How to Maximize Local PR

August 18, 2011 Leave a comment

Whereas I’m a big believer in going national if you have a strong story, there is a lot to be said for regional and local PR coverage.  If you live in a major media city such as Los Angeles or New York, local media placement can be challenging because in a sense many of the outlets in those cities offer a more national slant; plus, simply because of the sheer numbers in those cities, the competition is fierce.  But, even in major cities, if you shift your focus from the primary outlets and concentrate on the smaller more community based newspapers and magazines you can launch a local-oriented campaign.

Keep in mind what interests local media are local stories.  You need to understand their audience and their needs.  Their focus is community based.  For example if you are based in or you were born in Boise, Idaho and you’re pitching the local newspapers or TV stations, your tie to that city is your lead.  If you were pitching the Today Show or Time magazine, where you’re from or where you were born is generally incidental, unless it directly impacts the story.

Reference local events and/or partner when possible.  When putting on your own event, use local resources.  Pick a person or a brand that is well recognized in the community.  If there is a local cause you can get involved with, do so.  Connect with causes and charities that directly impact the area.

If you have a personal story that has a local slant to it, use it.  Maybe a story as to how you built your business, or a story about how your product, service or company helped transform the life of someone else who lives in the community.  The media loves transformational stories, so offer them one with a strong local hook.

Study the local media outlets.  Research the types of stories they do, the style they use as well as their tone and approach.  You want to pitch towards their needs.  The more you study and learn about your local media outlets, the better prepared you’ll be to pitch them stories they can use.

Remember to tie in holiday oriented stories and pitches.  Do something fun or different or interesting.  Give it some thought.  Don’t just stick to the main holidays; remember St. Patrick’s Day or even April Fools Day.  But always give your pitch a local slant.  Remember you’re drilling down, pitching narrow, not wide.

And don’t forget to amplify and magnify your local media coverage using social media. Whenever you get a newspaper or magazine story, or a segment on local TV, make sure and place links to those media hits on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media sites.  And guess what, by posting your story on the internet; you’ve now turned that local story into a national and even international story.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Filed under business, Business Strategy, Media, Media Exposure, Media Relations, PR, social media, traditional media Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Marketing You

June 16, 2011 1 Comment

Sometimes it just seems as though we should market whenever and wherever possible, particularly during tough economic times.  And now with the array of marketing venues available things can get more confusing than ever.  The promotional choices seem endless including traditional advertising, direct marketing, public relations, online marketing, SEO, social media… the list just keeps growing.

But don’t simply make knee-jerk choices, when picking a marketing program, or building a personalized marketing machine.  When it comes to marketing, you can’t separate yourself from your business.  You want to reach your target market and increase sales, but you also want to present yourself and your company in a specific way.  With an organic marketing campaign, you’re not only marketing your business, you’re marketing yourself. You want your brand to illustrate who you are and what your company stands for.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

One the of reasons I’m such a strong advocate of traditional PR is that it is the best marketing tool available for branding your business.  Nothing offers you the validation and credibility of being featured in the news.  You are positioned as an expert in your field.  Your product or service is presented, not as an ad or a commercial, but as a news story.  But even within the PR arena, it’s important that you figure out:

How you want to be presented
Whether you’re comfortable being the spokesperson
What media you want to approach
What type of media angles you want to use, etc.

Even once you pick a marketing approach, such as media relations, you need to tailor it to meet your specific needs.

ADVERTISING & DIRECT MARKETING

So, let’s say that PR is part of your promotional mix, an integral element in your marketing machine, what other forms of marketing are you going to utilize?  There’s advertising, but that can get expensive, and if you’re going to give it a shot, you need to commit to giving it some time (actually you need to commit some time to any form of marketing to see if it actually works).  If advertising is in your marketing mix:

Where are you going to advertise?
What image are you going to put out there?

Direct marketing is another avenue, but again, does that type of marketing truly suit your type of business?  If you have a restaurant or a spa it very well could.  It might not suit another business as well.

INTERNET MARKETING

Finally, we come to the wild world of the internet.  Here you have article marketing, online advertising, blogging, social media, ezines, etc.  The trouble here is often it might look like you’re moving forward, where in fact, very little is happening.  You could have a couple of thousand followers on Twitter, but is that converting into actual business?  Also, with such approaches as article marketing or blogging, are you comfortable writing?  Is that one of your strengths?  On the net content is king.  If you are posting information, you want to make sure that it’s accurate and that it says what you want to say, how you want to say it.  There are those who will write and post for you and that can often work, but make sure that you are keeping your voice and your point of view, otherwise you’re losing control of your message, which means you’re losing control of your brand.

Some people thrive online and have fun posting blogs, commenting on other’s blogs and posting on the various social media sites.  Others find it intrusive and intimidating.  If you are one of the latter, that doesn’t mean you should avoid blogging or social media, but that you should either have someone do it for you who you can carefully supervise, or that you should come up with a system that takes no more than an hour a day.  So although social media is the buzz-of-the-day maybe you’re someone who hates the net, but loves the phone.  Cold calling could still be your most valuable marketing tool.  This entire marketing puzzle is best solved by focusing on your strengths.  Yes, there will be marketing arenas you’ll be leaving out, but that’s okay.   You’re life will be simpler, your approach will be streamlined and, you’ll find, your personalized marketing machine will work much more effectively.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Filed under Branding, Business Strategy, Marketing, Public Relations Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why Your Brand is Your Fortune

May 31, 2011 Leave a comment

You may think Nike sells shoes and Apple sells Macs and iPhones, but you’re wrong.  They sell their brand.  Developing a powerful brand can spell the difference between struggling to make ends meet and achieving real success.  Why is developing a successful brand so important?   Take a Nike shoe or an iPhone and replace the known brand name with a generic label: you’ve just demonetized both products.  Both are as functional as they were before, but neither is as valuable.
The brand is what creates the value.  So, what is a brand? According to Wikipedia, a brand is: “the personality that identifies a product, service or company (name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or combination of them) and how it relates to key constituencies: customers, staff, partners, investors etc. Some people distinguish the psychological aspect, brand associations like thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs, attitudes, and so on that become linked to the brand, of a brand from the experiential aspect.”

In other words a brand is not a product; it is the emotions, thoughts, and perceptions that a product elicits.  It is those reactions that create a brand’s value.  If the majority of people agree that something is valuable, then it’s valuable.  The value isn’t necessarily intrinsic to the product itself.  The value comes from the worth we collectively assign to it.

For example, if you show someone a painting and say it was painted by John Smith, it will be assigned a particular value, if you then say you were wrong and it was actually painted by Rembrandt, the value of the painting will skyrocket.  The Rembrandt name, label, brand (what have you) is what drives the value.  Similarly people will pay top dollar for an original fashion designer’s purse.  They’ll also pay for a complete counterfeit product, if it carries the right label.  The label carries the value. And the assigning of value doesn’t stop with the product itself; people also react more favorably to others who are wearing clothes that sport a desirable brand or label.  Rob Nelissen and Marijn Meijers of Tilburg University in the Netherlands held an experiment showing that people who wear designer clothes reap social benefits.  But this only works when it’s obvious who the clothes were made by.  In essence the label is much more important than the clothes themselves.

A brand is an experience, and a label or logo is what symbolizes that experience.  The logo or label  in essence becomes the brand.  It is the symbol that tells the story.  A brand creates an experience of certain qualities or characteristics that make it special or unique.  When someone thinks of your product, service or business what is the experience you want them to associate with it?  How can you best create that experience?  It’s not easy.  It takes time and work, but creating an effective brand can truly be the difference between business failure and success.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Filed under Branding, business, Business Strategy, Marketing, Your Target Market Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Illuminative Marketing: Creating Business By Offering Benefits And Solutions

April 12, 2011 1 Comment

How do you respond to cold calls, ads, direct marketing pieces, email spam?  Exactly.  Now why would you expect your prospects to react differently?  Generally people either run from or lash out at aggressive hard sell marketing,

Although they can work, traditional promotion efforts have a poor return on investment.  Most prospects turn and run when they feel they’re being sold.  Overt promotion is considered intrusive, overly aggressive, and unwelcome.  Approaches such as cold calling generally induce reactions such as irritation fear, impatience, annoyance and anger.  Not the reactions you want to illicit in a prospect.  These approaches trigger people’s fight or flight responses.  Your prospects either want to argue with you, or they want to slam the phone down in your ear.  Not a good way to start to a business relationship.  There is a reason why cold calling and direct marketing have such low rates of closing.  These approaches set you up as the adversary, the enemy.

To market effectively, attraction should be your focus.  You shine a light on your prospective client’s problems and offer solutions; which in turn draws prospects and clients to you.  Illumination equals attraction.  The trick is to shift from a traditional marketing approach to one that focuses on your value; the standard dynamics of marketing are upturned, as your focus moves from promotion to attraction.  Doing business with you becomes appealing, desirable.  You and your business are sought after.

This is where a combined approach that includes PR, media relations, blogging and social media, can be so effective.  For this to work make a firm connection with your message and your audience.  Your approach needs to be in alignment with your core values and your true skill set.  Focus on illumination and attraction rather than on selling; you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Filed under business, Business Strategy, Marketing, social media Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PR Strategy: Rethink, Re-energize & Re-ignite Your Business

December 6, 2010 Leave a comment

It’s that time, the year is drawing to a close.  The new year is looming and with it comes new opportunities.  For most businesses, December is a slow time, for others it is the busiest time of the year.  Regardless of where your business falls in that range, as the year comes to a close, put some time aside to rethink, reenergize and reignite your business’s PR and marketing strategy.

Use this time to take your business matters into your own hands.  If your business isn’t coming to you the way you would like it to – go to your business.  Reach out.

Some Quick Tips:

1. Speak to them directly.  Let your potential consumers, clients and customers know not only that you’re there, but what you offer.

2. Separate yourself from your competition.  Develop programs and services that are new and captivating.

3. Present your products in a new way.

4. Speak to your clients or customers needs.  Address their problems and let them know how you offer solutions.  Become a problem solver, a trusted expert in your field.  Be the person or the company that your target market turns to.

Brainstorm Your Stories: You’re not going to reach your market by waiting for them to come to you.  You need to reach out and speak directly to them.  Set aside some time this month to schedule a brainstorming session.  If you have a public relations company on board, or a marketing team, have them in the meeting.  Otherwise bring in some of your employees or associates. Block a couple of hours where you can be undisturbed.  Make this a fun experience.  Now throw out every marketing and PR idea you can think of.  I’ll be writing an article devoted strictly to brainstorming, but you get the basic idea.  Don’t hold back; be creative.  Remember you don’t have to use these ideas, but if you don’t allow yourselves to really let the creative ideas flow; you could end up missing out on some of your best marketing and media relations stories.

Define and Refine Your Target Market(s): Now define your target market, or target markets.  You hopefully know your primary market, but has it changed?  Is there another way you could approach it?  Are there secondary target markets that you’re missing?  If your’s is primarily a male oriented market, is there a way that you can broaden your scope to attract female clients?  Can you repackage your marketing to attract a different age group?  You get the idea.  This is an extension of the brainstorming concept, but here you’re not focusing on the type of marketing promotion or public relations, your focus is on who your clients and/or customers are.  Focus not only on who they are, their age, sex, interests, etc., but also on where you can reach them.  What do they read?  What do they watch? What do they listen to?  What sites to they visit?

Create Your New Marketing Mix: This leads you to your final step, creating your marketing mix.  Once you’ve brainstormed your marketing and PR ideas, and have defined (and hopefully redefined your target market) now focus on how you’re going to reach your market with your new marketing ideas.  What marketing programs and campaigns will best meet your needs and reach your customer base.  Again, continue in brainstorming mode.  List all of the ways that you can reach your target market such as advertising, direct mail marketing, public relations, email marketing, social media and blogging, etc.  Although every company will have a different marketing mix, every company should have a program that includes public relations and social media.  Combined those two approaches reach your target market and offer you validation and credibility.  But your exact marketing and media mix will be specific to your company’s needs, so take some time to study your market and promotional avenues.

Now that you’ve brainstormed your ideas, your target market and defined your new marketing mix, you are ready to make this your best, and most financially rewarding, New Year on record.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under Business Strategy, Marketing, PR Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Package Magic: How to Redefine and Grow your Business

December 2, 2010 Leave a comment

Joe was selling a product that was moving pretty well for $297.

Then he realized people had a lot of questions about the product and wanted more information.

So he packaged it, with a 6-week call-in Q&A series, a forum, and for those really committed souls, some personal time with him.

He then sold the two packages, made three times the money, and created a huge community.

How?

The Magic of Packages!

9 Reasons to Offer Packages:

  1. You can showcase your expertise in different areas as you add little “bonuses.”  This lets your clients see you in a new light, with a wider range of expertise.
  2. If you don’t have time, you can add bonuses from a colleague – just as valuable.
  3. There is continuity of your brand and expertise within a package – the client goes from one product or service to the next, and experiences you in different ways.
  4. You can test a new product or service by including a sampler in your package – not the whole deal.  If you get a great response, you know what to market next.
  5. You can price your offers differently – and higher, because there is more perceived value.
  6. You can create a much more urgent call to action – i.e., if you offer the first 20 buyers special time with you, on top of everything else they’re getting, the perceived value is huge and creates urgency.  (Without urgency people will not act.)
  7. You can add a juicy bonus that often will be perceived as more valuable than your main  product.  People often buy a package to get the bonus.
  8. You can effortlessly add an upsell – “Would you like fries with that?”especially if you’ve created your upsell just a little bit higher in price but much higher in perceived in value.

    “For $19.95 more, you get all this plus an interview with Mr. X, where he shares the 5 top secrets to doubling your business in 18 months, plus a 10-page check list of everything you need to know about Y, plus 5 short videos showing you exactly how to Z.”

    Tip:  Front-load your slightly-higher-priced product, to make it the “no-brainer” choice.

  9. People who buy packages self-select themselves, making them easier to market to.  You know your low-end, middle, and high-end buyers.  You know what to offer them next.
  10. Bonus reason: You can offer a package before you create it, to test the waters and see if it will be a hot seller or a wet fuse.   Less time, less work.

Remember:

Packages take away the fear of selling, because it’s so much easier to offer a package.

And it’s easier to offer something people actually want.

Right now – packages are an easy way to generate more business over the holidays.

So…package your service or product and let me know the results.

Copyright © Ann Convery 2010

Filed under business, Business Strategy, Marketing, sales, Sell YOur Product Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Creating A Blog Buzz via PR

October 7, 2010 Leave a comment

Content is what makes the world go round on the internet and when it comes to marketing, content truly is king; but is it enough?  For example, if you create a blog that is poorly designed or has poor functionality, you can end up posting some great content that never gets read.  You want to offer your readers valuable information, but you want them to enjoy their experience, want them to come back, and refer others to your site.

Let’s say you have a great idea; you’ve developed some dynamite content and have created a blog that works? Now what?  It used to be that the name of the game was getting articles indexed on Google and other search engines.  Google was king.  It still is high royalty, but if you ignore the social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg and YouTube, you’re doing you and your business a real disservice.  A concentrated social media campaign has to be at the top of your online marketing.  You don’t need to spend all day working every site out there.  Utilize each social media site and share links in the categories that best target your audience and put your focus there.

Linking to, commenting on and recommending other blogs is a great way to increase visitors and readers and to develop important relationships with other bloggers.  Consider adding a blog roll and spotlighting some of your favorite information. Allowing readers to comment is another way to generate interest.  The more you increase the level of interaction, the better.

Now let’s jump offline for a bit.  How about launching a public relations campaign around your blog?  Try creating an interesting angle or story idea that ties in with your blog.  What about your blog is different or unique?  What topics does it address? Does it help people solve problems?  Is it funny?  Controversial? Irreverent?  Does it appeal to a specific niche or target audience?  Or how about your story?  What has your journey been creating the blog?  How has it impacted your life?  Come up with some different angles, write a fun or incisive press release and pitch your blog as a story to the traditional media.   If you can launch an effective media campaign and generate some press coverage – that will give your blog more buzz than you can imagine.  Turn your blog into a media story.  Develop stories and angles that interest the press, and watch the media buzz build around your blog.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under Blog, Blogging, Branding, Business Strategy, Marketing, Media Coverage, PR Campaign, Public Relations, target audience Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Six (More) Insider Tips to Pitching the Media

October 6, 2010 1 Comment

In a previous article I listed five secrets to pitching the media.  Those work.  Give them a try.  But there are a variety of different ways to interest producers and editors.  Remember your job is to meet the media’s needs; to give them stories that talk directly to their readers, listeners or viewers.

When pitching, put yourself in the place of the editor or producer you’re pitching.  Before you pitch a story to Vogue, the Wall Street Journal, the Today Show or the local media, figure out what stories they’re looking for as opposed to simply concentrating on the stories you want to pitch.  Remember they are looking for new and unique angles that will interest their audience.

Develop your primary story:  Your basic story may well stay somewhat the same, but you need to modify the pitch to meet the needs of each magazine, newspaper, radio show and TV outlet.  Develop a number of secondary pitch ideas

If you work it right, you can position it so that they need you and your story ideas as much as you need you need them.  When crafting your media pitch don’t limit yourself to one angle or approach.  Develop a mix of story ideas.  Some of your pitches might be serious; others might be fun or lighthearted.  The following are six more PR secrets to placing stories in the media.

1) Position yourself as an expert.  For example, if you’re an attorney and a legal case is in the news, you can position yourself as an expert to discuss the case or the issues. You don’t have to be one of the attorneys directly involved in the case. What you need to do is present yourself as an expert who can address the topic.

2) Find a strong local, human interest-oriented angle to your story. When pitching the local media, keep the emphasis on the word “local.” If you’re a hometown gal or guy that has created a new product or service, talk about your roots to the city or the community. Bring the local angle and flavor to your story.

3) Always keep in mind that you don’t want to pitch your product or service to the media; you want to pitch the outcome and the benefits. For example, if you’re a physician, don’t pitch your expertise, pitch a patient story that the media can follow.  Give them a story.

4) Develop an underdog story, one where you beat the odds and won.  Everyone roots for the underdog and those types of stories have a great narrative.  You’re able to tell a full story complete with the problem, the journey and the ultimate overcoming-the-odds conclusion.

5) Disagree with a popular point of view.  Embrace controversy.  Explain why all the experts are wrong.

6) Use opposites:  men versus women, teenager versus adults, Midwesterners vs. west coasters, suburbanites vs. city dwellers, etc.

Have fun with your pitch ideas.  Be creative and remember, if you meet the media’s needs – you’ll always meet yours.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under business, Business Strategy, Marketing, Media, Media Coverage, Media Relations, PR, PR Campaign, small business Public Relations, Your Message Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

5 Secrets To Pitching The Media

September 30, 2010 1 Comment

When pitching your story to the media, remember to focus on their needs.  Always keep in mind that it’s not you, your book, your expertise, or your profession, that’s going to grab the media’s interest – it’s the STORY that you can create from these materials.  So how do you find the story, below are some sure-fire tips, suggestions and public relations secrets to use.  Make sure and review these before making your pitch.

When pitching your story to the media, remember to focus on their needs.  Always keep in mind that it’s not you, your book, your expertise, or your profession, that’s going to grab the media’s interest – it’s the STORY that you can create from these materials.  So how do you find the story?  Below are some sure-fire tips, suggestions and public relations secrets to use.  Make sure and review these before making your pitch.  Also keep the particular media outlet you’re going to in mind.  Don’t pitch a hard business angle to a woman’s publication that focuses on human interest angles and, conversely, don’t pitch a beauty story to a financial publication (unless it’s a story on the business of beauty).  With that in mind, review the following and come up with the perfect pitch for you, your product and your company.

1.  Tie your story to the calendar:  Valentines Day, Spring Cleaning (taxes, teeth, house care, skincare, mental health,) summer dieting, getting in shape, Memorial Day, Summer (heat stroke, swimming, sunburn, health hazards, air conditioners, summer colds) Labor Day, back to school anxiety, flu, Fall fashions, children’s ergonomic health, Mom’s and back to school, Halloween, teeth, safety, family, Thanksgiving, over-eating, dieting, anorexia, anxiety, family stress,  winterize your skin, dieting for the holidays, holiday safety, de-stressing while planning your holiday, fashion and skincare for the holidays, New Year’s, resolutions, colds, flu.  You get the picture.

2.  Call the local TV assignment desk before 9:00 a.m. and offer yourself as an expert who can comment on a breaking news story you read about in the paper that morning.

3.  Check the websites for tidbits about reporters, producers, or the show.  Use that information when you’re creating your pitch.

4.  Follow a reporter you like and when you pitch, mention that you read his/her stories when making your pitch.  Don’t just sell, create a mutually beneficial relationship.

5.  Watch shows you want to pitch for three weeks.  Watch it, target a producer.  Don’t just pitch your story, but the entire segment you would be in – with other experts, patients, etc.  Pitch controversy, relationships, personal triumph or makeovers.

Remember your job is to give the media a compelling story.  Don’t try to sell, or push. Work with the editors or producers you’re pitching.  Become their ally.  Let them know that you’re on their side.  Together you can come up with an interesting story that meets both their needs and yours.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

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Filed under advertising, business, Business Strategy, Marketing, Media, news, PR, PR Campaign, Public Relations, TV Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to Find Prospects and Clients Using PR

September 28, 2010 Leave a comment

You’re looking to grow your business, build your client base, and find new customers.  What’s the best way to find clients?  Should you cold call? Use direct mail? Network? Advertise? Use social media? AdWords?  All of those can work, depending on your business.

The best way to find clients is to actually have them find you.  It’s a very different conversation when prospective clients contact you than when you make cold calls or initiate conversations with prospects who don’t know who you are.  Think of how different it would be for a client to call and ask if he or she could hire you.  That would be a truly motivated client.

But how do you change the dynamics? How do you shift the playing field so that your prospects are the ones that are initiating the conversation?  One tried and true answer is to establish yourself as an expert in your field and the most effective way to accomplish that is through an effective PR campaign. A well thought out public relations campaign can frame you as the story and establish you as the expert.  By being featured on TV and radio or in magazines and newspapers, you separate yourself from the competition; you are presented as a news story, not as an ad or a commercial.  That changes the equation.  Now prospective clients or customers who are in need of your type of service or product will contact you because you’ve established yourself as the authority, or your product has been featured as one of the best, or in a new product page, or you’ve been quoted.  On the marketing end, that type of media coverage encourages viewers, readers and listeners to take action, whether that be making an appointment, purchasing a product, or visiting a store.

When it comes to PR and media relations, bottom line comes down to offering a good compelling story that also educates and informs.  By presenting yourself as an expert, and an educator, both the media and the public will turn to you for information and advice. And, when they’re looking to purchase a product or service in your field, you’ll be at the top of the list.

It’s said that we are judged by the company we keep. By being featured in the media you’re in the company of the newsworthy, and because of your association, you have suddenly leaped ahead of your competition.  Via press coverage, you and your message will enter homes and businesses, not as an ad or commercial, but as a news story. When people seek you out, they will be seeking you out as a specialist, as someone who the media deems important enough to be featured in the press. You’ll have gained two things no amount of advertising could ever buy you – validation and credibility.

Media coverage also gives your customers and prospects a sense of urgency.   By being featured on TV or in print, you and your company will be viewed as timely and news worthy.  That drives action, which results in motivated prospects and more clients.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under advertising, business, Business Strategy, Marketing, marketing strategy, Media, news, PR, PR Campaign, Public Relations, publicity, traditional media Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How To Successfully Sell

September 23, 2010 Leave a comment

What are the elements of a successful sales call?  There are two, 1) know your information and your product or service, 2) understand the specific needs of each prospect you talk to, and address them.  Nothing will lose you a sale quicker than sticking to a basic script while your prospect is not interested in going down that road.  Yes; you do want to stick with the basics, gather the information that you need so you can figure out the prospects needs and deliver your presentation according to those needs, but you might not always be able to do that in a methodical sequential manner.

Jeff Thull, president and CEO of Prime Resource Group, states that there are four stages to closing a sale, Discovery, Diagnosis, Design and Delivery.  He describes it as a process that you walk your customers through to reach the ultimate objective.  Whereas he definitely knows his field and his process is a solid one, from my experience there are times when a sequence-based process, that is designed to move orderly and step-by-step, isn’t always possible.  Thull’s system is on the money, but prospects are like the weather, you can never predict how they’re going to act or react. With that in mind, when talking to a prospect keep your basic system and outline in mind, but be ready to move with the conversation organically.

Some prospects want to learn everything about the process.  They are ones who are eager to go through the step-by-step process.  Others are impatient or have very specific questions they want to address that will side-step your basic planned delivery.  Prepare for those.  Don’t try to stick to a script that will only make an impatient prospect even more impatient.

Practice your calls or presentations.  Remember you don’t want this to be a sales call; you want an engaging conversation that educates the prospect, solves his or her problems and offers specific solutions.  Your objective is to create a mutually beneficial relationship.  You also need to know what your prospects’ true needs are.  Each prospective client is different.  He or she might be buying the exact same product for service, but for very different reasons.  For example, I run a public relations firm.  Our job is to place clients on TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, as well as in blogs and social media sites.  But that’s just the nuts-and-bolts of our job, what we really do is bring our clients more customers, grow, their business, establish them as experts in their fields, establish their brand, position them as being at the top of their field, etc.  Each one of our clients comes to us for a slightly different reason.  Some clients are looking for media relations and PR to help sell products and bring in customers, others want to establish themselves as the expert in their field, others want to establish or reestablish their brand.  It’s important that I understand what the prospect’s needs are during the initial conversations so that he or she realizes that I do indeed understand what their specific needs are and am addressing them.

The objective is to make it an organic process.  As you speak to prospects you are gaining information on which they are, what their needs are, how they communicate and how they think.  Use that information to shift and modify your delivery.  Speak to their needs.  Present yourself as someone they can trust and can solve their problems.  Remember, that’s what they’re really looking to buy.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under advertising, business, Business Strategy, Media, PR, PR Campaign, Public Relations, sales, selling Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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