Our survey earlier today suggests 92% of you agree here that to be successful in sales:
1. You need to know your audience.
And, 77% of you agree that the biggest reason for all the No’s you get is that:
2. You don’t know your audience well enough (versus you don’t know how to sell well enough).
Question:
How do you find your audience? We already have learned the hard way everyone will not buy your product or join your business. So:
1) Who IS your audience (for your business or product)? And
2) How do you find them?
I’m not going to mention the target audience for my product, because I’m testing the waters promoting a new product. (Too soon to commit.)
But, I found 120 opt in leads (in 10 days) from a social networking site targeting a very specific demographic.
When I started, I got all sorts of low-quality leads that just burned through my clicks and wasted my time.
When I target my message, response went up, and the quality of leads was tremendous.
Kim speaks the truth . . .
Walter Reade (from Wisconsin)
I find my audience for my product through http://www.virtualofficesystems.biz – Their leads are specifically targeting customers. Their profile database is already narrowed down to people interested in a healthy product so I don’t have to sort through thousands of people who don’t care about their health.
I am very happy with my marketing. I’ve put up signs saying:
Energy Drink Testers Wanted
Call Roxanne at 270-369-0633
That defines my target market of energy drink drinkers (at least all but 4 of the over 250 replies in 3 weeks are) and people who can afford my product because I know they are spending more than that now and people who are looking for a new energy drink.
It’s easy. Simply think of how to get customers and the ones who want to join the business will raise thier hand and say “How can I get paid to do what you’re doing?”
This little ad on bulletin boards in my local area has gotten me 178 local (within an hour and a half of me) prospects in just 3 short weeks. These are people who want the product my company is introducing and THEY CALL ME. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
Run an ad for testers of one of your products that you can easily sample out. Do not put a website. You want people to call you so you can talk with them.
Roxanne Green
Thanks, all—
Rox – Sounds fun!
Do you give the folks samples then? About how much do those cost you?
And of those, about how many have bought the product?
Really great idea, Roxanne! Wonder what will happen if I put out a sign that says “I’m looking for “green” people”
Kim,
The product is going to be introduced in a few weeks.
In the meantime, all that I’ve talked to so far have given me their email address and have agreed to email updates.
I will sample it out to them when it is released. The ones local, I will meet with in person to give them their sample and talk with them.
A box costs $75 for 50 stick packs (mix with water), and with my commissions I will end up spending $55 instead of $75 per box, therefore, it will be just a little over $1 per prequalified lead.
Even if I only end up with a very conservative 10% as customers, that’s around 25 customers for $275.
How many of us have spent $275 on leads and/or advertising and get nowhere near 20 customers? I’ve spent nothing on advertising but a couple dollars for the paper and black ink to print the signs. I put them out during my travels so there’s no extra time involved.
I’m sure some of them will be joining as affiliates because I have talked with them about the opportunity and they are already lining up their own Energy Drink Testers.
It’s working great!!
Roxanne
Virginia,
How about
Testers of Non-toxic Cleaners Wanted.
Can you sample out your cleaners? That way, the ones who answer the ad will be people who WANT what you have.
Or maybe Meal Replacement Drink Testers Wanted.
Or Air Filtration Testers Wanted.
Anything you can sample out, you can have “testers” of. People are leary of “Free Sample” because everyone gives out free samples, but when you are asking them to simply be a “tester” and give you their honest opinion of a product, they are more apt to call you. AND – you have an edge because you already have the product. You don’t have to wait for it to become available.
Try it and see.
Roxanne
Our audience is beginning to seek us out.In 2005, the Los Angeles Times raved about the health benefits of the goji berry. In 2006, TIME magazine called the “Himalayan Goji Berry the Superfruit of the Year!” In 2007, it got even better. The Oprah Winfrey Show, the highest-rated talk show in television history, recommended goji to Chicago Bulls leading scorer Ben Gordon to maintain high energy levels and prevent post-workout crashes. Calling the goji berry “. . . the most potent antioxidant fruit that we know,” America’s Doctor, Dr. Mehmet Oz, author of the bestselling YOU: The Owners Manual, and Vice Chairman of Surgery at Columbia University, gave the recommendation on the October 1 episode. Seen by approximately nine million viewers around the world, Dr. Oz also stated that goji “grows in the Himalayas.”
Gene Simmons, Rock Legend from KISS
had a bottle of our Himalayan Goji Juice on his show Family Jewels a few months back as well.
Federal law prohibits me from making any medical claims but as a registered nurse I’ll tell you that Himalayan Goji Juice is the single best product I have recommended in my 30 years in the healthcare field.
Because I’m name branded as the goji nurse I get calls from people who want to try the juice because of all the buzz that has been created.
Yours In Health
Who Is My Audience? (Re: the Products)
Those going through a health challenge
Those coming out of health challenge
Those who are proactive in preventing a health challenge
RE: The Biz
Those w/ an entrepreneurial (sp?)
spirit/flicker who want to make a change badly enough to make a change.
Word of caution to Craig:
Dr. Oz was our Key Note speaker at our convention this year and he did announce that he takes our product because he belives in our product. In fact, he thanked our president from the stage for his contribution to his and his familys ability to get most of what they needed from our product.
But some reps from our company got overzealous and began to suggest he ‘promotes’ our product (he promotes no product) and this news rendered our President cancelled from a Radio Show with Oprah and Dr. Oz (their lawyers would not allow it). They told our Pres. if the reps could not give out accurate information, they could not allow him to be on their radio show.
This was, of course, a huge disappointment for our president and an email was sent out to all reps to keep Oprahs name and Dr Oz’s name out of the picture.
Remember, Dr. Oz was the KEYNOTE speaker at our convention. His partner Dr Roizen made a CD for our product that we hand out daily. Still and yet, we can NOT use their names along side our product at any time.
My guess is, you need to look further into the statements you have made to be sure they will not create any issues with your company/w/ Dr Oz and or w/ Oprah.
Just my .02. It’s hard not to get excited if a property of your product (i.e. goji berry) is mentioned on a show like Oprah but be careful w/ how you tell the story.
Cathy
Novel idea, Kim, what if your audience finds YOU?
The Internet has opened up so many doors and has increased everyone’s audience by millions.
Posting ads on sites where like minded people might be found; posting in forums and on message boards in your areas of interest; blogging; podcasting and more are a great way to BRAND yourself, like Craig eluded to.
Why is it that two people side by side can be offering the exact same product and yet one person is making all of the sales?
Is it the product, the technique or the person?
When I am surfing the web or sharing my story with my local audience, they are more interested in ME, my story and the product becomes secondary.
Having my “audience” search me out is pure joy!
To your success and FUN!
Kelly Wissink
Today is my “challenge the claims” day. 🙂
Craig wrote: Federal law prohibits me from making any medical claims but as a registered nurse I’ll tell you that Himalayan Goji Juice is the single best product I have recommended in my 30 years in the healthcare field.
True, federal law prohibits you from making a claim. But it does not prohibit you from showing the results of a research study.
If Goji is really the best thing you’ve recommended, it should be easy to point us to a study showing the benefit of drinking Himalayan Goji Juice.
Show me a study that shows it reduced cholesterol, or reduced the chance of cancer, or increases stamina, or decreases oxidative stress in the body, or improved kidney function, etc. Something. Anything.
One study.
And don’t say pubmed mentions goji 200 times. I’ve read all the abstracts. They’re all either studies on rats, or studies in a test-tube. I’m looking for study where one group drank Himalayan Goji Juice and the other drank a placebo.
There are lots of studies about the health benefits of people drinking green tea. But I can’t find any on Goji.
If Himalayan Goji Juice is that great, wouldn’t you think there’d be one study?
One other thing. I don’t think it’s smart to throw around credentials . . . as if being a registered nurse makes someone an expert on health and nutrition. What if a famous doctor says Goji is unproven and you should save your money? Does that trump the opinion of a nurse?
Walter Reade (from Wisconsin)
Dear NMC Fans?
Where did we ever get into bashing someone elses
company or product? I’ve never done it and Kim expects better from our community.
Kathy, the information is a direct quote from Dr Oz from Oprah’s show. Do you think that Dr Oz only makes 1 keynote speech a year?
Walter, it’s obvious what you’re not up on your down on. I could spend the next week talking about the science behind the Goji berry. There are human studies on PUBMED. But as Kim says “Who cares?” and she’s right. You drink the juice and you feel better. If not you get your money back.
Two great examples of very Old School responses to what I’ll admit was an example of extreme self-promotion.
Take A Deep Breathe And Relax
Craig
http://www.thegojinurse.com
Kelly,
If you are out there promoting yourself, your audience is not “seeking you out” you are targeting them.
Great methods of targeting, by the way, just don’t fool yourself into thinking that people who have never heard of you will “seek you out”.
Craig,
Same thing. Just because your company/product was in the news, does NOT insure that people will find YOU.
I think a lot of people here have lost sight of the questions that were asked.
1) Who IS your audience (for your business or product)? And
2) How do you find them?
All of us must do something to get our audience to “seek us out”. We do not sign up with a company – give ourselves a catchy name and have people magically looking for us.
Instead of all of the double talk, technobabble and such, how about answering the questions in a clear, simple manner.
What do YOU do to get your name in front of your target market?
Unfortunately, this is why a lot of people fail in network marketing – there is no proven SYSTEM to follow to get in front of your target market. This (I believe) is one of the reasons Kim did this post – to get us thinking and not spewing technobabble.
Just my opinions.
Roxanne Green
Craig:
It’s not self-promotion . . . it’s self-preservation . . . and preservation for the entire industry.
Every time a network marketing company goes too far with claims, enough to cause bad publicity (such as the Goji segment on CBC marketplace), it makes it harder for everyone else in the industry.
If you have a product that makes you feel better, than say that and be done with it. But don’t insinuate there could be medical claims to make if only the government would let you. If there is research, then post it. Just don’t hint around at unproven medical benefits, particularly using RN credentials.
Because here are the facts:
(1) Out of the 79 research articles reference lycium barbarm (the latin name for goji) on pubmed.gov, only 4 of the articles (i.e., 5%) were on human test subject. Two of the articles showed eating goji berries increased anti-oxidants (a good thing). One article showed that eating goji berries helped patients already undergoing chemo therapy (note, no claim to prevent cancer). But one study warned that goji berry consumption could interact negatively with blood thinning medication (e.g., Coumadin). [Do warn your customers about that?]
(2) So, that’s it. Four studies. And they were all performed on everyday normal goji berries (not Himalayan Goji Juice). None of the studies mentioned the need for a spectral signature, which is a big marketing point of Freelife Goji. So, that puts Freelife in an awkward position . . . using research done on generic goji, but then turning around and saying that you’re the only ones with the good stuff.
If I’m missing something, please correct me.
Walter Reade (from Wisconsin)
P.S. This is relaxed for me. You should see when I get worked up. 🙂
Craig,
You said:
Where did we ever get into bashing someone elses company or product?
I’ll assume you were not addressing me in this post as I did not bash your product or company.
and…
Kathy, the information is a direct quote from Dr Oz from Oprah’s show. Do you think that Dr Oz only makes 1 keynote speech a year?
Of course I realize he does more than one. My point was that EVEN tho he was our keynote and even tho he admitted being on our product and even tho his partner made a cd for us, we are still prohibited from using his name in any type of ads, promotions, etc for our company. My point was:
We all need to be careful. Sorry you did not understand that point.
and you said,
Two great examples of very Old School responses to what I’ll admit was an example of extreme self-promotion.
If anyone is into protecting the industry as a whole, it would be Kim. She frequently posts about not making claims etc. How you figured my ‘caution’ was old school I have no idea. Being careful is, has been and always wil be ‘now school’ in this closely watched industry.
Not that you will, but if you should re read my post you will see it was merely a word of caution Craig. Not an attack or bashing of any kind.
Continued success.
Cathy
All of you have gotten lost in the whole point of the question!
Kim asked very simply :
How Do YOU find YOUR “audience”?
Stop attacking each others products and please just post some useful ideas for the rest of us just getting started!
Hmm looks like some people got kind of tangled up in their “mine is better than yours” and “yours isn’t really the best” underwear.
Easy to do in the heat of the moment. So let’s breathe easy as Craig and Walter said, and start over.
How do you find your audience was the question, as Rox pointed out.
You may not find much of an audience willing to listen very long to statements that your product is the greatest, for whatever reason – including which mucky muck recommends it or what science is behind it. You might get a few orders and reps in the heat of the moment, but they don’t stick if they don’t share the mind set it takes to either take or market such products on a regular basis.
Everyone already says their product or business is the greatest and the consumers, including us, have had it up to here with all that self serving goobledegook.
Finding your audience means first of all, knowing who they are. Maybe that will be a next post.
IF they are people who will buy what celebrities recommend, then you should go after such people. If you think they’re testers of new energy products, like Rox does, you’d write ads like hers.
First you need to know who your audience might be, and a great way to start is asking yourself: why do YOU love to use the product?
YOU are part of your audience, aren’t you?
Kim — Thanks for calling time out. 🙂
Back the question . . .
Over the last two weeks, I’ve been focusing on finding business builders who want use the tools of the internet as a reaching out method like I love to!
Two things happened to cause this ephiphany.
(1) I read the book “Strengths Finder 2.0” which told me everything I already knew about myself, but that I wasn’t aligning to.
(2) An associate in a different company, who, in my opinion excels in on-line business building, invited me to work with him.
I’ve had more fun over the last two weeks than I’ve had for some time.
And the crazy thing is what I’m doing now is not too different than what I was doing before. It only adds a layer of “on-line business building” that keeps my leads pipeline full to do more traditional networking (i.e., phone calls, meetings, etc.)
So, my audience is people who want to build using on-line lead generating systems (capture pages, auto-responders, etc.) and I find them all sorts of ways . . . on-line and off-line, letting them know that I’m building a business this way and if they’re interested, they can check it out.
Walter Reade (from Wisconsin)
I have to say that most of what I usually read here on Network Marketing Central is very intelligent, positive and helpful.
However,
I’ve been extremely turned off by Walter’s rampage.
Yes, Craig should not be using this forum to promote his own company and probably should be more careful about name dropping. However, it sounds like Walter may be actually jealous…that
Craig is able to use his
nursing credentials????
If you were a health professional – you wouldn’t tell your customers?
And no… I don’t think that a famous doctor’s opinion trumps that of a nurse. Especially when the famous doctor openly admits he doesn’t like the network marketing model…(from you own link). Perhaps if Goji berries weren’t being heavily promoted by a network marketing company – this famous doctor would take them seriously. (Note: I am not a rep. with freelife )
Sorry, Kim… I know this isn’t the topic you requested feedback on.
I love Roxanne’s ideas… Thanks Roxanne!
Anon:
Yes, I absolutely have a problem with someone using nursing credentials to insinuate medical claims for a product, particularly for a product that has a dearth of scientific research.
Watch the CBC segment on Goji and ask yourself — is this is the kind of press you want for our industry? Read the comments, and judge for yourself.
Walter Reade (from Wisconsin)
Walter,
Anyone can come up something negative about any company out there. The fact that you invested time and energy into the research and pointed out negatives only tells me that YES! You are bashing another company.
Will this make your or anyone else’s company look better? You pointed out an article by Dr, Weil who said:” I am prejudiced against the multi-level marketing through which goji juice and goji berries are sold – you can buy them only through distributors who make money not only through their own sales but those of the people they recruit”
Walter are you not with MLM company? Because many of us here are.
Anon:
I’m a big supporter of the MLM industry. I regularly buy products from at least half a dozen companies. I’ve refered people as customers and business builders to other reps from other companies, many whom I met through this blog. And I actively build with a company.
So, I have not problem there.
I’ve even had my own bottle of Goji in my fridge!
Really, I have no issues with the company.
My issue is with claims that can’t be backed up.
The only reason I went to so much trouble reading the abstracts on pubmed is because if there was plenty of research supporting goji, I wanted to know for myself.
If tomorrow we learned that goji is the single best thing you could do for your health . . . well then . . .sign me up.
But if someone makes a claim that isn’t supported, I’ll bring out the facts.
That’s not bashing.
Walter
So Walter:
I bet you might have some orange juice in your refrigerator. Have you seen any Tropicana OJ studies or whichever brand of orange juice you might have in the refrigerator?
I think not. All the studies are done on Vitamin C not the brand name but you still buy it anyway. Orange juice is in fact void of any nutritional value after pastuerization and the vitamins and now other nutrition is being added to the orange juice to make it “healthy”. When in fact orange juice is detrimental to anyone with diabetes or pre-diabetes which accounts for 14 million people just in the US alone. But there is not even a warning label on the orange juice to warn people
of this potential health risk.
The juice that you are bashing is 100% safe for diabetics to drink. As a matter of record they could drink a whole liter and not have any blood sugar problems. The studies on pubmed are just the beginning of the science of the goji berry. There is 2500 years of Chinese written documentation to the value of the goji berry. I would suggest that 1 billion people could not be wrong. Sometimes science preceeds the validation of a particular product and other times the science follows. For instance take Vitamin C. Years ago people got sick and died from scurvy. People realized that when they ate oranges those people did not get scurvy. It wasn’t until years later that through science it was discovered that Vitamin C deficiency causes scurvy. Did the study invalidate the idea that eating oranges prevented scury? No in fact what we learned was that you needed to have citrus fruits in your diet to prevent scurvy and oranges was one of those foods containing Vitamin C.
Just like the case with the scurvy I see people drink the juice and restore their vibrant health of their youth I don’t need anymore scientific validation then that.
Craig:
You make some good points.
And I’m being too hard nosed. 🙂
Walter Reade (from Wisconsin)