Come Up and See Me Sometime
Sultry U.S. actress or to be politically correct actor Mae West’s (August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) Famous come-on line (offer) probably worked just fine for Mae West. But most business owners’ come-on lines (offer) aren’t so compelling and alluring, in fact, most are downright boring, vague, non-meaningful, and non-specific and finish up being filed in the trash can. Now that’s all good news for your printer, maybe the graphic artist, and even Australia Post but it’s not much good to your bank account.
Frankly, this kind of trash isn’t going to cut it anymore in a world where competition for your clients and prospects dollar has never been more fierce. Let’s face it, with the advent of the Internet, the geographical boundaries that once may have protected you from a competitor have now dissolved.
Even I bought my Lexus SC430 online and save myself about $60,000 and don’t forget I’m technophobic. So if I can do it, others surely will.
The power has now shifted firmly into the hands of the buyer who can simply choose to buy or not to buy from whom they damn well like.
You know the past boom economies of the Western World that have fed you in style will no longer tolerate your “plain vanilla” Mr. Professional sale and marketing material. You see the world of business has changed and is changed forever.
All that said, this represent a “cleansing of the pipe”, there will in fact be more $$$ for those who figure out how to get more of it $$$ coming their way. So the first thing you need to do is to make your offers more COMPELLING AND TIME SENSITIVE. I heard a complaint only last week, and it went like this, “Retail sales sure are down, what with school holidays, end of financial year, and now an election being called business sure is tough.”
My response was to go to their list of clients on email and SMS and make them a TIME SENSITIVE IRRESISTIBLE COMPELLING OFFER and that’s exactly what they did. It was 2 for 1 in the next 10 days and they were run off their feet.
Sure, in doing so they gave away some profit, the thing is they would never have had that profit to give away unless they made a sale (profit). Here is the mathematics: they still made 100% margin and people patronise them when they otherwise would not have. They even kept the cash registers ringing and a crowd attracts a crowd moving through the “turnstiles”.
You see, when business is quiet, I like to look at it this way. If you are doing badly, it’s because the money in their pocket (prospect or client) is worth more to them than what you have to offer (value). The trick is to get them to dip their hand in their pocket and give their money to you.
If you want that to happen you have to make IRRESISTIBLE COMPELLING OFFERS. Now I’m going to tell you what’s irresistible.
Recently, in Perth, a mentally unstable individual was parading naked on a roof with a gun in his hand, now all this has a happy ending, he was coax off the roof and I hope he is now getting the help he needs.
Here is my point. Crowd control was one of the major problem faced by those folks trying to help this unfortunate fellow, some of the crowd even told him to jump which is most unsavoury. It’s the same when there is a fire, it’s the biggest problem faced by those trying to bring it under control it’s the crowd trying to get a look.
This is what you call COMPELLING, people are COMPELLED to wonder what is going to happen next. Honestly, is your marketing this compelling? Now I’m not suggesting you set fire to a building. I’m suggesting that your OFFERS NEED TO BE COMPELLING ENOUGH to get a person to act, that is, choose you.
You need an offer. That offer has to be valuable, interesting, exciting and irresistibly compelling. There should be massive added value, desirable bonuses and savings to incentivise and reward for immediate action.
You have to convince the most sceptical prospect that they’d be a fool not to act, and convince them they must act now or lose out, and you need to do all those things to such an extreme degree, with so much sizzle, that it becomes irresistible.
Another Mae West quote went like this, “I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.” That’s exactly what I am talking about. Make your offer so tempting, people find it irresistible.
Oh, and here’s a big secret: even if you are offering something free – free information, a free consultation, a free exam, a free test drive, a free trial, etc. – you must work just as hard to sell “free” as you would if asking money for it. It’s not getting them to part with money that is so difficult. It is moving them to action of any kind, that’s the challenge.
So when times are tough and sales are slow, if you want them to beat down your door, spend your time CREATING IRRESISTIBLE COMPELLING OFFERS.
Mal Emery
Committed to Elevating the Financial Wealth and Wellbeing of Society
Through Entrepreneurial Excellence and Guilty of Conspiracy to Create Capitalism
P.S. If you’ve missed any of my previous Rants, I have them all available
for you to see on my website.
Simply go to www.rebelliousrant.com and enjoy!
9 Comments
Farhad Khurshed on July 28th, 2010
I couldn’t agree more.
The challenge that we marketing consultants and copywriters face however is to convince business otherwise – as they continue to stick to the hit & miss strategy of vanilla advertising that constitutes their business name in bold, four bullet points and an address.
pat jones on July 28th, 2010
Mal you have just given me the greatest idea for our stand at an up coming boat show.
It is going to be a crowd stopper.
I know and understand the human reaction to courisity, so with this in mind lookout crowd!!
Pat
mal emery on July 28th, 2010
Thanks Kent glad to hear it was helpful, best regards Mal
Mr.MATEEYES. on July 28th, 2010
GOOD ADVICE OL MATE MAL,
I have been exploring my short flyer copy for my lumpy mailouts , plus personal hand to hand flyer’s to secure & build my email list.
-( AND I HAVE GOTTEN A “MIXED REACTION”,BECAUSE OF MY “BOLD STATEMENTS MADE” WITHIN MY SHORT FLYER COPY’S .
SOME WHICH BOARDER
IM TOLD COULD BE DOWN RIGHT “RUDE”,BECAUSE OF ITS EXPRESSIONS OF MELTING “FAT FROM THEIR THIGHS” , HENCE ,www.meltfatfromyourthighsfast.com ,and certain fowlk dont take to kindly reading that they may be FAT ! ( SOMETIMES BLATANT TRUE FACTS HURT )..!
However ol mate mal ,its building my list ok yet im unsure to what statts would constitute a good conversion score ? % ?
I have circulated Aprox-300 flyers -( A5 ) ,and my list is only 23 confirmed,from this thus far ,however i have another few hundread to circulate and i will be targeting another way to distribute my flyers to my taget prospects as i personally dont see my email list opt-in score to prosperous.
I give a FREEBIE ebook away on healthy eating and well as im still yet to secure & justify a shopping cart to upsell other products,because i first would like to see a better result.
So Mal ol mate , How far, how close ,”how compelling does one run with this, without turning your prospective customers off & away” ?
I understand not to be to crass,and not to promise the world unless i can deliver it.
Which ol mate Mal,i have faith with in my product content ,and i have ethics attatched ,its just how far does one go with promised compelling words ? BEFORE ANY BOARDERING PROSPECTIVE LITTIGATION DROPS IN ONES LAP FROM “COMPELLING WORDS ” ?
Thank you for your energy.
Kind regards.
Mr.MATEEYES.
Christina on July 29th, 2010
I love the tactic of offering something for free. When us marketers offer something for free, it really works. What we are really saying is: “Let me into your brain” and “I know your brain is oversaturated and full of a million- and- one things you have to do like the shopping and the dishes and picking the kids up from school, but let me into your jampacked brain anyway, it will be good for you” So they do 
We sneak into their brains underneath the radar
Pete Godfrey on July 29th, 2010
The offer is KING! But many folks hide their offers in the fine print. Many times, if your offer is great, especially if it’s free, I like to get it up front and in the headline. Here’s what I did for my newsletter promotion…
FREE! 2 Content Rich Reports, 52 Wake Up Calls, 3 CDs, 3 Hot Sheets, Phone Coaching & Consulting… a smorgasbord of business-building information and assistance… ALL FREE… and you don’t even have to say yes right now…all you’ve gotta do is say “maybe”…
NOTE: This is a blatant rip-off of Kennedy’s old newsletter control before he formed Glazer-Kennedy. It’s a proven template to follow. Think of the old music clubs and how they offered, “6 records for 1 cent.”
Point is, many folks get cheap with their offers. Don’t you be one of them. Know your maths and how much each customer is worth to you and then work out how much you’re gonna spend to get them. That’s the proven formula that’s stood the test of time.
P.S. Great chatting the other day Mal… I miss you buddy…see you soon!
Andrew Nicholls on July 29th, 2010
Great Comment Mal,
As always you’ve hit the nail squarely on the head!
Maybe that Glasgow Kiss you gave the lamp post recently has given you a new focus!
You know you’ve just about destroyed a pastime I used to cherish- reading the newspaper. I now get so annoyed and frustrated with the plain Vanilla adverts it gives me a headache!… Thanks for that!
My wife is sick of hearing, “Scarcity… where’s the scarcity?” or “C’mon where’s the Value in this?” or the one she hears most often… “Why is there no ‘call to action’… what is wrong with you people?”
Mal- my wife used to enjoy going for a drive with me- not any more- thanks to you!!!… Billboards… now they give me a Glasgow Kiss!!
Ah yes- all good fun but on a serious note…
So Much Opportunity… so little time.
Cheers and like they say on the radio Mal…
Keep the good hits comin…
mal emery on July 31st, 2010
Unfortunately Andrew, once bitten you will never be the same again but heck you would not want to be anyway….sorry to the wife, life will never quite be the same for her either.
Kent H on July 28th, 2010
This is compelling reading. I’ve sent this to the printer and will be talking over this article with many.
Kent Hutchins