| It used to be thought that when you wanted to contact business professionals with a sales message you had to adopt a totally different marketing techniques when using direct mail, telemarketing, or e-mail promotions. Business and commercial institutions were considered a different animal than consumer audiences.
However, testing and application has shown that most consumer techniques apply when using direct mail to contact business professionals. But you should modify these consumer techniques just a bit by thinking carefully about the specific business function of the business lead you are contacting and the type of commercial enterprise you are trying to sell to.
Contacts at Businesses or Home Have the Same Motivations
It is important that you recognize that the person you mail to at any given business for the commercial address is the same person that you reach at the home address. The only difference is the environment and setting. The internal relationships Within the business are probably unique or different … but the same motivations are present. If these fundamental motivations are addressed in a more professional tone they can be used for very successful sales promotions.
An example of tone can be illustrated with this simple comparison:
When talking to an individual in their personal home setting you may want to use the stir to action phrase like “buy now and save 30% “. However, when you contact business professionals you may want to use a stir to action phrase like “purchase now and save 30%.”
If you mail the prospect at home and tell them that they can improve their utility expenses with your new water heater … you can mail the same people at the office and use the same concept of “improved efficiency” and “savings” but perhaps this time applied to the new telephone switching system.
It’s easy… just adopt a slightly different tone but use the same techniques!
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