Is Personal Experience Factor Castrating Your Advertising?

Roy Williams defines Personal Experience Factor (PEF) in SECRET FORMULAS OF THE
WIZARD OF ADS “A customer’s experience with your company. Your PEF is, effectively, your
reputation. Perfect neutrality scores a PEF of 1. The growth or decline of a business will usually
follow that company’s PEF as it rises and falls above and below a score of 1. Your PEF score
cannot be changed through advertising.”

How often is a customer...

or potential client being drawn to your place of business by whatever
form of advertising you use only to be turned away by an experience that doesn’t live up to
expectation? The experience can be anything, however minor, from the way the telephone is
answered to the way they are greeted upon entering. Every thing is important.

If your advertising is attracting them to enter your business, seven out of ten who do are prepared
to purchase your product or service, but only 24% MANAGE TO DO SO! Have a look at what
is breaking down in your business to let five of those seven people walk. Imagine what you could
do to sales if you converted only two more of those people. Would that double your business?
Convert four and maybe you could increase business by 200%!

Personal Experience Factor is part of the Advertising Performance Equation (APE) and if you’re
in business and using advertising, you should know it. From Chapter 47 of Roy Williams’
SECRET FORMULAS OF THE WIZARD OF ADS the Advertising Performance Equation:

Share of Voice x Impact Quotient x PEF x Market Potential = Sales Volume

To better understand the APE, you must consider the three separate equations it combines:

Share of Voice x Impact Quotient = Share of Mind

Share of Mind x Personal Experience Factor = Share of Market

Share of Market x Market Potential = Sales Volume of the Advertiser

Exercise: Calculate the impact on share of market ands annual sales volume for an advertiser with
a PEF of 1.8 versus an advertiser with a PEF of 0.6. (Hint: The company scoring a 1.8 will get
three times the results from its advertising.)

Does a low Personal Experience Factor castrate your advertising’s effectiveness? And who do you
blame? Surely, not some poor advertising representative who is busting his hump to get you
results when pushing water uphill would be easier. Take a hard look at your business and be
honest with yourself. Does the PEF measure up? If not, it might be the ingredient needed to soar
your company into the stratosphere.

Cheers,

Steve Rae