There's an old saying, "Don't air your dirty laundry".
If you're selling any product or service either online or offline this is horrible advice.
You see sooner or later, your customers are going to find out the negative aspects of your product. Call it kama if you like, but they will.
And when they discover it, at the very least you'll lose credibility, generate higher refunds and lose customers for life. At the worst your business reputation will get entirely trashed.
This doesn't even take into account your prospects. If your product raises objections with actual customers you can be sure your prospects will pick up on them too.
This is not voodoo. Every point of sale has a vibe. People pick up things unconsciously. If they get an adverse feeling then they back out and you lose another sale.
So what's the answer?
Air your dirty laundry. In fact be proud of it!
If you point out any problems upfront then you're in control.
Let me give you an example...
A friend of mine recently tried to sell his treasured classic car. Unfortunately after test driving it nobody would offer him anything near what he thought it was worth.
He came to me for advice. I asked him what were the things he loved about the car and if it had any quirks or problems. So he poured out his feelings about the car.
Afterwards I wrote down an advertisment for him to sell his car. The first sentence began,"The only thing wrong with this Classic Car is its Classic Brakes." I then went on to describe the many virtues of owning a piece of automotive history.
He sold the car for the full price within 24 hours of running the new advertisment. He was amazed.
If your product is defective in any way a customer may take issue with, then bring it up in your sales copy early. You can even do this in your headline, like I did.
This method kills likely objections dead. And it's these objections which will lose you customers and sales. You'll sell far more product if you then reframe any possible problems as actual benefits instead.
Take a one page unattractive website for instance. Imagine it has no graphics, bare minimum sales copy and sells an ebook for $19.
How can this be easily reframed?
You simply point out this non-flashy website allows you to pass on large cost savings to the customer because you don't need to hire a copywriter or web designer. That's why the customer can get the ebook now at $19 rather than the $39 it would normally be.
You're now providing your prospects with greater value overall and they will thank you for it with sales.
You could also point out your competitions more flashy more expensive product. Just ask the customer what's more important, having more benefits for less money or less benefits for more money?
They'll quickly agree your product must be better.
This then gets them to agree they should buy your product.
You'll make many more sales airing your dirty laundry intelligently.
Copyright 2004 Clifford Mee
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