How could love have anything to do with business, though? It’s surprising, but I’ll get to that in a moment. First, I’d better fill you in on how the topic came up.

The story behind this insight
She wrote about her struggle with opening herself up to romantic relationships after years of hiding from them behind her work. She’s been forcing herself to reexamine her views on relationships and on life after realizing that she’s been using her work for years as a way to insulate herself from life.

As part of her exploration of honesty and vulnerability, she’s been blogging her thoughts on this journey with a group of trusted friends. She commented that she was trying to think of love more as a verb instead of as a noun.

She pointed to the tendency that many people have to treat a relationship as a noun, as an object, as something they OWN. She felt that when you view a relationship as a static thing, it becomes impersonal. It becomes an object that you possess because it serves YOU.

Her breakthrough was to realize that a relationship is not an object, but an action, a verb. She said she was consciously trying to think of relationships as an act of relating rather than as a static possession. She is trying to change her thinking so she sees relationships as a series of actions through which she and her beloved interact.

How this applies to your business
I was struck by this beautiful insight and wanted to share it with you. I also wanted – as I so often do – to relate it also to business.

If you’ve read much of my insights, you know that I strongly feel that running a business centers around building a relationship with your customers. So it immediately occurred to me that I, as a business owner, risk falling into the same mindset that she was fighting in her quest for a romantic relationship.

Do we treat our business as a noun, as an object we possess strictly for our own benefit? Or do we treat it as a verb, as a series of ongoing efforts to build a mutually beneficial relationship?

Think about that as you carry out your business tasks of the day. How can you act to the betterment of those relationships today?

It was a nicely done video — surprisingly professional for a first video effort. He asked for my opinion of it from a marketing viewpoint, and there it fell a little short, unfortunately. He has since changed it to incorporate many of my suggestions, so you can’t see the original anymore.

I wanted to share with you — with his permission, of course — my original critique as a way of helping you to avoid the same pitfalls that he fell into with his video.

The revised Star Trek Terra Nova video is here. Hopefully you can get an idea of what he changed from the critique below. And hopefully you can get some ideas of how to approach the promotional videos that you create.

“Excellent job on the video! Very professionally done!

The one thing I would suggest is to ask yourself the question, “What would it take to excite me about checking this out if I wasn’t already intimately familiar with it and had merely stumbled upon it?”

Right now, the video starts like an homage to Star Trek. If I didn’t already know that you were promoting your series with it, I could interpret the superimposed words in it as describing something from the existing Star Trek series rather than as describing a new addition of which you want to make them aware.

Then, the video suddenly invites me to some vaguely described Star Trek related site. If I didn’t know what it was, I don’t know if I would be sufficiently motivated to check the site out. It’s just an invitation, with nothing that gives me a sense of, “Hey, this sounds really neat! I want to check it out!”

My mind wasn’t prepared to connect those superimposed words at the beginning with the invitation that followed them. I see those words as referring to the existing Star Trek series, so they evaporate from my mind when the invitation starts. That means that the invitation strikes me as coming out of nowhere.

Your written description that accompanies the video describes Terra Nova as a fan-produced fiction series, but what will make it a “must see” for the person who reads your description?

Extensive writings of over 40 authors since 2001 could be a tightly moderated effort of serious writers (which it is). Or it could be incoherent ramblings of a handful of Star Trek fans who write most of their contributions when they’re stoned. By using a bare fact, absent of emotion, your description aims at the intellect instead of at the emotions.

The durability of your series is a plus, but it’s not your biggest plus. Don’t assume that Star Trek fans will come to you because they rationally deduce that a series that has lasted for 10 years will be good. We Star Trek fans might not like to admit it, but we’re more Dr. McCoy than Mr. Spock when it comes to Star Trek. Hit us right in that passion with what we hunger for.

New, well-written stories. An intriguing situation. Compelling characters confronting the unknown. Those are the benefits that will grab our attention.

Brainstorming a bit, here are some emotional hooks you might want to consider, either as phrases scattered in your description of this video or as the script of a future one.

“What if you were part of a Federation crew

Crashed on a distant planet

Cut off from Federation support

Only a handful of friendly faces

Surrounded by a multitude of mysterious new alien races

Enjoy new Star Trek adventures

Or be part of the Star Trek universe more closely than you ever imagined”

What I’m trying to do with those phrases is to get readers thinking in terms of questions instead of declarative statements. People tend to respond to questions by trying to answer them in their own minds, even if they know that no one is waiting for a verbal answer. By creating questions, then, you get them more engaged with what you’re telling them.

Questions also help you avoid having them see your words as referring to the past series. Questions suggest that an answer is forthcoming. You subconsciously let them know that you’re leading them toward a “punchline,” so to speak.

The last two lines that I suggested in my brainstorming would also make a much stronger call to action than simply saying, “Join us,” or “Come explore the Terra Nova.”

Your series fills the hunger that many Star Trek fans have for exciting new adventures. And it gives those who would like to participate in creating those stories a chance to experience Star Trek in a way they never have before. Those are your strongest selling points. Don’t settle for a Spock-like, “Join us” when you’ve got emotionally-charged reasons like those available to you.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m seriously impressed by what you did with the video! I’m just looking at it (and the description) from a marketing standpoint and trying to see it as your viewers will see it. In that regard, you can make it more compelling and get more viewers to click through to your site.

It’s an amazing first effort, though! I hope this helps.”

My son also took my suggestions in another direction that I hadn’t anticipated. He took my advice about tapping into people’s emotions and created an entirely different video a few days later.

He’s even more excited about that one than he was about the first one. Although the second one is much simpler visually, it also freed him up to tell a bit more of the situation around which the series of stories revolves. That’s something that he couldn’t do when he had to fit his words around the visuals that he had used for his first video.

In many ways, the simplicity actually makes it more effective. You can check out that Star Trek Terra Nova video here.

You might want to check out the channel he created to let people know about his Star Trek series.

I hope you enjoy his videos. And I hope this critique helps you better tap into the emotions of the people you want to reach as you create promotional videos of your own.

Jeff

She and I have long shared a firm belief that successful business was all about helping customers meet their needs. But the thought she shared with me took that concept to an entirely different level. Here’s what she said:

“What if your purpose here is not to help people… but to SERVE people – and that serving others is really about loving them (and yourself) as purely and completely as you can?”

I’ve never thought of it that way before.

Business?

Love?

Weird!

Or is it?

What it means to have a “client”

I’ve always liked the meaning of the old word from which we get our modern word “client.” It originally implied “being under the protection of.”

Thinking of our customers — our clients — as being under our protection puts a whole different perspective on business. Think of yourself as a parent watching out for your child.

Would thinking that way change any of the decisions you make about whether to go an extra step farther to give that person under your protection a bit more value than the minimum you can get away with?

Think of yourself empathizing with someone important to you to help them through something that troubles them. Would thinking that way change any of the effort you put into finding and preparing solutions for them?

Could the term “love” fit with either of those scenarios?

You bet!

“Wooing” your customers — with an entirely different meaning

Marketers often use the term “wooing your customers” to mean convincing them to buy from you. They use it in a way that brings to mind a meaningless sexual conquest, a one-night-stand.

How much better off would your customers — those clients under your protection — be if you took the idea of wooing your customers beyond the “conquest” model into one of that better fits the two-way model of  ongoing love?

Let’s look at some of the words my friend used in her epiphany.

Love…

Purely…

Completely…

It’s something worth taking a little time to wrap your mind around.

Jeff

P.S.

By the way, I highly recommend that you connect with the friend who sent me this epiphany. That friend is copywriting and product launch queen Jaime Mintun.

She’s always good for a bit of inspiration and for getting me to look at business in new and interesting ways. And she practices that love with all those who “place themselves under her protection” by giving great ideas and helps for building a successful business.

Get her latest free report and see for yourself. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. And you’ll enjoy hearing from Jaime.

And if you get a chance, tell her, “Hi!” from Jeff.

The results pitted striking statistics of dire circumstances against a heart-wrenching story of a single little girl who put a human face on those statistics.

You might guess that the story was far more persuasive in soliciting donations to the charity mentioned in both. What was shocking was the degree to which the statistics actually dampened donations — even when the statistics and story were combined.

Through a series of tests, the researchers were able to isolate a single factor that dampened people’s willingness to part with their money. Surprisingly, it was their intellect.

Emotion moved them into action. Intellect sat them solidly on the sideline.

The full story — and what it means for you

The story and what it means for you is too long for me to share in a simple blog post. It comprises a full chapter of the book on persuasive copywriting I’m currently writing.

If you’d like to see it — and make sure that you’re not making the same mistake that many marketers make in trying to persuade your customers to buy, I’ll gladly share it with you.

Sign up to be part of my pre-release feedback group. You’ll get the lesson from this surprising research, as well as weekly chapters of my book. You’ll get other tips and other free gifts along the way, too.

I plan to share even more good stuff with you there!

Jeff

PS: Think you’ve already missed too much for it to be worth your while to start the previews now? Don’t worry. Once you’re in, you’ll get a link to the previous chapters of this book as well. Oh, and did I mention that this is all free? Each installment is released on Sunday. Sign up now to make sure you don’t have to wait to start these chapters.

Master copywriter Daniel Levis described what happens in storytelling this way: “A great story authenticates its ideas through the consequences of honest human choice and action. It is the creative demonstration of truth, the living proof of an idea.”

Through stories, your potential customers see another human faced with the same problem they faced. They see the choices that person made. They see the results of those choices.

To the degree that those results match what that person wants for themselves, they will accept your product as a proven way of getting to where they want to go.

You might think that stories, then, provide a strictly logical argument for customers choosing your solution. Logic has little to do with their decision, though.

The decision is more emotional. You interrupt them in the key point of the story in which they are already in the middle.

They came to you as part of their search for which of many roads forward they could choose in their story. You focus them on your solution.

You offer them that one road forward in their quest. In doing so, you strip away all other choices. Your road forward shows proven success. All other roads remain shrouded in uncertainty.

The road forward that your story presents literally provides them with a no-brainer solution. I say that the choice is literally a no-brainer because it doesn’t involve any logical thought at all. It springs from pure emotion.

Those you serve grab it instinctively, just as a drowning man would grab for the only rope thrown to him. Their choice is clear. No logic is required.

More copywriting tips like this one

The preceding was an excerpt of the chapter of my new book on persuasive copywriting that I’m sharing with my readers for free on my private book preview this week.

In this chapter I describe one of the benefits of using stories to sell. This one is only one of the benefits I cover this week and only one tip out many I have covered so far in this series. Sign up and get weekly chapters of my book, as well as other tips and other free gifts along the way.

I plan to share even more good stuff with you there!

Jeff

PS: Think you’ve already missed too much for it to be worth your while to start the previews now? Don’t worry. Once you’re in, you’ll get a link to the previous chapters of this book as well. Oh, and did I mention that this is all free? Each installment is released on Sunday. Sign up now to make sure you don’t have to wait to start these chapters.

Asking your readers questions can be a powerful way of persuading them. The mind naturally responds to questions by mentally seeking an answer for them. Even though they don’t answer out loud, they answer inside their own heads.

Once they answer, that answer becomes their own opinion, not something you told them to think. By asking questions that you word in such a way that their natural answer will be what you want them to think, you actually nudge potential customers into forming opinions that lead them closer to a purchase decision.

Make sure that you use questions carefully, though. Questions are not, in themselves, a magic wand that “forces” people to comply. For example, if I were to ask, “Don’t you want to buy stained glass from me?” right at the beginning of the page, it would nudge them toward mistrusting me as manipulative rather than nudging them toward looking favorably on the idea of adding stained glass to their home.

These kind of questions work only when you have first focused people on the benefits of what you offer. And they work only when they are framed in such a way that readers will answer naturally with nothing but the answer you seek from them.

More copywriting tips like this one

The preceding was an excerpt of the chapter of my new book on persuasive copywriting that I’m sharing with my readers for free on my private book preview this week.

In this chapter I break down a preselling page on stained glass that I wrote recently. I tell my readers, paragraph by paragraph, what strategies I used and why they work. Sign up and get weekly chapters of my book, as well as other tips and other free gifts along the way.

I plan to share even more good stuff with you there!

Jeff

PS: Think you’ve already missed too much for it to be worth your while to start the previews now? Don’t worry. Once you’re in, you’ll get a link to the previous chapters of this book as well. Oh, and did I mention that this is all free? Each installment is released on Sunday. Sign up now to make sure you don’t have to wait to start these chapters.

Yet I’ve seen that fear again and again in people with whom I ‘ve worked. Frankly, I’ve seen it in myself.

When we try to sell something, we often fear that people will turn us down. We know the unpleasant feeling of having some slick salesperson try to manipulate us into buying something we didn’t want.

We don’t want people to see us — and dislike us — the way we see and dislike those pushy salespeople. So we procrastinate our marketing efforts and focus on busy-work. We hope that people will just stumble upon us and be so impressed that they buy without us needing to “market” to them.

Getting past the fear

So what can get us past that fear of rejection? Stop trying to sell stuff.

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t tell you to close your business. I encouraged you to stop approaching your business as if you have to manipulate people in order to sell.

A scary — but crucial — question

You don’t have to manipulate in order to sell. Ask yourself this question: “How would other people’s lives be poorer if I didn’t get my message out to them?”

Your first reaction to this question might be dismay. “It wouldn’t matter in the least to people. My business is worthless! My life is meaningless! Wah! Wah! Wah!”

OK, got that out of your system now? That kind of reaction comes from having a manipulative mentality deeply ingrained into your thinking about business. You need to root out that mentality and root it out right now!

The truth about selling — and what to do about it

You DO have something to offer others, though. Some people’s lives WILL be poorer if you don’t get your message out to them about what you offer.

Start focusing on how whatever you offer improves their lives. Start focusing on what problems it solves for them. Start focusing on who, in particular, will benefit the most from what you offer and where you can find them.

Focus on these questions rather than on how you can get other people’s money out of their pockets and into yours. By changing your focus, you’ll find a surprising change in your thinking about marketing what you offer.

How this makes you a better business person

You’ll find that feeling of guilt for trying to get money from other people fades. You’ll find it replaced instead with a feeling of excitement and purpose as you look for ways to reach those whom you can truly benefit.

You’ll stop blasting your marketing message out haphazardly in the hope that someone — ANYONE — will miraculously decide to give you their money for what you offer. You’ll look instead toward finding and targeting the specific type of people for whom what you offer will be a no-brainer to buy.

A sobering possibility — and its solution

What, though, if you can’t think of any way that what you offer helps people? What if you can’t think of any type of people who will benefit from it? What if you can’t think of any of these things no matter how hard you try?

Then it’s time to reconsider what you offer. Is it nothing more than some worthless product that you were sold on because some exploitative salesperson made it sound like selling it would be a magic wand to take away YOUR problem? If so, find something to offer that actually DOES benefit others.

Is what you offer something that has some value, but could be made a lot better? Then make it a lot better. Build more value into it.

Make sure that what you offer brings real value to others. Recognize who will benefit most from it. Then you won’t have to feel uncomfortable marketing it.

A new joy for both you and your customers

Instead of feeling vaguely like you’re exploiting others by selling it, you’ll feel a sense of excitement about figuring out where the people are whom you can help and how to show them something that will make their lives better. Marketing your product will help you feel like a hero rather than like a villain.

Try out that question today. Ask yourself, “How would other people’s lives be poorer if I didn’t get my message out to them?”

Figure out who benefits most from what you offer and exactly how they do. Then focus your marketing on how you can best help them instead of on how you can fill your pockets with their money. You’ll find that this shift in perspective will benefit you in multiple ways.

I’m excited about its potential and I plan to share this  approach with my book preview subscribers in the chapter I reveal this week of the book I am currently writing on copywriting (sign up here if you want to find out how to do this).

As I did this experiment, though, I realized something else that was worth passing on. I rediscovered a common mistake that many marketers (including me) make that can hurt, or even kill, a business’ profits.

It’s why being “too smart” can hurt you in business. And it’s why struggling in school with ADHD can actually be an advantage later in life in business.

What is this mistake?

The mistake is in being too thorough. What? How can being too thorough be a mistake? Isn’t being thorough a good thing?

It is a good thing. But good things can be taken too far. That’s when it becomes a mistake.

What I did wrong

The experiment I did involved gathering information on Amazon. Within a half-hour, I had assembled a good amount of information.

I could easily have taken what I had and used it as it was. Instead, I kept digging. I’d complete one page and decide to check just one more, just one more, just one more.

In the additional half-hour I spent, the information I found largely repeated what I had already had. I found few new insights.

In essence, I wasted a half-hour that I could have used more profitably. I was too thorough.

Why being “too smart” can hurt your business

My experience was similar to many experiences in the past. Having been trained to be a good student in school, I tend cross every “t” and dot every “i,” even if it means digging deeper even after I pass the point of diminishing returns.

Well, that’s why I say that being “too smart” can be a disadvantage in business. But what about what I said about how being ADHD in school can be an advantage?

A business advantage in ADHD?

I long have noticed that a surprising number of business gurus claim to have been diagnosed as ADHD as children. In fact, they promote themselves as being able to teach anyone how to run a successful business because they themselves overcame that massive obstacle.

So many gurus claimed this that I decided to find out if there was a connection. I found that there is.

The same thing that made it hard for them to be thorough in their school work makes them prone to action. Rather than focus on one thing for long periods of time and learn the theory behind it, they take action. They try experiment after experiment. They learn from trial and error.

The importance of learning from experience

Because they try so many experiments, they develop more hands-on experience than one of the “smart kids” like me. And they develop experience faster.

The more times they fail, the more they learn about what directions don’t work. The more they follow up on small successes in their experiments, the more successful their next experiment becomes.

Rather than storing up book knowledge, they take action. And their action pays off.

What does this mean for you and me?

It isn’t that they make fewer mistakes than “smarter” business owners; they actually make more mistakes. But they learn from experience and eventually find success.

The lesson from all this? Take action. And when you take action, learn from what happens. Even mistakes give you useful experience.

Keep taking action. And when your research reaches a point of diminishing returns, put what you have into further action instead of digging for more info than you actually need.

The boy loves to draw monsters, so why not sell his drawings? She hoped that if they put his drawings up for sale, they would find at least a few people who would respond to the story and be able to add a couple of hundred dollars to their other efforts to raise money.

The story went viral, though, and his drawings have brought in over $30,000 so far — enough to allow his family to take their house off the market.

What can we learn from this?

I don’t want to downplay this heartwarming story. But, as I do from so many things, I see in this story also a lesson for us as marketers.

What can we, as marketers, learn from Aidan’s story? Look for the stories that underlie what you offer. People who buy Aidan’s drawings aren’t buying them for their artistic skill. They look, quite fittingly, like they were drawn by a five-year-old.

Certainly, the buyers want to contribute to a worthwhile cause. But there are plenty of other worthwhile causes out there that don’t get their money. We see appeals for children with medical needs every day. Why did people choose Aidan?

The story behind those drawings touched their emotions. And buying one of Aidan’s drawings gives them a great story to tell, too.

What buying Aidan’s drawings did for those who bought them

Picture this. A visitor to the home of one of the purchaser’s spots a childlike drawing on the purchaser’s refrigerator. The visitor says, “Where’d you get that? You don’t have any kids that age.”

The purchaser’s eyes light up as they launch into the story of how they heard about this little boy who was raising money for his own cancer treatment and decided to help.

That picture they bought becomes more than just a drawing. It becomes a story of a five-year-old overcoming enormous odds. And it becomes a story of how the purchaser played a small role in helping that child in his quest.

Look for the stories in your business

Emotion sells. Stories sell. Look beyond the features and even the benefits of what you offer. Look for stories behind what you offer. Look for the stories behind what got you to the point of being able to offer it. Look for stories of how what you offer has made a difference in the lives of those who have bought it.

Look for the stories. Look for what makes a human connection between what you offer and the emotions of those you serve. You’re liable to see your use of stories create a new story for yourself of even greater success.

Want to check out Aidan’s full story? See his story here.

Harder, but not impossible, though. It takes creativity and sometimes courage to overcome customers’ uncertainty. But when you do, the rewards can be surprising, as I show in the latest chapter of my book on Persuading Customers to Buy that I’ve been sharing with my test readers each week.

An example of using customers’ uncertainty

Here’s a taste of what this week’s chapter contains. It’s an example that shows how Hyundai used the uncertainty customers felt as the 2009 recession hit them to increase their sales — even as other auto makers’ were finding it almost impossible to sell enough cars to keep their doors open.

Here’s the excerpt:

I’ve already shown you in a past chapter how you can use uncertainty as your ally by piquing their interest with curiosity. What about those times when uncertainty works against you, though? How do you enlist it to help you then? You get creative, like Hyundai did during the recent recession.

When the recession started in 2009, car sales slumped badly for all auto makers. Most cut prices dramatically. Some were selling their cars at cost or below, just to keep their cash flow from drying up completely.

Then Hyundai came up with an idea that helped them buck the trend. Their idea actually boosted their sales by 20%. What did they do? They decided not to join other auto makers in the cost cutting that had become the norm.

Instead, they correctly recognized the mood of car buyers. Those car buyers were not looking for bargains; they were scared to death of losing their jobs. Any thought of buying a car was swallowed immediately by fears of what would happen if a job loss made them unable to meet their payments.

So Hyundai made a previously unheard of offer. They offered that if a buyer lost their income within the first year of payments, Hyundai would gladly accept the car back and let the buyer out of their contract with no negative impact on their credit.

Was this suicidal?

This might seem to be a suicidal way of doing business. If you were to consider guaranteeing your customers’ financial safety in this way you might picture hordes of customers asking you to reverse their sales and your business crumbling under the weight of frivolous product returns.

Hyundai, though, suffered no loss from this. After all, their offer was not to give a year’s worth of payments back. It was to tear up the contract and demand no further payments. And in the two years after Hyundai made their dramatic offer, only two customers took them up on it.

How to find out more about using your customers uncertainty

I’ll uncover more about this powerful persuasive strategy in this week’s installment of my free book preview. Sign up and get weekly chapters of my book, as well as other tips and other free gifts along the way.

I plan to share even more good stuff with you there!

Jeff

PS: Think you’ve already missed too much for it to be worth your while to start the previews now? Don’t worry. Once you’re in, you’ll get a link to the previous chapters of this book as well. Oh, and did I mention that this is all free? Each installment is released on Sunday. Sign up now to make sure you don’t have to wait to start these chapters.