T Raise to the Power M

 

 The Winning Formula for Sales in a

 World Bursting with information.🙋💪👍

 T Raised To, The Power M.  < T^^M >

^{T= Trust                           M = Marketing}

Hi readers I my name is Vishal Ganeriwal and people call me Heartful Vishal. I specialise in finding Abundance, Joy and Harmony in whatever we do. I call this the AJH treasure hunt.

Are not Health, Wealth, Recognition, Happiness and Love the key ingredients that we associate with a successful life? Is there anyone does not want this is some proportion or the other?

 I am not an expert at everything in life but I do have a deep understanding of the few variables that should be there in every human effort to ensure that the AJH treasure is found in each ones’ life.  

Trust is one such key ingredient.

This blog takes you through the following thought processes

1. Business is not just money-making

2. What determines the speed of sales?

3. Traditional Vs Digital Marketing

4. Personal Brand Vs Business Brand

5. Real Trust Vs Perception Management

6.  25 Cognitive Biases The Heart of Marketing

7. The CATT funnel; a must-know for all Digitial Marketeers

Business is not just money-making

I often differ from the aggressive opinion, that the only reason a business exists, is to make money. I rather advocate the opinion that the real purpose of business is to make money by solving people’s real needs. Money is the reward for the real service that the business provides. Anything else is not business but just a way to make money. There are laws of this universe which men cannot change ( and thank God for that) and “come easy, go easy” is one such law. In today’s digital world we can experience a quick but temporary influx of money and fame due to an effective “perception management” game that we can be played. But abundance is actually a sustained state of wealth, achieved while giving the necessary importance to joy and harmony.  Only when Abundance, Joy and Harmony are approached in a balanced way does it result in we experiencing flow in all the aspects of our life, that is, Health, Wealth, Recognition, Happiness and Love.

The rest of this article is about promoting business and not just how to make money.

What determines the Speed of Sales?

A person buys due to the following 2 triggers only.

1.        He already trusts the brand and he knows with fair certainty, that the product or service will satisfy his physical/emotional/spiritual need. “I will save money” or “This brand will boost my image” or “My wife will be happy if I gift her this”; these are all needs.   
2.       He is in a state of emergency and has very little option but to proceed with the sale.

The second type of sales is not triggered by promotion or marketing effort. It is just about a matter of chance that the product was at the right time, at the right place and in front of the right person. I once purchased a 1 Rs plastic cover for Rs 10/- at the railway station as it was raining and I had to protect my mobile and wallet. If the customer had a choice he would not buy the product or service.

However, the first point needs our complete attention because it is always TRUST that converts to sales. Either the Trust is there in the brand already due to its past efforts or it will need to be developed. Here trust is to be understood as a high level of confidence in the mind of the customer, that the product or service will satisfy his or her need.

Therefore, the speed of sales is determined by the speed with which you can build the bridge of trust with your customer. Marketing to build your business can therefore also be understood as Trust building

It is worth noting here that this marketing or trust-building process is a process driven science that makes extensive use of human psychology.

Traditional Vs Digital Marketing

Traditional marketing methods like newspaper ads, TV ads, radio ads, billboards are better meaning to expand a base of trust that already exists. They are very effective to remind a large number of people that they can continue to be trusted. Traditional methods have a very wide reach. Brands with usually high trust base are usually held by larger businesses. Traditional marketing methods can be coupled with a high level of advertisement expenditure to create a trust perception and lead to a to launch of a new brand. Traditional Marketing has a much bigger reach than Digital Marketing, more so in developing countries. It cannot be ignored, especially if you need to reach a segment that is not connected to the internet and does not understand English fluently.

Digital Marketing methods like blogging, email marketing, website, search engine optimisation, search engine marketing, social media marketing etc are most suitable when a small business or entrepreneur wants to begin his or her journey in trust-building. It allows the business to take the systematic calibrated approach – Know, Like, Trust, Small Convert, Big Convert. It is also used by larger businesses to connect with customers directly and be close to the voice of the customer. It is increasingly being used by all businesses to increase sales by leveraging E-Commerce and Affiliate Marketing.

Digital Marketing is based on the principles of direct response marketing. 

This allows for continuous refinement of marketing strategy. It helps ensure that customer product fit happens quickly and at least costs. Impact assessment of expenditure made in Digital Marketing is possible in a very accurate way unlike in traditional marketing.

Personal Brand Vs Business Brand

The growth of Digital Marketing has opened up a very peculiar debate. Should one focus on building oneself as a brand or one’s business? 

I believe both are important. If you have a strong personal image or brand that people trust, then your presence as a senior team member of any business will lend credibility to that business. But the challenge is that unlike business brands, personal brands cannot be sold. Who can represent your personal brand but you? This is where the wisdom of having a business brand also helps. A business brand can be sold and encashed.

 The best route is to be like a rocket. At an early stage, your personal branding propels you into space like the body of the rocket. At a later stage, the body detaches and leaves the shuttle of the rocket flying high in space.

The shuttle is your business brand.

 

 

 

Real Trust Vs Perception Management

What is inside the wrapping paper is very important for repeat sales. But for the first sales the "wrapping", the "perception" or "your marketing message is crucial." It is not enough to be strong; we need to be seen as strong. We need to put our best foot forward whether we are using traditional or digital marketing. People need to know about our products and services and feel motivated to give it a shot. Without this however good you are you will not succeed.

This is a  good place to repeat my earlier disclaimer, that this article is about building a business, and not just about making money. A genuine business will never think about creating a wilful false narrative just to promote sales.

Like anything Trust takes time to build. See the below infographic which depicts the ideal journey for a digital marketeer.

He or she starts his or her journey as a learner, the works, then becomes a consultant, then a coach/mentor and eventually begins to start his or her own business start-up. The process ensures his or her knowledge is sound and he or she would deliver real value at every stage.

25 Cognitive Biases the Heart of Marketing.

In his masterpiece book Influence: The psychology of persuasion the author Robert B Cialdini writes that human beings tend to get easily affected by 25 triggers in their psyche or mind which makes them swing their decision in direction of the trigger. It is usually not one but a set of triggers that influence his decisions. Marketers and salesmen have always known this, either by studying about them or as an outcome of their own experience. The 25 cognitive biases are

• Bias 1 –   Reward and Punishment Super-Response Tendency
• Bias 2 –   Liking/Loving Tendency
• Bias 3 –   Disliking/Hating Tendency
• Bias 4 –   Doubt-Avoidance Tendency
• Bias 5 –   Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency
• Bias 6 –   Curiosity Tendency
• Bias 7 –   Kantian Fairness Tendency
• Bias 8 –   Envy/Jealousy Tendency
• Bias 9 –   Reciprocation Tendency
• Bias 10 – Influence-From-Mere-Association Tendency
• Bias 11 – Simple, Pain-Avoiding Psychological Denial
• Bias 12 – Excessive Self-Regard Tendency
• Bias 13 – Over-Optimism Tendency
• Bias 14 – Deprival-Super reaction Tendency
• Bias 15 – Social-Proof Tendency
• Bias 16 – Contrast-Miserection Tendency
• Bias 17 – Stress-Influence Tendency
• Bias 18 – Availability-Mis weighing Tendency
• Bias 19 – Use-it-or-Lose-It Tendency
• Bias 20 – Drug-Mis-influence Tendency
• Bias 21 – Senescence-Mis influence Tendency
• Bias 22 – Authority-Mis-influence Tendency
• Bias 23 – Twaddle Tendency
• Bias 24 – Reason – Respecting Tendency
• Bias 25 – Lollapalooza Tendency

Both traditional and digital marketing tactics are bases on these cognitive biases. After you ensure that that you are fulfilling a genuine need of your target segment make use of these cognitive biases to close early with your customers.

Effective communication plays a vital role in the way sales psychology is used.

The CATT funnel; a must know strategy for all aspiring Digital Marketeers

C- Content A- Attention T- Trust T- Transaction

This strategy involves the following 4 steps

1.     Creating high-quality content to educate and/or entertain the customer.

2.     Drive the customer's attention towards this content and entice him or her to engage.

3.     Slowly and strategically get the customer to know you, then like you and then trust you.

4.     After a certain level of trust has been established, we get into a small transaction with the customer to deepen this trust in us. After this, we go for larger sales conversions with the customer. The great reward of trust-based marketing is the possibility to increase the Life Time Value of the customer by making him our referral partner or affiliate.

Each of these steps involves judicious use of the 25 cognitive biases especially the following 7

1.     Choosing what you Like/Love

2.     Tendency to move towards rewards and avoiding punishment

3.     Tendency to Reciprocate positively to someone who has helped you

4.     Tend to follow the crowd by choosing things that have been used and

    endorsed by many (Social Proof Bias)

5. Tendency to choose things that are at hand and more visible

6.     Choosing things that appeal to your rational logic.

7.     Choosing things that can create certainty in our life, versus, those that create doubt. 

The below funnel is best executed by integrating the various digital marketing techniques, centred around the creation of quality content.  The below infographic makes it clear.

 

 

 

In summary, we see that especially for start-ups and small sizes businesses creating a tribe of people that trust them is critical. We can see that Trust arises as a result of progressive and systematic customer engagement with us. Competency, Consistency and Character are the 3 dimensions around which Trust is built and sustained. We need to later convert this Trust to a win-win sales transaction by using an effective messaging process. The customer gradually sees the clear benefits of the product or service being offered and is then gently persuaded to buy. The messages need to have a balance of logic and emotions to ensure a maximum impact. 

A well-balanced marketing campaign ensures that trust converts to sales. The more we can market our trust the more potent will be our growth. This what T raised to the power M < T^^M >  really means.

Once this funnel is in place, scaling up is far simpler. You could for example set up a strategy to make Rs 1 Cr or more every year. Based on the income level of your target segment, you could, for example, target to sell 10000 courses for Rs 1000/- each or 1000 courses of Rs 10000/-. Is it not amazing, that CATT funnel can be so powerful. 

So if you wish to build one such funnel for yourself or know more about the views expressed in this article, please do reach out to me on my email id. You can also comment here and subscribe to my blog for such interesting and Heartful updates.

Thank you.

Thanking Deepak Kanakraju@digitaldeepak for his mentorship.