The Mission…To remove any obstacle that stands in the way of
a sale.
Most of us has at one time or another been ripped off by some
unscrupulous individual or a business of dubious character.
Because of this negative experience, we’ve become fearful of it
happening again and so we’re very careful about with whom we do
business.
Your prospects are no different. They fear being taken in some
way. This fear often paralyzes them from making a buying
decision. If the fear is too strong, they simply run for cover
and avoid the potential pain.
Your job as a marketer is to remove all the obstacles that may
be stopping people from buying. By eliminating, or at least
significantly minimizing all the hurdles, you are in effect
eliminating or reducing the effect of a prospect’s objections.
People want to buy. They want to say yes. They desire what you
offer. But the fear can often curtail even a strong impulse to
buy.
You can overcome this problem and improve your sales
dramatically by removing the risk from your prospect/customer
and assuming the risk yourself. In taking the risk away from
your prospect, you make it easier for him to buy. And the less
the prospect feels he is at risk, the more likely he is to want
to do business with you.
Examples
You can remove the risk by offering a strong, money-back
guarantee. Guarantees are a great way to relieve buyer anxiety
and increase sales. The stronger the guarantee — the more
effective it is. A 90 day guarantee will usually produce more
sales than a 30 day guarantee, and a one year guarantee is
better than 90 days. The longer and stronger your guarantee, the
more effective it will be in improving sales.
Another way to apply the risk-reversal principal is to offer a
payment plan instead of requiring full payment up front. Three
monthly payments of $34 is a safer bet than one payment of $100
for your customer, because he actually gets to try out your
product before having committed the full amount for it. As a
vendor, you’re assuming the risk – you’re assuming you’ll
collect on all three payments.
A third example is to accept a post-dated cheque as payment.
You’re assuming the risk because the buyer gets full advantage
of the product for free, until the cheque is redeemable. There’s
always the risk that you’ve accepted a bad cheque, but from the
buyers point of view, you must have a solid product that
delivers what you say to make such an offer.
How?
You can implement this strategy by improving your existing
guarantee. Extend the duration or remove unnecessary
restrictions that weaken your guarantee. The more hassle-free
you can make – the better.
If you can create a guarantee that is far superior to that
offered by your competition, you’ll capture more sales and
you’ll baffle them in the process! They’ll be astounded at your
audacity, but more customers will flock to you because of it.
Most buyers today have come to expect guarantees, so you might
as well offer the best guarantee in the business. Make your
guarantee a prominent part of all your marketing communications.
Guarantees make it easier to nudge an undecided prospect in your
favor.
The interesting thing about guarantees is that with a solid
product or service, you’ll rarely be called on to honor your
guarantee anyway. People tend to relax and forget about it. The
longer a guarantee, the more likely they’ll leave it for later,
which means they’ll forget and never pursue it. This is no
excuse for putting out products of suspect quality, it’s merely
an interesting revelation about human nature. So, you might as
well make it the most power-packed guarantee in the marketplace
and enjoy additional sales because of it!
More resources at www.makeyoursalessoar.com
