Will You Deliver By Friday?

“Robbie,” I said, “will you deliver the artwork by Friday?” Robbie looked at me and said “Well, I’ll try.”

“So, you’re not going to make a Friday delivery,” I asked? Robbie said “I told you, I’ll try.”

“But that wasn’t the question, was it?” I pointed out. “The question was, ‘Will you deliver the artwork by Friday.’ I'm not asking for effort. I'm asking for commitment. You have refused to make the commitment. I'm interpreting your answer as ‘No.’”

As you might imagine, Robbie doesn’t get any of my business.

Are you a supplier of goods or services? Do you deliver when you say you will? Is your word a binding commitment?

It’s just you and me, here. You can be honest.

Your customers don’t care about the difficulties that have popped up in your life, or your business. They don’t want to know about unplanned urgent distractions. They don’t want to know that your suppliers are backordered. They just want you to deliver on time.

My partner, Roy Williams, often asks “Why do customers not come to your store? Is it because they don’t know about you? Is it because they do know about you?”

My friend and former boss, Rick Dames, says: “It’s so simple. Just do what you say you’re going to do.”

It IS simple. Not necessarily easy, but simple.

Is your word a binding commitment?

If your answer is “Yes,” consider making that willingness to commit part of your marketing strategy.

But if your answer is “No,” understand that advertising won’t help your business.

Oh, advertising may get you some new short-term customers. But when you disappoint them, the collective negative word of mouth is going to outweigh any positive impressions left by your advertising.

So, what’s it going to be?

Is your word a binding commitment?

Will you deliver by Friday?

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A Brilliant Strategy

Today we're discussing strategy. A very specific example of strategy, which we will get to in a minute.

But first, let me mention some of the marketers I admire. Their names make up a very short list. There are only slightly more than a dozen, and all but five of them are now deceased.

The group no longer with us includes Claude Hopkins, John E. Kennedy, Albert Lasker, David Ogilvy, and Rosser Reeves. Pretty heady company, wouldn't you say?

Two of the names remaining on my list are still very much alive: Bryan Eisenberg, and Jeffrey Eisenberg of Future Now, Inc.

When people first started offering things for sale on the Internet, any site which managed to funnel 2% of the shoppers landing on the site all the way through to check out was considered "successful."

But, about a decade ago, Bryan and Jeffrey were already saying "Wait a minute. 2% is the average response rate for direct mail. But on your web page 2% conversion means you've driven off 98% of the people who came looking for what you're selling. Shame on you."

Future Now, Inc. was the pioneer in conversion rate marketing. They invented the method for architecting and optimizing multiple scenarios to convert web site visitors into customers. This methodology is called Persuasion Architecture.^TM

It's the reason that companies like General Electric, Overstock Dot Com, NBC Universal, Volvo, and the Walt Disney Company pay Bryan and Jeff multiple tens of thousands of dollars for consultation.

I've just read an advance copy of their new book, Waiting For Your Cat To Bark - Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing.

Their last book, Call To Action, made the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal best seller lists. I predict Waiting For Your Cat To Bark will be an even bigger seller, and even more influential.

But, as the Eisenboys have been teaching since they started Future Now, Inc. in 1998, why would any astute marketer leave the result to chance?

Which brings us to the specific strategy I mentioned.

When Call To Action was first released, Bryan and Jeff taught a one-time-only seminar on its content at the legendary Wizard Academy in Austin, Texas. The cost was $3,000 per attendee, and the event sold out.

This time, they've slightly changed the terms.

As before, there will be a one-time-only seminar at Wizard Academy for Waiting For Your Cat To Bark. This time, the tuition has been reduced to only $1,800, and each attendee will receive 100 hardback copies of Waiting For Your Cat To Bark at no additional charge. Or, if you prefer, buy 100 copies of the book and attend the seminar for free.

Either way, the Eisenbrothers believe you'll be sending a whole bunch of those books to friends, colleagues, clients and potential clients.

Now suppose that a hundred people should take them up on this offer.

One hundred people learn directly from Bryan and Jeff the techniques they used to improve the conversion rates from as low as 0.5% to well over 56% for clients such as Leo Schachter Diamonds.

On the same day ten thousand copies of Waiting For Your Cat To Bark will be sold, boosting it's position on the best-seller lists.

My prediction? Those one hundred attendees will become evangelists for Future Now, Inc.

After helping to skyrocket Waiting For Your Cat To Bark directly up the best sellers charts, those evangelists will start making gifts of ten thousand copies of the book, boosting the Eisenberg's reputations, and quite likely sending them dozens of new clients for conversion rate consultation.

This is brilliant marketing strategy.

Can you use their example? Can you package knowledge with huge numbers of sales and boost your reputation in the process?

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You may also be interested in the Eisenberg's first book, Persuasive Online Copywriting, and in the video series which became an extension of the book, The Principles Of Online Copywriting.

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How Many Pancake Restaurants?

People seem to naturaly rank things. They list things in order. They tend to remember things at the tops of the various lists.

On nearly any list, most people can remember the top three with little effort. It's generally accepted that seven is the maximum simultaneous number of items that the average person will remember.

In 1980 consultants Al Ries and Jack Trout suggested that as astute marketers we take advantage of this human characteristic, and "position" our products against whomever tops the list.

This creates a new list, with us at the top. That makes it easier to remember.

One of their examples was 7-Up.

As a soft drink it was way down the list. As the "Uncola" it was number one, beating out Coke.

As a soft drink, 7-Up needs you to remember Coke, Pepsi, Royal Crown, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, before you're likely to remember 7-Up.

As the Uncola, 7-Up needs you only to remember 7-Up.

The Uncola is a marketing position. It's a mental shortcut. It let’s you get your message across in just a few seconds. A marketing position reminds your customers "Here's why we're worth recommending. Here's why your friends and colleagues will be glad you told them about us."

Let's apply this concept to an industry familiar to all of us: restaurants.

How many hamburger restaurants can you remember? Four? Six? Most people can remember seven. Did anyone do nine (without peeking)?

Suppose you have a hankerin' for a double cheeseburger. Does any particular restaurant come to mind?

Here are the rankings of hamburger restaurants in the U.S:

McDonald's
Wendy's
Burger King
Sonic
Jack In The Box
Dairy Queen
Hardees
Roy Rogers
Carl's Jr.
Rax
WhatABurger
White Castle
Krystal
Fudrucker's
A&W
Ralley's

How many of these names did you remember?

Our question was, "Does any particular restaurant come to mind?"

Did anyone say "IHOP?"

Silly question?

Perhaps. After all, you can get a double cheeseburger at IHOP.

Even though they don't mention cheeseburgers in their ads, IHOP has them on the menu.

So, why does IHOP not mention cheseburgers in their ads?

Two reasons: the cost of advertising; and the number of names down the list IHOP would find themselves.

Share of mind roughly equates to share of market.

In order to to create a space in your memory and help you to remember that IHOP has burgers, they'd have to beat out all of the hamburger chains listed.

They'd have to help you to remember at least seventeen down on this list. That's a formidible undertaking. And, since we can predict minimal success, it's likely to be very expensive when costs are compared to results.

No matter how much they spend, IHOP will never have more than a tiny fraction of the hamburger market.

On the other hand, how many pancake restaurants can you name?

Humm.

So, instead of hoping that you'll remember at least sixteen other restaurants and still have mental space (and frankly, the willingness) to remember IHOP, they don't mention burgers at all in their ads.

Instead, they make it easier for you to remember IHOP by becoming the top of a completely different list.

Instead of getting the crumbs of the hamburger market, they get the biggest share of the breakfast market. And in the minds of the public, IHOP pretty much owns the pancake position.

Another word for marketing position is specialization.

Frequently when I recommend specialization, people think I'm talking about refusing business.

I'm not.

Our objective is to capture a larger share of market. The actual competition for a greater share of awareness happens within shoppers' minds.

By specializing we create a position at the top of some small list (market) rather than attempt to compete for awareness from way down a much bigger list (market).

Specialists do not refuse customer's money ^* at the cash register. Their ads just don't talk about things that are not likely to be remembered.

Let's take a test.

IHOP is famous for _______?

Waffle House is famous for _______?

Tony Roma’s is famous for ______?

Marie Calender’s is famous for _______?

Spaghetti Warehouse is famous for _______?

Black Angus is famous for ______?

Olive Garden is famous for ______?

Lotus Garden is famous for _______?

Panda Express is famous for _______?

Pizza Hut is famous for ______?

Taco Bell is famous for _______?

Kentucky Fried Chicken is famous for ______?

McDonalds is famous for _______?

Red Lobster is famous for _______?

Hometown/Old Country Buffet is famous for _______?

Benihana is famous for _______?

Humm. Same number as the list of hamburger restaurants. And yet, you do remember most of these.

Each has created a unique marketing position, and that position places each of them the top of a completely different mental list. Each has stopped trying to get a smaller share of the "dining out" market, and is instead competing for dominance within their speciality.

Your business is not likely to be a restaurant. Regardless, to compete in the minds of shoppers, it needs a position. That position will be a specialty.

What is your business' position?

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^* Ok. I lied. Specialists do turn away some potential business.

A Chinese restaurant will not maintain its position in the minds of customers by adding Mexican dishes to the menu.

If you found a menu that contained Chinese dishes, and Mexican delicacies, and Italian cooking, as well as burgers, would you believe the food was likely to be good? Or would you assume that these people can't possibly excell at all different styles of cooking?

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Wierdness of Technology

When I write something for this blog, I frequently hit the "preview" button to make sure that it's going to look on your screen the way it looks on mine.

I wanted to post an article that involved data in tables. It didn't preview well. Not well at all.

At first, I tried to space the data so that it would line up as if it were in a table.

Blog software appears to HATE spaces, and kept collapsing my carefully spaced columns. I tried inserting a series of periods to hold the space, and colored them the same as the background so they'd effectively be invisible. Something wierd was happening with proportional spacing that kept messing up those columns, too.

Ok. Let's change tactics.

I created actual tables in an HTML editor and pasted them in the post. The tables looked ok, but the blog software added a dozen line feeds after each, which pushed the next bit of text down past the bottom of the page.

That didn't preview well, either.

After a bit of studying the on-line help files, I determined that I should turn off the automatic line feed feature. Unfortunately, that one is a global command and affects every article on the blog. I got the article in question to look right, but the rest of the last year-and-a-half of my posts collapsed into one giant paragraph each.

Not pretty.

But, even though it didn't work properly on this blog, that particular change did make the e-mailed Fishing For Customers newsletter look right. If you're a subscriber, you will have already received "The Cost Of Effectiveness."

If you aren't, I'll happily e-mail you a copy. Drop me a note and ask for the April 7 newsletter.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Chuck

PS. Anyone who is a whiz at HTML, PHP, and Server Side Scripting, and who might have some time to help resolve a few of these issues, please click the link and send me your rates.

PPS. Why haven't you subscribed to the Fishing For Customers newsletter? It's free, and your information will never be shared. I take your trust seriously.

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