Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/72467
MARKETING CONSULTANT What Do You Do? BY SCOTT STROUD Picture this: You're at a cocktail party and you strike up a conversation with someone you don't know. They ask, "So, what do you do?" If you haven't worked on and practiced your re- sponse, you'll probably answer in a very physi- cal sense, i.e. "I sell new homes" or "I work at a manufactured home community." And in so answering you would have missed a golden op- portunity. Last month I gave you ten questions to an- swer to create an effective Attraction Plan. One of them asked you to come up with an 'el- evator speech' – a brief description or Statement of Purpose of what you do for your customer, clients or residents. If you worked on this exercise last month, you found that – if done right – it's not as easy as it sounds, because rather that merely de- scribing your function ("I sell new homes…") this is an opportunity to tell people how you add value to their lives. The term 'elevator speech' itself implies brevity – delivering a succinct message in the time it takes for an elevator to move from one floor to the next. The hard part is getting the message pared down to a few powerful words. If you are a retail salesperson for a home manufacturer, you might answer the 'what do you do' question in any of the following ways: 1. "I sell mobile homes." 2. "I sell brand new, affordable housing." 3. "I provide affordable, high-value homes for families like yours." 4. "I help families find and acquire afford- able, energy efficient, high-value homes that perfectlymatch their budget and lifestyle – even in tough markets like this." All of the above might be true, but see how each answer begins to build value in what you JULY 2012 20 THE JOURNAL do? And #4 elevates that value to its highest extent – and is absolutely true! Which do you think will have a greater impact on the lis- tener…or on your business? Crafting Your Elevator Speech A great formula to use to write your descrip- tion is this: "I help [your target group/audience/market] do/realize (action) [key benefit] even if [worse case scenario.]" In our example #4 above: • The target group is 'families'; • The action is 'find and acquire'; • The key benefit is 'affordable, energy ef- ficient, high-value homes that perfectly match their budget and lifestyle'; • The worse case scenario is 'tough mar- kets like this'. "I help…" 'Help' is a powerful word. There's never anything offensive or pitchy about helping oth- ers. You may help people by selling, setting, finding or building them a home, but isn't the result of all of those things to help someone im- prove their lives? That is the essence of what we do, so start with that or a similar phrase that shows the real value of what you do. Target Group Who is your ideal customer – the one that you'd love to have twenty of every year? What makes them ideal for you? What is your most lucrative product? Who is that product tailor- made for? Those are the people you want to talk directly to in yourmarketing and salesmes- saging. They are the top 20% of buyers that bring in 80% of your revenue. Many builders tell me they don't want to be pinned down to a specific niche – that they can and want to build for everyone. That's great, but the problemis that from a marketing stand- point you can't be 'all things to all people.' Try to attract everyone and you'll never stand out. Focus on that small group – your ideal niche, though, and you'll be able to craft a very compellingmessage the will attract those buyers – and others. When your buyers can see and understand exactly what you stand for, that's always attractive! Key Benefit We tend to think and build and measure or product in terms of features. Buyers, though, are looking at a new home from an emotional perspective: How will your home improve their lives. So don't leave it up to them to figure it out – tell them up front! If you've gone through the exercise that I gave you in last month's issue of The Journal, then you've clearly defined who your buyers are, what they are looking for and why they are on the market. Use those insights to describe the benefits that you offer in simple terms they can relate to. There is nothing more powerful than the heartfelt motivations of your buyers. Answer those and you will have no competi- tion! Worse Case Scenario Today's homebuyers approach the market with fear. The media keeps talking about falling home values and dropping prices. They may even have taken a big hit when they sold their last home. We address that before it becomes a prob- lem in our elevator speech by describing how we deliver life- improving benefits even in the worse case sce- nario. \ 21