I went to a local market store a few days ago, and i saw something that was really fascinating. The perfect sales process that had people tripping over each other to buy a freakin chamois. There on the corner of the busy markets was a guy with a stand promoting one of those super chamois things. I’m not sure what the name was exactly, but it was one of the offers that you see on TV.
He had a huge bowl of water on a desk, and was merrily splashing water every where and soaking it up with the super chamois cloth. Impressive. It must of held 2 million litres of water before he squeezed it out into the bowl. As he was demonstrating the range of cool stuff you with it, the sales process was in full swing.
It went something along he lines of, “Now you don’t have to buy this today, you can buy it on TV for $60. Blah…blah…But if you do buy it here today, you can have it for $20. And what i’m going to do is give you 2 of these super chamois for $20. I’ve only got seven left so if you want them, now would be the time to grab them.”
It was crazy what happened next. People from the crowd were ripping open there wallets, and purses and waving there money in the air at the guy, and tripping over themselves to get a super chamois. The excitement was contagious. I have to admit, i wanted to get one. This guy new his stuff. It was the perfect sales process. It made me think, the same basic principles apply to selling stuff online, but a lot of people just don’t know the basics of selling. It’s the reason why i didn’t make any money online for the first year or so. I thought it was all about good looking websites and driving traffic. The technical stuff. It wasn’t until i learned the basics of selling that i started making money.
You may have seen this Sham wow commercial, it was much the same as the guy at the markets. Get ready for a chuckle.
He might be the most annoying guy ever, but this stuff works like crazy.
Here’s the basic blueprint for :
How To Sell Stuff Online
(or anywhere for that matter)
- Identify the problem
- Aggravate the problem
- Demonstrate the benefits for the customer
- Add reasons why the customer should buy (made in Germany, sucks coke out of carpet… etc.)
- Testimonials
- Show proof
- Poke the pain a little more (you’re going to spend $20 on paper towels each month any way. You’re throwing your money away)
Marketers know that pain or fear motivates people to action more than pleasure, desire or want.
- More benefits
- Introduce your price (the 4 Sham Wows sell for $19.95)
- Add an element of scarcity or urgency (if you call now within the next 20 mins because we can’t do this all day)
- Offer a special reduced price. Convince them they got the best deal possible and scored big time (8 sham wows for $19.95)
- Add an outrageous guarantee. (10 year guarantee)
- Ask for the order and make it easy. Tell them exactly what to do next, be specific and precise. Remove all the complexities, side issues and interruptions. (Call 1800-577-8038) easy!
- Make it exclusive. Make them feel special that they have access to the product. (Sham Wow is not available in stores and is made in Germany)
How to sell even more stuff online…. After you have shown them how cool your product is and all the bonuses and goodies they’ll get. They may make the terrible mistake of clicking away from your page.
Those fools!
This is where the exit grabbers come on handy. They can increase sales by over 250%. But not many people are using them. (Google search “exit grabbers” and you’ll find plenty of software)
Offer them a reduced price, a special one time offer or a free sample or bonus of high perceived value. These are super effective because your customer feels like they just scored a special deal.
Even more effective is to offer them the whole thing for free for 7 days. Tell them “I’m not going to ask you to pay for it until you’ve had the chance to go through my awesome shit and see how cool it is for yourself.”
Send them to a secure order form (paypal) and arrange for the payment to come out 7 days after the order.
Then say something along the lines of “If, after you’ve seen the course/book you decide that it’s not for you… just cancel and i won’t charge you a cent. That’s right I’ll take all the risk! And if you decide to keep the stuff, you don’t need to do anything more, you’ll be billed automatically after the 7 day free trial.”
This uses the law of reciprocation as Cialdini talked about in his book: INFLUENCE. In the book Cialdini talked of the Regan experiment. Two guys went out to sell raffle tickets, Joe and Regan. One set of subjects were given a Coke first by Joe, then asked to buy raffle tickets. While the other group were not given coke then asked to buy raffle tickets by Regan. The first group who were given a Coke felt a sense of obligation to repay the favor, by buying a raffle ticket. The raffle tickets sold by Joe crushed the results that Regan had. The interesting thing was, it made no difference whether the subjects from the first group liked Joe or not, they still felt obligated to “repay the favor”.
It may seem very counter intuitive to give away your best stuff, it doesn’t make any sense, I know. But it just works. It’s the law of reciprocation. You do someone a favor, they feel compelled to repay you.
With these elements in place, you will be able to put together an irresistible offer that will satisfy your customers needs and boost your bank account.
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