Say you’re a carpet cleaner and you go out and do a quote. Once you’ve measured up and it comes to the time you have to state the price, you bottle it by mumbling something wet and feeble like ” err … ok … that would be … urm … yes thats right, your quote, Um… would £200 be okay … oh sorry, is that too much …?” he says, blushing bright red and avoiding all eye-contact.
The salesperson falters, they hedge their bets, they “aim” to do stuff, they “hope” you’ll be happy.
Why is it all all so bloody drippy. This is like one of those “wet fish” handshakes. YUCK! Doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence as a buyer, does it?
From the customers point of view (which is the only point of view which really matters) wouldn’t they be thinking “Why are they so worried about stating the price? Doesn’t he believe he’ll do a good job? Doesn’t he feel he is worth that amount and if he doesn’t think he is worth that amount, why did he quote me that much?
And BANG! Just like that. You’ve just lost a sale.
Not being confident in your pricing is losing you a whole bunch of sales – guaranteed.
This is because people don’t want to do business with people who aren’t totally confident in their ability to do a great job and charge a decent price. We want to do business with people who project their ability, project their great work ethic, pride, and confidence in themselves and their work.
We want to do business with those who live comfortably in a little village south of arrogant but north of confident.
So look at the words you are using in your sales scripts, and elsewhere. Does your language project confidence, or does it scream, “Please don’t choose me! I’m terrified I’ll make a mistake and petrified you won’t like me and I’ll be mortified if you don’t like my pricing!”
Go from being a table lamp to a street lamp. From a Nokia 3310 to an iphone.
You know, only you can ask for what you want, and since no customer or prospect in the world actually wants to just give you their money, you will have to ask for what you want, and doing so with confidence and gusto will actually help soothe your prospects mind about purchasing your services.
The ONLY reason your carpet cleaning business exists at all is to sell so learn to sell more of your services ethically here with our course “Persuasive Selling For Carpet Cleaners.” All our courses are no nonsense and contain no fluff and BS but instead include strategies and scenarios which are guaranteed to work in the real world.
In this post I will give you 4 inspirational quotes from Tony Robbins but first here’s a little bit about him.
Tony Robbins is an international author, an entrepreneur and an undisputed authority in personal growth, and has been an inspiration for athletes like Serena Williams and famous entrepreneurs like the father of Salesforce.com, Marc Benioff. He has also counselled Presidents and hundreds of big name CEO’s.
This guy is seriously awesome!
In the 1980s, Robbins gained popularity with his infomercials and self-help books which established him as a leading figure in the self-help industry.
Robbins is known for his high-energy seminars and he has coached numerous high-profile individuals, including athletes, business leaders, and politicians.
Below I will list 4 super-powerful quotes from Tony that if applied to your profession can have a huge impact on your success.
Quote No.1:
“There is no such thing as failure. There are only results.
Every profession is full of unexpected and variable situations which can sometimes create stress or make you lose focus.
If you start from the belief that failure does not exist, and use any unwanted situation as feedback to improve your approach, then you will gain more focus and mental flexibility and you will approach situations in a more positive and effective way.
Quote No.2
“If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want.”
If you want to improve your performance there is no need to reinvent the wheel.
If you can’t achieve your goals or gain a new level of success in your profession, find someone who has already ‘got the results you want to get and study, observe his / her strategies, realize what kind of mentality he/she has towards his / her profession and learn from this person and you will find yourself obtaining similar results.
Quote No.3
“Your past does not equal your future.”
So often we start from the idea that since we have acted in a certain way in the past then this is what we are and always will be, but this is not only false but incredibly damaging to your potential.
If you did not reach your goal this month, this does not mean you can’t ever reach it, it just means this month you have the opportunity to change everything, to try new strategies, to gain new knowledge and to realize your potential, learn from past feedback and re-focus on your goals.
Quote No.4
“There is no greatness without a passion to be great, whether it’s the aspiration of an athlete or an artist, a scientist, a parent, or a businessperson.”
Whatever you’re doing, from cold-calling a prospect to a business meeting, you must have real passion for whatever you do. Being passionate about your profession and having a compelling vision will help you to go beyond the most difficult challenges, to continue to move forward in spite of everything around you, to evolve and to achieve the impossible.
Here is a MASSIVE mistake that many business owners make when they are doing their copywriting (writing ads, web pages, flyers and so on.)
Stop writing in a PASSIVE voice! STOP being so bloody …. NICE.
When you’re being “nice,” to someone, you’re not being yourself, even if you think you’re a naturally nice eprson.
In your marketing being nice makes you look like a manipulative little weasel because you’re only being nice because you want something from the other person, and, you know what, those on the receiving end of your kind gestures will notice it, feel it and dread it.
What’s more, this sort of falsehood will shine through like a warning beacon in your writing too!
When you’re that “nice guy,” you will finish last because everything you write will be in a “passive voice” aka wet and drippy.
Look at these examples and guess which one is active and which one is passive.
… Paul ate all six shrimp at dinner.
or
… All the six shrimp were eaten by Paul.
Can you guess which one is passive and which one is active? The top sentence is the active and the second sentence is the passive. The first one says in big bold letters “THIS HAPPENED! HE ACTUALLY DID IT! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT … HE ATE ALL THE SHRIMP! OMG!!” The second one says Paul ate the shrimp and … errr, well, that’s it.
Here’s some more examples…
“Click on the link Right Now to get your Deep Rapid Cleansing Skin Formula and say goodbye to Acne FOREVER.” (aka DO IT NOOWWWW!!!!)
or
“If you want to buy the Deep Rapid Cleansing Skin Formula to treat your Acne then click on the link.” (aka, well, it’s up to you, I don’t want to bother you, if it’s not too much trouble, please could you …”)
Do you see the difference? Do you see how having a passive voice in your writing can make you sound like a manipulative sociopath and kill your response, content and sales letter?
So How Do I Fix My Passive Problem?
To fix this problem, firstly you need to be aware when you are writing like a wimp and recognise when you are paddling a canoe when you should be driving a speedboat.
When you become aware of your passive writing you’ll instantly know you’re doing it and change your writing to be more butch.
Second, you need to be more specific, detailed and tough when you write copy or when you write your emails. Be clear about your message and what your purpose is for writing the ad or the email in the first place.
Third, recognize the subject is the star in all your writing, in all of your sentences. Re-write the sentence and make the subject do the action of the verb.
Finally, in everything you write, always always ALWAYS keep your audience in the front of your mind when you write. Remember you are writing to attract people like them, NOT people like you.
We do cover a lot of copywriting tips and strategies in our incredible marketing course “The Magnificent Marketing Machine” which has been especially developed by carpet cleaners for carpet cleaners. Check it out and see how much incredible marketing guides, ads, tips and strategies you get with the course. This course WILL pay for itself in 3 months guaranteed!
Demonstrating yourself as an authority online will help you acquire both recognition and respect, and that recognition and respect transfers immediately to your company.
If your prospects trust you know what you’re talking about, they’ll feel great about investing in your carpet cleaning services and will be much more willing to pay more for them too because people will always pay more for an expert than they will an amateur.
Your website is the best place to begin. Construct a professional looking web site with quality and informative material and you’ll have a source of authority information to direct buyers to. You could give away downloads detailing the properties of wool and polyprop carpets, information on the correct stain removal procedure, or you could make your newsletters downloadable too.
Remember that it’s all right to give away some of your treasured knowledge free of charge.
Provide the buyer something of value up front and they’ll label you as a legitimate source to go to for their carpet cleaning needs.
Article marketing is a particularly effective marketing technique to accomplish your authority status as it gives you the power to distribute a small number of articles to a vast number of content-rich sites. The more places your name crops up, the more individuals will be exposed to your web site and services and the more it will help with your SEO.
A different way to demonstrate your expertise is through internet forums, social media and blogs. This is a bit more casual than article composition and allows you to talk candidly with interested web surfers. The conversational tone utilized in such settings will put more potential buyers at ease so not only will they view you as an authority, they’ll feel connected to you as a real human being.
In addition, such sites provide buyers the chance to ask questions and give you the opportunity to back up your services in the face of critique.
Discover the correct places to gain recognition. Put yourself out there and command respect through exposure, and spotlight your accomplishments and successes.
Many business or marketing “gurus” will tell you that marketing is just about “getting your name out there” but unless you have the deep pockets of Richard Branson or Apple you simply can’t afford to adopt this kind of garbage marketing strategy.
“Brand awareness” is the excuse used by marketers when their clients ads don’t work.
Marketers will say such nonsense like “don’t worry about the fact the ad didn’t work and you got no calls … lots of people know about you!” I don’t care who knows about me … I care about who BUYS from me and puts food on my table!
It’s no good an ad saying … “we are carpet cleaners, here’s what we do, give us a call if we do anything that interests you” because it’s dull, boring and not proactive.
“Brand Awareness” is a great way to empty the contents of your wallet into the wallets of the ad agency or graphic designer with no appreciable return for you.
That’s definitely NOT to say you shouldn’t have branding or a decent logo because these are a necessity these days, it just means that the focus of your marketing mustn’t be just to tell people you exist!
The fact is this … “Brand Awareness” strategies are a waste of money for SME business owners.
You should only engage in Direct Response Marketing which, as the name suggests, means marketing which produces a direct response from targeted buyers which results is sales and enquiries you can measure.
Every marketing campaign you put out into the world must get your target prospect to take some sort of action, be it to call you, sign up to your newsletter, Like you on Facebook, or whatever.
