Book of the Month

Dogs are easily motivated to respond to stimuli. Cats aren't so cooperative. Among humans, consumers used to behave pretty much like dogs-responding to advertising by running out to buy a product. Even in the B2B world, a sales rep or an ad campaign could move prospects easily toward a purchase. 

Today buyers prefer to make their own informed brand choices. They can be as difficult to herd as, well, cats. Authors Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg, with Lisa T. Davis, address this challenge in Waiting for your Cat to Bark? Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing.

The authors have invented a "persuasion architecture" that enables sellers to provide an information experience that's meaningful to individual buyers. It marries the two-sided buying/selling process with marketing communications to persuade the customer to take action.

To keep buyers moving toward a positive decision, sellers should ask, "Who are we trying to persuade to take the action? What is the action we want someone to take? What does the person need in order to feel confident taking that action?"

With this information, sellers can tailor their approaches to different customers through the Internet, print or television ads, and in-person contacts among other touch points. The Web is a particularly effective tool, because its pervasive use for pre-purchase research creates individualized marketing opportunities.

Implementing persuasion architecture can help position your company or organization as the provider of choice for relevant, reliable information; an enjoyable buying experience; and products and services that precisely meet client needs. It may be just the competitive advantage you need to succeed with those hard-to-herd clients.

Newt Barrett is the CEO of Succeeding Today. Contact him at newt@succeedingtoday.com.