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Lesson Info

Triggering Events

The next step is to look at the triggering event. So we began to work backwards and now we're skipping a step I realize and we're gonna look at the triggering events. We got the purchase. We identified our ideal sales conversation. Now we're gonna skip over requesting action and go over to, what is a triggering event? What causes someone? Right? What internal external force causes your prospect to enter in or become aware of their before state? This is a critical distinction. There are some triggering events that occur that simply put someone in a before state. So, for example, someone who lost a job. Right? Maybe they're interested in, now they're suddenly interested in entrepreneurship. Why? 'Cause yesterday they had a job, today they don't. It can be a triggering event that puts someone in a before state or it can cause somebody to become aware of that. Have you seen the Fabreze ads that references, it talks about, going nose blind. It shows like the person with all the cats and it'...

s like, you know, when you walk into your home, you smell this, and it's like a tiny little cute adorable kitten. Your friends smell this. And it's like a cat, like a house just like filled with cats. Fabreze gets rid of the smells that you've gone nose blind to. Right? It's a commercial designed to make people aware that they're in this before state. Because we do go nose blind to all kinds of aspects. Of our lives. We're gonna talk about different categories of triggering events in just a second. But that's kind of the distinction there. Typically when we think about a triggering event we're living in before land. Okay? We're living in before land. You know, what causes them to wind up here in this sad pitiful state. What causes them to begin looking out and seeking out what you have? What got 'em there? And what makes 'em aware? Triggering events create windows of opportunity where your prospect is far more likely to engage with and act upon your marketing message. Triggering events inform sales copy. Triggering events inform where we place advertising. They inform our targeting because they are what denote that, yep, someone is ready. So, let's go back to this example. What's the triggering event for marriage? Single and ready to mingle. If you're single, but not ready to mingle, then you're probably not interested in marriage as a desired end result. Maybe you just got out of a bad relationship. If you're ready to mingle but you're not yet single, them marrying somebody else is probably not a great idea at this particular juncture. Now, you could think about what are all the different triggering events that would put someone in a single and ready to mingle thing. Some of them could be happy. Some of them could be sad. But, if you're in the market for meeting someone to marry understanding those triggering events are a good thing. That could be very, very, very helpful. So the triggering question that we want to ask ourselves is, what's going on in the life of your prospect that would cause them to seek a solution to a problem your product or service solves? What is going on in their life that would cause them to seek a solution? And to help answer that question, I wanna give you some triggering questions and brainstorm some triggering events. So first let's look at the three types of triggering events. The first is internal. This is a triggering event that is fully self-contained. These are some of the most potent and powerful but they're the hardest to detect. We'll talk about some of these. Internal. Second is external. This is an outside force impacting them specifically. And then we get into the seasonal. Seasonal is an outside force impacting lots of people. Seasonal is the easiest to detect for reasons that I hope are obvious. We all own calendars and know they work pretty much, right? So when we look at internal triggering events. Some of the brainstorming questions we're gonna ask is, what takes a lot of time, costs too much, or requires too much effort? Think about your customer. Think about 'em. For them, what takes a lot of time, costs too much, or requires too much effort? 'Cause they're dealing with that on a daily basis. They're dealin' with it. They're waking up. They're having to put up with this. They're having to tolerate it. It's taking too long, it's too hard, and it's costing too much. What are those things? If you look at most true breakthrough technologies products, it asked and solved that question. What do they dream about? What are their secret desires? What do they secretly want to be or do? What annoys, frustrates, and or disappoints them? What's keeping them up at night? Annoys, frustrates, disappoints them. What's keeping them up at night? I said these are, these can be the hardest to detect but also the most powerful. If you are your market and you remember what it was like before and you can empathize. You can go back to that moment. You could figure these things out. If you aren't, you gotta talk to people. You gotta get close. You gotta get really, really, really close. Can I pick on, not pick on you, can I use you as an example? Real quick. We were having a conversation earlier where you, when you were in the lingerie market, right? You got to experience, you know, and see because of these intimate conversations that you were having with women in the fitting rooms. And you got to learn things that most women don't figure out, and certainly, you know, men would have no idea. So you have particular insight in that market. Right? I mean, can you speak to some of the things that, you know, that maybe you heard that, what annoys, frustrates, and or disappoints them at night? Or disappoints them, what keeps them up at night? Um, sure. I guess just a lack of understanding of the capacity of sizing retailers can carry. If a store doesn't have a woman's size, they tend to internalize that and think that there's something wrong with them. Rather than that there may just be shopping at the wrong place. Yeah, just a lot of misconception about their bodies in general. Because a lot of the imagery used in the market and a lot of women's products don't actually reflect the real lives of women. But that idea of internalizing it, right? Now let's stay on this theme. What are, you know, what common mistakes do they frequently make? Assuming they don't know their own body. They, I think there's a lot of things that they're told they are wearing the wrong size. And a lot of women are. But, I think most people know if something fits and is comfortable. Or if it's not. But they just don't trust themselves. Because I think again a lot of bad external messaging. What birthdays and or, and other maturation changes do they most fear? I mean a woman's body is constantly changing throughout their life cycle. Form puberty to birth, birthing. To menopause. Yeah, and I think again that change, and again just not blending well with the messages they're receiving externally. They're internalizing again that there's something wrong with them. And that did affect, like, the ability to sell something to them. When they don't feel good about themselves starting out. Yeah. I mean the, you know, when you're thinking about these things, and their response to it. Right? So they're annoyed and they're frustrated by it and their response is to internalize. Not to blame the retailer for not carrying their size. Or not, or not thinking, okay, I can keep looking, and maybe try to find a different size. And so, these are things like, birthdays and maturation changes, that people fear. I mean a lot of times it's, it could be 30, it could be 40, it could be 50, 60, right? And on the opposite side, birthdays and other maturation changes to people most welcome. Right? You think about if you're a bar, you know, when somebody turns 21, that's a big day for them, and a potentially big day for you. Right? So thinking about those, and I don't know again, staying on the lingerie, I don't know if there's a particular birthday where women will first go and, you know, do that. Go and buy that. But knowing that right? That's a triggering event. That if you can begin to speak to that. And you can begin to institutionalize that. Understanding that it's happening anyway. It's a giant opportunity for your brand. All right. So all of these are these internal triggers that would cause somebody of their own volition, not necessarily they're clearly visible, but if you can tap into it, you got a big opportunity. All right. Let's talk about some external triggers. What tasks are they likely to be assigned by an authority figure? This is big in the b to b space. What tasks are they likely to be assigned by someone else? What are some key systems in their life that are likely to fail? Key systems that are likely to fail? If those systems fail, that's a giant triggering event. Massive. Massive, massive triggering event. I mean in some examples, I'm guessing, I'm sorry, tell me your name again? (audience member speaking) and so the company that you work for, they? Encrypt emails. Encrypting emails. So I wouldn't be surprised if a significant triggering event for that company, it could be a major regulatory change. So maybe an authority figure has assigned and told an entire industry, you must now encrypt your emails. They could also come about you, and a triggering event could be their previous supplier failed and had a massive data breach. Exactly. So you see how these things, key systems, a key data breach. What major events, meetings, are they likely to attend? This sounds simple. But, if there's an industry conference that everybody is going to, at that industry conference, people will just begin buying things. Because it's more focal. It's more obvious. Right? Everybody now begins to believe, ah, I guess this is, we need to start investing in this 'cause here we are. Look everybody else is here too. What are those major industry events? Even if you don't go, if you're not leveraging the energy and the enthusiasm that's being built around it it's the reason that Hallmark created holidays that had no reason to exist before. Right? You create energy and enthusiasm around a particular date, and then people say, ah, you gotta participate in this 'cause look, that's where all the moment is. Right? Outside, major industry events and meetings create momentum. All right. They create momentum. What difficulties, challenges, and roadblocks are they likely to face? What features, or lack of features, do they regularly complain about? So often people will leave a solution because of one irritating little thing. We've probably all done it. One irritating little thing and so we leave it. I've seen hosting companies and CRMs run specials specifically knocking some of the bugs that they know exist in other competitors. And they'll run advertising against that, saying, if this is bugging you, we're happy to save you from that annoyance. They don't mention that their platform has its own set of annoyances. 'Cause they all do, right? But they'll mention it specifically because when that happens, eh, you just want that problem solved. So what are those things that people complain about? If they're complaining about that with your solution you should know you're likely creating a triggering event from somebody else. If they're complaining about it for somebody else's solution it's an opportunity for you. And you can speak to it. What is something they're forced to interact with that's difficult to understand or hard to get done? Human beings, this is, Robert Cialdini talked about this in Pre-Suasion. Human beings, in his book Pre-Suasion, when we understand something clearly, we like it more and ascribe more validity to it. If you think about that for a moment. Like how arrogant are we as humans, right? Because I understand it, I like it, and I believe it to be true. As if me not understanding something is, clearly if I can't understand it it must be false and I want to kill it. Right? But that's what we do. I don't understand it, therefore it must die. Right? So, if there is something out these that's difficult to understand, boy is that a great opportunity for you. I believe as marketers we should be, come, think of ourselves as professional explainers. If you can cause people to understand, if you can demystify, that which was confusing, the triggering events are happening. And you can be the person that brings it along. What negative social consequences or changes in status? Negative social consequences or changes in status do they fear the most? And opposite? Think about unemployment. Getting laid off. That's a giant change in status that people fear. And I've seen people workin' very, very, very hard shoot themselves and their company in the foot to make sure that they just don't get fired. You realize that the b to b level, especially when you're talking enterprise, decisions are made, not for the betterment of the company. They're made so that the decision maker doesn't get fired. You ever heard the expression nobody ever gets fired for hiring IBM. That what they used to say back in the 60s. That's why all these big consulting groups get hired again, and again, and again, and again, because if you make the decision to hire them, you're not taking a risk. You're not gonna get fired. When you realize that, right, when you realize that the people that you're selling to, they're not motivated in and incentivized and encouraged by the same things that you might think your product does deliver. This was big when we sold industrial water filters to desalinization plants. Right? A huge lesson. When we first, we acquired this company, which was a stupid decision by the way. That's a different story. We acquired this company and, we're going out there and thinking like, this is gonna be easy. I'm just gonna bring all my marketing chops to bear, you know, in this industry. They'll never see, see me coming. We're gonna be amazing. Right? So we're doing all this marketing stuff and you know, buying advertising, traveling. It's going really great. We're touting our amazing product features and abilities. And then, nothing was working. Nothing would move the needle. Got around to talking to, to some of the procurement managers, some of the warehouse managers at the place we were selling to, like, why do you pick ours over somebody else's? You know, what, is it the micron filtration? Is it the? No, we don't care about any of that. They're kind of all the same. You know, and it's early on in the filtration process. There's like seven other filters behind. So, it could be a little bit worse. A little bit better. Okay. Is it price then? No, it's not price. It's really, really, really simple. If I don't have your filter because it's early on in the process, the entire system shuts down and I get fired. I get fired. Because it doesn't matter. It's early in the process. If we don't have these sediment filters it's gonna much the entire system. So, I have to have these filters. So the only reason we pick you guys is because you're the fastest. You're the fastest. It didn't matter about customer support. We were doing all this training for the team to like provide exceptional customer support. Which is all good. There's nothing wrong with that. But it didn't factor in to the buying decision at all. There was one person who knew that if they didn't have our particular filter in stock, the entire line got shut down, and they got fired. So we changed all the messaging. All the branding. All the, everything around. Rapid filter. Stopped talked about being the best. Stopped talked about being the friendliest. We'll get you filters faster. We'll get 'em to you faster. Because we knew that the person making the decision was not making the decision to try to save the company money. Price wasn't an object. They weren't making the decision to try to improve the efficiencies. So they could, the best, the highest quality. Uh uh. They just knew that if it wasn't in stock, they got fired. So we changed all the messaging to fit with the thing that they most feared. We'll get you the filter faster. Faster than anybody else. We let everybody else talk about that. We said we'll get it to you faster. And we we're able to say, hey, if somebody else doesn't deliver, call us, we'll get it to you faster. We're gonna make sure that you don't lose your job over this. We would literally say that. What is their biggest fear? And then, seasonal. As humans we are I mean, we are seasonal creatures. It's the reason that, you know, bars change up their cocktail menu in the winter and the summer. Right? Clothing designs change. We are seasonal creatures. That's how we regulate our existence. And so if you don't acknowledge this and factor into some of this, you're crazy. So January, health, fitness, diet, organization, right? Resolution. Everybody wants to do something new in January. If you are not selling something in January describing newness, fresh start, you are not speaking to the momentum of the season. Okay? January first is a triggering event. I don't care what you're selling. This year do this a little bit better. Doesn't matter what it is. B to b. B to c. It's h to h. February. Everybody's feeling lovely dovey. Right? But you should go and look. Go and research what are the major holidays in the given months and do any of them directly relate to what you're doing? Or can you just capitalize on it? Think about furniture companies. Mattress sales. We're running a President's Day sale. What does a president's, like birth, have to do with a mattress? Nothing. But it's a reason to have a sale. Right? March. Easter. Spring. March madness. I mean, in your stuff. You, well, you can, don't pay players. College kids. But, you know. But i didn't know this. Did you know that march was sleep awareness month? Sleep awareness, who knew? Who knew? Educate the market. Go with the trend. Right? Women's history month. April. Passover. April Fool's Day. Right? Everybody's being tricky. You can factor, tack into that. Administrative Professional's Day is in April. I had no idea. I had no idea whatsoever. Our, my friends at SnackNation, who their primary customer is the administrative professional, the office manager. They're crazy if they don't capitalize on that. National Teacher Day. Cinco de Mayo. Mother's Day. Kentucky Derby. Also May is swimsuit season. Right? Unless you're in like Australia. June, National Safety Month. Father's Day. Graduation. Graduation is big. It is big even if you're not doing any, even if yours had nothing to do with school. Right? Somebody knows somebody who's graduating. It's in the psyche. It's there. Capitalize on it. July. The funny thing about July is, people will make decisions in the summer, they'll buy books. But they will buy stuff in the summer that they don't have to consume until later. So, if you wanna put on an event in the spring. Sell it, in the fall. Sell it in the summer. People will make a purchasing decision there because they feel good about the fact that they've done something but they didn't actually have to do anything. Summers are pretty powerful. Running a sale to get something later. Buy it now, get it later. Summer. Great for that. August is back to school. Beer Day is in August. That's pretty cool. Labor Day in September. Grandparents Day. National Cheeseburger Day. People think about fall. October. Coffee Day. Yom Kippur. What's the thing that we start to see now every September? Pumpkin spice latte. Pumpkin spice. Pumpkin spice. If you could make, like we've got pumpkin spice cheeseburgers. I mean. That's, all the momentum is around pumpkin spice because of the fall. Right? Halloween. Halloween is the most celebrated holiday among adults. Did you know that? It's the most fun. Yup. National Cat Day. Breast Cancer Month. November you have Thanksgiving. Black Friday. If you're not going to a Black Friday something that last month of November, you should just take the week off. Don't talk about anything. Because if you're talking about anything other than save with a Black Friday deal, then you're, you're not gonna break through it. Everybody's expecting some type of deal that Black Friday week. Which has now bled into like two or three weeks. Right? The month of November is essentially like Black November. Right? That month, give people a deal. And then in December of course holiday promotions, things like that. In December, everybody has their wallet out. They're buying for others. They'll also buy for themselves. Don't think, I'm b to b. He's a good friend of mine, so I'm not gonna name names, but he, I saw him post, he's like, oh if you're b to b and you're doing some type of Black Friday or holiday promotion you're not really b to b. It's horse crap. Yeah you are. 'Cause it's h to h. And those humans that you wanna sell to at that business they're doing Christmas shopping. And Hanukkah shopping. All that stuff at that same time. All that's going down. And their wallet is out. If you don't acknowledge that and take advantage of it you're crazy. So these are the different triggering events. So think, we're clear on the product. Ideal sales conversation. What are those triggering events? Internal. External. Seasonal. That you can capitalize on. All right. Give it some thought. Every singe month, you should have a new reason to go out and talk to the people that are already on your list. To reengage. Multiple times a year you should know that this is a time when we can really go after something 'cause there's a event going on. And ideally you've got some campaigns running. That you know, okay, anytime this happens, anytime there's a major data breach, anytime somebody searches for this, like, we know this happened. We gotta get in front of 'em. 'Cause this triggering event just occurred. Right? You wanna make sure that those are going. If you can have internal, external, and seasonal going, you'll always have a reason to be introducing new people to your brand. And they'll always be ready. But you gotta identify what those things are first.