Attract Prospects and Convert Them to Customers with This Bar Exercise

How well do you know and understand your prospect’s problem?

If you want to attract more prospects and convert them to customers, you should know this is important—and you should do it well. The more you can tap into and show you truly understand their problem, the better you’ll be able to communicate your solution.

The difficulty in talking about problems is you’re dealing with a sensitive topic. Your prospect’s biggest problem is not something they freely talk about. If you don’t demonstrate you know your prospect’s problem well, your prospect will lose interest in you and move on.

History’s greatest marketers were able to describe problems better than their prospects. Have you ever read or watched an ad and felt like it was just for you? If so, you’ve experienced the potential of a great ad.

Re-creating this personalized approach to communicating a problem is easy to do. All it takes is the following bar exercise.

Imagine You’re at a Bar

If you don’t drink, just pretend that you do. It’s important to re-create a bar scene for this exercise. Bars open people up. Drinking gets people talking. From a marketer’s perspective, getting your prospect to talk is a good thing.

So imagine this scenario…

You’re a podiatrist (a foot doctor) sitting at a bar, minding your own business, when a man takes a seat within an ear’s distance. This man doesn’t look so great. He’s sad, angry, and you can tell he’s in the dumps. He looks up at the bartender and says,

“Give me a shot of your strongest alcohol…and keep em’ coming.”

The bartender says,

“Geez, it sounds like you’re having a bad day. Mind if I ask what’s troubling you?”

Now what happens next is the purpose of this exercise. Imagine this man who just walked into the bar is your ideal prospect for your podiatry practice, and he’s about to describe a problem you are fully qualified to solve.

“Well, bartender, no matter what I do I can’t stop my feet from stinking. I’ve tried soaking them in apple cider vinegar, salt water, and I even ordered over $2,000 worth of products to make my feet smell better.

None of it works!

I can’t take my kids to the beach because everyone makes faces when I walk by. I have to wrap plastic bags around my feet at night so my wife doesn’t smell my feet.

I can’t take this anymore. I don’t know what to do.

Give me another drink!”

Your prospect is in a lot of pain, and he is angry.

Fortunately, as a podiatrist, you know exactly how to solve this problem.

“I Couldn’t Help But Overhear…”

The next step to this exercise is to think of how you’d participate in this conversation.

“I couldn’t help but overhear you’re having a problem with stinky feet. I happen to be a podiatrist, and I help people with stinky feet all the time. In fact, I just helped someone whose feet were so stinky, he’s banned from every restaurant in his neighborhood. He’s now better and just sent me a Thank-You card because he can enjoy Sizzler again.”

If you look past the obvious exaggeration here, there’s something important happening.

1. You’re casually dropping into a conversation already taking place. This is so important for your business and your copy. You don’t want to come out of nowhere – you want to use the same language your customer uses.

2. You’re qualifying yourself with credibility with an example. This is called making a claim, and it is one of the most important things to have in the beginning of your sale’s message.

If you do this right, you’ll have your prospect’s attention. They know exactly why you’re talking to them, and you’ve qualified yourself as an expert.

Now for the last, and final part of this exercise.

Your Call to Action

Now that you’ve got your prospect’s attention, it’s time to provide your solution.

The most important thing to keep in mind with your call to action is, don’t give it half-heartedly.

See if you can spot the difference between the two:

1. “Yeah, so, if you want to come by my office, maybe I can help you out. Here’s my email. If it’s convenient for you, perhaps you should come by and see me sometime.”

2. “I know you have stinky feet and you know I’m a podiatrist. There’s no reason why the two of us shouldn’t meet at my office and work on this problem together –and get rid of it. For good. Here’s my address. I’m making an appointment for you on Monday. I’ll see you then, and within one week after you come in, your stinky feet will never stink again.”

The second message has much more authority. You’re prescribing a solution to a problem, instead of passively suggesting it.

Being authoritative is the secret to an effective call to action.

Don’t Drink Away Your Problems

If your website’s message is not up to par, don’t drown your sorrows at the bar. You’re reading this blog because you want to attract more prospects and convert them to customers.

There’s a right and wrong way to do that.

At Sūmèr, we’ll work with you to help you find the right way to approach your copywriting, content marketing, or content strategy problems. We can’t help you with stinky feet, but we can make your content convert better and help you grow your business. Get our help right now and contact us today.

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Photo Credit: Theen