it out and post it where you can see it all the time. When you get ready to send out marketing messages, look at that picture and see if the message will appeal to that ideal client.

Now that you’ve put a name and face to your ideal client, it will be much easier to target your audience and direct messages to the individuals that need your services.

Are you talking to a general audience or a specific individual? Would you like some assistance in defining your ideal client. Contact us for your free 30-minute consultation.