The Comanche Marketer Mousetrap Series - Pts 6 & 7

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by Matt Michel

PROLOGUE

They were a tribe of warriors. They were masters of the horse and masters of war. Through their tactical brilliance, they overcame the inferiority of their numbers to drive the Apache out of Texas and beat back the Spanish. The Utes called them "one who fights me all the time." The Utes called them Comanches. The Comanche warrior was one who fought all of the time.

The Comanche marketer is one who markets as fiercely, as brilliantly, and as relentlessly as the Comanche fought. The Comanche marketer is "one who markets all of the time."

Give Them a Reason to Act; Using Soft Offers

Today's message focuses on stimulating people to take action and on the use of soft offers to test media. Why do you need to stimulate people to act now? How can you stimulate people to act? I'll explain

6. Give People a Reason to Take Action

A sale cannot be made until an affordable solution meets a need or desire. The need or desire can exist for years and an array of affordable solutions can also exist, but the sale will not be made until the former smashed headlong into the latter. Even then, the sale is uncertain. The problem is inertia.

Life is not as simple as it once was. People are busy. They have a lot going on. It's getting rarer for people to take the initiative to find solutions unless they have no choice. The marketer's job is to bring the solution to the prospect and then, to give the prospect a reason to act now. This is the premise behind many, if not most promotions.

People need clothes. During the year, they buy them. Yet, some people are too busy to mess with it. Rather, they do not make time for clothes shopping. They're busy. They find clothes shopping distasteful. They would rather do other things. So stores hold sales.

Save 20% if you buy this weekend, the marketing screams. The marketer is attempting to give the prospect a reason to act. Sooner or later the prospect knows he has to buy clothes. He might as well do it now when he can save a little. Thus, the sale provides him with a reason to act.

Sales aren't the only motive to act. The Service Roundtable put together a direct mail letter explaining why August was a great time to replace an air conditioner. Normally, August is a terrible month for discretionary air conditioner sales. If you've made it to August, you're going to try and make it through the rest of the season. The letter was an attempt to change that. The reasons cited in the letter for replacing in August included the fact that the installation crews were still available and working at the top of their game, the selection was still good but would start to thin in the fall as the industry geared up for heating season, and the seasonal price increases would not taken effect until the end of the year. The letter offered up a series of reasons. Roger Costner with Brothers Air and Heat took the letter and turned it into a newspaper ad that he ran in late August and September. The phone immediately started ringing as soon as the ad hit. Costner gave people with a need to buy in the next year or two a reas

on to buy now. He turned a time of the year with few discretionary sales into a sales rich environment.

What reasons can you give for people to buy now?

7. Include Soft Offers to Better Test the Media

Marketing fails when you have the wrong audience, timing, or offer. Unfortunately, you often don't know what is causing the failure. A soft offer can help. Soft offers are low level offers that do not cost you much and are no-brainers to the buyer. They are "can't lose" offers.

An example of a soft offer used by Ahron Katz in Dallas was a free carbon monoxide detector. Katz gave people the same carbon monoxide detector that pilots use (i.e., the button type). They cost a few dollars when purchased in bulk and it gave him a chance to see if his media was working, while also building his customer list.

If the soft offer works and the regular offer does not, it's a sign that the media is good, but the offer or timing is not. If the soft offer fails, it's an indication that the media was wrong. Soft offers provide a diagnostic element to your marketing.

What kinds of soft offers can you include?

NEXT: How Long Should Your Copy Be?

Since it helps to "see" examples, you might want to download a copy of the "Build a More Profitable Service Business" notes by clicking on the link below.

http://www.serviceroundtable.com/Freebi ... p?PCID=295

Source: Comanche Marketing. Reprinted by permission.

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www.serviceroundtable.com -- click on the Comanche Marketing tab

Copyright © 2004 Matt Michel