Fractionation in Persuasion for Profit

It’s really pretty simple.

Things have changed dramatically in the last 10 years.

Today the fastest and most permanent way to profit is with fractionation.

Fractionation is the somewhat “natural” division(s) of a demographic to which you can choose whom you or your product/service will “fit” best with, or, to whom your demographic will find because you/it appeal to them.

You’re going to discover some significantly cool new ideas in this article that I’ve only touched on in the past and that people who use the phrase, Long Tail, only marginally understand.

Fractionation….

Example:

• I wear a lot of t- Shirts.
• I have a lot of t-shirts.
• But I don’t wear just any old kind of t-shirt…

   

• I’ve seen Marilyn Manson t-shirts.
• I’ve seen pure white t-shirts.

   

• I’d never wear either.

So there are lots of kinds of t-shirts out there I’d never put on. I have a few “kinds” of t-shirts that I wear. I will select t-shirts from the kinds of shirts that I like to wear, the others have a zero chance of being purchased.

The t-shirt market is fractionated into styles.

When a specific fractionated market intersects with me or I go to the t-shirt market, a sale might be made.

I am part of a specific fractionated market of t-shirt wear-ers that wear t-shirts like I do….

It’s as simple as that.

Oh, we’ll call that the Q part of the t-shirt market. I’m in the Q part of the t-shirt market. One humble t-shirt wearer in a fractionated part of the overall market….

If some generic t-shirt guy is hawking a bunch of styles, the chances of me seeing one I’d wear are small.

He’d make more sales if he laid them out or if the hawker (sales guy) is hawking Q style shirts (dull gray, shirts with Mccartney on it, souvenier shirts with small logo’s of cool places I’ve visited in the left hand corner).

Now, something closer to…”home”…

If Kevin Hogan Sold Real Estate…

I think selling real estate is a pretty cool profession, though I’m not sure I’d love starting at square one in 2008. That said, let’s see what would I do if I had to…

First, I rarely think short-term, in anything. Important to understand big life frame: Long-term.

The “quick buck” frame of thinking leads to having to make more “quick bucks” and becomes a cycle that is almost impossible to escape from.

I like having control, so I think long-term.

And because being a real estate agent requires long-term thinking and planning and strategy, it’s very possible that I might succeed in “real estate.”

There are all kinds of buyers and sellers in the real estate market. There’s what, a million real estate agents in the United States?

Sounds right.

There will be some that make money. Most won’t. Same for every profession, of course.

There are some simple facts about real estate.

The agent that is the most available to the public where buyers are “looking” is more likely to be the agent is to get a call from people who are selling.

So what would I do if I was starting from square one?

Learn the Rosary?

Maybe, but knowing me…I’d think Fractionation.

A Long-Term Selling Plan Utilizing Fractionation

I’d start booking classes and courses in Community Education and Adult Education for miles around. I’d get into several towns/school districts, staying out of the city, focus on suburbs…. I’d teach a three-hour class on how to buy your first home. I’d offer to teach another on how to buy a home for the best price. I’d offer to teach another about how to sell your home for the best price. And if they didn’t have enough of me, of course I’d get someone to teach a class with me about remodeling or redecorating or anything that had to do with making a place that was average, better.

That’s just me.

I like getting paid to advertise.

And when you can be available to every person in a city because the government pays to put those adult-ed type catalogs in the box below the mailbox, well, that’s a good place to start.

(Your space in the catalog is paid for by the school district or the adult education facility, so this is actually a coup.)

Granted you might only earn a few hundred dollars each night you have your course, and they are all one-night courses.

One thing you’ll have is money in exchange for teaching people how to achieve their objective.

And if you do a good job, you’re at the front of the room and there would be no sensible thing to do aside from asking you to be their agent.

KEYPOINT: From experience, I can share with you that people ask the person who they see as “the expert” to do business with them, because THE TRUST BARRIER is already defeated.

KEYPOINT: Being at the front of the room at Educational Events is the fastest way to overcome the trust barrier.

I like doing stuff with a proven track record.

I would do this if I were an Attorney, a Financial Planner, a Landscaper.

I like to get paid to let people see my brand…me.

By the way.

I haven’t done an Adult-Ed type event in five years or more.

Yesterday, I was looking through my local catalog and the same people doing the events five and ten years ago are STILL doing them now; AND I found that the catalogs are getting BIGGER with more photos of instructors.

Interesting, huh?

Something is working….

In my imaginary, “Kevin is a Real Esate Agent World,” I want to deal with smart people who are willing to learn how to sell a house and STOP.

STOP AGAIN FOR REAL.

WHY?

I don’t like dealing with morons.

Morons screw up your day, waste your time and make life hell.

I LIKE dealing with people who want to learn stuff.

I like people who want to do stuff that will work/be effective, if I’m involved on a project with them.

I like dealing with smart people.

 

How Can I Ensure I Will Deal With “Smart People”?

If I’m an agent and I teach a class on how to get the best price for your house, that means I’m the person showing them how to present their house, what to fix, what to focus their attention on. They will already know everything, have paid for the information and we don’t have to have the conversation when they list the house with me. Instead of a multi-hour project, it will be a one- hour visit and they will already know what to do.

Cool huh?

• No cold calling.
• No selling.
• No persuasion even.

Just be an expert and develop a relationship based on trust.

So for my sake, I’d like to deal with groups of 10-20 at a time instead of walking neighborhoods and calling from a reverse directory.

KEY: 10-20 people who see me as an expert, or perhaps THE EXPERT in the field, who see me anchored at the front of a class room, who see me giving them TONS of information and knowledge…those people are going to be inclined to do business with me.

Make sense?

Think about it this way: Go around the city beating on doors, how long will it take to have 10 people see you as an expert who TRUST you and become interested in selling their house? A thousand? That’s what I’m thinking. MONTHS of work to get five listings instead of THREE HOURS OF WORK.

What’s cool is that this is just one evening.

Remember I said I’d do a few “classes” in each of several locations. Say 10 districts. 2-3 classes per district.. That’s 20-30 classes in a quarter. That’s about 100 people who will do business with me. (listings)

In my way of thinking, that is a very good thing.

Fractionation.

I DON’T WANT TO TALK TO THE WHOLE FRIGGING MARKET.

I’m selecting which people I want to do business with, and doing so in a way they can learn more about their upcoming adventure before they actually do it…with me.

And they, too, are selecting who THEY want to do business with! (That would be you.)

Only a small percentage of people will actually run into me using this simple marketing model, but I’m likely to get several listings (that’s where someone has you put their house up for sale) generated in any single evening all because I was willing to teach people how to buy/sell/upgrade a house.

Simple model. Nothing fancy, and it fits how I like to do business.

Repeat in 5-10 locations per quarter/catalog.

I can’t imagine the person who does this will ever send out a brochure again.

KEYPOINT: This is a self-selecting group of people who have decided they want to pay to learn from a professional.

The “model” can be adapted to fit other situations, like substituting dinner and presentation. You get the idea.

 

Being Different Pays in a Lot of Ways

One of our Influence: Boot Camp participants sat in the front row next to commercial insurance expert Sonya Lenzo and dating coach, April Braswell.

He told me this snippet….

“I emailed you last year and asked you why I should come to Influence: Boot Camp instead of going to ______ _________’s training up the road….you told me, ‘if you don’t know the answer to that question, don’t come to Boot Camp.”

Sounds like me. No doubt I said that.

Sounds like the email I got today asking for a testimonial from someone in a specific geographic location about a program I sell.

Stupidest thing I ever heard.

I simply wrote back and said, “When you need the information more, right when it’s about too late, place your order.”

People walk around afraid of losing a sale.

Back to Influence: Boot Camp in Las Vegas…

There were 16 people in line who wanted to join Platinum Inner Circle. I strongly discouraged 10 of those 16 to not join, most of them were incredibly cool people but they simply weren’t ready. I’m not the perfect person at all times in life for everyone. I OK’ed 6.

People were surprised and appreciative.

Now that “cost me” $120,000 to say “no” to 10 people.

But let me ask you this…

…what do you think it gains over the course of a life when those people come back two years from now, when they truly are ready and they work with me for a decade expanding their careers, lives?

Maybe in retrospect I’ll be seen as foolish for turning away people who ask about attending the competition’s training, needing more testimonials. (I want to know WHO has more testimonials than are on the front pages of kevinhogan.com and kevinhogan.net. My goodness.)

No, no, no.

When people come to Influence: Boot Camp, it’s REAL. We don’t dink around. Attendees say it’s one of the most powerful and extraordinary downloads of information and knowledge they’ve experienced.

My publicist writes today and asks me about my upcoming “email blast” to my “list.”

I fire off a nasty letter that will probably cost me a book deal.

1. I don’t have a list.
2. I do business with people I like, I can be of value to, I can have fun with, I can care about…
3. I don’t BLAST people I care about.
4. I treat people I have Coffee with identically to family and dear friends.

She asked me the size of my list. (as if a “big list” will matter in an amazon promotion….it doesn’t.)

Good heavens. No. NO. NO!

I’d rather not do business with someone than have them believe that I have a “list” that I will “blast.”

“Hey let’s go blast at Kevin today.”

Sounds real friendly. Golden Rule….

I don’t think like most people.

I have Coffee with readers every Monday morning.

Other people have lists and blast them with …whatever…

But, seriously:

If something is in Coffee, you know one thing. IT IS GOOD.

TRUST BYPASSES DOUBT AND CREATES A SHORTCUT TO YES IF I WANT YES.

And I don’t always want yes.

In fact, I probably don’t want “yes,” about half the time.

So I turn away a couple of million dollars in business per year. I’m an idiot.

And I love the people I do business with, the people I coach, the people I speak for.

I don’t want the biggest “list.”

I want the coolest people, the best friends, the most loyal customers and “fans.”

And I work to that end.

Everything else takes care of itself.

Utilizing Fractionation Sets Long-Term Goals For You

Mark Victor Hansen asked me about my biggest goals.

I really only have one ongoing goal and that is to do something significant that will change people’s lives in dramatic ways.

Money is fine and dandy, but money is only an exchange of value, identification or experience.

I’ll get back whatever I give in those three areas. I don’t worry about it. I don’t think about it. I frankly don’t have “long-term goals,” that I can think of off hand.

All of these things allow fractionation to occur around me.

Fractionation.

Doing business with individuals from smaller niches or groups of people that are ‘self selecting.’

They search me out because they like me or know I can solve their problem or get them moving, or whatever.

There are other markets.

I’m not interested.

I have a few types of people who will self-select.

They wouldn’t go anywhere else except to have Coffee with Kevin Hogan on Monday, and I wouldn’t either.

Ever notice how there is no template for Coffee? That’s because there IS NO TEMPLATE.

All of these things are WILDLY DIFFERENT FROM EVERYONE ELSE OUT THERE.

When people look at you, are you WILDLY DIFFERENT FROM EVERYONE ELSE OUT THERE?

or…

Are you a knock off, really similar…just like…

Stop it.

Be UNIQUE, UNUSUAL, and be real.

Those things will give you that fraction of a market that will seek you out to do business with you.

I love research but I hate writing research. I’m terrible at it.

I love writing but my grammar is horrific.

I love making amazingly complex things tangible and real to people in different fields and show them how it can not only change their lives, but use information in ways to create change for others.

So I write books and create programs that are fun, fascinating and have imperfections.

It’s OK.

I know I attract a lot of people who are good grammarians because they contact me and correct my grammar, complain about the use of………….dots….and….often fix my spelling. Over the years, hundreds have offered to help me make Coffee more “readable” and my web site “profitable.”

I smile and realize that as I appreciate them, they will discover that Coffee is indeed readable, the web site is profitable and that they can be both of those things, too, if they let go of their emotional attachment to perfection – which is destroying their lives.

It’s often tragic to see, but pretty soon they get it and they begin to evolve.

Realizing the people who you want to do business with (bad grammar there) and who wants to do business with you, is the key piece of fractionation.

When you write a book proposal,the Publisher wants to know who your audience is.

Every author says, “everyone.”

Idiots.

No.

You aren’t writing the Bible.

 

KEYPOINT: You appeal to a fraction of the market, and when you are aware of which factions you have strongest appeal to and which of those you respect and want to work with, you have a market.

It may not be as big as someone else’s but BIG IS NOT A REQUIREMENT.

DIFFERENT IS A REQUIREMENT.

You want to sell real estate, practice law, sell financial products or WHATEVER; BE different.

Although like can attract like, it can also attract opposites, and in my experience THOSE PEOPLE ARE FUN. They have the ego strength to be attracted to what they are NOT. That is a cool person and a faction of those fractions that interest me.

I want you to think about who YOU appeal to and who you probably shouldn’t, but do anyway.

If you can’t find points of differentiation in your products, find them in YOU and highlight THOSE THINGS to the world.

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About Kevin Hogan

Author of The Psychology of Persuasion, Irresistible Attraction, and The Science of Influence, Dr. Kevin Hogan is trusted by organizations both large and small to help them understand human dynamics, body language, persuasion, and how to influence. Kevin is an internationally known keynote speaker and corporate educator based in Minneapolis Minnesota. Have Kevin speak at your next event.