What is client-centered marketing and how has it impacted marketing strategies in the 21st century?

Answer 1

Client-Centered Marketing Spells

In this lesson, I'm going to talk about the two types of client prospects you have…and

how to reach them with my 'client-centered marketing' techniques.

Everyone knows what a client is, right? And of course, you know all about 'prospects,'

too. But it's very important that you know there are two kinds of prospects for your

goods and services…

There are Motivated Prospects…

and Unmotivated Prospects.

Motivated Prospects are those people who are hot to buy right now.

Unmotivated prospects are those who will buy later.

Actually, to add to the confusion, you can also break this particular category down into

Undecided and Unaware prospects, as well.

But let's be optimistic! Let's first talk about the type of prospect we all love - the

Motivated Prospect!

2

This is the person who needs a print shop to do the posters and collateral work for an

upcoming trade show; or someone who needs a photographer for his or her upcoming

wedding; perhaps they've got a big training manual due and need a tech writer to get it

put together; or their garbage disposal has given up the ghost and they need you to

replace it!

These are the hot prospects, and there are easy ways to reach them; for example,

through the Yellow Pages (yes, the phone book still has its place in our lives), the online

yellow pages, and through the local search function of Google or Yahoo.

I'll talk about the internet and Yellow Pages and advertising a little later down the road,

but now, I want to spend some time talking about the Unmotivated Prospects.

Unmotivated Prospects

Unmotivated Prospects are the lion's share of your market because, unfortunately,

there's a lot more of them around than motivated customers. The problem is that since

they're not looking for your services, YOU have to find out who they are and you have

to educate them on who YOU are, and what you can provide them.

Here's a little secret for you. Not many of your competitors are making the effort to

find these prospects. This is a tremendous opportunity for you to cultivate new clients

with little worry about your competition across town.

3

So how do you attract customers?

You develop a mix of good marketing tools...you become a "Star" - and you stress the

benefits of your benefits! You use what I call client-centered marketing to get people to

call you on the phone and come knocking on your door!

Here's the Mojo. Client-centered marketing is simple. All you have to understand is the

difference between features and benefits!

Features are about you and your product or service. Saying, "We use digital video

cameras" is a feature. (It's a 'what it is.')

Benefits are the specific results that your product or service offers to your clients and

prospects. (It's a 'what it does.')

Saying, "You can rest assured that you'll have a permanent record of all the sights and

sounds of your wedding day - in true-to-life color and sparkling clarity that will

NEVER fade away - a legacy to pass down to your children and their children and their

children's children's children!" is a benefit.

(Sorry about that last part. I always enjoy saying "children's children's children.")

Features count, of course! When I'm buying a piano, I want to know that it has a full set

of 88 keys, that those keys are weighted and they're velocity sensitive, that the whole

shebang weighs under 60 pounds… but what I really want -above all else -is an

4

instrument that sounds terrific on-stage. Only after I'm convinced of that do the

features start to matter.

Anyway…a couple weeks ago, I put up an audio called "10 Steps To Marketing

Success." Remember listening to that one? Do you recall the third step? Very good!

If you printed out the little pocket reminder card, look it up right now! Step three, you

must be client-centered. Now…keeping that thought in mind, just take a closer look at

the stuff you get in the mail.

Most marketing materials are self-centered monologues instead of benefit-laden

dialogues. Or worse, they're just plain boring! And they fail. Why? Because they don't

immediately address the buyers' self interests, which are critical questions like ---

what's in it for me? or So what? or Who cares?

You have to remember that people don't buy things.

They buy results --results like happiness, making and saving money, popularity,

wisdom, saving time, comfort, praise, safety, security, recognition and easier ways to do

things.

While technology is changing our lifestyles, our basic needs and wants have remained

the same for millions of years. So you've got to be sure that all of your marketing

materials include benefit payoffs that tell your prospects immediately how you can

help them be popular, be comfortable, be admired, avoid problems, make their life

easier, gain power and status, gain wisdom, avoid criticism and exploit opportunities.

5

NEVER assume that people can translate your features into benefits; you must always

do this for them!

At this point, you should have figured out that the old platitude about marketing being

"finding a need and filling it" is not specific enough to do you much good. Nope!

You've got to find WANTS and fill them!

Look at it this way. Most of us have enough of the basics - food, shelter, clothing and

transportation. We don't NEED much more. But! We WANT more, don't we? We

really need food as basic sustenance - but we WANT diet foods, gourmet foods, fast

foods, Mexican and Chinese and Italian foods.

We probably don't NEED a six bedroom, four-bath home...but we may WANT one!

We probably don't NEED a new car, but we may WANT a new Mercedes or a BMW or

a vintage 'Vette.

You really don't NEED one of my DVDs but you might WANT to gain wisdom quickly

and conveniently. Get the picture?

People buy with their hearts…

You must remember that people buy with their hearts, and then rationalize their

decision with their heads. It's the old emotion versus logic thing, here. Which means

that when you're trying to sell, remember you're solving a problem for your prospects

by giving them what they want (their desires), not what they need (required), and

they'll reward you big-time for it. How do you do this? Easy. You communicate the

6

"payoff benefits" I just talked about.

Okay. What have we learned in this lesson?

There are two types of client prospects -Motivated Prospects who are ready to buy and

are just looking for a place to spend their money…and Unmotivated Prospects, who

need to be educated as to how you can help them. (They can be further split into

Undecided and Unaware.)

You reach these prospects with "Client-Centered Marketing," making certain to

emphasize the benefits of doing business with you, rather than just the features of your

products and services.

It's not enough to simply find a need and fill it. You have to find WANTS, and then fill

them, for the best results!

To make sure you learn to stress the benefits of your products and services first; and

their features second, I've set up this simple challenge for you. It's a features and

benefits worksheet. On it, there's space for you to write down the features… and the

benefits… of each of your products and services!

I suggest you start with your most popular service or product, and work down the list

from there. Sure, if you're selling a widget, put down that it measures 4 inches by 3

inches by 5 and 5/16 inches in the feature column…but more importantly, write down

the benefit of that size - half the size of similar widgets, takes up very little room so you

can add extra components without crowding your widget rack.

7

Maybe you use special 10-gauge woven silk thread when custom tailoring your clients'

shirts or dresses. That's a feature. The benefit is "hem stitching is invisible and

guaranteed never to unravel or fail." Put those two together and you have an

uncommonly strong sales message.

Get the idea?

Next time around - get ready to rope, ride and brand 'em.

-0-