Networking and 60 Second Commercials--Making an Offer

Quid Pro Quo

Business can be reduced to a simple formula. I give you something. You give me something in return. Quid pro Quo.

In trying to improve your 60 second commercials for your networking group, we talked about preparing your commercial and in the last blog entry we talked about profiling your idea customer to have a very specific target for your commercials. The third ingredient in a powerful commercial is a business offer, a business transaction, a selling proposal—“I will give you this, if you give me that”.

Many small business owners say, “I hate to sell.” If the heart and soul of business is I give you something, you give me something in return. Then selling is part of every business. If you are in business, there is an exchange that must take place. All forms of business demand the Quid pro Quo.

So how do you make an offering in your 60 second commercials? There are four questions you must answer with every commercial. They are the four questions every prospect has when they are considering to buy. These are the same questions you bring to the table when you are doing your own shopping.

(My thanks to Mark Joyner and his treatment of this area in his book, The Irresistible Offer, How to Sell Your Product in 3 Seconds or Less.)

Questions 1 and 2

 What are you trying to sell me? How much does it cost?

These two questions are taken together because they are the heart of the selling process. Is what you are offering a good and fair price for what I will receive in return? Check out this example.

Give me a dollar and I will give you a candy bar. You might say to yourself, “I don’t have enough information to determine if this is a good deal.

Give me a dollar and I will give you a chocolate candy bar. Now you have some more information and I happen to know you are a chocolate lover. Still you might hesitate.

Give me a dollar and I will give you a king size chocolate candy bar. Now you say to yourself, that’s a good deal. I get my chocolate that normally cost $1.25. And I don’t have to drive to the store to get it.

So here’s my dollar, give me the king size chocolate candy bar.

Cost is not always in terms of dollars and sense. It could be the cost of time; the cost of convenience. Which of us has not bought a product because it was more convenient and a time saver? The prospect is weighing the cost; you must address it.

Question 3

The third question is “Why should I believe you?”

All buyers have insecurity. We buy from people we know, like and trust. You will never buy from someone you don’t trust unless greed takes over. How can I believe you? Why should I believe you?

Because this is so essential to making a good commercial, I will devote a future blog entry entirely to the subject of believability.

Question 4

The final question is, “What’s in it for me?

How will I benefit from this product or service? People buy products and services not for what they are but for what they can do for themselves. You don’t buy a drill to just have a drill. You buy a drill to make holes so you can complete a wood working project that makes your house more beautiful. Products and services are means to an end.

Answering this question is essentially giving the prospect reasons why they should buy your product. If you did your homework last week, you should have as part of your ideal customer profile why customers want to buy your products or services.

Do you think a guy buys a truck with a 365 horse power because it has 365 horse power? No, he buys the truck with that much horse power because he can pull his boat and motor up north and go fishing with the buddies. That’s the end results of his purchase.

When you dig deeper into the benefit side of your commercials, then you realize there are only about 15-18 benefits that drive people’s purchases--health, safety, self esteem, security, save money, etc. If you are able to capture people’s benefits in your commercial, it will go a long way towards making it more effective. Let me give you some examples of classic commercials.

Domino’s Pizza

“Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, or it’s free”.

You have three ingredients here. What is it--fresh hot pizza; what the benefit--immediate; the believability—the guarantee. This commercial does not give the cost because there are too many pizza options to specify one cost.

Federal Express

“When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight, Federal Express”

 What do you get—package delivery; what’s the benefit--security of knowing you will be off the hook. What could be more believable than Federal Express? Again, the price is not mentioned because it is assumed you will pay any price to just get you package absolutely delivered on time.

So in your 60 second commercials remember you are making a business offer--I will give you this, if you give me that. Make sure it includes answers to the four questions:

    1. What are you selling?
    2. How much does it cost?
    3. Why should I believe you?
    4. What will I get from it?

In a future blog entry, I will deal with the believability factor of your networking commercials. Your comments are welcomed.

Comments

[Mark Joyner]

Hi Al,

If you're going to paraphrase my book (which this article is attempting to do), you need to say that. You say "thanks to Mark Joyner for his treatment of this area ..." "Treatment?" You're failing to mention that this article is a book summary - leaving the reader to think that the ideas are yours.

Can you handle this properly please? You can contact our help desk at http://www.simpleology.com/support

Thanks,

MJ