Can you quantify the value that you offer your customers?

Traditionally, marketers draw the bright line between features and benefits with two simple questions. If it answers the question "What?", it's a feature. If it answers the question "So what?", it's a benefit.

Some go even further and argue that if it doesn't have a good answer to the question "What's in it for me?" (WIIFM), it isn't even a benefit at all.

Increasingly, in these difficult times, there is a further question: "How much is in it for me?"

Sales and marketing professionals who usually stopped at WIIFM are finding that they are losing to others who can quantify the benefits more clearly. It's especially challenging for professional and financial services professionals trying to sell intangibles like "experience" and "client service."

For example, imagine two large banks promoting their "global reach." Is the bank with offices in 80 countries more attractive than the bank with offices in 50? How much?

How about an accountant with 15 years of experience? Is he or she more valuable than one with 10 years? How much?

Consider a charity that serves 2,000 needy persons per year. Is it more worthy of a donation than one that serves 1,800?

The recession makes life tougher for anybody trying to sell anything. That's the downside. The upside is that it forces those of us who sell to explain our value proposition better.

And that's a good thing.

Labels: fundraising, ggcb, marketing, sales

Want to do something smart to enhance sales, donations or customer relationships? Create a "competitive experience."

A competitive experience is an event that is compelling enough to compete with the constant barrage of other events that swirls around us every day. Think about how events impact your life: you can lose your job or your car keys; you can have a war in Iraq or with your neighbor; you can face your significant other across a romantic dinner or a bill collector with a dunning notice. Consider the events that shape our times: 9/11, the Obama Inauguration, Katrina, the Super Bowl, Thanksgiving, our birthdays.

Nothing is as powerful as an event when it comes to getting somebody to do something. Not the Internet, not television, not the press, not even Twitter.

Suddenly, though, it has become fashionable to shun events. Every politician from the President on down has spoken out against events. You will notice that they are doing so after the election -- and countless campaign rallies and $1,000-a-plate dinners.

I'm not advocating lavish junkets, high-priced golf outings or big bucks black tie galas. Competitive experiences don't have to be expensive -- but they have to happen. For example, I recently heard of a financial services organization that canceled what had been a successful client event. I suppose they figured that their clients didn't want to hear from them anymore. That may prove a self-fulling assumption.

Even more interesting was a non-profit CEO who announced that he had decided against what had been a successful annual fundraising event. He sent out post cards asking for money instead -- and made just as much money on lower donations -- because he saved the price of the event. But he's also conditioned his donors to give less and next year, having lost this year's "momentum," he may find it harder to sustain the relationships he had nurtured with the event in the past.

By the way, the CEO made his point at an event attended by hundreds of other non-profit officials. Ironically, motivated by this experience, some may have gone home...and cancelled their events ... without realizing the irony of doing so!

Labels: events, fundraising, ggcb, marketing

Not long ago, I found myself in front of an audience of seasoned fundraisers. They seemed like a savvy bunch so I asked them what I thought was a pretty obvious question: "What are you selling?"

Initially, there was a dead silence.

Then, the answers trickled out. "A chance to give back." "Guilt." "We're not selling anything; they're investing."

Nice try. Then I asked the next question: "Is anybody else selling the same thing?"

Heads nodded.

"Do you think you're going to sell more of that or less of that in the future?" I asked. Light bulbs blinked on across the room.

Fact is, non-profits are selling something every time they receive a donation. It may not seem like that at first glance, but nobody I know gives money for nothing.

In these difficult times, when non-profits must work harder for every badly-needed cent, it pays for them to understand why their donors are giving -- or not. The "old" answers, which the fundraisers gave me, are really blunt tools.

I'd argue that the successful fundraisers are the ones that capture the trust and imagination of their donors. Those development professionals are adept at targeting and packaging their cases in new, innovative and powerful ways.

They KNOW what they're selling.

Labels: development, fundraising, ggcb, marketing, nonprofits