You market your own business or you direct marketing for
your company. You know what you are marketing - it’s
obvious. Or is it?

If you’re a financial advisor, you probably think you’re
marketing financial advice. If you’re a sales consultant,
you may think you are marketing sales training. If you are
a realtor, you may assume you market homes or commercial
properties. If you market big screen TVs, you may think
you’re selling the latest technology.

In each case, you’d be right in terms of your deliverables,
but you’d be wrong about what your prospects are buying.

Over the years, I’ve worked with service providers ranging
from plumbers to financial advisors to data management
firms as well as numerous marketing consultants. Despite
the diversity of services they provide, they all face the
same hurdle to increasing their sales. Each and every one
has the product or service they deliver confused with what
they are marketing.

What you’re marketing and what you actually deliver are two
different things. The key to increasing your sales is to
realize that what you are really marketing is hope - your
clients’ hope of achieving their goals.

You’re marketing to your prospects’ hopes that they’ll be
happier, more successful, more attractive, smarter, richer,
more comfortable, more secure, etc. Target your marketing
to the real reasons people buy, and you’ll be much more
successful in motivating them to make a purchase from you.

Focus your marketing by identifying what your prospects
want. Make a list that describes their hopes. Following are
some samples to give you the idea:

What Your Prospects Really Want

Residential Realtors’ Prospects

• I hope I can find a home I can afford.

• I hope I can find a home to accommodate our growing
  family.

• I hope I get the best possible price for our current
  home.

Sales Trainers’ Prospects

• I hope I can generate more leads.

• I hope more people understand how I can help them.
• I hope I can sell more of my products and services.

Plumbers’ Prospects

• I hope I can get the leak stopped as soon as possible.

• I hope I can get a plumber to show up.
• I hope it doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg.

Financial Advisors’ Prospects

• I hope I have enough m0ney to pay my childrens’ college
  tuition.

• I hope I have enough to afford to retire comfortably.
• I hope my money is secure no matter what the stock market
  does.

Online Data Management Firms’ Prospects

• I hope more people find my site.

• I hope more prospects understand how they can benefit
  from using our services.

• I hope more prospects contact us and buy from use.

What are your prospects hoping for when they buy your
products or services?

Why marketing to hope works
Much as you’d like to think your prospects make logical,
well reasoned purchasing decisions, in most cases logic
plays a secondary role to emotions. If you’ve made the
rounds with a son or daughter looking at colleges, you’ve
experienced this first hand. You talk the whole thing over
thoroughly with your child and make a decision to visit a
college that appears to be a great fit.

You drive up to the campus and they won’t even get out of
the car. What’s going on? They’re making a decision based
on some unspoken set of criteria that defies parental
logic. Find out what those criteria are, and you can move
forward. The same goes for your prospects.

Your prospects may bring logic to bear when researching
service providers but their ultimate selection will be
based on emotions. Market directly to what they hope and
want and tap into these emotions to help them pick your
product or service.

No matter what business you’re in, your objective is to
help your clients be more successful and to achieve their
hopes and dreams, both small and large. Appeal to their
motives and you’ll increase your Sales.

Remember, HOPE stands for:
Help
Our
Prospects
Excel

Use hope to market your products and services and you’ll
capture your prospects’ attention, their hearts and more of
their business.

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals,
small business owners and marketing professionals attract
more clients and be more successful. Sign up to receive the
free marketing strategy eBook, ‘7 Steps to get more
clients and grow your business’ at marketingforsuccess.com.