Archives for category: Communication
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The Power of Reviews

November 24, 2014 //
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Whenever we didn’t know how to do something, or we had to make a significant purchase, or we were going somewhere new, or in fact we were about to do anything for the first time, our first recourse was to ask somebody else. We’ve always respected the opinion of others, because we valued their perspective on things more than the perspective of someone we didn’t know, especially when that someone we didn’t know was selling us something. This is natural, they haven’t earned our trust yet. ‘I don’t know you, which means I don’t trust you – yet.’

In these days of web 2.0, social media – in short the ever more connected world – reviews are everything, because now it’s really easy to see our peers’ opinions, and the opinions of a thousand other peers we don’t even know. Yes, we don’t know them, but we tend to trust them because they appear to have a genuine, unvested desire to feed back for their community. Nowadays, thanks to sites like Tripadvisor and Trustpilot, you can’t really game the system.  They have sophisticated algorithms for weeding out the fake reviews, or the self-reviews. It then becomes a numbers game, since anyone with the most basic knowledge of statistics will tell you that the more reviews you have, the more they represent a fair and ‘true’ reflection of the product or service you’re interested in.

With good products or services, with lots of good reviews, a funny psychological thing happens. The reviews enhance our experience before we buy and after the purchase when we’re using it. ‘Gee, I see why this restaurant is number 1 on Tripadvisor, the food’s unbelievable isn’t it?’ It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, the good stuff gets the ‘big mo’ as the electioneering Americans would say and the products appear to get better and better. The converse happens, of course, with the bad stuff.

I bought a book the other day on Amazon. It seemed to fit the bill and it was relatively cheap. I didn’t do much more on it and bought it. When the package arrived I thought there was nothing in it. The book was only 44 pages of large, self-published type. I had been ripped off. Worse still, the preface promised me two free tools to help using the book. When I went online to follow the claim process for my free resources, it was nothing more than a double opt-in email subscription process and I’ve received nothing.

I went back to Amazon and checked the listing for the book. It didn’t detail the page numbers, which is normally the case and which I would usually pick up on as it’s a crude indicator of value for money. I missed it, my bad. Then I went further down the listing and saw that there were no reviews, perhaps because it was relatively new. Caveat emptor, and all that. I realised I had been duped but that it was totally my fault. I had been a fool in a hurry.

When I finish this book, which will take about 40 minutes from cover to cover, I can’t wait to do my review on Amazon.

 

Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales

The Comms Rule of One

November 19, 2014 //
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When you’re communicating with people, it’s tempting to cram in as many messages as possible, because they’re all pretty important. It’s really hard to fit in everything that you want to say about your brand, your logo, your advert and so on.

One thing I’ve learnt over the years is just that, namely one thing. Your audience has nowhere near as much interest in your stuff as you do, and perhaps none at all. So you really only have one chance to get a simple message across.

Try to distil everything you’re trying to do into the single most important thing you want your audience to take away. If you’ve rank ordered the benefits of your product or service, and you still feel you want to talk about the second and third benefits, you need to work harder on the first benefit, until it’s the standout benefit, the thing that makes you genuinely different.

‘What’t the one thing we want them to be aware of, to think, to do?’ You want bank for your buck, not a whimper from your 3 bucks.

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales

The Number 1 Rule for Your Website Home Page

September 22, 2014 //
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What’s the number one rule for the home page of your website? It’s a pretty obvious one, but you’d be surprised at how many websites fail when tested against it.

When you go to a website for the first time, you want to know one thing: What do you do?

In other words:

– who are you?

– what do you do?

– how will this benefit me or my company?

This should not be difficult for you to address, regardless of your business.

Put it in a prominent place on your home page – or your landing page for whatever demand generation exercise you’re doing – so people can form a quick opinion as to whether what you have can help them. Otherwise they’ll leave frustrated. Why else do you think people typically abandon a home page way more than 50% of the time?

Don’t forget that you know your company well; how could people not know what you do? But you haven’t seen the website for the first time in a long time…

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Planning, Sales, Strategy, Technology

Great Products Don’t Need a Manual

September 3, 2014 //
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We have a vacuum cleaner, as I’m sure you do. It’s quite a well-known brand with a purportedly heavy emphasis on product design. I hate it. I won’t list the myriad reasons why I hate it, because that would be beyond dull. I will mention one though, to illustrate the point of this post.

You have to take off the dust container to empty it, which as far as I’m concerned requires a degree in advanced engineering. There are two buttons to push with helpful arrows on them, which seem to want to work together but which fight with each other and act in opposite directions so that within a matter of moments you’re wanting to wrench it from the base and cast it over your garden wall.

Mrs D bought the vacuum cleaner, and loves it, naturally.

But my point is this: great, well designed products don’t need a manual. Manuals always make me hark back to the bad old days of IT, which are still here, where some smart alec would answer your ‘how do I’ question by telling you to ‘RTFM’, which stands for the profane version of ‘Read the Flipping Manual’.

I don’t want to read the manual. I shouldn’t need to read the manual. Apple have been producing great products since the i-Mac and before. I can remember getting two documents: one is a quick start guide where in 5 easy steps you can learn how to plug in your device and power it up, ready for use; the other is a manual that you only ever need to refer to if you have to troubleshoot or you want to learn some ninja inside moves.

Every product designer should be asking themselves this question: how can I make this product so easy to use the user can just switch it on and pick it up as they go? Try setting that challenge to the folk that produce TV remotes. You might as well lock them in and throw away the key.

Vacuum cleaners can be funny though. Here’s the funniest joke from 2014’s Edinburgh Fringe.

 

 

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing

When I am One

September 1, 2014 //
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First Birthday Card

First Birthday Card

This is my 154th post, dear reader. More importantly, it’s exactly a year ago that I started the Monday, Wednesday, Friday episodes of the Paul Dilger blog.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it from time to time. I’ve certainly enjoyed writing it. I never did it for the viewing figures or the influence, rather for the discipline and enjoyment behind writing. If I’ve imparted anything useful on the way, then that’s a bonus.

As Eric Morecambe used to say: what do you think of it so far? Rubbish!

I know it’s been an eclectic bag of stuff to date, which is why when I very first started writing it, the byeline ‘Musings on stuff I come into contact with’ seemed appropriate. It still does I think.

I will, however, be giving some thought to whether the topics – and therefore the blog itself – should be more focused and consistent, or remain the rag-bag of ramblings that it has come to be.

As always, dear reader, your views are welcomed.

Talk to you in the second year.

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Categories Communication, General, Language

It’s Not You, It’s Me

August 27, 2014 //
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A sales proposal is a bit of a misnomer really. It should be called a buy proposal. ‘Here’s how, what, when and why we propose you buy from us.’

I supposed it’s called a sales proposal because most sales proposals start selling from the first line. If you’re not filling in a tender document and are therefore constrained by the order and flow of the information you present, you have 100% control over this document. Sales proposals don’t start with you. They start with your customer.

Next time you write a sales proposal, try this approach:

– First, what is your customer looking to accomplish? What are their goals? They’re not looking to buy what you have, they’re looking for the benefits and achievements that result from buying what you have

– Second, if relevant, what is stopping them from getting to where they want to be? Especially for larger investments, there is usually something that’s stopping them from achieving their goals, otherwise they wouldn’t be spending money with you. There is also an opportunity cost of not fixing the problem if they decide to do nothing

– Third, how have you helped companies with this problem before? Relevant experience in your prospect’s field is very important. They don’t want you learning the job on their time and with their assets

– Fourth, how will what you have uniquely help them achieve their goals? What makes your offering better than the competition, including ‘internal’ or ‘do nothing’ options?

– Fifth, what results will they get from investing in you? You need to demonstrate the planned for value if at all possible

– Sixth, what will this cost them? Simple, clear, unambiguous is the way to go

– Seventh, your call to action. What do you want them to do next? Call you? Have a meeting? Seek further clarification? Place the order? Lead them down the next natural step towards buying from you

The Sales Proposal: here’s what we propose you do, not here’s what we propose we do.

 

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales

But Enough About Me

August 25, 2014 //
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In addition to my sales and marketing consulting work, I do a little bit of mentoring. The companies I work with tend to be either start-up companies looking for the best way to go to market or established companies who want to break into new markets.

I often ask the companies to show me samples of their communications and marketing, or to explain how they approach a sales presentation with prospects and existing customers. Most of them – around 90% I would say – start with themselves. Who they are, what they do, their history, that kind of thing.

It happens a lot, but it’s fundamentally wrong. Everything should start with your customer and their market. Whether you’re hoping to build a relationship, or you’re looking to challenge the assumptions and knowledge of your customer, you always start with them. Their market, their issues, their drivers, their objectives, their barriers, their success factors. If you can’t demonstrate that knowledge, you can’t make a connection, you can’t tell if you can help them, you don’t know if there’s a fit, you don’t earn their respect.

Once you demonstrate that you understand your customers’ pains and requirements, then you can establish how you’ve helped other companies with similar problems and how you’re uniquely placed to help them.

The direction of the dynamic with successful companies is from the customer to them, not from them to the customer. That way you’re not selling to them, you’re guiding them to buy.

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales

Self-Mockery is Often the Best Policy

August 20, 2014 //
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My wife – otherwise known as Mrs D, or sometimes Ms H when she’s cross with me, occasionally feeds back on my blog posts. She’s a technical writer and has a laser eye for typos and other inadvertent gotchas. She also lets me know when she has no interest in my posts. These are usually the ones focused on sales and marketing, so pretty well all of them.

This blog post is about how to recover from a mistake and I’m going to cite an example from one of her current addictions, which will hopefully induce her to get to the end of it.

When you’ve made a booboo, the best way to recover is to come clean, and if you can be self-deprecating and humorous too, then all the better. When a worthy third party also benefits from your recovery, then it’s a slam dunk.

Take the recent much-publicised gaffe in a promotional shot on the Instagram account of Downton Abbey.  The BBC gleefully reported on the ‘water-bottle-gate’ affair which affected its commercial broadcasting rival. These things happen and the word gets out very quickly and virally thanks to the times we live in.

What better response than to publish a self-mocking response, together with a link to the charity WaterAid UK who work to provide safe water to those that need it.

Nicely done eh, Mrs D?

 

 

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Categories Communication, Language, Strategy

What’s the Call to Action?

August 13, 2014 //
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In my previous post, I shared the first of the two things you must do in any business communication. The second is so simple, yet is so rarely done.

What’s the call to action? In plain English: what do you want your customer to do? Your customer is busy, you earned their interest by explaining quickly why they should be interested in what you have to say and how they will benefit.

At this point they’re looking for your guidance. How do you want them to proceed from here? Make it clear what you want from them. Here are some examples:

– click here to request your [whatever you’re giving them]

– please expect a call from me early next week

– call this number to book your place

– reply with #AmazonBasket to add it to your basket & buy later

You’ve got your reader this far. Don’t blow it at the end by leaving them hanging. Tell them what you want them to do and make it easy for them to do it. Simple.

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales

Who Cares?

August 11, 2014 //
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Whenever you communicate with someone in business, whatever your business, there are two main things that your communication needs to do, otherwise you’re wasting your time – and theirs.

The first of these is the first chronologically as well. Why should the person you’re communicating with be interested in what you have to say? Their time is at least as precious as yours, so you need to be able to quickly provide them with an answer to the following questions that are really variations on a theme:

– what’s in it for me?

– who cares?

– why should I read any further?

The only way to answer is for you to clearly state the benefit to them of what you have to say. Ideally in the heading of your communication, and certainly in the first paragraph.

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales
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