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Marketing Secret #20 FISHING AND PROSPECTING

Would you like to learn why the vast majority of marketing efforts fail?

BECAUSE MOST OF US USE THE WRONG BAIT!!

Imagine if you will, going fishing with bait that a dog would eat.  Here is one certain fact that we all know: If we use bait the fish like, they will bite.  If we use bait that we think the fish should like, but the fish don’t like it, they won’t bite!

So what does this have to do with marketing for new clients/customers/patients and getting referrals? Oh, Just about everything.

Because when we market, whether its ads, phone, mail, referrals, emails, web sites, seminars, fax or whatever, we are fishing! And, if we plan on catching anything, we had better be using bait the prospects like!

We are going to teach you how to “fish” for clients/customers/patients!

When fishing, you have to:

  1. Find where the fish are
  2. Offer them a bait they like and want
  3. Let them bite on the bait (you can’t shove the bait down their throats!)
  4. Play them for a while
  5. Set the hook, when the time is right
  6. Reel them in slowly and carefully
  7. Land them on the boat

If you try to skip any of these steps, you won’t catch many fish.  Sure, sometimes you can set the hook immediately, and get lucky once and a while. But, if you learn how to tell EXACTLY when to set the hook, you’ll catch them every time!

And yes, it does take intelligence and patience to know when the timing is right.

If you have a fish hooked and try to reel in too fast with too much energy, the line will break.  If you try to grab and bring the fish into the boat before the net is ready, it will fall into the water, never to return!  If you use bait the fish doesn’t like, it’ll never bite in the first place! And so on!

See, there is absolutely nothing different about getting clients/customers/patients and fishing!

We’re taught to assume that if we have the lures we like, that somehow the fish will jump into the boat, because we want them to!

What a frustrating and useless mentality we’ve all been brainwashed with. I’ve got news for all the corporate people and all the “marketing” travelling sideshow trainers and all the cold prospecting freaks…the fish will not be caught unless you follow very closely the steps necessary to catch them!

You can’t change how fishing works. You can’t use lures or boats or rods that you like to use just because you like it. If the stuff you use isn’t what the fish want, or what you’re using goes against their natural tendencies, they ain’t gonna be in your boat! PERIOD!

For example, one time, when I bought some fancy lures that I thought the fish should like, and I didn’t get a single bite, I was pissed. My cousins on the other hand, were catching dozens of fish. When I went over and asked them what they were using, I couldn’t believe that they had ordinary, fat worms!  Here is was using the expensive stuff bought from the supermarket!!

Hence, I never went fishing with supermarket bought bait ever again!

We market with “professional” bait that we think the prospects should be interested in, and when they don’t reply, we pout and complain!  Now, why are we surprised they don’t respond when we’re using the bait we think they should like…not the bait they really want!

You know the bait: your company’s size; or “image stuff”; or company “bragging”; or pressure-filled appointment calls; or professional (translation: “BORING”) copy, etc.  In other words, all the stuff we are taught to use.  Or, in other words, the stuff no one cares about but US!

Yes, we think people should be compelled to respond to offers for a free consultation or analysis, free sample, 10% Off, or whatever.  But…The fact is, they don’t care!

They are so sick of sales pitches, tricks and the “we’re the best” crap that they simply disregard all of it!  Remember, it doesn’t matter what you think. The only thing that matters is what they think!

And another thing; it also doesn’t matter that you can’t comprehend how they couldn’t be interested. If they’re not, they’re not, no matter how hard you try to convince them they should be. Ever tried to tell your spouse or significant other what you think he or she should do?  How’d that go?

So, when these activities fail, what are we told to do by the sales geniuses? Do more of the stuff that’s been proven not to work. “Get on the phone and make more cold calls!”, “Do more cold prospecting.” Yep that will fix it!

This is like putting more lures on the same fishing line that the fish don’t like and somehow this will get the fish’s attention! There’s only one problem to this “logic”.

If they don’t want my lures, putting more of them out there will not work! If the “fish”, or prospective clients/customers/patients are totally indifferent, why throw more of the stuff they’re ignoring in their faces? I guarantee you, it won’t help!

Make sense yet?

So what kind of bait do people like?

Well, it’s been proven that things that create curiosity and interest using empathy and compassion get responses! Emotions that touch souls, not wallets.

They are methods of conveying a deep understanding of people’s lives. Talking to them about what is their subconscious minds and their hearts! (What a unique concept!)

See, all of your bait must be 100% focused on the wants and desires of the prospective clients/customers/patients not your wants!

When you touch people’s souls and “enter” their minds, they will let you enter their lives!

Does this make sense? I hope so. Even if you never learn anything else from me, I want you to learn this most important of points! After all, why continue wasting your time fishing with the wrong bait?

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