Tweet

Emotional Marketing, Part Two

Guest post by: Keith Thirgood

Article Overview: In another article I talked about Emotional Marketing. I concluded it by saying that once the prospect has indicated an interest in what you do, that it wasn't the moment to pitch your service or outline all your product offerings. In fact, it's not even time to try for an appointment. In this article, I'll talk about the next step.

Emotional Marketing, Part Two

In another article I talked about Emotional Marketing. I concluded it by saying that once the prospect has indicated an interest in what you do, that it wasn't the moment to pitch your service or outline all your product offerings. In fact, it's not even time to try for an appointment. In this article, I'll talk about the next step. What you've done in stage one is open the door to a conversation. If you go instantly into "sales mode", you close that door. At this stage, you don't even know if the person you're talking to is a prospect.

It's time for qualifying questions. So instead of pitching your service, ask them something relevant. Our computer technician example from my last article might say, "I know what you mean. Before I became a technician, I used to spend hours on hold trying to get issues solved. What sort of problems have you experienced?"

Now the prospect gets to do two of his favourite things. Talking about himself, and complaining. He might say, "Just last week I spent two hours trying to find out why the pick fields wouldn't work in Excel. What a waste of time. Turns out, I needed to set one thing differently, but I went through three techs to find that out."

Our computer tech would keep this kind of questioning going, to build up an image of this prospect, and the prospect's level of pain. Eventually, the prospect--if he's truly a prospect--will again ask, "So what exactly do you do?"

Again, it's not the time to launch into an explanation of your service; simply repeat your emotional marketing message. Our computer technician would again say, "I specialize in helping computer users who hate waiting for technical support." Leave it at that. Don't say another word. Wait for your prospect to say the magic words. "How do you do that?" (Or they might ask for your card.)

Now is time to get them to accept the next big step. Instead of giving a description of his business, our computer technician would say: "Without knowing more about your situation, I can't say how I would be able to help you. However, I've never met a computer issue I couldn't solve. Let me send you some information on what I do, and perhaps we can talk about it at greater length after that." If your prospect is hotly interested, you can try for an appointment right then, skipping the marketing material stage. But only if there's really strong interest.

You then send them your marketing materials. (All written keeping emotional marketing in mind.) And you accompany that with an article, white paper, report or some other "non-marketing" piece that enhances your credibility. After your prospect has had time to receive and read your material, you follow up with a call and try to set an appointment to "Get to know your situation, and determine if I can really be of help."

Using the two-part emotional marketing process, you know your appointments are with real prospects, not just "tire kickers".

Related Articles
  Emotional Marketing, Part One
  Have You Found Any New Marketing Truths
  Hiring and Promoting Emotional Intelligence
  5 Thoughts On Guest Loyalty
  Leading companies “mining” workforce for emotional intelligence

Article Tags: appointment, marketing, networking, product offerings, sales, service



Related Forum Posts
Money I made while in School - While in university I did have a Student Loan (still paying that bugger off) and had a part-time job as a Call Center agent (inbound). *Canada* I also designed websites (outsourced all the work). I just worked on getting new customers, managed the projects to completion and helped create Marketing Plans for my clients (Online and Offline). *Canada* When I was studying the in the States I also made some money as a Part-time Flight instructor. *USA*
Re: What is your Business? - We are running a Online Marketing Firm and we have some good clients to which we are offering a complete Digital Marketing strategy like Search, Mobile Marketing, Branding and Design. I think in Online Marketing company online presence can be a wining factor for the success of the company.
Re: Let’s talk about the ways of marketing your products, servic - I agree with some of the others who responded it depends on what your selling... but to answer your questions here are some of the methods I use. Forum Marketing Yahoo Answers (I need to use more of) SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Bum Marketing or Article marketing P-P-C (Pay Per Click) Marketing Online Directories Hope this helps.
Patent information - I'm also interested in Part 2. Thanks.
Re: Should Evan add a "Social Media Marketing" category to the f - Hi, Online Marketing would be a great title, and having sub categories would make it even better, there would plenty of categories to choose from, Social Media, SEO, Article Marketing and yes even Affiliate Marketing to name just a few, great looking site btw Jeff, take care, Carol


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Four Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Should Blog

How to Develop Your Powers of Thought.

E Mail Marketing Campaigns

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.