The Truth About Free- Customers will still pay if the story is strong enough



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 Ad Age online magazine reported a story about the London Telegraph newpaper selling 600,000 extra copies of the paper in 10 days entirely driven by revealing Parliament's expenses. You can read the whole story at adage.com.

The amazing part of this story is that every sordid detail in the newspaper is also available for free on the Telegraph's website. The article makes these three points:

1. Giving something away for free does not automatically mean customer's will not buy from you.

2. Traditional means of communication continue to be valuable in our electronic age.

3. Shocking revelations and fascinating stories captivate audiences and capture wallet-share.

What's this have to do with the sales and marketing your products and services?

We can use this same information in planning our sales and marketing. Think of it as a quantum level sales lesson.

1. Give something valuable to your prospect/customer at no charge that has a path to some related billable product or service. Have several valuable 'somethings' lined up for each category or segment of customer. It could be as simple as using the same story with different headlines.

Remember, it's only valuable if it's important to your customer and unique to you. So put some serious thought into how your customer thinks, feels and sees you. Give them something that shows clearly the benefits they will realize with you.

2. Take appropriate advantage of all forms of communication for sales and marketing.

At all costs do your best to coordinate your strategy and tactics, to re-use material, to have a place to which you are driving your customer whether you are using:

• regular mail- letters, postcards, newsletters
• electronic mail- letters, newsletters
• whitepapers
• video
• audio
• radio/TV
• print Ad
• website
• blog
• articles
• editorials

3. Make it a great story.

Consumers and businesses love great stories... stories they can paint themselves into; stories where they can see themselves uniting with you to eliminate their problem- alleviate their pain.

Tell your story with words, numbers, pictures, and graphs. Use audio and video. And whatever you do, remember, it's not about you- it's about helping your customer paint themselves into the picture.

Be the Hero,
Mark