What's in a name?

I'm sitting in a cigar lounge right now, enjoying a Kristoff Maduro, and I just finished up some work I had to get done, and I figured I'd make a post here.

One of the very first lessons I teach to anyone, be it an "online" client looking to start dabbling in offline, or an "offline" client trying to sell their services or products, is that words are vitally important to your business.

It's that old mantra of "It's not what you say, it's how you say it." You mom was right.

In my new book, I have an entire chapter on words. (No pun intended, really!)

Wording is one of the most important things to get right. Take, for example, one of my clients - a company that sells refrigeration units to restaurants.

They cover the whole spectrum, from the smallest, portable coolers, to the largest walk-ins.

They had everything "in place" - solid marketing, a great website, awesome customer service, the whole "shebang".

So why did they come to me? They weren't meeting the sales numbers they had hoped for.

As I was looking over their sales materials, they had the most bland wording I'd ever read. They sounded just like everyone else.

Something about "The Best Prices On Refrigerators and Walk-Ins" (their "tag line") just didn't scream - "OH - I need them!".

Instead, we changed it over to "The Industry Leader in Discount Cooling and Freezing Units".

Simple enough, right? Well, they had thousands of direct mail pieces already made up with the original tagline - so I decided we'd split test the leads.

Wow. The results were mind-blowing. Almost a 10% increase in responses to the new pieces, as compared to the original. Think about that. 7 words. That's all I changed. Imagine getting more than 1% better response per word. It may not sound like much, but it could translate into thousands of dollars or more on your bottom line.

So how does this help you? I'm getting there !

To any aspiring "offline consultant" that I mentor, the first thing we do is establish a "name" for them.

"Offline Consultant" or "Marketing Consultant" is just awful. Count on lost sales if your a "Marketing Consultant". I can promise you that.

Instead, why not be a "Strategic Marketing Analyst"? Or a "Business Development Partner"?

Offer the same services you do now, and don't change a thing, other than your "name". I bet you'll see some huge increases in leads.

I hope that helps some of you out a little bit.

And don't forget, practice what you preach - help your clients out with this too!

Ryan