QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science but an art.”

William Bernbach

Meet Mr. Umberto, arguably one of Florence’s (and possibly Italy’s) finest leather artisans.

A man before his time, Mr. Umberto opened his store 60 years ago on a side street just off of the most famous bridge in Florence, the Ponte Vecchio. Back then, there weren’t thousands of tourists flooding the area each day, and Mr. Umberto told me with a wry smile that when he first opened everyone thought his location choice was crazy.

If you've ever walked across the Ponte Vecchio, you'll know how beautiful it is, but also how commercialized it has become with luxury retailers like Rolex, Gucci and Prada moving in and the smaller locally run stores being pushed out.

Somehow, year after year, Mr. Umberto has managed to survive selling his own leather goods, at luxury prices in his own tiny store next to the big guys.

I met Mr. Umberto two weeks ago by chance when I was among the swarm of tourists crossing the Ponte Vecchio to get to the other side of the Arno River. As I walked past a tiny storefront (blink and you might miss it), a red saddle purse hanging in the window caught my eye.

I had already bought five leather purses on the trip, so it was not as though I needed another.

But artistry is artistry (ahem), and, intrigued, I pushed the door open and was greeted by the smell of leather and espresso filling the air.

Mr. Umberto gave me a warm Italian welcome.

He took down the red purse from the shop front window and, in his best broken-English, started telling me the story of the red purse - how he had a dream about it one night; then he hand-selected the leather hide, choosing the dye and leather finish and let the design of the bag speak to him to tell him what else was needed (in much the same way that Michelangelo said the David was hiding in the block of marble just waiting to be freed).

I certainly appreciated hearing the story of the purse’s origins and the detail of its craftsmanship. But when I looked at the price tag, it made me gasp. Suddenly a Gucci purse didn't seem so expensive.

Mr. Umberto, likely used to tourist sticker shock, didn’t bat an eyelid. He lovingly handled his purse to me with immense pride in much the same way that I imagined him holding his grandchildren, whose photos were plastered on the walls around us.

He showed me the purse’s hidden pockets, Italian-crafted zippers and wax-soaked thread that had been perfectly color matched to the patina of the leather.

He brought out a full-length mirror, showed me the correct way to position the purse on my shoulder (who knew), and offered me an espresso, giving me plenty of time to think about how much I loved that purse and if I could possibly live without it.

As you probably guessed, it turns out I couldn't live without it and I walked out of Mr. Umberto’s store with purse number six under my arm. It was then that I realized with a smile that Mr. Umberto had perfectly executed the advanced marketing technique of story-selling on me.

Story-selling is one of the most advanced and most powerful strategies to create value.

When executed properly, it enables an ethical business in virtually any industry to command premium prices for a good or a service (yes that includes yours).

Have you ever heard the old adage the more you tell, the more you sell?

Mr. Umberto had clearly learned this adage over the past six decades. He was a true master of selling his leather goods one-on-one.

Now imagine if Mr. Umberto had grand expansion plans.

Instead of one tiny leather store in Florence, he wanted two or three stores all over the city. Or perhaps he had even grander plans and wanted a store in Rome and in Milan also.

How could Mr. Umberto replicate his success without physically being there to make the connection with the customer and show them how to appreciate his great leather craftsmanship?

How could he teach large numbers of unsuspecting tourists to shop for true Italian leather and not the Chinese imported fakes, or overpay for poor quality?

The answer is by using marketing as his leverage.

Great marketing is the best form of sales leverage.

But not just any kind of marketing would work for Mr. Umberto’s premium pricing strategy.

Just running digital ads with his name and photos of his purses would get drowned out by thousands of his cheaper competitors or overshadowed by Gucci and Chanel

The smartest strategy would be to use story-selling marketing built on his own personal brand, beginning with an eCommerce website where each page of copy helps tell the brand story and provides visitors with a taste of Italy - transporting visitors to his little bespoke stores where smells of leather and espresso fills the air.

His target market is, of course, affluent tourists who are shopping for leather goods, so the fastest way to establish his brand as the best would be to author a short visitor’s guide on how the buy the best leather in Florence – what traps and tricks to watch out for, the one place to look to see if an item is truly made in Italy and how to do the "flame test" to spot non-genuine leather in the markets.

This Guide Book could then be advertised for free on Trip Advisor that gets millions of visitors each month looking for food and shopping tips, and voila – Mr. Umberto has now created his very own sales machine that doesn’t require any of his involvement. Instead of having to rely on people stumbling on his business and starting his sales pitch from scratch, his store now becomes a destination where people come armed with the knowledge from his book that coincidentally also creates a deep desire to buy from him.

In other words, by using story-selling marketing, Mr. Umberto’s business now would be harnessing the power of expert branding.

Of course, you’re very likely not in the business of selling leather goods or possibly even selling B2C.

You’re probably selling B2B and are wondering how such a strategy could even apply to your company so you could command higher prices?

Here’s how:

1. Telling the right kinds of stories – not just about your company, but about the product or service itself helps create value. This step – Irresistible Messaging (which is Step 2 of the Client Stampede Formula) is typically the most difficult step – but also provides you with the biggest opportunities for leverage.

2. Your Irresistible Messaging needs to be consistent across every platform your business is found – from website to sales collateral, from business cards to Spotify commercials. Consistency builds trust. Inconsistency destroys it.
​(Podcast Resource: I Hope You're Not Doing Frankenstein Marketing?)

3. The slow track is building brand awareness through advertising and word-of-mouth referrals, brick by brick. The fast track is leaping to expert status by authoring a book, and then leveraging the book in your marketing like crazy - turning the chapters into articles, turning paragraphs into blog posts, sentences into quotes for social media content, and core concepts into videos etc. For maximum effectiveness your book needs to have a riveting title, a gorgeous cover and the content should be less than 100 pages so that it can easily be read at a soccer game, at an airport lounge or listened to at the gym from start to finish in a single workout.

I would have loved to have read Mr. Umberto’s book on how to buy leather in Italy and not get ripped off. Your future clients would also love it if you prevented them from making a big mistake in choosing the wrong vendor, being lured by low prices and the shortcuts your competitors make etc.

In fact, if your prospective clients knew as much about your product as you do, there's no way they would consider buying from anyone other than you.

But the problem is they don't.

They only know what Google tells them.

Our prospective clients have all typically read the Client Stampede Book and know what good and bad marketing looks like, so no matter which agency they speak to, they are armed with the right questions to ask.

Our plastic surgeon clients use books to help their prospective patients understand exactly what’s involved in getting a breast augmentation, the differences in implant choices, the correct fitting and placement which minimizes their questions for the surgeon.

Our Wealth Management clients use books to debunk retirement myths and provide alternative financial roadmaps for prospective clients.

Why a book and not a digital download, a case study or a special report?

Because affluent people read books.

Physical books denote real tangible value, and being a published author, immediately catapults your personal brand and your company brand away from the masses and into expert status.

Of course, if you’d like help with this strategy, you probably already know it’s an area of specialty at Lunch Break Books. With just a few hours of your time, you too can become a published author of a powerful, persuasive story-selling read without you needing to even type a word.

Here’s to Mr. Umberto, to my new, uber-expensive red purse, and to your future customers appreciating and gladly paying much higher prices for your exceptional products and services.

(Learn more on Story-Selling with this podcast episode: how to sell a $19 shirt for $189).

Hope you have a great week!

Julie Guest
Marketing Consultant & Chief Strategist
​Bolder&Louder - Extraordinary Advertising​
​Premier Physician Marketing​
​Lunch Break Books​

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THINKING OF AUTHORING A GOOD BOOK YOUR DREAM PROSPECTS WILL LOVE?​
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​Author Tip #7 Make Every Word Count ​
​
Do you know what the difference is between content and copywriting?

Have you ever tried to read a business book, and after reading just a few pages, your eyes have glazed over, and you can barely remember a word you read?

That kind of writing is known as content writing, and it’s the equivalent of watching talking heads on tv - there's lots of noise but nothing of real substance being said.

Copywriting, on the other hand, is defined as the art and science of persuasion in print. In other words, every word has been carefully chosen, every sentence carefully constructed to help lead the reader to a particular point of view.

Content, on the other hand, is just words on a page, usually written for the author’s edification instead of to help the reader.

Content is fluff, ramblings, weak content, and boring chapters.

Copywriting, on the other hand, keeps eyeballs glued to a page and leads the reader to the obvious conclusion that you are an expert and can help them.

As you may have already guessed, every Lunch Break Book uses only Copywriting, not content.

It’s a much more sophisticated level of writing, but that’s what’s needed to convey extreme value in today’s time-pressed world. If you’re going to author a business book, make every word count to help your readers. Don’t bore them things you want them to hear, instead, help them understand the things they must know for their own success.

About Lunch Break Books
​​
​Is it time to make authoring a book "someday," to today? We make authoring a good book your dream prospects will love incredibly easy, time efficient and very effective.
Using our proprietary "Capture Your Genius" method we turn your wisdom into a brilliantly written book that captures your voice, uses ethical stealth selling techniques to build trust and rapport and motivates your prospect to take action. Your book will become your most powerful marketing tool. But our help doesn't stop there. We also guarantee to get your book national publicity to help elevate your expert status and build your brand.

Learn More About Lunch Break Books

Season 3 of The Client Stampede Podcast is launching soon.
Meantime there are 130 episodes to help you get more clients. Each episode is usually short sometimes funny and always packed with tools, tips and strategies to keep your business ahead of your competitors.

Subscribe on iTunes.
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CLASSIC EPISODE # 93

Somewhat ironically, this morning I was speaking with one of our clients, who was telling me a story about one of his colleagues who is also the CEO of a mid-sized company. They were talking about branding. The colleague was lamenting the fact that everyone seemed to be jumping on the "branding" bandwagon and that he personally despised the idea of becoming a brand the way so many celebrities and other CEOs are doing (I have written extensively about the importance of every entrepreneur and CEO also becoming their own personal brand - see my recent article published in Entrepreneur magazine). My client chuckled, disagreed, and then showed him a copy of his new book, promo video, and Forbes write-up.
Anyhow the guy in this story could just as well be our client's colleague. Have a listen and then decide for yourself whether branding works, or not.
​
This episode is part 1 of a three-part episode series on branding - everything you need to know to grow a great brand for your business.

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LISTEN NOW

Listen to more Client Stampede podcast episodes on iTunes.

Here are the eight most popular episodes trending:

8. Episode #1​6 Brilliant Beer Company Marketing

7. Episode #106 The Real Reason Prospects Push Back On Price

6. Episode #23 The Disaster Audi Buying Experience

5. Episode #100 How to Become an Expert to Your Dream Clients and Author a Good Book in 60-Minutes

4. Episode #93 A Funny Branding Story

3. Episode #94 Branding Demystified

2. Episode #95 How To Build A Power Brand

1. Episode ​#21 Don't Make Shaquille O'Neal's Multi-Million Dollar Mistake

Is Your Business Doing $2M to $50M+?​
​Ready to Scale? Want More Clients?

Your instant marketing roadmap is waiting.

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Monday Marketing Gold is produced by Julie Guest and Bolder&Louder © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.