Greetings Floor Dealers!

Steve was standing in his Arizona flooring store when a man walked in holding a letter.

“My neighbor said I should come and see you,” the man said, handing the letter to Steve.  Steve recognized it as one of the direct mail pieces had sent out the week before.  “You sent this to my neighbor, and when he found out I was planning to have tile installed in my house, he brought this over to me and said ‘You’ve gotta go see Steve.'”

The letter was not your typical flooring ad;  I know, because I wrote it.  It was four pages long, crammed full of text, written in 11-point font, it had no photos, and no mention of any flooring products whatsoever.  Yet they generated an 11-1 return on investment, Steve later told me.
To make the situation even more remarkable, the letter had not been sent to the tile customer, but to his neighbor.  “When was the last time you got a piece of  ‘junk mail’ from a business, and were so excited about it you walked it over to your neighbor and told them they just had to contact the company in the ad?” Steve asked me.

Never.

That’s the power of  compelling marketing.  Conventional advertising wisdom says that you can’t sell flooring  with a four-page letter with no photos or description of products; that you need lots of color and graphics; that you shouldn’t be too wordy; that you need lots of white space.

Hogwash.  Hundreds of savvy floor dealers who have used the direct response marketing strategies I teach have proven differently.  What you need is marketing that doesn’t bore prospects, but instead grabs their attention, develops interest, heightens desire, and compels them to take action. But as I’ve said before, too many flooring ads and websites are about as compelling as a fist full of Sleepeze.  (See my last post The Cardinal Sin Of Marketing for why this is the case.)

So what are the elements that go into a compelling marketing piece?   Here are some of the most important:

  • Your prospect only cares about three things: benefits, benefits, benefits.  Everybody’s favorite radio station is W.I.I.F.M: What’s In It For Me?  Your business name, your slogan, or how many years you’ve been in business are not seen by your prospects as benefits.  Your ads need to educate the prospect on the actual, real, demonstrable benefits of buying from you vs. your competitors.
  • Note: “cheap price” doesn’t count as a benefit because almost everyone says it, it requires no sales or marketing imagination, and it attracts pesky, hard-to-eradicate critters (also known as “price shoppers”) to your store.
  • Testimonials.  What others say about you is 100 times more effective than what you say about yourself, even if you are 100 times more eloquent.
  • Unique Selling Proposition.  Most floor dealers use Universal Selling Propositions, like Number One In Customer Satisfaction, Free Estimates, Guaranteed Lowest Price, and How Boring Can We Be And Still Stay In Business?  A good USP focuses like a laser beam on a specific, concrete benefit, that is unique to your business, or is perceived as unique by your prospects.
  • In your ads, write like you talk.  Use conversational language that relates to your prospect, and sounds like a real, live human being.  Don’t use advertise-ese:  “Our Goal At Boring Flooring Is To Provide Our Customers With Superior Floors And Stellar Service As We Strive To  Make The World A Better Place One Floor At….A…Ti….”  (Zzzzzzz…MMzzzz… Huh?  What?  Oops, sorry.  Even writing in advertise-ese puts me to sleep.)  Your prospects don’t talk that way, so you shouldn’t either.

 

In my next post, I’ll reveal strategies for commanding premium prices in any market, even with a Home Depot down the street.  Stay tuned!

 

To Tons Of Customers!
Jim Augustus Armstrong is The “Coach”

Jim Augustus Armstrong is the President of Flooring Success Systems, a program that equips dealers to double their profits, cut their work hours in half and beat the boxes! Many dealers have totally transformed their businesses and their lives for the better after joining Flooring Success Systems.
See what real, live dealers are saying!