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To Write a Review Folks Find Useful — Don’t Stick to the Facts

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Reviewers Who Think

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Have ever read a review and still wondered whether you’d like the product? Do you know any reviewer who you rely on because he or she has the opposite opinions of you? Sometimes a reviewer who thinks differently than we do is more valuable than one who doesn’t say what he or she thinks at all.

I’ve been reading a passel of product reviews all weekend. Now I remember why I don’t read reviews. In an effort to be unbiased, reviewers seem to be too distant, too flat — they give the facts. The facts aren’t enough.

Don’t Stick to the Facts

When you blog the facts only, anyone could write basically the same review. The differences will be in the writing only. When you blog the facts only people tend to read to the minute detail to make sure your facts are exactly right . . . and that they’re all there. Too many facts can be either distracting or boring. Would the VW Beetle have been a hit based only on the facts? What about McDonalds? the iPod?

If you want to write a product review that folks find useful, don’t stick to the facts.

  • Facts don’t tell me if I will love my future mate.
  • Facts don’t tell the story of history.
  • Facts are only a part of the whole picture.

Write your experience too.

The Two Key Reasons to Write Your Experience

Here are the 2 key reasons why you should write a review with both the facts AND your experience.

  1. When you add your experience, readers get to see you. They know you used the product. It’s your voice and your credibility.

  2. When readers hear talk about using the product, they can picture themselves. It doesn’t matter whether they agree with how you found it, If you explain what made you think as you do — they’ll decide for themselves.

Any customer needs more than facts to decide whether to buy any product. Sure the facts are important, but looking only at the facts doesn’t tell what it’s like to use it.

When you add your experience, people are more likely to remember both the product and you. A great review can save a reader a great deal of time and money.

Don’t be shy. Tell me what you think.

— ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar. Call her now!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

How to Get Customers to Sell Themselves

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SIMPLE SALES SERIES

Customers Get to Pick

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It’s a rule of childhood. Every kid seems to know it. I get to pick my favorite. You don’t. Some folks, as grownups, forget that simple truth. — they make us feel like we should let them pick for us.

That’s called the hard sell.

Ever been told, ‘You HAVE TO see this new product. You WILL LOVE our new service!” ?

What’s your response, right now, reading that? Mine is “You don’t know that! In fact, now I’m predisposed to like it just a little less.”

We’re hype adverse. Put that together with these natural human responses.

  • No one likes to be told what to think.
  • No one likes to lose the right to pick their favorite.
  • No one likes someone else to decide what they need.

We know other folks don’t get to pick — so when they talk as if they do, we back off. If you’ve met a sales rep who brings out these responses in you, it’s no wonder if you are having mixed feelings about taking on a sales role for what you do.

How to Get Customers to Sell Themselves

The question then is: How do we communicate an offer — a product or service — that we’re thrilled about and we’ve done all of the work to know folks will like it too, if only they’ll try it out?

Here’s what to do. You can do this in text or in person. (In text, point 2 looks a lot like an FAQ.)

  1. Offer a taste — a movie trailer. Make it a little one — spoon sized like at Baskin-Robbins 31 Flavors. It might be one example of what you do, a case study, a blog post that you keep for sending to clients, a free weekly seminar, a phone call with you. Whatever you choose. Keep it concise and tightly focused on only one idea. It’s only one scene from your movie — overcome a tendency we have to give the plot away. (Often having the taste as an option makes people feel secure enough to buy without it.)
  2. Make everything about THEM. Ask questions and listen. Hardly say anythng. Be a verifier. Repeat back what you heard, “I heard you say you’re looking for . . .” Ask questions in that way until you’ve helped them draw a complete picture of your product or service. “I also hear you want . . . and a . . . If I put that together I get a . . . with the features of . . . . Does that sound like the ideal that you wish someone would offer someday?”
  3. Listen to see how his or her needs line them up with your offer. When you see that, you’ll have the confidence to say so. “We actually do that! Would you like me to tell you about it?” (Don’t worry if the needs and your offer don’t line up, just say so and don’t try to make things work.)
  4. Talk to the customer/client unemotionally about what you have to offer. You’ll know that you’re going somewhere when the person you’re talking to starts selling you on why it’s a good match. That’s when it’s time to start listening again.

Letting the customer pick is the same as when we were kids. We know what we need and why. We’ll even justify for you why it works for us, in essence selling ourselves on why we should buy.

What do you need to give this a try?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to work with you on these three easy steps, you’ll find her number on the
Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar. Call her now!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

Personal Identity: ROI of Behavior in Business and Life

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Identity and Relationships

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I read this on John Henry Clippinger’s blog for his book, A Crowd of One. Clippinger was quoting David Brooks.

Even David Brooks – conservative U of Chicago grad -in a recent editorial in the New York Times – acknowledges – begrudgingly that a new narrative is in the making..

“The logic of evolution explains why people vie for status, form groups, fall in love and cherish their young. It holds that most everything that exists does so for a purpose. If some trait, like emotion, can cause big problems, then it must also provide bigger benefits, because nature will not expend energy on things that don’t enhance the chance of survival.

Nature doesn’t do things that don’t pay off.

People don’t either.

Yet the payoffs we go for don’t always enhance our chance of survival. Think of these people

  • Stevie who stays in a bad job because she thinks that no one else will hire her.
  • Tyrone who shuns a formal resume when going for a job he needs
  • Wally who tweaks the blog all day rather than trying to contact potential clients.
  • Gerald who is cranky and complaining and treats most people — those who work for him, those who sell to him, and his customers — as if they are stupid
  • Dot who says “I’m too ____ to learn how to do that” though she is brilliant.

    • All of these “example people” seem involved in behaviors that are keeping them stuck in less than ideal situations. Yet, in every human action we realize some return on how we invest ourselves and our time.

    What payoffs do you see in these situations? How might you convince one to look for a stronger investment — one that will give them a positive return?

    –ME “Liz” Strauss
    Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

    Related
    About that Word, Brand, that Keeps Coming Up
    Finding Your Frequency in Business and in Life
    See the Successful Series page Brand You Series.

    The Game of Life

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    I've been thinking . . .

    how we make things work.

    We finish a day’s work exhausted, burnt out, bone tired. If we were asked to keep going, it would be a stretch — nor a healthy thing. Do we go home to rest? Do we take a nap, rejuvenate and refuel? No, most of us don’t. An hour or two later, you’ll find us out dancing, playing ball, or at the gym lifting weights.

    Many of the sports and activities that we do for fun require more physical and mental energy than what we need to invest to get through a work day. Yet, they don’t wear us out nearly as much, and in some cases, they pick us back up.

    How is that? It’s no surprise that it has to do with how we think about work.

    The Game of Life
    Years ago, Charles A. Coonradt tested his idea by turning work tasks into measurable self-competing contests — games that could be won. Folks were asked to weigh the paper they filed every day. Within 3 weeks, a department that had overdue filing for 3 years was ahead and found itself with 3 hours extra each day. The people in the department asked for more work — new work — that they could measure that way. [He called his book, The Game of Work.]

    elevators-going-up-a-wall

    Sometimes I use this technique to get myself to conquer tasks I’m not fond of doing. Today I’m wondering what life would be like if I took the same approach to everything I do?

    Have you thought about that? What problem would be easier if you thought of it as one more level, challenge, quest, in the game of life?

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    25 Things that People — Our Key Customers — Really Want

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    SIMPLE SALE SERIES

    Everyone Has Customers

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    I’ve been thinking a lot about customers lately. We all have them. Some are traditional sorts. They come to our businesses and pay us for products or services. Some are a little less conventional — they come in a customer role for things that don’t cost. Blog readers, first graders, park users are customers like those. Other customers don’t seem like customers at all, but really they are . . . mothers, fathers, sons, daughters all rely on our services like customers.

    So it seems that knowing what customers want is more than a good idea. With that many customers everywhere we look, knowing what keeps them on a happy note would seem more like survival. Don’t you think?

    25 Things that People — Our Key Customers — Really Want

    Whether we have a business or we are just in the business of living, it’s good to know what will help us deliver a smile on the faces of the folks we care most about.

    This list works for every kind of customer I’ve been able to think up. (Don’t go getting kinky on me.)

    1. People want help solving a problem.
    2. People want folks to notice them.
    3. People want to be heard when they offer their thoughts.
    4. People want to feel smart.
    5. People want to be a part of things.
    6. People want to be generous and for you to be generous too.
    7. People want give and be good things and want you to give and be good things too.
    8. People want to not worry . . . about time, money, health, injury, or other danger.
    9. People want to know that you’ll be the same person or better than the last time they saw you.
    10. People want to be entertained.
    11. People want to be informed.
    12. People want to learn.
    13. People want to know you don’t say bad things about them.
    14. People want to know they aren’t a number or a metric.
    15. People want good cake not just icing on a bad one.
    16. People do want the truth. They just don’t want it delivered with a sledgehammer.
    17. People want to believe in something without someone picking on them for it.
    18. People don’t want innovation. They want things that make life more livable.
    19. People want things and experiences that make their fill their time more meaningfully.
    20. People want to be understood.
    21. People want their questions answered even when the answer is “I don’t know.”
    22. People want the right to make mistakes without losing every time they do.
    23. People want to make their own choices.
    24. People want to know that you value their differences.
    25. People want to know that you know they are people.

    People aren’t hard to understand. We all were born one of them. The trick is to keep in mind that folks around us — even folks we don’t know –are people too. They have their own thoughts and desires in the same way we have ours. We can meet with them where we agree — 25 points up there give us plenty to start with.

    In our lives and in our businesses, people are our only customers for our actions and behaviors. If we make it about THEM, everyone will be just a little bit nicer. Lose track of that and they’ll remind us.

    What things do the people in your life want? Are you a product of your environment? Could you be a better one?

    –ME “Liz” Strauss
    Work with Liz!!

    Related
    To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

    7 Secrets to a Fiercely, Loyal Community of Readers

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    SIMPLE SALES SERIES

    Reading Is My Life

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    We all learned to read and kept on reading. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be here. I went on to learn about readers and literacy — how folks interact with text and ideas became my field.

    Knowing about reading is a tricky thing. People think that because they can read they must know how it all works. Just underneath the surface are secrets they don’t realize . . . Why would they, unless readers have been their customers for years?

    I’m going to share those secrets with you.

    The 7 Secrets to a Fiercely, Loyal Community of Readers

    Ever been to a great restaurant or club where the mood is right; the service is grand; and every offering is spectacular? When the whole experience comes together in just the right measure, we leave a place already thinking about when we’re going to go back.

    Written information, when it’s presented well, has the same effect. It’s a great fit that’s so satisfying, we’re thinking about the experience as a whole and the feeling that we came away with.

    These secrets have been researched with every age group from pre-school to graduate school and every reading level from pre-literate to way over my head. But I know you’ll know they work, not because I said so, but because when you read them they will totally make sense.

    1. Be interesting. Be entertaining. Be silly. Be informative. Be controversial. Be anything but preachy or boring. Contrary to popular belief, you CAN tell. You DO know. Take the time to look. If you don’t, you’re lost before you start.

    2. Be simple. Put away the big vocabulary words and the long sentences. Only use that incredible word once in an entire piece. Elegance is understated. Impact is quiet. Take away all of the words you can without losing meaning. Extra words get between your message and me.

    3. Be positive. Know what you’re saying and show me how to get to a positive end. No one wants a problems without a solution. No one wants to live every day reading about doom. Think about how you invest your time with friends . . . do the downers really get more than the ones who help make your world better?

    4. Be trustworthy and respectful. Be who you say you are. Deliver on your tagline. Make sure your headlines tell the story of what you write. Answer comments. Most of all, know what you don’t know and invite your readers to share what they do.

    5. Be consistent. Let folks know what to expect of and from you . . . and in like manner, what you expect of and from them. Every relationship is based on an exchange. Readers and writers exchange the same way. It’s okay if folks don’t like one of your features, if you are consistent about how you label things or when you offer them, you make it easy for folks to get to the content they appreciate.

    6. Be readable. Make sure that every word you write is readable without distraction in every browser that your readers use. Configure your content to serve readers. Some folks get confused and try to do it the other way around.

    7. Be generous and satisfying. Care passionately about what you write. Care even more about the folks who come to read it. Know that readers want to like you and what you write, just as diners want to like the chef and the food in a great restaurant. Let us look smart. Let us help. Let us feel important, connected, and a part of what you’re doing. In other words, make readers the stars.

    Readers and a writer work have a relationship like diners and a chef. Only part of that relationship is what is served up from the menu, the rest is the experience. Every successful chef . . . writer . . . first grade teacher knows that.

    That’s how we’ve been getting folks to come back for years.

    Got more to add to the list? I’m thinking you do.

    –ME “Liz” Strauss
    Is your business stuck? Check out the Start-up Strategy Package. Work with Liz!!

    Related
    To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.