Effective Marketing Solutions

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     Have you ever read any of Malcolm Gladwell’s books?  He’s written a few bestsellers including Blink, The Tipping Point and Outliers. Why do I ask?

      Because he’s a true master in using show don’t tell.  And put simply, this is one of the most important techniques in sales and marketing.

     In fact, I don’t think any other single tactic can have a more substantial impact on the success of your business.  I’ve literally seen companies go from $1M (annually) in sales to almost $12M simply by using show don’t tell…

     Malcolm uses the show don’t tell technique in all of his books.  He dedicates hundreds of pages to paint a picture with words – rather than just explaining the concept behind the book.

     For instance, in Blink he spends 254 pages slowly uncovering one very simple idea by providing example after example.  

     I could sum up the entire book in one sentence, “Sometimes intuition is stronger than logic when making decisions.”  Yup, it’s that easy… 

     But I doubt Malcolm’s publisher would have appreciated a one-sentence book.  So instead of explaining the idea, Malcolm shows readers what it’s all about.

     In one chapter, Malcolm writes about an experiment from scientists at the University of Iowa. In that experiment, the researchers present participants with four decks of cards – two red, and two blue. 

     Each card in the decks either wins the participant a sum of money or costs them money. What participants don’t know is that the red decks are stacked with cards that lose them a lot of money.  In fact, they could only win money by taking cards from the blue decks.

    So how long do you think it took for participants to realize that choosing from the red decks was a bad decision?

     The researchers found that after participants turned over about 50 cards, most of them started to realize what was going on.  After turning about 80 cards, they had figured out the game and could explain what was going on.

     Now here’s the interesting part… the scientists also hooked each participant up to a machine that measured stress responses (like sweaty palms). What they found was extraordinary. 

     The participants started generating stress responses to the red decks by the tenth card!  That’s 40 cards before they became consciously aware of what was going on.

     This experiment illustrates that the subconscious, intuition, snap judgments (whichever you prefer) are sometimes more powerful than logic. And the whole book is full of experiments, stories and examples like this one… all of them illustrating this one simple concept.

     Now let’s look at a real-world example of what I’m talking about.  And I don’t have to search hard to find one…

     In fact, every time I go to the gym it’s staring me in the face.  As soon as I come out of the locker room and into the gym I pass a table with fliers promoting membership.

     The fliers read:

• 5,000sq ft
• Kinesis Studio
• Private Pilates Studio
• Yoga Studio
• Group Fitness Classes

     Now that’s great, but none of these bullets have anything to do with why people join gyms.  

     An effective flyer would follow the show don’t tell rule and paint a picture (with words or using a real picture) of how the person would benefit from a gym membership. 

     Depending on the target market that could be something like… 

“Imagine waking up full of energy and optimism about the day ahead of you… You get out of bed, pet your dog and walk over to the bathroom. 

 As you brush your teeth you can’t help but stare at yourself in the mirror.  

The flabby under arms, tummy stretch marks and thunder thighs that plagued you for so many years are completely gone.  

All that remains is a chiseled, toned, beautiful body. 

Even better, the dark circles under your eyes have disappeared and you have more energy than you’ve ever had in your adult life.  

You look amazing and you feel energized and confident. 

The sense of personal accomplishment is overwhelming.  But the best part is the astonishment of your friends and family who haven’t seen you in a while. 

Hearing how great you look just never gets old…”

     THIS is how you market a gym.  A potential client can visualize this story.  It creates a mental image of what life will be like if they just join the gym.  That’s going to be more effective in getting people to join than “Kinesis studio.”

      Now it’s important to remember that the show don’t tell technique isn’t just for marketing copy.  You should use show don’t tell whether you’re pitching a client, selling a supplement, speaking in front of an audience… rallying support at a board meeting… 

     Here’s how to do it:

     First, I’m going to assume you’re selling something that you believe in (if not, please stop).  If you do believe in your product/service, this should be easy.

     All you have to do is get the prospect to believe what you already know to be true… inspire hope that your product or service can:

1. Get them in better shape
2. Alleviate their pain
3. Make them more money…

     You would be surprised how many “professionals” miss the boat here. They make the same mistake, over and over… they simply tell prospects about their product, when they should be showing them how it can make their lives better.

     A famous copywriter, Clayton Makepeace, once wrote, “If a picture is worth a thousand words, an example is worth at least a hundred.”

     Couldn’t have put it better myself…

     That’s why I try to incorporate examples, stories, even metaphors whenever I’m trying to get a point across.  For instance, check out my recent entries on leadership.

     In the entry about vision, I give two examples of visionary leaders (one about Tom Watson Jr. at IBM and another about Thomas Edison)… then I explain the concept to hammer it home.

     In the entry on “Walking the walk” I begin by telling a story about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Only after I’ve told a story demonstrating the idea do I try to tell readers about it.

     So how about you?  In your marketing… sales calls… pitch presentations… management…

     Are you telling people what you want them to know – or showing them how it will improve their lives?