From the desk of Razvan Rogoz
Dear friend,
I’m sharing with you a secret now that if you understand, it is going to earn you millions. It will cut your working time in half, it will make your self-improvement business effortless and it will bring you a sense of satisfaction that you’ve never experienced before.
This is the most important and most obvious secret in marketing. It is no rocket science and yet, nine out of ten entrepreneurs fail this simply rule.
The rule is … Go to where your market actually is!
Let me put it this way. Most entrepreneurs try to pitch to everyone except the people that want to buy. They try to convince their friends, their relatives, their network to buy when they’re not interested in buying … while ignoring a huge army of people that have the money, have the interest and actually are aware of the problem you’re trying to solve.
It’s stupid and yet, it is so common that I’ve fell into this trap many times too. Many times I’ve tried to convince everyone around me, knowing that they’re not in the field, knowing that they’re not actually interested while I’ve ignored the people who are interested in buying.
I’ve seen this with coaches at self-improvement seminar and workshops. I’ve seen them try to sell to the person that has no interest in buying while ignoring those that actually want to pay.
Let me make this clear for you – your job is NOT to convince people they need to hire or buy from you. Your job is not to educate those around you on their problems and then hope that they’ll buy. This is a losers game. It takes a lot of time, it is frustrating and most leads are never going to sale. If someone said all his life “I don’t need a life coach”, you’re not going to come and change his mind in two hours. Some do change, some do convert but the ratio is very small and you’re fighting an uphill battle. In copywriting, my job is never to try to convince someone that they need someone I offer. My job is to appeal to the market that is already in pain and wants a solution.
A pizza shop doesn’t appeal to people that already ate and are not hungry. Nobody eats pizza, no matter how delicious and mouth-watering it is, if they’ve ate just 30 minutes before. A pizza shop appeals to the people that are feeling hungry or starving. Your job as a coach is the same. You don’t go to the people who say “I’m okay, I don’t need anything” as it takes way too much time and effort to make them look critically at their life. You’re going to those that are ready to make a change, that are at the tipping point and don’t know how to continue from this point onwards. The job of marketing and of copywriting is not to educate, it is to persuade.
Put it this way, how stupid it would be to take a random person that is not in the self-improvement field or even in online marketing and try to sell my services and products? They’re not in the field. It would be a huge waste of time. I’m not going to convince them to start doing this just because I can help them. Even if I could convince them, in the time it would take to sell to one person, I could sell to twenty that are already in the field.
On the other hand, how good is it when I go to someone that (1) is motivated to succeed (2) is suffering from poor sales (3) has the money to invest (4) desires to invest (5) understands the critical role of marketing and copywriting? The sale is effortless. It takes little to no persuasion but instead, just a good solution. It comes down to the value proposition.
Now, in real life, it is very rare for your value proposition to make the entire sale. You do need to sell. You do need to become obsessed with sales as it is the one skill that you’ll use in everything you do. But the further away a prospect is from your ideal customer, the more you have to sell and in the end, it is not worth it. You need to go through a sales process with everyone but you don’t need to be a masochist and target people that are not in the same chapter as you are … or even in the same story. If there’s no pain, there’s no sale. Period.
You need to stop acting against your own self-interest by trying to sell to everyone apart from your target market. Your relatives, your friends are not your target market. They appreciate you for what you’re doing but just because they’re close, this doesn’t mean they’ll buy. Your target market is made out of people who are in pain, for whom you have a solution, that can afford this solution, that want to actually solve it and that understand what you’re doing.
If you’re doing forum marketing, go to the forums where your market actually resides. If you’re doing SMM, then talk to the people who are going to buy your products. If you’re doing PPC, then target exactly your ideal customer, as at $1 per lead, you’d be very silly to waste your money with second grade prospects. If you’re networking, go and talk with the people that can buy, not the ones that are available.
When you do this, two things magically happens.
Miracle #1 – your conversion rate increases dramatically, because there’s nothing better for your CR than good targeting.
Miracle #2 – you decrease your time getting customers (or your budget, in the case of a sales funnel) dramatically. It’s usual to see a 70% drop in marketing costs just by moving from “may be my customers” to “are my ideal customers”.
I have a friend who is an amazing sales person. He’s doing phone sales. Every single one of his co-workers calls the mid and lower level management. They go with the people whom are approachable, the ones that won’t shut the phone in their face. These people can not take a buying decision but they hope that by calling them, they can influence the higher tier of management.
He’s more practical. The product is aimed at CEOs so he calls the CEO. If the CEO is not available, the he calls the CIO (chief information officer). If the CIO is not available, he calls the CPO (chief purchasing officer). Instead of taking the indirect route, he simply goes to the boss and makes his pitch. He draws a straight line from A to B and needless to say, he’s the most successful sales person in the entire company.
Dating is so similar – there are people who take the indirect route, hiding their intentions, acting as friends and they generally end up in the friend zone. And there are people who simply go and get what they want. It is no wonder that nice guys finish last – of course they finish last if they take any approach between start and finish but a straight line.
When I’m selling, I’m not selling to people that can’t buy, won’t buy or don’t have buying privileges. I’m not going to waste time with this. I’m talking directly with the person that is in charge and where I can get a clear answer. Ironically, especially in the service field, nobody does this. Everyone takes an indirect route of trying to sell without selling and this never works. I’m one of the few people that are direct and say exactly what they want to sell, without lying to my customer. When I’m selling, I’m selling. I’m not trying to come as a friend and then covertly selling. It’s manipulative as heck if I do this and because of this, people respect me.
You’re supposed to do exactly the same thing. Find your market and sell. As a general rule, if you don’t try to sell in the beginning, don’t try to make the sale later, it doesn’t work. In dating, if you start as friends, it is very hard, almost impossible to get out of the friend zone and become a couple. The same is true with sales. If you are coming in as a friend, you’re going to stay as a friend until the end. If you want to make the sale, establish the nature of the relationship from the start – You’ve got a problem, I’ve got a solution, here’s why you need to buy my solution, period. Even if he doesn’t buy the first time (he should though), by establishing this context, you’re making your life infinitely easier.
I hate it when something is free and then it becomes paid. I hate it when I take for granted the help or the tools provided for me and then someone asks me to actually pay for them. Most people do. The expectation is that if you start free, it stays free, especially when it comes to your time. So, don’t start free. It’s as simple as that. Write materials, create content, publish on your platform, get your name known out there but if you give your market a finger, they’ll take your entire hand and arm and shoulder.
That being said, you’re not making enough sales? Perfect. Then let’s solve this. I’m here to help you as a consultant. The rate is $50 per 30 minute. I don’t have any spots available this week but I probably have some next week. Before you pay, I’ll do a complimentary needs analysis call with you in which I understand who you are and what you need. I’m not charging you for this but the purpose is to understand your circumstances, nothing else. Then, when you’re paying for my time, I’m able to give you solutions that are targeted to your particular needs instead of reviewing everything again.
Click on the link below to get your complimentary 30 minute call.
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Best regards,
Razvan Rogoz
The Self-Improvement Copywriter