-Our guest blogger- Jay Conrad Levinson is the author of the best-selling marketing series in history, “Guerrilla Marketing,” plus 30 other books. His books have sold 14 million copies worldwide. His guerrilla concepts have influenced marketing so much that today his books appear in 41 languages and are required reading in many MBA programs worldwide. He was a teacher and sounding board for The Shift Doctors (Tracy Latz, M.D. and Marion Ross, Ph.D.) ; and after many discussions strongly encouraged us to publish a book (soon to be released) designed to assist people who struggle with implementing tools learned in business or entrepreneurial coaching programs due to self-sabotage. For more on Jay Conrad Levinson visit www.gmarketing.com
GUERRILLA SOFT STEPS
It’s a hard step for a prospect to decide to buy from you. Guerrillas make that hard step a whole lot easier by offering prospects several soft steps. Just imagine how difficult it is for a prospect to make the decision to buy what you are selling. That prospect has never purchased from you before, doesn’t know all that much about you, and has been stung in the past by making purchasing errors from others.
Guerrilla Marketing makes that hard step a lot less hard by creating a series of soft steps for prospects to take first. One such soft step is the offer of a free consultation. It’s easy to say yes to such an offer because it carries with it no pressure. And after it’s over, it makes the hard step of buying a whole lot easier.
The guerrilla’s arsenal abounds with such soft steps, all designed to make purchasing from you more risk-free, less of a momentous decision, and simpler because you’ve removed most barriers with information.
What are some other soft steps that guerrillas take? I thought you’d never ask. In addition to free consultations, there are free seminars and free clinics, free samples and free demonstrations. These are soft steps that let the prospect know what it’s like to actually own what you are selling without taking any risk whatsoever. After taking these soft steps, the hard step of buying from you doesn’t seem all that hard anymore. Other first-rate guerrilla soft steps include free brochures — printed, on videotape, or on audiotape. And then there are free catalogs, a free newsletter, and free tours of whatever you want your prospects to see.
Guerrillas know deep in their bones that many prospects need a little nudge and that soft steps provide that nudge. So they search their imaginations for other soft steps. Some offer free appraisals. Others, free estimates. Still others dream up special events to attract prospects. They do everything in their power to make that hard step of buying from them seem not so hard after all. Guerrillas still know that buying from a stranger is not an easy task. So the guerrilla bends over backwards to be removed from the ranks of strangers and to become a friend first. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to offer free information of value. And that’s exactly what soft steps are all about.
Your job as a guerrilla is to provide enough data so that buying from you is the next logical step, as natural as breathing — instead of the perilous, risky step that purchasing really is. Guerrillas go out of their way to utilize the soft steps I’ve already mentioned, then to create even more soft steps so that the hard steps become as easy as pie.
– For more on Jay Conrad Levinson visit www.gmarketing.com
*Check out The Shift Doctors’ books at the Amazon link by clicking here and the Meditation CDs at the digstation link by clicking here