Welcome words - how to increase customer response to advertisements

Entrepreneur, June, 1996 by Jerry Fisher

YOU WALK OUT to your car one morning, stick the key in the ignition, turn it and . . . nothing. ("What the . . . ?") You turn it again and. . . still nothing. This doesn't make sense. There must be some mistake. It started just fine yesterday. You turn the key again. Zilch. Not even the whine of an engine needing a battery boost.

Your blood runs cold. You call the gas station down the street, and they send over a guy in coveralls with, you'd swear, dollar signs in his eyes. You anticipate the worst as he lifts the hood, sticks his head in and pokes around. What's going on? Finally, he turns your way and delivers the news.

"No big deal. Your genchum gear was just a little loose." My what? It doesn't matter. The news is good. The words are sweet. You heard what you wanted to hear.

There's an important lesson in this scenario for entrepreneurs, especially those in service businesses: There's a good chance you can attract prospective customers by uttering, in advance, the welcome words they hope to hear after using your services.

For example, if you run a match-making service, you might use an ad with a headline announcing what prospects would ideally hear after they joined up: "We've found the perfect mate for you." Likewise, if you have an investment advising firm, you might run an ad with a headline that reads, "Your portfolio is up 34 percent." If you're a dentist, maybe it's an ad that declares, "You won't need a root canal."

The idea is to imagine the most welcome words a client or customer could hear from your lips, based on having gotten the best possible benefit from your services. Then use those words to attract prospects.

That's my suggestion to Gerald Ort of Coconut Creek, Florida, who wrote recently. Ort, a former career police officer, has developed an interesting business based on his experience on the force. Having realized that victims of gun theft were nearly powerless to track down their weapons other than through police recovery, he started a computer database service called Tracer USA that pawnbrokers and gun dealers can access to determine whether weapons they come in contact with have been reported lost or stolen. If they identify such a weapon, it is immediately reported to authorities.

Ort invites gun owners to list their lost or stolen firearms with him free of charge; dealers pay $10 a month to be part of the network. The dealers, says Ort, are motivated because they are subject to having their licenses revoked if they knowingly or even unknowingly sell a stolen gun.

Now that we know the facts, let's see how "welcome words" can get more people to sign up for Ort's service.

* SHOW AND TELL

Ort's current ad, now running in a number of firearms publications, is already pretty attention-getting. The headline, "Wanted: Lost/Stolen Firearms," almost sounds like the solicitation of a "fence"--someone who buys stolen property. But, in fact, the ad invites victims of loss or theft to list their weapons on Ort's database. It also calls on gun dealers and pawnbrokers to sign up on the network.

My welcome-word tweak for this ad would be to change the headline to read "We found your missing gun." This would be followed by body copy reading, "Those are the welcome words we're delivering to more and more gun owners who have signed on to our database of lost or stolen firearms--free of charge. Simply fax the make, model, serial number, date of theft or loss, and the police department's name and case number to us at the number below. This information then enables the many gun dealers and pawnbrokers on our network to immediately learn if a gun that comes into their possession has been reported lost or stolen--in which case authorities are notified immediately.

"The cost to dealers/pawnbrokers is just $10 per month for unlimited access 24 hours a day." This copy is followed by the company's phone number, address and so on.

Ort is now at work expanding his operation to accommodate those who have suffered the loss or theft of any other valuable that has a serial or identification number. He hopes to expand his subscriber base to include jewelry stores, auto parts stores, body shops and the like. And, certainly, the new ad headline is flexible enough to work with whatever category of missing item is being sought--"We found your missing jewelry" and so on. Ort can get plenty of mileage out of this new approach.

* THE "X" FACTOR

I often receive letters from readers who are dumbfounded and frustrated by the lack of success of their advertising efforts. They attach the ineffective ad or mailing for my diagnosis and recommended treatment, and sometimes I feel exactly as they do--it's a solid advertising effort and should have done better.

But then I remember the "X" factor. It's the one unpredictable element that can put the kibosh on even the most brilliant advertising efforts. That factor is inertia--the propensity of readers not to take any sort of action and for no special reason.

It's almost easier to admit you created a weak ad or you placed it in the wrong publication or your price was too high. But it's hard to swallow the fact that someone found your ad and your product appealing but was just not disposed to respond to it . . . for no other reason than sheer inertia.