Put your prospects in PAIN

The dance of marketer/prospect mostly involves the salesperson MOVING TOWARD the prospect looking for an opening to push their product or service. Unfortunately this creates repulsion rather than attraction. While there are exceptions where chemistry is strong, often times, the more we move toward the prospect, the more uncomfortable they get and MOVE AWAY from us.

Again the focus should NOT be to talk about our company, product or service but rather ask genuine, creative questions about the prospect’s experiences, feelings and vision of the future. The only way to incite change is by getting the prospect to realize, of their own volition, that their current solution or current collection of possible solutions are inadequate for their very specialized needs. When this occurs the prospect will begin to move toward us rather than away from us. This is what is meant by creating attraction. It is not an OVERT thing that we do but rather a COVERT realization in the mind of the customer.

Here are some questions that can allow us to create PAIN in the mind of the prospect without making them feel we are trying to move in on their space:

1. What are some of the solutions that you have already tried?
2. How did they work?
3. What kept them from being the most effective solution?
4. What were they missing?
5. How will you avoid this from happening again in the future?
6. What is it that most of the vendors that you speak with just don’t get?
7. Why are your needs so “specialized?”
8. What would happen if you cannot get this project properly completed in time?
9. What happened last time?
10. What is the cost of staying with your current solutions?
11. What do you like most about your current vendors?
12. If there was one thing that you could change about them what would it be?

There are many other PAIN questions that we can create. Think of a few and share them with your colleagues. Ask these questions of your existing clients and prospects and see the PAIN you force them to face, and then help them resolve those issues. Let me know how it goes.

Be well and enjoy success this week.

-Mark Deo

Rule 1: Become a Bigger Fish in a Smaller Pond

This is the first of 15 short video lessons I’m making available that cover the topics discussed in my upcoming book, The Rules of Attraction. I hope you find it valuable.

To pre-order the book at Amazon.com, click on the image below.

The Rules of Attraction

The force of “Attraction” is not only one of the most over-simplified principles in business today, but it is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the context of client development and the building of business relationships. Entrepreneurs and marketing managers across all industries are learning the hard way that platitudes they’ve read or heard about attraction-based marketing just don’t easily translate into their business. Coupled with the waning effectiveness of traditional marketing, entrepeneurs often want to use attraction based marketing techniques, but lack the knowledge and experience necessary to make this a reality.

For over twenty years I’ve taught entrepreneurs how to apply the rules of attraction to their businesses in a practical, step-by-step manner. Knowing how powerful these techniques are, I’ve always wanted to spread this message to as many small businesses as possible. That’s why I’m excited to announce that my book, The Rules of Attraction is set to be published this coming spring.

The Rules of Attraction takes the reader on a step-by-step journey which not only educates them on the principles of attraction, but inspires them to put them into action by showing precisely HOW to apply each rule to their own marketing initiatives.

I am pleased to be working with Morgan James Publishing, the company behind Jay Conrad Levinson’s Guerrilla Marketing series of books. Click on the small image to see a larger version of the cover artwork.

The Rules of Attraction will be available in bookstores and on all the major book retailing websites in May, but I will have a limited number of pre-release copies in March that I can distribute to members of my network. If you want to be notified as soon as the book is available, please send an e-mail to booklist@markdeo.com and I’ll personally notify you when it is hot off the presses.

I will soon be adding an entire section to this website dedicated to the book with video lessons, bonus content, and a way to get feedback from me on your Attraction Marketing efforts.

Thank you for all the kind notes I’ve receved encouraging me to get this book published.