Category Archives: Gail Z. Martin

by Gail Z. Martin

Adele and her husband had worked very hard to build a wireless telecom business and it was growing.  But she wanted to find a way to stay in touch with her customers between orders, so they would be the first people those customers would call the next time they needed more supplies.

But because of the nature of their kind of business, that created a problem on social media because Adele didn’t want to be talking about rates and industry gossip.  Those things were very sensitive.  That information was proprietary. And she was afraid that they wouldn’t be able to have a Facebook page because of it.

And it was driving Adele crazy.  When she came to me, she said, “I know we need to be on Facebook, but I don’t want people talking business.  How do we get our customers together and not talk shop?”

So I asked Adele to tell me about the business she and her husband had built.  I was really impressed. And one of the things that impressed me the most was what they did at the holidays.

Every year, instead of sending out cookies or wine baskets, Adele and her husband would select a business book that they had found meaningful and send that book to all their clients, with a note about how it meant a lot to them and they hoped it would help the client’s business.

I got chills down my back.  I jumped up and started pacing like I’d just downed a couple of Red Bulls.  And I said—“That’s it!”

Adele’s customers all knew about the gift books.  That was a story they were familiar with.

So Adele created a Facebook page where she invited all her customers to come have a discussion about the book and what it meant to them.  No talking shop, no spilling the beans on sensitive pricing….the story was all about the books.

In other words, Adele was able to create a way for her to have an ongoing conversation with her customers to keep the relationship warm between sales. That’s essential, because if your buyers only need your product a few times a year, no matter how much they like you they can forget about you if months pass without hearing from you.

And when the relationship goes cold, it gets harder for your customers to get past the twin obstacles of not wanting to ask for help and being afraid to spend money. These two obstacles are the biggest speedbumps to getting prospects to move past window-shopping to make a purchase.

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by Gail Z. Martin

Using all that alphabet-soup of abbreviations and acronyms can get you into trouble!

I saw this happen when I was in an elevator in downtown Charlotte.  We were in a high-rise building, not too long after 9/11.  And we were all there in our business suits, riding upstairs, and two guys behind me start talking.

One guys says, “Oh geez, Jim—did you get the BOM?”

The other guy says, “I don’t have the BOM, Pete.  I thought you had the BOM?”

Well it got really quiet in that elevator.  We were all holding our breaths.  I could see that people were doing these nervous little glances to the side.  I thought maybe someone would tackle these two guys.

And then I looked down and I saw that the men standing behind Jim and Pete had Men-In-Black-style government issue shoes….and I remembered that the FBI had an office in our building, and they also have the best roller shutters for security from https://aluminium-shopfronts.co.uk/blog/.

Apparently, that’s when Pete and Jim remembered, too.  And Pete said….”Uh, we work for First Union’s Accounts Payable department and that’s a Bill of Materials…..B-O-M…..paperwork, you know?”

It’s a lot funnier now than it was at the time…and I bet Pete and Jim never forgot it, either! But it goes to show you what kind of trouble industry-speak can get you into.

by Gail Z. Martin

Do you make it hard for people to do business with you?

Are your prospects easily able to figure out what you do and how it would help them solve their problems?

In my experience, businesses often lose sales because prospects aren’t entirely sure what services the business provides and how those services can make a direct impact on the customer’s bottom line. If your customers don’t see immediately how they can see a big positive impact, they won’t buy.

One of the ways businesses often unintentionally turn off interested prospects is with industry jargon and buzzwords. Buzzwords are buzzkill. They make people’s eyes glaze over if they do know what the words mean, and they’re just blah-blah-blah to people who don’t know them. Not only that, but buzzwords have been so overused that they become meaningless.

Compare this “We help you prioritize management objectives to optimize your metrics with impactful outcomes” to this: “We help you create an action list to get big, measurable results.”

Which one makes you more willing to buy?

Don’t make your customers, your Facebook friends, your YouTube watchers have to look up what you say in the dictionary or skip over unfamiliar words. In other words…..don’t use jargon.

Now I know sometimes you’re not even aware when you start talking in buzz words.  After all, everyone you work with probably uses the same secret language.  Abbreviations, acronyms, industry-speak words… those are great when you’re talking to your colleagues, but they leave customers confused.

Confused customers don’t buy.

Not only that, but when people are confused, they’ve lost track of what you can do for them, what problem you solve, what benefit you provide.  They don’t know what you do…so they walk away.

by Gail Z. Martin

Results Envy occurs when your prospect sees the outcome you have delivered to your customer and wants it so badly it makes his/her teeth hurt.

Compelling case studies deliver Results Envy when you tell a story that draws the prospect in, evokes emotions and delivers a story that engages emotion.

See, Results Envy works because as human beings, we’re wired for stories. Since the first cavemen crouched around a campfire and shared ghost stories or hunting stories or myths of how the world came to be, we have learned that stories are important for survival.

You see, we are wired for stories. It’s how we learn. It’s how we come to understand the world around us, who we are, where we belong, and what’s possible.  The stories we tell—in our families, our communities, our houses of worship, our countries—they give us a sense of identity and they give us our sense of how the world works.

That’s why it’s so risky to decide that you don’t need to tell stories. See facts are good, there’s a place for a list of features and benefits, but that’s not where the big hurdle is to bring people to ‘yes’. It doesn’t happen in the frontal lobes, where the logical thinking occurs. It happens in the lizard brain, the old brain, the amygdala, where everything is driven by emotion. Fight or flight. Friend of enemy. Food or predator. Mate or threat. That’s the old brain, and it still plays a big part in how we made decisions. It’s the shadow brain, the one that tells us what to be afraid of, the part of our brain that worries in the middle of the night. Satisfy the lizard brain, and you make the sale.

Case studies can evoke Results Envy better than testimonials.

Testimonials are about the ending. That’s all. They talk about the outcome, but not the journey. They’re short, and we don’t get to know the person giving the testimonial. They could be anyone. We don’t know what they’ve gone through, why the outcome mattered, what was on the line. It’s like reading the last page of a book or watching the last scene of a movie.

There’s a place for testimonials. But testimonials serve as post-purchase reinforcement or pre-purchase encouragement, they don’t make the sale. Case studies—stories—make the sale.

Case studies also overcome the ego/budget factor to create Results Envy.

I want you to realize that you don’t sell services. You don’t sell products. You sell solutions to problems.

If you’re a consultant, you help people figure out what they can’t figure out on their own. If you sell a product, you provide a tool to people to do something they can’t do without your tool. And that’s the problem. Your customer has to admit to being a failure before they are willing to buy your product or services.

Most people won’t buy a solution to their problem until they have tried to fix it themselves. Either they don’t want to spend the money (budget) or they don’t want to admit they can’t do it alone (ego). Think about the last time something broke at your house. Whether it was a clogged drain or a glitch garage door, I bet you tried at least once—maybe more—to fix it yourself before you called in a professional or went out to Lowe’s or Home Depot to buy a replacement.

Why? Because you didn’t want to spend the money, and you figured ‘it can’t be that hard.’ Am I right? You know that’s how we do things.

But the truth is, we try to fix it ourselves. We duct tape things together for as long as we can. We work around the broken part until we can’t stand it anymore, or until it doesn’t work at all, or until someone else refuses to put up with it and makes us do something about it.

We have to fail before we’re ready to buy—and we have to admit to ourselves that we have failed. That hurts. We don’t like that. In fact, we’ll try really hard not to come to that conclusion. And that’s why people put off buying your products and services.

They’re not ready to fail. They’re not ready to admit that they can’t do it themselves if they try a little harder or a little longer. They’re not ready to put away the duct tape and admit it’s really broken.

Case studies—stories—make it easier for them to get past the ego/budget factor by showing them what happened to someone else. Someone who had a problem just like theirs. Someone just like them. Someone with the same fears and hopes, who was in a lot of trouble, like them, until they saw the light. Someone who trusted you and your product or service to help, and then got the jackpot, got the solution and peace of mind and money and good night’s sleep and no more acid reflux. And when they get to that point in the story, they’ve got Results Envy and they want what you’ve got more than they want their pride and more than they want their money. And you’ve got a customer.

Now the fourth reason you want Results Envy is because it helps to validate Return on Investment.

For 99% of us, money is finite. There isn’t enough to do everything, so it’s a constant series of trade-offs. Do I buy this because if I do, I can’t buy that. Invest here? If so, can’t invest there. Always an opportunity cost, something you miss out on because you did something else and you can’t do both.

So if you want a customer to spend money with you, that’s money they can’t spend on something else. So not only do you have to get them past that ego/sticker-price issue, you’ve also get them to want what you’ve got to offer more than what they’re passing up to get it.

How do you do that? With Results Envy.

When your prospect wants the outcome so much that he or she can taste it, touch it, smell it, feel it, and imagine themselves living with the solution to their problem, he will validate the ROI to himself. You won’t have to do it. Your prospect will argue themselves into the purchase. She’ll talk herself out of her objections, because she is already sold on the outcome.

Results Envy will make the ROI argument for you.

Write your case studies with Results Envy in mind, and see the difference it makes turning prospects into customers!

by Gail Z. Martin

Social media plays a key role in funding a successful Kickstarter. That’s one reason anthologies do well, because they are a team effort and appeal to the readership of a dozen or more authors. On the other hand, I’ve seen individual authors and product developers also successfully Kickstart their projects by reaching out to their personal networks through social media and encouraging friends to tell friends.

Friends telling friends is really the secret to funding a Kickstarter, and it’s the essence of viral or word-of-mouth marketing. The more friends you can connect with early and often on social media, the more active you and they are in spreading the word, and the more interconnected interested parties are in talking up the project, the more buzz is in the marketplace and the more people find the project and contribute.

For example, the Kickstarter anthology project included seventeen original authors. Most were already active on Facebook or Twitter. The authors immediately liked, friended and followed each other so they could retweet, share, like and comment on each other’s posts about the project. The Kickstarter also had a Facebook fan page, a Facebook event page, a Tumblr page, Twitter hashtags, Pinterest posts, a YouTube video and a Goodreads event. Authors and their friends talked it up on all those social media sites plus others like Reddit and Google+, and reached out to bloggers, podcasters and book review sites. They kept up a constant flow of commentary, banter, witty repartee and flat-out asking for funding for 29 days, often interacting with each other in real-time on multiple platforms at once.  (And should you think the authors were all twenty-somethings, the average age was 40+).   Kickstarter needs constant buzz.  It’s not a set-it-and-forget-it medium.

Kickstarter creates an exciting opportunity to reach what pundits call the “Long Tail” of customers. The “long tail” refers to the trail of a comet, which stretches on for a long, long time beyond the comet itself. The marketing theory around the “long tail” holds that there are viable niche markets that often go untapped because they are too small to be profitable for the business models of very large companies, but which can provide a very nice living for entrepreneurs or small, efficient companies that can tap that niche and provide a desired outcome.

Thinking about bringing your product to market but stymied on funding? Take a look at Kickstarter. But remember, what appears to be just a funding mechanism is really an endeavor that requires a lively network, a clear concept, a niche audience and a lot of marketing mojo.

by Gail Z. Martin

Recently, I’ve been part of three Kickstarter publishing projects. Two of the projects raised substantially more money than their original goal, enabling them to add extra features. One project is still underway, but making great strides towards its goals.  The first two projects were anthologies, and the third is a graphic novel.  What’s important to remember is that each of these projects succeeds because it has made a direct connection with customers who want exactly that type of product, and aren’t finding what they want in the “regular” marketplace.

Kickstarter projects ultimately rise or fall on three key points: 1) the strength of the concept; 2) the social media energy of the product’s supporters; and 3) how well the concept originator communicates both the core concept and the specific benefits funders will receive for every funding goal met.  In this sense, Kickstarter success is a quintessential exercise in marketing.

For example, the second Kickstarter anthology in which I participated was an anthology of science fiction/fantasy short stories with adventurous female characters written by women writers. The authors on the roster ranged from established pros to lesser-known but published professionals to new authors. The Kickstarter outlined what rewards backers would receive every time the project reached a new milestone.

Rewards included free ebooks, e-short stories, paper books and artwork, music CDs, professional services and recognition as a patron in the book. In addition, eight more authors were eventually added, making the original anthology a larger book, a second related anthology was funded, and a sequel was funded. All three books received enough funding to produce a trade paperback edition and a limited hard cover edition.

In this case, the Kickstarter project had an original funding goal of $8,500, and in its 29 day run, 1907 individual contributors raised over $44,000 to bring the project to life. In exchange, backers got the entertainment value of watching the tally rise day by day (including a white-knuckle last half hour to hit the final goal that rivals any sporting match for drama), eight free ebooks (in addition to the original anthology), thirteen free e-short stories, a free music CD, free original artwork, and recognition for being part of the process. In addition, the project will donate a portion of the proceeds to charity. That’s a lot of value for a $5 contribution!

The concept’s strength and originality is a key point in attracting backers. If you’re thinking of doing a Kickstarter, make sure you can clearly explain what your project is all about, why it’s different, and who is the intended audience. Here’s where marketing comes into play. Successful Kickstarters incorporate video to share their message, include lots of photos of the project, and go into great details about features and benefits.

Likewise, they provide copy that outlines exactly what backers receive for their specific dollar-level contribution as the project reaches funding milestones encourages readers to invest. By including everyone in the rewards that are unlocked milestone after milestone, investors have a reason to help you spread the word, effectively marketing your project for you.

by Gail Z. Martin

Maybe you’ve heard about Kickstarter. It’s one of several sites that are part of the crowdfunding trend that’s hot right now. Why should you pay attention? Because Kickstarter and crowdfunding are becoming an important part of launching and marketing new products in today’s online world.

Kickstarter is a site where inventors, authors, video game designers, product developers and people with a great idea can pitch it to the world and ask for funding. It’s the democritization of investment banking, making angel investors of us all, often for sums as low as one to five dollars.

It’s interesting that Kickstarter and similar sites have catapulted to popularity during a recession, when credit is tighter than usual for entrepreneurs and artists. Not so long ago, to get a great idea off the ground, you either had to front the seed money yourself from your own personal online banking services, persuade a bank to take a risk on you, or go hat in hand to friends and relatives, even for sums of just a few thousand dollars.  Not too surprisingly, that didn’t work out well for many people, whose projects got shelved in the “someday” file.

How many of those products, software programs, games, books and other items might have been a big hit–and made our lives a little bit easier, interesting or more enjoyable–but never got the chance?

Crowdfunding lets the market decide–and fund–what it wants. While this is a big change from the way things have been done in the last fifty or seventy years, in some ways, it’s a return to the way business has been done for thousands of years, with the help of patrons who underwrite expenses. Except that now, instead of finding a wealthy individual or a powerful institution, the average person can kick in a buck or five and maybe be part of the next big thing.