Comments on: If You Don’t Answer This Question Now, You’ll Regret it Later

By: Brandy

Brandy — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:48:44 +0000

Thanks Jason,
While my ‘business’ is writing books (so far one, Impossible Dreams, and publishing, I have been trying to sell to everyone and coming up short. I can see that ‘giving our audience what they want’ (and not assuming anything) while ‘narrowing the focus – our audience’ would be more productive.
I’m looking forward to the rest of the series, particularly the worksheet as my book is itself a workbook, the importance of taking brain strategies and actually placing them on paper cannot be over emphasized; it helps to connect the dots and provides a clearer picture of the finished idea.

By: Rafael Marquez

Rafael Marquez — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:31:44 +0000

I’m definitely at the point of trying to cater to everyone and connecting with no one. I’m looking forward to the rest of this series to see if I can grow out my plateau/ funk.

By: Jayson T. Cote

Jayson T. Cote — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:34:30 +0000

Excellent Jason. Entertaining and educational. I agree and always consult on defining what your market is asking before you determine how and what to sell them. Many clients approach me with great ideas that they want to pursue.

The the dead give-away for their possible idea failure is when I hear “no one is doing it” or “its never been done before”. So we analyze, research and perform a survey analysis to determine if the idea is viable and in demand.

Where I found most companies struggle when needing to expand their business, is to actually implement a decent discovery program to determine their target markets problems and questions in order to deliver exactly what they want.

This where listening and reading between the lines becomes a crucial skill in order to really know your target market.

All the best,
Jayson

http://groundupmedia.com
http://wpcoop.org

By: Steve S.

Steve S. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:22:42 +0000

Great point, but it takes a lot of discipline to implement – even when you know it’s true.

We all know that the vast majority of decisions are emotion based, but we tend to think of this as describing our customer’s behavior, not our own. We capitalize on it by using emotional appeals as the foundation for our sales letter content.

It’s ironic that we often don’t recognize this very human trait in ourselves, and that it applies just as strongly to the choices we make regarding our sales strategy.

Thanks Jason for pointing out that we as marketers are no different. Our emotions greatly influence our own decision making processes. We are not immune, but perhaps we will be more aware of it, and therefore make more logic based decisions going forward.

Thanks for this insightful post.

Steve S.
Red Arrow Publishing LLC