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EIGHT SELF-DEFEATING BEHAVIORS CRIPPLING YOUR MARKETING... AND
HOW TO GET RID OF THEM AND MAKE MORE MONEY!

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant

You'd think business owners would be doing everything possible to
improve the return on their marketing -- especially given this pun k
economic climate. But I'm here to tell you it just isn't true. Stationed as
I am in the marketing lighthouse, I daily see supposed ly intelligent
business people literally throwing their money away by engaging in a
series of entirely self-defeating, completely av oidable self-defeating
marketing behaviors. Indeed, so severe is this problem I've now come to
believe such behaviors are more preva lent among businesses than the
kind of unrelenting, client-focused behaviors which ought to distinguish
any enterprise. See for your self: how many of these behaviors
characterize your efforts?

Self-Defeating Behavior #1: You're Condescending

The only way you're going to get rich through your business is to make a
certain number of profitable deals with a precise number of
customers. Why then are so many business owners so ridiculously
condescending to their customers. I think, for instance, of a recen t
encounter I had with a gallery selling old master paintings. I collect
such pictures and had determined to acquire one I'd recentl y seen. Such
paintings, as you perhaps know, are not inexpensive; indeed, they
represent very considerable investments. Most of the negotiations for
this acquisition were handled by fax. In each fax, I provided my name,
title and address. In each response, the mar keter deleted my title,
demoting me from "Doctor" to "Mister." When he spoke to me, he further
demoted me from "Mister" to "Jeff," a
name I loathe.

Some might argue that all this was merely his attempt to establish
some kind of rapport. I see it, instead, as a subtle form of the
condescension which is all too prevalent in business today. Other
manifestations include:

## not returning phone calls, even when you indicate they are most
important; ## not answering your letters in a timely fashion, if at all;
## promising things you cannot or will not deliver; ## not looking at
your customer when you're talking to him; ## allowing yourself to be
endlessly interrupted while talking to a customer; ## allowing your
customer to stand by while you gossip with others.

As customers, all of us have been victimized by such endemic behaviors.
What's worse, as business people all too many of us perpetra te them.
Customers are the people who make us entrepreneurs wealthy. As such
they deserve our utmost, concentrated attention and not
the witless condescension which today characterizes so much of
American business.

Self-Defeating Behavior 3: You're Not Prepared For The Marketing
Response You Get

Business these days is amazingly disorganized, and in no particular
more so than responding to people who want to hear more about th e
products or services you sell. Why, just the other day a woman told me
she'd run an ad and received about 850 responses. She was c omplaining
because she'd managed to close only one of these responses. What, she
wailed, was wrong?

Closer examination showed that:

## she had no proven response package... in other words she'd never
bothered to see if what she was sending out actually worked; ## she'd
farmed out the responses to a series of people who were to make the
closes... but who had received no training at all in ho w to do so; ##
she'd never bothered to listen to or instruct the people she'd selected to
make the closes. She had, that is, no idea whether the y could do so... or,
indeed, any idea about what they were doing.

Net result? She was in despair about the process. In truth, she should
have been in despair about her own methods, because it was he r own
failure to create an organized, tested closing process that produced the
truly disastrous results she experienced.

It never ceases to astonish me how little marketers consider the entire
process of marketing, how little attention they give to each
necessary and inevitable component of a successful marketing effort.
While large amounts of time may be given over to the considera tion and
production of marketing copy, only a fraction as much is devoted to such
essential elements as where and how this copy shou ld be used... how
responses should be tabulated and logged... how responses should be
followed up... and what further follow up ther e should be beyond this.
Yet each of these is a crucial component of profitable marketing.

Consideration of these issues should take place before -- not after --
you execute any marketing tactics. You need to walk through a nd
consider in the most focused way each element of the entire marketing
process. Otherwise, you'll end up like the ELM marketer I t alked to the
other day who spent a very large amount generating leads... and nothing
on the package to close them. He was surprised that he closed so few of
his prospects... but no one else could possibly be.

Self-Defeating Behavior #3: You STILL Don't Know The Difference
Between A Feature And A Benefit And STILL Keeping Trying To Sell Fea
tures

Really, it is most irritating to me that this point should have to be here,
but it still needs to be. Pick up any business brochure,
cover letter, ad, proposal, flyer and what will you see? I'll lay odds that
you'll first find the company's name, logo, address, a photo of its
location, a motto... in short, something about the company itself, its
product, its mere existence. But I ask you: who can make company better
off: the company itself, or its customers. Obvious, isn't it? And that's
why every business, for every one o f its products and services, needs to
concentrate on benefits -- which are of interest to buyers -- and not
features -- which are no thing more than descriptive components of
what the company is selling.

Think of it this way: a feature is like a sentence beginning "I have..." or
"It is..." "I have a location at 308 Main Street." Or "I t is three inches
high." Interesting as these facts may be to specialists, they rightly
elicit from prospects the deflating "So what ?" response. "What's in it
for me, cub?" That's where the benefits come in. Benefits are sentences
beginning with the far more motiv ating words "You get..." This is what
your prospects want -- not facts about you -- but things they get. That's
why you need to turn
every feature into a client-centered benefit. How about that location on
Main Street? "You get free parking at our easy-to-reach lo cation at 308
Main Street, right in the center of town." The fact, in short, of no
intrinsic interest or value in itself, has now be en transformed into a
client-friendly motivator. Which is just what must happen with every
feature for each one of your products and
services.

The sad fact is that most so-called "marketers" can't do this... which is
one major reason they have such a hard time motivating the
numbers of people they need to buy their products and services.

Self-Defeating Behavior #4: You STILL Don't Provide A Cogent Reason
For Your Prospects To Take Immediate Action

It sickens me just how many marketing communications are on the
wrong track. Most still say nothing more significant than, "We're he re.
We think we're great. Buy something from us." Now I ask you, is this
motivating? Of course not!

What motivates people is not just the benefits of a product or service...
but a special offer that motivates them to take faster act ion to acquire
it. I've discussed these offers in many places: they must offer a real
benefit and must be limited in some way, as wi th amount or in time.
The importance of the offer is that it provides the final push to a
prospect... the oompf that he needs to tak e faster action.

"Act now," you're saying, "and get not only this BENEFIT... and this
BENEFIT... and this BENEFIT... but also this SPECIAL OFFER with
its MEANINGFUL BENEFIT." Now you stand a reasonable chance of getting
the slothful, and all too often cash-poor consumer, to take f aster
action. Note: have you noticed this recession just how creative many
offers have become? These people have made a calculated d ecision to
do whatever it takes to get through this distressing period of our lives
as comfortably and profitably as possible. If yo u're not doing this,
you're apparently decided to slice your wrists and quietly bleed to
death.

Self-Defeating Behavior #5: You're Unwilling To Assume Responsibility
For Acting

How many times have you responded to a marketing communication,
calling, say, for information. What are you told by the idiot at the
other end of the receiver, "Signor Importance is not available. Leave a
message?" What I've discovered in many instances is that th is grandee
doesn't need to be involved in the reckoning at all. You may simply be
calling for "information." You may have the most b asic of questions that
anyone with a grain of intellect could answer. Why then must you leave
a message?

Your message must be left because the marketer hasn't adequately
thought through what he needs to do and what members of his staff c an
do. These days too many of my once proudly self-reliant countrymen now
do a self-defeating dance of responsibility avoidance and
irresponsibility. Sure they could tell you what you want to know... Sure
they could find out. But it's "not my job." And so they don 't, thus
throwing the all-important prospect/customer into limbo.

Thus, make it your credo that you will not only assume responsibility
yourself but instruct those in your operation about how they, too, can
act in a way that expedites the closing of business. This is never just
the responsibility of a single person in an organiz ation -- unless there
is only a single person in that organization. It is always the
responsibility of all, and the sooner this is g enerally recognized and
implemented the better.

Self-Defeating Behavior #6: You're Slow To Respond

This self-defeating behavior is, of course, closely linked to the one
above. It perplexes me, I confess, just how torpidly businesse s respond
to queries which could, if properly handled, make them money. Why, just
the other day I had occasion to call a service pro vider whose talents I
needed to employ. When she didn't call me back within a couple of hours,
I tried another provider and made a d eal. Four days later when the first
provider finally returned my call, I told her she was long out of luck.
Predictably, she did not
express her regret about her inadequate business practices; instead, she
drawled something about needing a rest! Really, it's no wo nder we're in
the middle of an interminable recession with attitudes like this!

These days, with the advent of the computer, modem, all-pervasive
telephone systems, fax and overnight mail services, there is absol utely
no reason why every request cannot get the exact level of
responsiveness it requires. To gather further details or respond wit h
simple information, call immediately. When the prospect needs more
detailed and lengthy information, a fax is tailor made. On the other hand,
when you need to get bulkier information to the client, depending on the
seriousness and potential value of the assignme nt, an overnight or
second-day air service may be called for. In short, there is absolutely no
reason why the response cannot be as quick as the seriousness of the
prospect calls for -- and as thorough.

Yet, as we all know, this isn't at all what happens. Call most businesses
today and you'll quickly learn just how deplorably lax the ir response
practices are. Yet these are the very people who bemoan their cash flow
and cannot seem to fathom why their sales are of f. Sure, an adverse
economic cycle takes its toll. But lax response practices weaken and
kill in all seasons.

Self-Defeating Behavior #7: You're Afraid To Talk Directly To Your
Prospects And Gauge Their Intentions

Too many businesses assume that all people responding to their
marketing communications and expressing an introductory interest are
real prospects, that is people who have both the desire and capacity to
acquire the benefits the company is offering. This is a mist ake.

When you become as aggressive a lead generator as I am, you will
quickly come to learn about the large numbers of people who respond
to waste their time (which doesn't matter) and yours (which does)
answering everything. Such people are business parasites and ough t to
be rigorously rooted out. There are many reasons why they're not,
including:

## a misdirected courtesy. Many business people reckon that if a person
says he's interested, we ought to take him at his word and b ehave
accordingly. I do not agree. Only real prospects deserve your serious
attention and investment. ## a fear of upsetting the prospect. Real
prospects want you to be focused. Parasites simply want to weaken you.
When you seek to as certain from a real prospect whether he really
wants the benefits you have available, he understands what you're doing
and approves.
After all, he doesn't want to waste his time and money either. Parasites
get irritated, because when you prove them frivolous, they must go. No
wonder they huff and puff when you cut to the chase.
## fear of rejection. When you get focused with prospects, you risk
rejection. Get used to it; that's just the way it is. ## thinking sending
"information" is your job, rather than closing prospects. Sending
"information" is never anyone's job; indeed, m indless mailing of
information packets is to be avoided whenever possible. The job is
always to offer the most focused client-center ed benefits and to figure
out if the prospect is interested in them and has the ability to acquire
them now. That's all that marketi ng is or ever will be.

Your job is to generate the maximum number of prospects with the
benefits you have available and with a highly motivational offer...
and then to talk directly to the prospect and see if he wants to do what
it takes -- if he even can do what it takes -- to acquire them. The most
focused you are, the more you have a right to insist that the prospect be
equally focused and prepared to deal with y ou directly.

Self-Defeating Behavior #8: You Don't Treat Routine Marketing Tasks In
The Most Efficient Fashion

The objective of profitable marketing is to create a process that:

## identifies the right prospects for what you're selling, namely the
people who want the benefit you're selling and have the means to
acquire it; ## identifies them in sufficient numbers to meet your profit
quota; ## markets both motivating benefits and offers; ## responds in
increasingly efficient ways thanks to better use of improved business
machines and office procedures to close more pr ospects, more
promptly.

Towards this end, you should concentrate on handling all routine
marketing tasks as efficiently as possible. But, you, say, I AM! I doubt
it...

Have you, for instance, fully integrated the computer into all your
marketing activities? That is, when a prospect calls, do you hav e the
correct response immediately available on computer? When you need to
follow up, is that letter on computer? If one of your emp loyees makes
telemarketing calls, is his script on computer? How about boiler plate
for proposals and contracts? In short, it all sh ould be immediately
accessible on computer. If it isn't, you're not as efficient as you can be.

Do you have a computer record where you log all your marketing
activities, the dates you did them, the responses, the results? Or ar e
you continually playing guessing games with this crucial information,
like an organization I know which can never tell you which m arketing
gambits have worked and which have not, because the director of this
business absolutely refuses to get organized and use t he technology and
people at her disposal?

One of the crucial things I have learned about marketing in the last
fifteen years is how important it is to establish a profit-maki ng
process, a set of simple and easy-to-run procedures which predictably
bring in money and regularly bring you closer to the degree
of wealth you desire. While a certain dash of creativity may well have
been necessary to establish this process, more mundane and p redictable
traits are called for to perfect and administer it. Unfortunately all too
many "marketers" give way to the siren song of "creativity" seeking
instead of perfecting client-centered benefits, motivating offers and a
process of prompter turn-around and foc us. This is a serious error. But
like the other errors outlined here, it's one you are now saved from
making!

Resource Box

Dr. Jeffrey Lant is one of America's best-known marketers. Tens of
thousands of people are profiting right now from his many money-m
aking books, tapes and Special Reports like MONEY MAKING MARKETING:
FINDING THE PEOPLE WHO NEED WHAT YOU'RE SELLING AND MAKING SURE
THEY BUY IT (285 pages, $39.50 postpaid); HOW TO MAKE A WHOLE LOT
MORE THAN $1,000,000 WRITING, COMMISSIONING, PUBLISHING AND
SELLIN G "HOW-TO" INFORMATION (552 pages, $39.50), and NO MORE COLD
CALLS: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO GENERATING -- AND CLOSING -- ALL THE
PROSP ECTS YOU NEED TO BECOME A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE BY SELLING YOUR
SERVICE (600 pages, $39.50). Get all these -- and a free year's subscrip
tion to his quarterly 32-page Sure-Fire Business Success Catalog -- by
calling [phone] with MC/VISA or writing 50 Follen St.,
Suite 507, Cambridge, MA 02138.