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Entrepreneurship
Expect This 11th Hour Sneak Attack When Selling Your Home Service Company
Multibillion-dollar investment funds are now bidding to buy successful home service companies at record-setting prices...
Photo by Sachin Rai of India, winner of the 2013 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award
“Does it surprise you that the multibillion-dollar investment funds that used to buy manufacturing companies and mortgages are now bidding to buy successful home service companies at record-setting prices?”
Immediately following my publishing of that comment, a client of my partner Ryan Chute asked him for any insights he might be able to provide about the Private Equity firms that were trying to buy his business. Another Wizard of Ads partner, Stephen Semple, has worked with almost 100 business owners who sold their businesses. Here is what Steve told Ryan: “There are three problems I’ve seen over and over. The first problem is that there is a due diligence clause in every sales contract that professional business buyers regularly use to lower the price. Here is how it works: the closing is scheduled for Friday afternoon (yes, almost always a Friday.) At noon on Friday the buyer drops the price. They tell you they have come across something that says the price is now 20-30% lower.” “These business buyers are banking on the owner having already sold the company in his heart. The champagne is on ice and the owner is not emotionally capable of walking away from the closing table. To fight this, the seller needs to remain ready to walk. Walking away is the only power the seller has.” “The second problem I have seen is this: selling a business is a slow process and the closer it gets to the closing of the sale, the more the business owner mentally and emotionally disconnects from the business. They stop investing in the business, stop growing it. This is a dangerous thing to do because if the sale falls through, they have to get the momentum going again.” “The third problem is that most business owners don’t actually know what their business is worth. Knowledge is power, and you desperately need the power of knowledge when you are preparing to sell your business.” “Ryan, my best advice is that you tell your client to run their business like they are planning to own it for the next 20 years. Remind them that their business isn’t actually sold until the check is cashed.” Ted Rogers owned a cable TV company. When a buyer came along, Ted negotiated the price to be based on the number of subscribers he transferred to the buyer on closing day. Ted was now prepared to spend more per subscriber to acquire new subscribers than he had ever spent before. He ran promotions and offered bonuses to drive up his subscriber count. The buyer was now motivated to close the sale quickly because the price was going up every hour. The technique that Ted Rogers employed can be used by any seller of any business. All you have to do is base the sales price on a metric that is within your control, not the buyer’s control. It can be top-line sales in a rolling 12-month window, or gross profits in a rolling 12-month window, or you can negotiate the closing price to be adjusted up-or-down by the same percentage the company has grown or declined during the due diligence window. Pick a metric that you control. And then start growing your business as you’ve never grown it before. By remaining fully engaged in your business, you have now stripped the buyer of his power to ambush you at the closing table. And then, when the deal is done, come to Wizard Academy and tell us your story and we’ll help you celebrate.
Advertising
Putting Funny Ads To Work For Your Boring-Ass Business – Parody
Never use humor that doesn’t reinforce the principal point of your ad. If remembering the humor forces you to recall the message of the ad...
A parody is an imitation that uses exaggeration for comedic effect.
Nothing is safe from a parody if it becomes popular enough… People, movies, events, songs, art, books, pop culture, etc.
The point of the parody is to make fun of the subject using satire, irony, and hyperbole.
Weird Al is one of the best-known parody-makers. As was Mel Brooks. A lot of comedians use this technique. Comedy movies that use parody become cult classics, like Spaceballs, Blazing Saddles, Airplane!, Monty Python’s Holy Grail, Austin Powers, Borat, Shaun of the Dead, Cabin In The Woods, This Is Spinal Tap, Best In Show, etc.
(Here’s a list of must-see parody movies for any comedy fan worth their salt.)
Saturday Night Live has used this technique for years with their parody commercials.
One of the best known being the Love Toilet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avb1XbO0EIs
The setup leads us to think it might be a jewelry commercial because it uses all the same elements as every other jewelry commercial. Romantic music, an in-love couple doing 'couple things', and a smooth voiceover about how in love they are. Is he going to buy her a diamond? No sir. He’s going to get her something that’s even more intimate...
Parody is a common tool used in comedy because it frickin’ works. Its power comes from using these two techniques. If a parody lacks either of these, it’s dead in the water.
1. Inside jokes
Great parodies don’t spell it out for the audience about what it is they’re parodying. They leave it up to the audience to get the joke.
If the parody is close enough in style and makes enough familiar-sounding references to the original, it becomes an inside joke between the audience and the performer (or ad, song, etc.)
Inside jokes are one of the quickest shortcuts to bonding with your audience. They’re like a secret handshake between you and the tribe.
If you know the handshake, you’re in the club, and you belong. (I’ll go into more detail on the power of inside jokes in a future post.)
2. Emotional persuasion
Parody doesn’t rely on logic or facts. Parody relies on emotions.
Roy H. Williams often says, “Win the heart and the mind will follow.”
What he means is that when you’ve won someone over emotionally, they will always find a way to justify their decisions with logic.
Parody relies on appealing to emotions instead of using logic, in order to persuade people to accept the parody’s point of view.
And what better way to convince people they like you than to make them laugh? Science has proven over and over again that laughter equals likability, trust, and bonding.
3. Relevance
For the parody to work, it has to be relevant to the point the parody is trying to convey.
If the humor isn’t tied to the message; if you can’t talk about one without talking about the other, then any attempts at persuasion will be short-lived and not very memorable.
“Never use humor that doesn’t reinforce the principal point of your ad. Here’s the litmus test: If remembering the humor forces you to recall the message of the ad, the humor is motivated. Good job. But if recalling the humor doesn’t put you in memory of the ad’s main point, the humor is unmotivated and will make your ad less effective. Sure, people will like the ad. They just won’t buy what you’re selling.” - Roy H. Williams
How can you use parody in your advertising?
Here are three real-world examples of parody ads that got a LOT of attention:
FurKids Kitty Kommercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F_8qaQ3DD0
This low-budget ad for an Atlanta animal shelter went viral thanks to its comedic chops.
The black and white intro parodies those cheesy infomercials we’ve all been subjected to.
Except it’s a little… off. We notice the goldfish in question is a simple line drawing on the side of a tank. That subtle setup alludes that this might not be your typical infomercial.
Cut to (in my opinion) the funniest part of this ad: a girl in the background doing an Oscar-worthy impression of those arm-waving inflatable tube-thingies you see at car dealerships. They’re poking fun at just how low-budget this commercial is. Right off the bat, they let you know, that they know, that you know… this was made on the cheap.
(Sidebar: This is another technique used in comedy. When there is a glaringly obvious flaw, like how cheap this commercial looks, it’s better to address it before the audience does. When you joke about your flaws, it disarms the audience and gets them back on your side. People like to reference B-Rabbit’s final rap battle in 8 Mile as a great example of this. We’ll cover this technique in a future post, because it’s very important.)
So back to arm-waving inflatable tube-girl. We’ve all seen those things at car lots, so how does our host talk to us? In the stereotypical spiel of every used car dealer ad.
Except it’s a little ...off, again. Because he’s not offering cars, he’s offering cats.
“Come see our fine selection of quality cats.”
“2016 models are compatible with windows.”
“Ask about our exclusive models available only through certified FurKids stores.”
These are all familiar phrases we’ve heard in car dealership ads.
(Another sidebar: That “tree kitty” line is a reference to a then-popular meme - “I need about tree-fiddy.” The people who got that unexplained reference felt like they were in on the joke, and therefore more connected to the ad. Inside jokes, people.)
Anywho... the cherry on top is when he parodies the Sarah McLachlan “Arms Of An Angel” song, with spectacularly-on-purpose-under-par guitar and vocals.
Instead of black and white slow-motion shots of shivering and neglected pets with sad eyes, we get color shots of happy kitties.
And even though we know exactly which gut-wrenching ad he’s referencing, we still find it cute. We can actually sit through it without screaming “I CAN’T WATCH THIS” and turning it off. (Don’t lie, you do it too.)
With over 5.6 million views, you can’t go wrong with this adorably funny parody.
Ikea’s “Experience the power of a bookbook” ad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOXQo7nURs0
It looks and sounds exactly like an Apple ad, but it's for Ikea’s product catalog.
Instead of creating their own ad from scrap, Ikea took an idea that had already been proven to work and pivoted.
That’s the thing about most successful parodies - the thing they’re parodying is already popular.
Because parodies only work if you get the references to what they’re imitating.
Ikea’s parody worked because everyone knew what Apple’s commercials looked and sounded like.
These four lines from the ad are ones to pay attention to:
- “The first thing to note is no cables. Not even a power cable… The 2015 Ikea catalog comes fully charged, and the battery life is eternal.”
- “The interface is 7.5 by 8 inches, but can expand to 15 by 8 inches.”
- “Content comes pre-installed, via 328 high definition pages of inspiring home furnishing ideas.”
- “At Ikea, we feel that technology this life-enhancing should be in the hands of everyone. So the 2015 Ikea catalog is free.”
Why these lines? Because these four lines are the only concrete facts stated in the entire two-and-a-half-minute ad.
- It’s a 2015 catalog
- the size dimensions
- the number of pages
- the price - free.
Sure they show you some of the pages as well, but actually, this ad is not about features. It’s about emotions.
It combines the clean, optimistic, and futuristic emotions of an Apple ad, while at the same time incorporating wry comedy. Comedy that works, because they’re presenting a simple furniture catalog as if it were an ultra-hyped expensive laptop.
This ad has over 19 million views on YouTube (and 700,000 views within one day of posting.)
“Luxury Defined” ‘96 Nissan Ad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr6FklMc6B0
When you need to offload an old POS, there’s no better way to do it than with an over-the-top ad.
Almost everyone else sells their used cars the same way (“Please buy it from me? I promise it’s not that bad!”)
But to advertise a used car the same way luxury car brands advertise theirs, it turns heads. (Over 2.6 million heads, says YouTube.)
The attention to detail is... *MUAH* (That’s me doing that Italian chef kiss thing with my hand.)
From the dramatic cello music, to vintage black and white shots of bridges and steel, to the pompous British voiceover (“The most iconic monuments always seem to be those that stand the test of time… the structures that weathered the years…. those that stood through wars and depression, and today still stand impressive…”) You think you’re actually seeing a new luxury car commercial.
He builds the tension for twenty seconds before revealing the twist… that this is an ad for a seventeen-year-old-worn-out car.
Then he juxtaposes the dramatic music, low-light quick-cuts, and voiceover with shots of torn-up seats and a tied-down hood.
Notice again how there are very few product facts in this ad. What do we really know about the car, other than we love it? We know it’s a seventeen-year-old sports sedan, “with an engine, wheels, tires, and an automatic transmission.”
Yet 2.6 million people were captivated enough to watch this ad for a full minute.
It even captivated Nissan, who actually bought the car and donated a thousand bucks to the charity of the ad-makers choice.
How can you use parodies in your advertising?
1. One way to start is by listing the stereotypes and cliches often found in your business or industry. Is there something you could make fun of there?
Are there any flaws in your industry or business that you’re afraid to talk about? Time to get ahead of them before your audience or your competition does.
Speaking of your competition, do they have flaws that you don’t? A great way to highlight them without smearing them is through parody.
A good place to find ideas for these flaws, stereotypes, and cliches is in memes. Memes are the currency of the internet, and if you want to know what people are joking about, you go to the memes.
2. Much like Ikea did with their catalog ad, is there a current popular or proven trend, style, movement, etc. going on that you could reference?3. Similes are a helpful nudge into finding something parody-worthy. What are the elements of your business “like?” What are various points of the client experience "like?" Are there elements of the client experience that are similar to different, seemingly unrelated things?4. Watch other parodies. SNL has a ton for you to take notes on.
Tech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvT_gqs5ETk
Household
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZRzJJcq6Rs
Food
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SmUVySf85s
Health
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IZrYeUX3MI
Toys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYyuo7gm-aQThe best thing you can do to improve your use of parodies is to study how others do it. Or you could just call us at the Wizard of Ads™. We study this stuff so you don't have to. Parody a bit too cheeky for you? Try Juxtaposition.
Customer Journey
Transactional Vs. Relational Customers: Are You Attracting The Wrong People?
The most important messaging choice boils down to whether you’re attracting Relational or Transactional customers.
Note that the headline says “attracting,” not “targeting.”
People hear targeting and think media choices — are you on the wrong station, in the wrong magazine or newspaper, or hitting the wrong demographics or keywords with your digital campaigns? That’s not what I’m talking about. Who you attract depends more on messaging than media. And it has far more to do with psychographics and motivations than demographics. In short, we’re answering the questions: What are you saying and who finds that message appealing? Understanding Relational vs. Transactional Buying Modes This is a big topic, but in simple terms, the most important messaging choice boils down to whether you’re attracting Relational or Transactional customers? Now, keep in mind that relational and transaction are buying modes, not permanent labels. Everyone buys some things transactionally and others relationally. One old school example is gas. Some people pay attention to the price of gas and will go to the station with the lowest price, even if it’s a different station every time. They’re shopping transactionally. Others always get their gas from the same one or two places, because of location, lighting, brand of gas, pay at the pump options, or how nice the attached convenience store is, etc. They’re shopping relationally. Another example might be eggs. Some people buy flats of eggs to get the best possible price, because “eggs are eggs.”Others only buy Certified Humane, Pastured, Organic eggs because the health of the hens determines the quality of the eggs. But it’s not only that one’s a price shopper and the other isn’t. Here’s a summary of all the other ways they differ:
For transactional customers, getting the best deal is the goal, and time spent researching, comparison shopping, and negotiating are the “price” one pays to get that deal. For Relational customers, getting the full benefit they’re after with a minimal investment of time and cognitive effort is the goal, and they accept that paying for others’ experience, expertise, and service is the “price” that buys that benefit.
Relational vs. Transactional and The Dangers of a Business-Marketing Mismatch
To be clear, both relational and transactional customers can be profitable. But only if your business is set up to service them. Walmart is a classic example of a successful low-price business designed for transactional customers. Hence their slogan: “Always Low Prices.” And because Walmart is set up to be a low-priced provider, it works. They squeeze vendors to keep their costs low, and they make a 15% margin workable through massive inventory turn. The problem comes when your business strategy and advertising messaging are mis-matched. A business set up to service relational customers whose ads attract transactional customers will experience a lot of heartache because of it. That business will never have the low prices transactional customers demand. Plus they’ll never get the added pay-off that comes with long-term loyal customers. But before we get into how to properly attract relational customers, let’s take a look at why they’re such a powerful driver of profit.
Modeling Relational vs. Transactional Customers for Traffic, Sales, Revenue, and Margin
Consider the following a “classical” modeling of the two buying modes. Classical in that it’s simplified and idealized for the sake of maximum clarity. And also, ‘cause it’s a wee bit dated, from back when people bought Blu-Ray players and did their comparison shopping in-store rather than online. Yet, none of that takes away from the effects and dynamics we are trying to understand, so don’t let it distract you. So let’s say 10 people are shopping for a Blu-Ray player, with a 50-50 split of transactional vs. relational buying modes. The 5 relational buyers’ shopping behavior will look like this:
Each Relational buyer goes to their trusted source for electronics or home theatre and buys the model that’s recommended to them. In contrast, the 5 Transactional buyers’ shopping behavior will look like this:
Each Transactional shopper visits between three to five stores looking for the best deal (having already researched the best “bang for your buck” Blu-Ray player they want). When they finally find the store with the lowest anticipated price, they buy it.
Relational vs. Transactional Customers and Traffic
Since the Transactional Shoppers visit an average of four times as many stores, they account for a vastly disproportionate amount of store (or Web) traffic. Yet, despite this fact, Transactional Shoppers only represent half the buyers:
Yet it’s when we get to looking at revenue numbers that the picture changes even further:
And the real difference comes when we look at profit margins:
So the answer to “why target relational customers instead of transaction is simple:**Profit Margin!**And perhaps even more important is customer loyalty. By their very nature, relational customers are loyal customers when they find a relational provider. Whereas transactional customers are, well, transactional — their loyalty hinges on price.
Where Most Advertisers Go Wrong
Given that there’s a 50-50 split between Transactional and Relational buyers for most categories, you’d expect to see a similar split between messages aimed at each buyer. Or, given the disproportionate amounts of revenue and profit generated by Relational buyers, you might even expect an over-abundance of messaging aimed at Relationals. But that’s not what you find. Instead the advertising split looks like this:
90% of the ads on the air — especially ads on the radio — are advertising price:
- Ads for sales.
- Ads for special items at discounted pricing (e.g., most tune-up specials)
- Ads for “loss leaders” and lead-gen offers
- Ads claiming “we will not be undersold”
- Even ads (stupidly) claiming “competitive pricing”
And the real problem starts when a Relational company accidentally advertises with this kind of messaging. In service companies, this seen when the Transactional ads bring in tire kickers who end up not buying, forcing the company to apply a minimum “service” fee in order to screen out the very customers they paid to attract!
Why Most Ads Don’t Attract Relational Customers
So why don’t more companies aim to attract Relational customers? A number of reasons:
- Most relational style ads don’t sound like ads, which scares off too many business owners that want “professional sounding ads.”
- Relational advertising requires you to “walk away from” Transactional buyers, and too many biz owners are scared to do that, seeking to be all things to all customers.
- Relational advertising requires vulnerability and self-disclosure on the part of the advertiser.
- Advertisers are more interested in immediate response and traffic than long-term attraction of and bonding with relational customers.
In short, you have to put out a relational message to capture Relational buyers, and relational messages aren’t just about expertise or quality. Relational messages are invariably about values and business philosophy (hence the success of Origin Stories in attracting Relational customers)And for those kinds of messages to work, they can’t be faked. That said, some companies have figured out the value of Relational Buyers. In fact, Apple does this brilliantly.
Apple as a Case Study in Attracting Relational Buyers
Think about what Apple promises its customers. It’s never that you’ll get the best price. Or even that you’ll have the most features and specs. Apple always promises that your user experience will be everything you’re hoping it will be. That you’ll for sure make the right choice with an Apple product, that the support will be so much better, and that everything will “just work.” This is messaging aimed straight at the heart of the Relational buyer. And it works, which is why they can consistently sell a relatively small fraction of total computers and tablets while reaping the lion’s share of the profits. For example, currently, Apple sells 39% of the smartphones in the U. S. while capturing 66% of the profit. It’s also why they have an army of Apple loyalists willing to buy their latest and greatest stuff, every time they release something new. So in a world of ads screaming about low prices, sales, and discounts, make your ads stand out from the crowd. And do it while attracting the most profitable prospects by advertising to the Relational customer.
Corporate Culture
A Really Powerful Way To Quickly Attract Skilled Labor To Your Home Service Business
You’ve gone from struggling to keep your appointment board filled to solving that challenge and growing faster than you thought possible.
As the saying goes, “choose your hard.” And you have.
You’ve gone from struggling to keep your appointment board filled to solving that challenge and growing faster than you thought possible. Which has graduated you to a new set of challenges. You’ve got more incoming leads than you can handle, and you’ve got to recruit enough great people to keep up with increased demand. And that’s a hard challenge to fix. Especially when “OK” people aren’t good enough. Nor are newbies you’ll have to train yourself.
You need qualified, experienced guys and gals who also have the work ethic and cultural fit that great companies like yours insist on. And one thing about those people is they’re almost never looking for a job. They’re like gold to employers, so they pretty much always have a job. So digital ads on Indeed, Craigslist, or jobs boards won’t reach them. How do you fix this problem?
Why Mass Media Recruitment Spots are the Answer
You fix it the same way you started it: through mass media advertising. I know because my advertising work with clients has both caused and fixed their need to hire more great people. For example, here’s the latest recruitment ad I wrote for a plumbing client in Cleveland:
Audio Player
[audio mp3="https://wizardofads.contractors/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Wyatt-Works-September-2020-Recruiting.mp3"][/audio]Within three days they had five outstanding candidates. By day four we had to pull the ad and swap it out for a regular ad, and the client did end up hiring at least four of the five candidates. Boom. Problem solved. But why did it work so well?
7 Reasons That Recruitment Spot Got Immediate Results
1. The client had already been on the air for four months.
The longer an effective branding campaign runs, the more the owner will have established an identity in the mind of the listenership. On radio, that means when you talk, people will feel like they know who is talking to them, and that your words are credible. This is a crucial factor for recruitment ads.
2. Radio reaches people who already have good jobs
Unlike job boards and other digital recruitment tools, radio reaches people who already have jobs, which is exactly who you WANT to reach. This means your average candidate from a radio recruitment ad will be of higher quality.
3. Radio reaches family & friends of ideal recruits
If you write your recruitment ad to resonate with (and in some cases to describe) the ideal candidate, then family and friends of your ideal candidate will recognize that the job is a perfect fit for their son/brother/buddy and tell them about your opening. This greatly increases your chances of reaching exactly who you want to reach by at least a factor of five, if not fifty. And who doesn’t want to 5X their recruitment reach?
4. Great people demand great co-workers and managers
Nobody wants to be an A player on a team of bums. And that makes it easier to recruit A-players from workplaces that don’t provide them with A-level coworkers and managers. So if your recruitment ad presents your company as the ideal home for A-players, it’ll pull much harder than you might expect.
5. True craftsmen require respect for their craft.
If real craftsmen feel like they’re being made into cogs in an organization where their craft is rushed or downplayed in favor of sales, they’ll suffer moral wounding from that and eagerly look to move to a company that matches their values. Recruiting this kind of craftsperson is easier when you understand their motivations and write ads that resonate with their values.
6. Ads that break through the clutter work better
A recruitment ad can’t work its magic until it grabs listeners by the ears. But any ad that does break through the clutter will 10X its response. The example ad did that in spades.
The opening story resonated with (most) working men.
Who hasn’t driven a shit-box car at some point in their lives? Most men certainly have especially ethical and meticulous craftsmen who’ve put integrity above profit. That’s why the opening story resonated with skilled and ethical plumbers so strongly. In fact, the first candidate to respond went out of his way to share his experience suffering a setback that forced him to drive a rattle-trap jalopy. This helped candidates to instantly bond with Andy, motivating them to reach out. So was that so hard?No. Yet the opening statement remains true. Growth and increased business demand will solve a lot of problems. But they also create new challenges that you’ll have to solve. Granted, they’re a lot more fun to face than challenges surrounding a lack of demand or profit margin. Even still, they remain challenges. So choose your hard: will you remain addicted to digital pay-per crack, or will you break into mass media advertising and graduate to a new set of challenges?
Corporate Culture
The #1 Best Way To Write Attractive Recruitment Ads
How are you handling your recruitment? Is it just the boilerplate? Fill in the blank stuff? “Here’s the opening. Here’s what it pays...
Johnny Molson: So, how are you handling your recruitment? Is it just the boiler plate? Fill in the blank stuff? “Here’s what the opening is. Here’s what it pays. Here’s what the benefits are.” Or are you using your recruitment advertising to actually help enhance your brand? And are you using your recruitment advertising maybe to weed out the people you don’t want working for your company? That’s what we’re going to talk about today on the Wizard’s Roundtable.
And in fact, we’re going to take a tour of some state capitals. Chris Maddock is in Austin, Texas, and he wrote one of the key chapters in Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads on recruitment advertising. Kevin Skaalure is in Helena Montana. And he’s going to share with you a technique where you ask current employees why they like working at this place and use that for your recruitment. And I’m Johnny Molson in Springfield, Illinois. Here’s our state Capitol back there. And we’re going to start in Helena, Montana with Kevin Skaalure. We’re talking about how to get your recruitment ads to sound and look and be a little different.
Kevin Skaalure: We see “Help Wanted” everywhere. And people seem to want to do the same thing all the time. And that’s just kind of pounded down people’s throats and “We are open and we have a job for you and here’s all the stuff.” And that’s what got me thinking of going back to what Chris wrote in his part of Roy Williams’ book in The Secret Formulas, where he said, don’t speak for the job, talk about the person and appeal to the person. And I read that so many years ago and I followed that kind of idea for a lot of my clients and then it works out. And I know Chris had a great example on the classified ad where he was originally hired. And I’ve taken that out to my clients on the radio and done a lot of different messaging that way.
Johnny Molson: Chris, what does it mean to speak to the person instead of the job?
Chris Maddock: I think it means having somebody imagine being involved in the ad. In Roy’s ad that I answered, I think it was 1995. It was in the Austin American Statesman and it promised me 18500. I mean, I was definitely going to answer for that, how could you resist? I like 18500, clearly. But I looked back later and I remember that it was a balance and I could tell that Roy wrote it. You know, looking back cause it was, “You’re gonna work hard. You’re gonna sweep up shit. You’re gonna do all this stuff. But you could have a chance to be a copywriter at an emerging company.” And you could tell Roy was saying things more powerfully than perhaps he knew them to be true. He had to. Because when I got hired, I was working by washing machines, you know. But this was Roy well before he was the Wiz: imagining his company, helping me imagine what I could do. It was “Super gopher slash writer” was the headline.
Roy Williams: “Entry level opportunity of a lifetime. Are you dependable and resourceful? Do you have lots of energy, intuition and initiative? Do you dress well, have computer skills? Are you willing to pick up clients at the airport, wash dishes, vacuum carpets, conduct telephone surveys, run errands, and do all the other things we don’t have time to do? We are an advertising firm with clients nationwide and we need a super-gopher. No whiners. No lazy people. Nobody with too many “personal commitments.” South Austin. $1,500 a month. “
Chris Maddock: And I was like, “I can do super gopher. And I want to be a writer.” So he helped me paint that scene almost perfectly. And evidently that scene was perfect for some like thousand people that answered that ad. So he did a really good job there, and that’s why I stole the technique as I have so many from him.
Johnny Molson: So, I think we’ve seen so often in different business publications saying it’s not necessarily the money. Although for Chris, it was a whopping 18500 that lured him in. But it’s not necessarily the money that people are looking for. There’s something else going on. So how do you speak to that something else, Kevin?
Kevin Skaalure: I think that’s right. You speak right to the heart of the person. Recently, I had a hospital and they were advertising — not for healthcare workers. But for a number of people that do not work in the healthcare field but yet work at the hospital. And the driving force was that the person that came in spoke to his idea of being tied to healthcare and being a servant and enjoying everything he did about that. And he did mention benefits of course, but that was much later in the conversation.
It was the idea that said he felt that he belonged there. And so when we were doing ads and he was speaking to that, the idea of belief and being part of this group of likeminded individuals. And that really carried strongly through the ad. So it reaches that appeal to people that, “Yeah, money is great, but I’m going to spend 40 or more hours a week here. I want to enjoy what I’m doing and feel I’m counted.” And like you alluded to, you can take a lot of people that fill out questionnaires and money is down below time off. It’s what sense do you get from doing what you do? And when you can appeal to people that way, also coming from an employee, I think it’s an added benefit to say “That guy likes it. I hear that. That sounds good. I think I would enjoy working with someone who believes like I believe.”
Chris Maddock: Kevin, you have an employee of one of your clients doing the ad. I’ve never done that.
Kevin Skaalure: Yes I do. And in fact, it’s much like what we’re doing now. We have that conversation and we draw those out. And I started that a long time ago.
Adrian: There is an entirely hidden giant population of people who work in a hospital who have nothing to do with medical or medicine.
Announcer: You don’t have to be called doctor or nurse to find a fulfilling career at St. Peter’s Health. Just ask environmental services coordinator, Adrian Harrison.
Adrian: I want to help my community. This puts me in a position to do that every day. It allows me to have a job that I can say that I’m proud to have. Our number one concern at St. Peter’s Health in the 10 years that I’ve been there has always been: What’s going to serve our community to the utmost? We’re here to support the community, to make sure that our community is healthy and safe and is able to keep moving. We are the place to work in Helena, Montana. This is a job that allows us to have fun as a family and enjoy our community. Live a life worth living.
Announcer: Find your next career at SPhealth.org/careers.
Adrian: We need good people all the time. We want you to come apply for a job at our hospital. We want you to come get interviewed. We want you to think about us ’cause we’re thinking about you. We should be your first choice St. Peter’s Health, higher state of care.
Kevin Skaalure: What does it mean to do what you do? And that’s when stories come out and people tell stories about what they did. You know, they might say, “This is what I did this one day, and I helped this person.” And I tell you, when you get some of those good ones, it’s like gold. It just resonates so well.
Johnny Molson: What better ambassador to talk about the business than somebody who works there for the business?
Chris Maddock: 99.99 something percent of the people that hear this are not going to be remotely looking for a job, especially looking for a sales job, but they’re going to hear it. And a lot of those people at age 25 – 54 are going to be prospects for your jewelry. And what are you saying to them? And Johnny, you’ve heard me say it a billion times, that’s almost the number one thing I think about on any ad. If it’s not a point of sale ad for that day, what is the precipitant that the rest of the folks are going to take away
Johnny Molson: And going back to something you started there with Chris. I like that when you do a recruitment ad this way that we were discussing, it almost has a two track benefit there. Yes, you’re, you’re talking to potential employees, but you’re also sending a message out to potential customers about, “Hey, this is what we stand for. By the way, these are the kinds of people who we hire, who you’re working with.” And so while it may not seem like it, it’s part of your marketing, part of your branding. It very much is. And I think you have to consider what you’re saying in your recruitment ads on the same level as you consider any other kind of marketing that you’re doing. Because it’s all coming from the same voice.
Chris Maddock: And I think you have to be really careful about there’s a lot of negatives in there. There’s a lot of “You’re going to have to do this and this and this, but you’ll make 18500. And, you’ll do this, this and this. I think there’s a part about washing his Mustang, in the heat of the day, but you might get to edit some stuff. And I was like, “Wow.” What I’m trying to say is there’s more subtlety than a we believe statement. Because those I think people sort of may expect those things now. But this, you get across what you believe in an even sneakier way. If that makes any sense.
Kevin Skaalure: And I think what you said about, the idea that there was some negatives in yours. You know, this doesn’t sound all glorious and there’s some other points out there. And I think it points to the reality of things. And also something we always talk about, people are self-deselecting or whatever the terminology is. It’s “Okay, either you’re carrying through and you read these things and we’re going to say these things to you.” Some people are going to bail. And so that way it thins out the herd. Naturally they will do it. And some bail because they didn’t read far enough to find out what they had to do, and that does it. And when you do the recruitment ads, there are some things in there that say this isn’t a job for everybody. Yeah, it’s not all roses and lollipops and that sort of thing. But by calling out a bigger, better person and saying, “These are the things that you might not want.” Well, if I don’t want that, I’m not going to go there, but I know it.
Johnny Molson: I think that’s important because it can’t sound like it’s the best job in the world. It may very well be the best job in the world. But if you are making absurd promises, just like in any advertising, people will sniff it out. You know, they know when you say “unlimited earning potential.” Well, no, there’s always a limit. There’s always a limit.
Chris Maddock: Johnny, when y’all invited me to be on this call, I was thinking about the ad that I did. And several that have worked really well for clients. This is where I think we gotta be good. We have to be really good when we do this. Because it’s sort of like the VRBO test that I did, where I trained a lot of the writers there. And we looked at the ads that said, you know, “Apartment, Dominican Republic, barbecue, safe area,” things like that. And the ads that I was writing and I trained some of the writers to mimic was like, “You’ll think about the minutes of your everyday differently when you wake up and look out at your own private beach.” And it’s something in the imagination. There’s the “reality reality” then sort of “beyond reproach exaggeration”. You know, “You can see yourself doing this…” I think there does need to be that same sort of fiction in advertising this for these. There’s the opportunity to put that in there. And if you’re not doing it, you’re not taking that opportunity. And I’ve remembered a bunch of times where I’ve done that and it’s worked well.
Johnny Molson: Yes. And I agree with you on that. I guess I was thinking more about the unrealistic platitudes of “This is the best job you’ll ever have, and you could make as much money as you possibly could.” You know, those kinds of things. But if you’re speaking to somebody “This is satisfying and motivating, and, you’ll smile bigger than you ever have when you go home from work. You’ll stop kicking the garbage can every time.”
Chris Maddock: You’re going to feel like calling your mom, you know?
Kevin Skaalure: Yeah, yeah. That’s, right.
Chris Maddock: You can’t sue anybody for “No, you’re not. You’re not going to feel like calling…” That’s what we’re talking about, you know, that sort of thing. That’s sort of a “reality, reality, big dream” sort of thing that you can put in there that I think a lot of people may keep away from. Because maybe it’s different from how we think of an ad. But I think one thing when I was writing that chapter, that I thought about again today, this is an advertisement. And I was yelling at a class that I had. I actually had one of the students I’m not working with. With the client she remembers me yelling at her. I said, “Well, if you’re not willing to be excited about your product, please fire yourself and put somebody in there that is.” And I think you have to be of the same bent. You know, you have to be an ad person. That’s different than being a technical writer. You need to say things more powerfully than possibly is perfectly true.
Example Recruitment Ad
Announcer: If you listen to this station, you’ve heard Jerry Kelly asking smart, talented people to apply — because we keep growing. But have you ever considered applying yourself? If you haven’t, you may mistakenly assume what a lot of people do — that service industry jobs don’t pay well. Rubbish. In fact, the average Jerry Kelly technician makes more to start than the average first-year psychiatrist. And Jerry Kelly will even pay to put you through school. So visit Jerry Kelly dot com. It could change everything.
Kevin Skaalure: It’s the promise of hope. It’s that four steps we talk about, and I think you nailed it there. That’s great.
Chris Maddock: We’ve talked about some of the content of the ad, but let’s talk a little bit about the vehicle, where the ad goes. Because it could be on mass media, radio, TV. It could be something that’s on Facebook. It could be something on Craigslist. Pluses and minuses to some of those, Kevin?
Kevin Skaalure: I see the Craigslist stuff as smaller. Kind of “I’m only looking for the one person and I don’t need everybody. But I’m going to get a lot of applicants.” Whereas some of the recruitment ads on the mass media, I’m actually looking for more than one person. I’m looking for several people. Larger employers that say, “We have a lot of things, I’m not going to get stuck in the weeds.” And therefore they’re not compelled to say, “These are the things about this job.” And so we don’t have to go there that much because it’s going to be a little more general. And I like that appeal. The idea that says, “I’m going to say some of the things. I’m going to leave a lot out. I’m going to save it for the people that will come for the interview and then we’ll fill in the finer points.” That’s my take on some of that.
Chris Maddock: I remember when I was driving across New Mexico where my dad lived and he had given me a hat. A type of hat that I still wear. It’s a Smokey the Bear hat which says “Only You.” That’s the home of Smokey the Bear, we were very close to Lincoln, New Mexico. And, my dad said — and I was like eight — and he goes, “Wow. What advertising genius knew how to find you out here? To buy that well to find YOU with a billboard?” I mean, I remember that to this day. And I was joking when I became an advertiser and he was like, “Do you remember that?” And I was like, “Yeah, it was really funny.” So I think some of the most powerful advertising or classified classified ads on mass media are those that are looking for a single person. Because if you have that tone… I think that’s the expectation. And I think that’s mainly the way that I write them is the way you’re talking about. But when you really can change the tone, when it feels that way, that’s when I think they’re really powerful. And I’ve had several work that way. We’re looking for some one. You don’t say people.
I think the main thing that I always fall back to is frequency. So you can have the greatest message in the world. But if you have frequency enough that somebody hears it — because no one is intently listening to your message, especially in mass media. They’re doing something else with the other 80% of their brain. They’re highly likely to be involved with it if they hear it a few more times.
Johnny Molson: One of the things that I’ve noticed too is — and not that one is right, and one is wrong — when you’re looking at an ad that’s on Indeed or LinkedIn or Craigslist. Those are people typically looking for work. They’re out of work and they’re looking for something. If you’re doing it on radio, television, some other medium like that. Those are people who are currently employed, but maybe they have some sort of an itch that goes, “You know, if the right thing comes along, I might jump ship here.”
Kevin Skaalure: I think there’s a lot of opportunity with the pandemic thing. Working with some employment agencies, the idea has been said that “Maybe now I’m taking a step back in my job life and maybe what I’m doing, isn’t the thing. And now is an opportunity for me to switch jobs or maybe even switch careers.” And when you hear ads like that or see them, you say there’s something there to look into. And now is a good time because there’s all this movement. And a lot of people have stayed home and collected money and not worked. And there’s a huge pool of those people that are deciding “Maybe I’m not going back to what I was doing.”
Chris Maddock: Kevin you’re so right about your idea about people having time to think about their lives more. You know, sort of reflecting and doing that. I think the real motivation is becoming more — realizing yourself — and this being the thing. And I think talking about that, that can even spur people on. And once again, even talking about that to people as a company makes you a better company. You know, the idea that you could talk to people about living their best life. What other chance do you have to give that reflection of yourself to the greater prospective world out there? That’s what makes these pretty cool and a pretty powerful bullet you can shoot out there.
Johnny Molson: What questions would you like answered around the Wizards’ Roundtable? I’ll be happy to collect a handful of wizards, and we can talk about your topic in an upcoming episode, leave it in the comments below. Or you can send an email to me or one of my partners.
Customer Journey
Service Beyond Satisfaction. How To Rake In Authentic 5-Star Reviews Like A Badass
Are you giving your customers a 5-star experience or are you just convincing them to prop you up like Bernie as a favor?
Are you really giving your customers a 5-star experience or are you just convincing them to prop you up like Bernie as a favor? The prevalence of Google has brought the notion of 5-star service to the forefront of consumers’ minds in recent years. 5-star service is a highly subjective concept that lives solely in your customer’s perceptual reality. You can attempt to manipulate the response you get, but you cannot change whether or not the customer secretly believes they got your 5-star service. What does an authentic 5-Star review mean?
- One Star: You done messed up now, A-a-ron.
- Two Stars: You did the job…terribly.
- Three Stars: You showed up, did the job, and charged me accordingly. It wasn’t worth it.
- Four Stars: You were clean and professional. You did the work properly and I value the effort and specialized knowledge.
- Five Stars: Everything in four stars, and that special little surprise that left me delighted!
Your customers are less than satisfied when your salespeople are NOT:
- Asking questions that give them a clear understanding of their prospect’s needs
- Acting in a trustworthy manner
- Demonstrating products and services in a knowledgeable, entertaining, and enticing way
- Approaching the solution with a variety of options
- Appearing grateful, helpful, or engaged
- Delivering delight
Does this mean you won’t sell something? No. Can you still get a 5-star review? Sure. You just have to ask for it. If the customers had an acceptable experience, they are inclined to be friendly. But did they experience 5-stars? No. Have they subconsciously betrayed themselves when giving a 5-star review you didn’t earn? Yes. Can they justify doing it out of pity? You bet. Does that build loyal, long-term customers? No. So how does one go about earning an authentic 5-star review?
The answer lies in The 12 Stages of Loyal Buying:
- **Identify:**You notice a prospect either virtually or in person.
- **First contact:**You make eye contact or a virtual connection that is reciprocal.
- **Connect:**You have a mutually beneficial exchange of information.
- **Shake hands:**You find common ground and mutually agree with rapport.
- **Purchase:**You make your first sale with the customer.
- **Deliver:**You deliver what you’ve promised.
- **Delight:**You deliver something you didn’t promise to the delight of your customer.
- **Follow up:**You intentionally stay in touch without a selling intention.
- **Support:**You find opportunities to deliver unrelated value when the opportunity arises.
- **Referral:**Your customer refers family and friends of their own accord, not for reward.
- **Validate:**You treat your referral consistent to the experience of your customer.
- **Repurchase:**Your loyal customer buys from you again.
The real magic of a 5-Star experience happens at step number seven. Assuming that you have done a good job at each step leading up to delight, not attempting to skip steps along the way (that’s just creepy), delight is where loyalty ignites. When you’re watching a movie and jump at the scary scene – that’s delight. When you flick on the lights and everyone screams, “Surprise” – that’s delight. When a tear comes to your eye because of the incredibly kind and thoughtful gift you received – that’s delight.
The foundation of delight is surprise. -Roy H. Williams
When you can legitimately surprise your customer with something really special, really unexpected, and really thoughtful, you do what every great magician does –delight. The magician knows how to do the trick, but they never expose how the trick is done. That is the theatre of sales. Delight is where the magic lies. Just remember, delight only happens at the end, after the sale is made. You can't make every single step along the way a magical moment. First and foremost, the customer wants a quick, simple, and safe buying experience. Think of delight as the cherry on top.
Good selling.
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Frequently asked questions
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Why Wizard of Ads®?
Are you ready to transform your business into a distinctive, emotionally resonant brand? Here's why hiring Ryan Chute and Wizard of Ads® Services is the game-changer your business needs:
Distinctiveness Beyond Difference: Your brand must be distinctive, not just different, to stand out. We specialize in creating emotional connections with your customers to make your brand unforgettable.
Building Real Estate in the Mind: Branding with us helps your customers remember your brand when they need your service again, creating a lasting impression.
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Who Should Work with The Wizard of Ads®?
Wizard of Ads® offers services that start with understanding your marketing challenges.
We specialize in crafting authentic and disruptive brand stories and help build trust and familiarity with your audience. By partnering with Wizard of Ads®, you can transform your brand into one people remember and prefer. We understand the power of authentic storytelling and the importance of trust.
Let us elevate your marketing strategy with our authentic storytelling and brand-building experts. We can take your brand to the next level.
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Our strategy drives everything we do, dictating the creative direction and channels we use to elevate your brand. Leveraging our national buying power, we ensure you get the best media rates for maximum market leverage. Once your plan is in motion, we refine our strategy to align all channels—from customer service representatives to digital marketing, lead generation, and sales.
Our goal is consistency: we ensure everyone in your organization is on the same page, delivering a unified message that resonates with your audience. Experience the power of strategic alignment and watch your brand thrive.
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Transform Your Brand with Our Proven Process.
Once we sign the agreement, we visit on-site to uncover your authentic story, strengths, and limitations. Our goal is to highlight what sets you 600 feet above the competition. We'll help you determine your budgets and plan your mass media strategy, negotiating the best rates on your behalf.
Meanwhile, our creative team crafts a durable, long-lasting campaign designed to move your brand beyond mere name recognition and into the realm of household names. With an approved plan, we dive into implementation, producing high-quality content and aligning your channels to ensure your media is delivered effectively. Watch your brand soar with our comprehensive, strategic approach.
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The Power of Strategic Marketing Investments
Are you hungry for growth? We explain why a robust marketing budget is essential for exponential success. Many clients start with an 8-12% marketing budget, eventually reducing it to 3-5% as we optimize their marketing investments.
While it takes time to build momentum, you'll be celebrating significant milestones within two years. By the three to five-year mark, you'll see dramatic returns on investment, with substantial gains in net profit and revenue. Discover how strategic branding leads to compound growth and lasting value. Join us on this journey to transform your business.
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