Posted by: Gary Bencivenga
April 4, 2008
Issue #389

The “Fuzzy Dice” Secret
For Exploding Your Sales

How to Find “Hot Pockets” of Customers
Eagerly Looking for What You Sell

Dear Marketing Top Gun:

A master salesman, one of the most successful in America, once told me that selling is simple, unless you make it complicated. He then taught me his greatest secrets for keeping it simple.

I found that his secrets worked like a charm in advertising as well, because advertising is nothing more than multiplied salesmanship — one good salesperson working his or her magic with thousands, even millions, at once. In fact, it’s this mighty multiplication factor that empowers advertising to rapidly enrich Top Guns who know how to use the simple secrets shared in these Bullets.

So let’s take a look at one of the greatest secrets this wise old salesman taught me. Just as I did, you’ll find it’s one of the easiest things you can do to increase your response. It seems so obvious, you may well think that you’re doing it already. But let me assure you of two things …

First, 98% of all marketers, even savvy ones who think they may know this, can do a much better job of applying it (most have barely scratched the surface). Second, once you do apply this in your market, you’ll be able to attract customers the way a large magnet draws metal filings. Or, merrily mixing my metaphors (I love doing that), you’ll be tossing your hook right in front of a ravenously hungry school of fish.

So what’s the big secret?

Well, the wise old salesman told me you’ll corral lots more customers by intercepting them wherever they are looking for someone like you.

Sounds simple, and it is, but we often complicate it to the point where we’re not doing this at all. Let me illustrate with an example I came upon recently, which I’ve dubbed …

The Fuzzy Dice Secret

My best "aha!" moment last year hit me when I learned the smartest way to sell just about anything online.

I learned it from Andy Jenkins, a super successful Internet entrepreneur who’s created a sprawling online empire of more than 80 sites that sell everything from information to specialized electronics to medieval suits of armor at $7,000 a pop.

For months, I had been trying to figure out for a business partner the best way to sell products online. Where to begin? What marketing strategy would work best? Should we create one big website selling all our products — in effect, an online catalog?

Or would separate websites for each main product be better? And how should we drive traffic — with e-zines, Google ads, search optimization, banner ads, blogs, podcasts, a little of everything, or what?

The marketing questions seemed endless, and the answers elusive … until Andy clarified everything by sharing what I have come to call "The Fuzzy Dice Secret."

Andy explained his approach in an interview conducted by Internet guru and my friend, Ken McCarthy, whose System Club features excellent interviews with successful Internet marketers. Andy explained that all his years of testing have taught him the smartest way to sell anything online. And that is, to apply the same secret of the wise old salesman — intercept your customers precisely where they are looking for someone like you.

Applied to the Internet, this means matching your selling process to the way people search online.

Let’s say, for example, that you sell car accessories. Now, you could create a website, and a series of Google and banner ads, trumpeting your product line, "Car Accessories."

Logical enough, right? It’s what most companies do. Trouble is, people don’t go online searching for "a product line." Almost nobody searches for "Car Accessories." That’s way too broad. When I typed those words into my search bar, I got more than 49 million results! If I were a thorough shopper and wanted to check out each of these vendors for just 20 seconds apiece, I’d have to sit at my computer 24/7 for the next 31 years (without a single bathroom break)!

More than 49,000,000 advertisers are offering their wares under "car accessories," yet almost nobody searches for "car accessories."

But people do go online searching for a single product.

For example, they go online searching for "Fuzzy Dice" (you know, those tacky, spongy dice that dangle gaudily from the rearview mirror).

Or they’ll search specifically for "Leather Steering Wheel Covers." Or "Car Stereo Subwoofers." Or "Mercedes Replacement Hood Ornaments," etc.

Since that’s how people search, that’s how you should sell — with a mini website devoted exclusively to Fuzzy Dice. Or another devoted to Leather Steering Wheel Covers. Or another offering Car Stereo Subwoofers, or Replacement Hood Ornaments, etc.

Sell the way your prospects buy — with a rifle shot like "Fuzzy Dice," not a shotgun like "Car Accessories." Like the wise old salesman said, intercept your hot prospects where they are looking for someone like you!

There are some exceptions, of course. If you’ve got megabucks, you could try to become the next "horizontal" one-stop superstore, ala Amazon, Staples, or Wal-Mart. But at this stage of the Internet’s development, you’d probably go broke trying to muscle your way into dominance of any broad categories, even the medium-sized ones.

And, sure, it’s usually desirable to have a "hub" or what I call a "kitchen sink" website, where you summarize everything your company is about, as well as all your offshoots and products, for those who happen to stumble onto your site and want an overview.

But if you really want to hear your cash register endlessly murmur its happiest mantra (ca-ching!), you must develop for each star product its own separate mini site, supported by equally vertical, dedicated, and specific Google ads and e-zine marketing campaigns that drive traffic directly to that site, where prospects are then greeted with an in-depth sales presentation focused exclusively on that single product, fully explaining its compelling raison d’être.

This is exactly what my client and I wound up doing, and the program of narrow, "rifle-shot" campaigns we’ve developed is working beautifully.

Please listen to the wise old salesman …

Don’t sell a "stock market newsletter." Sell a special report on "Three oil service stocks that may soar in the next 12 months because of the worsening worldwide oil squeeze," and give me all the reasons to buy into that story.

Don’t sell "retirement planning." That phrase brings up more than 41 million results! Create a website offering a video on "How to Retire to Mexico and Live Like Royalty on $500 a Month or Less." Run a Google ad with the same headline, and everyone searching for "retirement in Mexico" can easily find you and respond.

Don’t sell "gourmet foods." Sell, "Imported Smoked Scottish Salmon," and give me the full sales pitch on why it’s the best I can buy.

Don’t sell a report on "Hospital Trends." Sell a report on "How the New HIPAA Regs Will Change Your Hospital Emergency Room Procedures in the Next Six Months and What You Must Do Now to Reduce Your Potential Liability."

Don’t sell "insurance." I’ll find you faster and buy from you a lot more quickly if you run a Google ad that leads me to a website offering "Flood Insurance for Homes in the Hamptons" (where I live). Why? Because that’s what I was just searching for online recently, not "insurance"!

That’s it, the secret of how to sell anything online. Go vertical and go deep. Use highly specialized mini sites dedicated to a single star product, and deliver an in-depth, fully developed sales presentation to capture your prospects and convert them into customers. Once they are customers, you can then branch out, offering related follow-up sales pitches, via specialized e-zines, which lead them to other highly targeted mini sites. And just keep repeating the process for every major product or service you want to sell.

Highly specialized, single-product, vertical mini sites automatically optimize your position in searches. They also make more people click on your links because, unlike most others in your market, you’ll seem to specialize in exactly what that searcher came online to find. For the same reason, your highly specific Google headlines will trigger higher ad placement and higher click-through rates.

The Internet is the ultimate vertical selling machine, a niche marketer’s dream, but only if you use it right. The general rule: The sharper your focus, the better your results.

Don’t sell horizontally, sell vertically. Don’t sell "Car Accessories." Sell "Fuzzy Dice." That’s how you’ll intercept the "hot pockets" of customers eagerly searching for someone just like you.

Here’s Another Example …

… from another master marketer, Jeff Paul, whose Tape of the Month Program also interviews star marketers. I remember that Jeff once interviewed John K. Harris, chairman and CEO of JK Harris & Co., which helps taxpayers resolve problems with the IRS.

Earlier in his career, John was an ambitious car salesman who knew how to apply the wise old salesman’s secret of intercepting your prospects where they are looking for you.

At one point, he was hired to help turn around a failing Lincoln Mercury dealer whose sales were 48th out of 52 dealers in Florida.

By the end of the first year, he moved that dealer from 48th to 9th. Within 18 months, he brought the dealership from a $250,000 loss to a $1.8 million profit.

How on earth did he do that in such a competitive "commodity" type of business as selling cars?

He did many things right, but probably the most important was intercepting his potential prospects precisely where they look for a new car.

When he first arrived at the dealership, he saw that it was spending a lot of money on TV advertising every month. But people don’t shop for cars on TV, and John knew it. From his experience as a car salesman, he knew that people sometimes take a long time to decide whether or not to buy a new car. But once they reach a firm decision, they move fast and almost always buy within the next 10 days. And once that 10-day "buying clock" starts to tick, the first place they look for a car is not on TV, but in their local newspaper. That’s where prospects know they will find the biggest selection of car ads.

So John axed the dealership’s TV budget and boosted its newspaper ad budget from $5,000 to $25,000 a month.

With that master stroke, as well as teaching his salespeople how to close the flood of new prospects that started pouring in the door, he turned that dealership around from a $250,000 loss to a $1.8 million profit in just 18 months.

Like a shrewd general who knows exactly where to deploy his greatest troop strength to turn the tide of battle, John redirected — and significantly increased — his ad budget to intercept his prospects precisely where they were looking for someone like him.

Advertising is simple, unless you make it complicated. First find out exactly how, where, and when your hottest prospects go about shopping for your type of product or service. Then simply go there and intercept them just when their wallets are out and they’re ready to buy.

Sincere wishes for a good life
and (always!) higher response,

Gary Bencivenga
Guest Editor, The Total Package

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8 Comments »

1. Comment by Dale — April 4, 2008 @ 2:32 pm

   Hi Gary:

   I wish more Internet marketers understood this. Too often, if I type in exactly what I want I get zero results. In order to get results I have to type in a general query. If I type in doghouses for husbands, I’ll get no results, but if I type in doghouses, I’ll get a jillion results. (Ok, this is just an example. I didn’t try it.)

   Another irritation is I put my query in quote marks to get specific results. But Google will tell me to remove the quote marks to get more results. I don’t want more results; I want relevant results. Did that occur to the programmers at Google?

   Searching for something on the Internet reminds me of the sign I saw at a large junkyard near Ogden, Utah. "We have everything you could possibly want if we can find it."

   Dale 

2. Comment by Lara — April 4, 2008 @ 3:55 pm

   Terrific Gary! Thank you. I’m putting together a plan for a new client and this is brilliant. He offers several different services and thanks to you, I see we have to be specific when promoting each service online. Thanks again.

3. Comment by Brandon — April 4, 2008 @ 4:46 pm

   Hey guys.

   Looks like you’re working on your site - just wanted to report problems on my end loading up The Total Package. I get your posts via RSS, then typically click through to get the rest of the article. Haven’t been able to get through consistently for over a week. Thought you might want to know.

   Thank you, Clayton and Crew for all you do.

   Have a great weekend.

   Brandon

4. Comment by Sylvia — April 5, 2008 @ 2:56 pm

   This article surely is right on target for internet marketing. I learned the hard way by blowing through ad money in PPC advertising that was much better spent on particular, targeted keywords that (like a rifle shot) went right to the product they were looking for. 

   My conversion rate tripled, even though my clicks went down.  Alexa says my site popularity is down beause of less clicks, but I’m laughing all the way to the bank!

5. Comment by Jason Parker, Print Salesman — April 7, 2008 @ 7:17 am

   Gary, thanks for the wisdom of the old salesman!

   I’ve been hearing what you’re saying since I started brainstorming with internet marketers, yet still I’ve failed to actually put it into action.  You giving a reason why makes all the difference. 

   -Jason

6. Comment by Tim Gross — April 7, 2008 @ 10:57 am

   <"Go vertical and go deep.">
   Excellent post… and from a hook perspective, excellent naming of the concept as "The Fuzzy Dice Secret". 

7. Comment by Pamela Albers — April 7, 2008 @ 10:18 pm

   Hello Kind Sirs & Ladies!!  I LOVE your website, Thank You for the Knowkrdge!!!!  I have an idea (baby product), it’s a Real Good Idea! I’m a x CADD op & Mom. During my ‘Mom’ (little baby) time, I didn’t work, so I had Plenty of time to realize how hard raising kids really is. The times I had no solution for a certain problem my youngest son was giving me, I Prayed & got an answer, made a prototype & It Worked Like a Charm!!! This WILL  make me & whoever backs me Extremely Rich. Do you have any advice on how I can accomplish this difficult feat??                    Sincerely Yours & Thank You, Again!!

8. Comment by Michael Stephen — April 9, 2008 @ 10:22 am

   Howdy Folks:

   I had a question. When you say direct the visitors to a "mini site" to sell them, is that a totally different site or a page on your main site.

   Thanks in advance.

   Really appreciate all this advice.