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The Art of Reading Your Buyer's Mind
Wouldn't it be fantastic if you had a crystal ball and you could read your prospects' minds you knew what they were thinking when you were making your sales presentation. You knew why there were considering the product in the first place. You knew...
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How To Get Immediate Response to Your Sales Pitch
How To Get Immediate Response to Your Sales Pitch
Simply because your prospects are convinced that your product is the best thing since slice bread, doesn't mean that they'll buy right away.
In fact, most people will want to think about it for a little while. There is that little voice in all of us that resists being sold. We think that if we caved in to that salesman then we aren't really strong. We feel almost like a sucker to fall for his pitch.
This adage is a meaningful one: 'People love to buy but hate to be sold'.
Even after we've bought that item that we must have, there is still some mental dissonance (referred to as 'buyers remorse') that torments us. This is one of the major reasons for refund requests.
So you have to provide as much urgency and incentives as possible for your prospect to make that purchase right away. Here are seven of the most effective strategies to push them over the decisional edge.
1. Make a Limited Offer
This is probably one of the more popular strategies to get people to buy now. Don't let its popularity of use fool you though. Once you can show that your offer is limited in availability then the perceived value instantly quadruples. Limited quantity offers work much better than limited time offers because you don't know when the items will run out.
2. Offer Bonuses
This is another popular tool used to get buying decisions. The bonuses should be related and complimentary to the main product. This increases the value of your primary product and makes the price appear much less for the value the customer gets. You should try and avoid offering rebates or discounts if you can; offer a bonus instead.
3. Give a deadline
If you give a deadline by which the offer will close or the price will be raised, then this will build real urgency and increased sales. You should make sure that the deadline is kept, or if you extend the offer you should give a reason why you did this. There are many websites that use a script that continually changes the deadline. But this method can really backfire as you can lose credibility with your customers. When customers buy right away only to see the same price after the deadline is gone, they feel cheated and tricked.
4. Offer a 'surprise bonus'
We've already said that bonuses are great decision helpers. Well, the 'mystery gift' or the 'surprise bonus' also increases sales because of the suspense element injected by this unknown. There are many people who will buy just to find out what the surprise gift it. This reminds me of the Cracker Jack boxes of candied popcorn I'll buy as a child just to get the surprise gift inside. It still works, even with adults.
5. Reward for fast responders and penalty for slow responders
As a teenager I'll attend summer youth camps that I'll have to register for
a few months in advance. All the forms came with a deadline after which you'll have to pay a higher price. I always tried to register early so that I'll get the lower price. This sure defeated the procrastination bug in me.
A slight variation to this is the sales of tickets for an event that will carry a higher price if you chose to pay at the door. This encourages ticket sales because those who bought the ticket are assured of a lower price.
6. Games of chance.
You've may have seen this strategy in selling magazine subscriptions. You are pitched on subscribing for a chance to win a Caribbean vacation or a digital camera. The only way you can win will be to get an entrance by making the purchase. It's a gimmick that works very well for Publisher's Clearing House. There are many other companies that use this method as a lead generation tool as well.
7. Make it easy to respond.
This may be the least obvious strategy of all but it's often overlooked. Do you want your prospect to call? Then offer a phone number in big bold type. Should they fill out a form then make the form simple to fill out. You can even pre-fill the options to make this a multiple choice type survey sheet. Do you want them to click on a link and fill in their credit card information? Then tell them so. Even though it may be obvious to you this doesn't mean that it will be obvious to your prospects.
If you give your potential customers too many hoops to jump through then they'll more than likely abandon the sale. There are many big company websites that take you through multiple steps just to give them your money. These are the same companies that complain of abandoned shopping carts.
So provide easy and multiple ways of ordering-phone, fax, credit card, money order, online merchant and whatever is practical for you.
I've read many websites where the copywriters seem to almost apologize for asking for the order. There is zero incentive for me to order now. It's as if they are saying, "Now that you've read this, you can go away and think about it. Then come back and make your order." Don't bring me to the top of the decisional mountain and then allow me to slide right back down the other side-a lost soul. … I mean a lost sale.
After getting me excited about your product or service then sell me (I mean let me buy) and encourage me to feel really good about it.
Make me feel lucky that I got in on that great deal.
The best deal since the invention of slice bread!
About the Author
Ray L. Edwards is a published author, copywriter and internet marketing consultant. He has made tens of thousands of dollars for his copywriting clients. Being an online market himself,he understands what it takes to sell online and welcomes your inquiry about his master copywriting service. http://www.webcopy-writing.com
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