Confessions of a Marketing Hitman
by Mike Sperduti

You never see me coming. You never thought you were going to purchase my product or service, today. The truth is you don’t even know who I am or that I was involved with your purchase. My name is Mike Sperduti, and I am here to confess I am a marketing hit man.

I am a business owner who extracts millions of dollars from health care manufactures, distributors, clinicians and patients all around the world. Chances are you have used a product or service that I have either directly sold or been part of creating the strategy to motivate you to choose my solution. The good news for you is that I have always represented game-changing technologies and services that make life easier and better. Today my intention is to teach you some of my key strategies so you can also sell smarter, faster and more profitably to meet your business goals and objectives.

Step 1: Get their attention and stand out above all the noise and clutter
Your customers are being bombarded by over 10,000 marketing messages every day. The amount of emails, direct mail, print ads, TV and radio spots, social media promotions, billboards, banner ads, search engine bumps and signage they are exposed to is simply staggering. This has led to a condition I personally refer to as, “marketing attention deficit disorder.” Each of us is so exhausted and our senses are so overwhelmed by companies trying to sell us things that we just shut it all out—we have become immune to mass marketing. We have put up a force field that blocks almost anyone from selling stuff to us because it’s not relevant to us or does not speak to our specific situation.

As a marketing hit man I know the secret to getting anyone’s attention, and getting their attention is the first step to selling anything. Most companies focus on turning up the frequency of messages, thinking the more marketing you do, the better results you get. The truth is that if all you do is crank out generic one-size-fits all messages, you create more noise that turns off all your potential buyers. To get them to notice you, you must get passed the reticular activating system (RAS) in each person’s brain. When you understand this basic concept in neuroscience you are going to see enormous interest in your products and services. (See “Neuro-Selling: Pushing the Brain's Buy Button,” HomeCare February 2016, for more on this topic.)

Using this knowledge of how the brain works, a marketing hit man must understand specifically what your market is looking for, speak in specific language and target the message so potential customers have to see, hear and feel that your message is different. The simple fact is your message is not about you, it’s about your customers and what is most important to them. No one cares about you, how great you are or how many people you have helped. Turn your words around and rephrase what you are saying so that you give the customer a reason to care. Speak to what is important or what dangers they are facing, and you will move right to the front of their brain and get the prize that every marketer wants—their valuable attention.