Graham McGregor: Keep it simple to boost your sales

Look for simple and easy to understand stories and examples that you can use in your marketing. Photo / Getty

Here's an easy way to increase your sales when talking to potential clients for your products and services.

Use 2-3 simple and easy to understand stories or examples when you are explaining how you might be able to help potential clients.

Here's a good example of keeping things simple:

I was chatting with Jamie Tullock the managing director of E3 Business Accountants. We were discussing the question: "How do you know if you have a successful business?"

Here are two possible answers to this question Jamie told me.

The first answer is "Your business is successful if it has a Return on Equity of 25% or more."

The second answer is "Your business is successful if it is worth 3-4 times the value of your home."

Now the first answer contains jargon (Return on Equity) and is not easy to understand.

But the second answer is really simple and easy to understand.

Most of us know roughly what our home is worth so if our business is worth 3-4 times the value of our home we know we have a successful business.

In your own business you want to use stories and examples that are memorable and simple and easy to understand.

How do you find these simple stories and examples?

A great starting point is to interview 3-5 of your best clients on the phone.

• Ask them why they chose to use your products or services.
• Ask them what benefits they have enjoyed by using your products or services
• Ask them why they would recommend your products or services to other people.

Then write up what your clients tell you and email these comments to them.

Ask them if you can use this feedback when talking with potential new clients.

(What you've done here is collect some great testimonials from these clients.)

Then use some of the examples and stories they told you when you are talking with potential new clients.

Here's a good example:

One of the services I offer is I will personally interview 3-5 clients for a business and collect some amazing testimonials from these clients. (I then show my clients 47 different ways they can use these testimonials in their marketing to boost sales.)

I collected a number of testimonials for a business coach in Sydney recently and here's a tiny part of what one of his clients told me...

I treat using the services of Mark as like having another Managing Director for our business who has great ideas to improve and make our business a lot better. (And we get this for a lot less money than going out and hiring an extra Managing Director.)

Isn't that easy to understand?

Using Mark as a business coach is like having another Managing Director for my business at a fraction of the cost of hiring a Managing Director.

In the 5 testimonials I collected for Mark there were around 19 great examples and stories that he can now use when talking with potential new coaching clients.

So if you collect 3-5 testimonials from some of your best clients you'll end with a number of simple stories and examples that you can use to make your sales and marketing more effective.

Here's one last example of making things simple.

I was interviewing a fascinating Ecommerce consultant called Ross Lasley. Ross specialises in Shopping carts and e-commerce and has generated over 100 million dollars in sales for his clients.

Ross told me he does two main things for his clients.

1: He fixes Ecommerce Sites if they are Broken
Or
2: He goes shopping with his clients for a new Ecommerce site for their business.

Isn't that simple and easy to understand?

By the way, Ross earns $10,000 to $50,000 a month for each client he works with.
And he works with multiple clients.

Ross also has a delightfully simple way of explaining the value of his services to potential clients. (And I'll cover how he does this in a future marketing column.)

Summary:

My point today is to make things simple whenever you can.

Look for simple and easy to understand stories and examples that you can use in your marketing.

Simple sells!

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." - Confucius

Action Step:

What simple stories and examples can you use in your business to boost your sales this month?

Graham McGregor is a Marketing Strategist and helps business coaches attract perfect coaching clients from around the world. You can download his marketing guide ‘You Deserve Perfect Coaching Clients’ at no charge from www.perfectcoachingclients.com