Gene Schwartz – the sales copy writing legend, coined a simple ‘customer awareness‘ graph that helps marketers determine what type of sales lead to implement, depending on where their customers fall on the graph.
Most Aware Product Aware Solution Aware Problem Aware Unaware
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DIRECT APPROACH INDIRECT APPROACH
By understanding the awareness your typical customer has about your brand, you can direct a more targeted sales approach to them.
In this series of blogs, we are now looking at the ‘Solution Aware’ class of buyers.
A ‘solution aware’ prospect knows the results they want but doesn’t know your product or service provides it.
Imagine it’s a Saturday night, you feel like going out and having some fun. You just got paid, you live close to the city, and you know there is plenty to do in the city. Only you’re not quite sure what to do.
This sums up being ‘solution aware’.
Your prospective customer knows there is a solution to their problem, but not sure what it is yet.
As you see on the customer awareness scale, they land in the middle. This means you have to take a less direct approach with your sales pitch or video sales copy.
They need some enlightenment on your unique selling position before they start weighing up their options.
As far is writing sales scripts for the video goes, you need to keep in mind that solution aware customers only have an outcome in mind.
Someone will buy a hammer not because they want a hammer, but because they want to nail something together. If you needed to do a lot of nailing and hadn’t heard of a nail gun, a demonstration or proof would be needed to convince you that it’s the right tool for the job. This means you will need to provide some sort of proof in your video clip that your product or service will help your prospect to reach their desired outcome.
A great example of this type of sales lead is your infomercial style ads. They give you the most amazing examples of their products effectiveness. You start off watching with scepticism but by the time it gets to the price point, you are thinking it isn’t such a bad deal. They concentrate on the outcome the product gives you. An outcome that is far faster, easier and better than any other product or service.
They demonstrate proof in a manner that makes you want to keep watching – to see if this product can stand up to the big claims being made.
If your target demographic falls into this category, you don’t need to copy the style of an infomercial. But keep in mind what outcome you are presenting. And couple it with either social proof or some form of demonstration.
Next post will go into detail on ‘Problem aware’ prospects. These people have some sort of problem but don’t know there is a solution for it.