Today's consumers are savvier than ever before. All the information they could ever want or need is just a quick search away. The same is true when choosing a product or service. Prospective clients can research organizations, compare product offerings, even see in real time what other people are saying about that product or service.
What's more, when trying to win over new customers, we're trying to get our message or promise heard over an immense amount of background noise. Maybe your product promises to "double year lead generation in 90 days!" Great! So do thousands of other products.
So how can you rise above the noise and get your message heard?
First, let's take a step backwards. Ultimately, people buy outcomes. We buy clothes that make us look and feel great. We check into hotel rooms to get a restful night's sleep. We go to college to land a great job. We attend a painting class to get better at painting. And so on.
The most powerful marketing you can deliver is proof that when your customers sign up to work with you or buy your product, they will get the outcome they want.
To find that proof, track the specific results you get for your clients.
By tracking the results you get for your clients, you'll create an amazing repository of marketing material that you can use to become even more important to the clients you have, turn existing clients into repeat clients, get more referrals, and win over new customers.
Here's an example. In my organization, we offer business coaching to help our client's grow their business. For every client we work with, we track a set of general and specific metrics, from leads generated to gross and net earnings.
After tracking these numbers for some time, we found that, on average, our clients double their income in 14 months if they apply our strategies. That number is an incredible, extraordinary result!
Because we have that information, we can lead our marketing to new customers with that promise and back it up with testimonials from our clients. We take those specific results in the form of case studies and share them with potential clients.
The effectiveness of this marketing strategy is covered in Dr. Robert Cialdini's Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. In his book, he lists his six principles of persuasion, one of which is social proof. We use the actions of others to decide how we should act (or which product or service we should choose) especially when those people are similar to us.
Sharing the results of current clients with potential ones is an incredibly effective way of convincing people to work with us.
We also share a history of these metrics with our clients so they know exactly what they've accomplished during our work together and that we delivered the service we promised at the outset. By doing so, we remind our clients of the benefits of working with us, and we turn our clients into raving fans. Consequently, they are much more likely to continue doing business with us in the future and refer us to others.
Think about the outcome your product or service provides, and find a way to track that outcome with your current customers and clients. Share it with future and current clients, and see your business, referrals and close rates soar.