Insight #12: Why Prospects Don’t Buy - Understand “The Educational Spectrum”

Did you ever realize that when you’re in the market to buy a car, you consciously notice almost every advertisement for cars on TV, radio, and in the paper? You even notice all those cars with prices on the windshield in supermarket parking lots. You buy Consumer Reports and Auto Trader and read classified ads. You become the expert on whichever car you’re interested in.

After you scout the entire marketplace for just the right balance of price, condition, mileage, options, etc., you finally buy the car. And chances are you’ll be convinced that you got THE BEST DEAL available to mankind. You’ll probably even brag about the deal to your friends. “This baby’s only got 17,000 miles on it...but I picked it up for the price everyone else wanted for the same car with twice as many miles.” What a deal!

What about when you’re not in the market to buy a car? You don’t notice any of that stuff. Let’s assume you’re not in the market for a new Hyundai right now. You probably haven’t seen or heard a single ad for Hyundai lately. You might not even be aware that Hyundai still sells cars in America! Mentally validate this point: All prospects you contact in your marketing efforts will have different levels of interest and understanding about YOUR product based on their circumstances.

There was a client that some time ago used telemarketing as a major source for driving in new business. He wanted to increase his telemarketers’ closing ratio. After reviewing the pitch they were using, we concluded that it was fine. No major changes needed to happen. Frustrated, the client threw up his hands and said, “That’s it, then? I’m getting all the possible sales that are available out there? I sure thought that my product had a lot bigger market potential than the results we’re seeing now.”

So he was asked the same question we always ask every client: “What are you doing to follow up on the prospects that: 1) don’t buy now and 2) aren’t interested?” The response was equally as familiar. He said they put those that don’t buy now into a database and call them every 30 days for 3 months, at which point they get dropped if they don’t buy.

As for those who just aren’t interested? “Nothing. They’re not interested! Why would I waste time on them? There’s an old saying that you should spend time polishing cherries, not pits!” Let’s add one comment. This business’ average customer was worth thousands of dollars in profit per transaction. Just improving the telemarketer’s pitch was not where the effort needed to be spent.

The business owner needed to understand was why customers were not buying, why they were saying no. The answer is in understanding something we call the “Educational Spectrum.” There is an educational process from the moment a prospect begins thinking about buying your product or service to the point when he or she actually puts out hard-earned cash.

Most marketers concentrate 99% of their efforts on finding and selling to prospects that are at the very end of the spectrum and ready to buy right now. These are “ripe cherries” or “Now Buyers”. You can attract them to your business by placing ads where hot prospects will be going to do their comparison shopping. Just remember. All of your competitors will also be there with their buckets looking for big, fat, red cherries.

Telemarketing and direct mail are the worst methods of finding hot prospects. It’s like fishing with a spear. You look and look and look for that one prospect that just happens to be near the end of the Educational Spectrum, someone who just happens to be ready to buy. Can you imagine trying to sell your car by telemarketing? “Hello, my name is Joe. I’ve got a beautiful 2001 Cadillac STS for sale. Low mileage. Great condition. Only $27,500. Have you been thinking about a Cadillac?” Now that would be an exercise in futility!

You’re probably thinking, “But lots of people use telemarketing and direct mail very successfully. It can’t be that bad, can it?” We simply said it was the worst way to find hot prospects. These two marketing methods are, however, highly recommended for another reason: You can target your market very effectively. In other words, you can choose a list of people or companies that are likely to be current users or potential users of what you’re selling.

Here’s how to weave your telemarketers’ efforts into a big net - keeping in mind the idea of the Educational Spectrum. Use this telemarketing pitch (for business to business) with defined target prospects most likely to use your product or service: “Hi, this is Joe Blogs over at Widget & Digits. We’ve got a special on Widgets this week. But, I know you probably hate to talk to telemarketers. So if you don’t mind, I’ll just email you (or fax you) some information real quickly so you can get back to what you were doing.” Use this pitch to gather the names and email addresses (or fax numbers) of every single possible prospect you can think of.

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