| The Secret To Success |
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The Secret To Success “The secret to success in life is to do what you love”. Have you ever heard that? I think that may be the secret to happiness but not monetary success. The secret to business success is to do what other people love. Have you heard a singer sing a song that reaches the top of the charts? Is the song successful because the singer loves the song? No. It’s successful because the audience loves the song. Another way to say this is: It’s easier and more profitable to give the customer what they want than to try to force them to buy what you want. In advertising. do you try to get people to buy benefits that you think they should want? That’s silly. Match what you have to what the customer wants and you will be far more successful. A little aside; the word SHOULD means NOT. Replace the word SHOULD with NOT (or DO NOT or ARE NOT or WILL NOT) in your sentences and see the result. “Customers should be more concerned with what kind of vacuum cleaner they have” changes “Customers are not more concerned…” “I should exercise” changes to “I do not exercise” What does this do for you? It clarifies your thinking. When you use the word SHOULD, nothing happens. No decision is made, no action is taken. No improvement is made. Anyway, back to the Secret Of Success. It’s all about matching what you do to your market. This is why the most successful advertising headlines are always about the customer. If you run an ad with your company name as the headline, you lose. Nobody cares about your company name. The reader perceives no benefit. Read almost any magazine in the supermarket. The headlines talk about things the reader wants to hear. In Woman’s World Magazine this month (I bought it just for the headline) the fantastic headline read “Eat Like Oprah And Lose A Pound A Day!” Do you have any idea how Oprah eats.? Are they saying it’s a lot? Are they saying what she eats is what you should eat? Maybe. But notice they added “and lose a pound a day”. That’s the benefit. When we sell vacuum cleaners in our store, we include a 15 foot vacuum cleaner hose for free (if they have carpeted steps). Is it because I personally think it’s great? No. But customers want to vacuum their steps without carrying the vacuum up & down the steps. And make no mistake, that stupid 15 foot hose has made me tens of thousands of dollars in additional sales, because the customer wanted it, and perceived that it was part of a package deal. If you try to match the market to what you have, you can still make money. But you’ll be hard selling one at a time. If you match what you sell to the market…….it’s like swimming downstream. |