Read. Feel. Act

David Denis — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:17:14 +0000

What causes people to shell out good money to buy something, even something expensive?

It’s not necessarily because it makes sense — although that is important.

The point of decision (buying) is motivated more by emotion than logic. If not skillfully targeted at the right kind of emotion, most appeals will fail to convert into action.

So if you rely solely on overwhelming logic to close sales, you may find that your revenue is not keeping up with your vision. If you keep waiting for people to see the light of your unassailable logic, you will still be waiting long after the cold dead corpse of your business has been picked clean by the buzzards of the auction. What you need to do is light the fire.

Dan Heath of FastCompany explains that emotion, not logic, facts or statistics, is the key to moving people to change. He uses examples of helping people change direction and adopt new habits such as healthy eating or saving money. Imagine, on the other hand, what this means applied to selling YOUR product or service.

Simply put, you cannot merely list features or facts and expect people to make the connections. You must connect those facts to the strong emotions that motivate people to take action. The formula is simple: First people see what they want. Then they feel the need. Then they change.

Applied to writing copy, that formula can be translated as Read-Feel-Act.

That’s the signature quality of truly effective copy.

If your copy needs to create action, rather than simply inform, you must write to touch the heart as well as provide necessary information. One of my mentors put it this way, “People buy (act) based on emotion, and then they justify their action with logic and facts.” Humans act because they want something (love) or wish to avoid something (fear). If your writing taps into either of those primal emotions, you have a much better chance of getting the result you want.

So when it comes to creating your marketing materials or your website, find a copy writer that understands how to really sell you, your company and your products. The best writers get inside the head of the prospect and write copy that throws gasoline on their personal emotional woodpile and tosses on the match. It’s touching that emotional flashpoint that gets things jumping when it comes to your prospects deciding to buy.

That’s why buzzards hate bonfires.

Using Technology Effectively in your Business

David Denis — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:00:36 +0000

Is technology a blessing or a curse for your business?

Neither. It’s a tool. Like a screwdriver. Try driving a nail with a screwdriver. Not much good is it? But it sure is good for putting in screws. Using technology in your business is about using the right tool for the right job.

Technology has only 2 functions in your business.

Increased efficiency.
Increased effectiveness.

Using technology properly increases your efficiency by making a wide range of repetitive and complicated tasks simpler and faster and cheaper. If you haven’t realized this yet, you will soon when your faster more profitable competitor eats your lunch. But efficiency is NOT where the real value of technology lies. Increased efficiency only SAVES you money, which is good, but it can only get you just so far. It cannot MAKE money.

3 Ways Technology Makes you more Effective

Effectiveness in business means making a profit. Before profits come sales and sales come from customers. So using technology to make your business more effective means creating customers and making good decisions about your revenues and expenses.

Using Technology Find Customers

Use technology to find your customers. E-bay is such a powerful business model because it makes it super easy for buyer and sellers of just about anything to find one another just about anywhere. I know of a commercial lender who is using the internet to create a network of people who funnel him business. This is high touch because he is now able to reach out and touch a hundred, a thousand percent more prospects than without technology. What would a similar system do for your business?

Using Technology to Communicate with Customers

Second, use technology to communicate with your customers, more often, more quickly and with better information. Do you think voice mail stinks? I recently read about real estate agents out there who have set up systems to respond to a request for information within 15 minutes of receiving a message? That’s high touch because studies show that the first agent to respond is usually the one who gets the listing.

Using Technology to Manage Information

Third, use technology to manage information for better decision-making. Business isn’t only about numbers (see point number two), but if you aren’t paying the right kind of attention to the right numbers, the numbers will trip you up. So learn to use technology to gather information and look at it in ways that will help you decide how to invest your three most important assets as an entrepreneur: time, money and energy.

Stop thinking its high tech vs. high touch. It is true that it’s never been about gadgets. It has always been about people. But the smart businesspeople understand that using high-tech properly makes you MORE high touch. Be aggressive about figuring out how, and YOU will be the one eating lunch.

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