Hey Rainmaker, can I tell you a secret?
What I want to share with you is like a secret weapon to those who know it… And a hidden, invisible brick wall between them and the sale for those who don’t.
Everyone I know who is in sales, who really understands this simple question and its implications, is a top performer.
For those who don’t think about this question in every selling situation, they consistently get prospects telling them know when they think they had a yes, deals falling through when they thought it was a sure thing.
And this definitely applies in marketing, advertising, and copywriting, too.
If you can give THE RIGHT ANSWER to this simple question, you know exactly what to say to your prospect, in your copy, to move them to action.
When I failed, and when I succeeded…
Let me take you way back. To my days selling the local newspaper.
I’d helped to set up a program where we’d go into the local grocery stores… Set up a little stand… And hand out free papers and try to get people to sign up for home delivery.
I’d also worked in the call center at the newspaper, selling subscriptions by phone.
This was total nose-to-nose, toes-to-toes, and sometimes ear-to-phone selling.
The kind of in-the-trenches selling work that a lot of the greatest copywriters in the world say gave them the selling skills they’d later use to write advertising that converts.
All too often, I followed the script of everybody else in the newspaper call center.
I’d ask, “It looks like you don’t currently get the paper — is that right?”
“That’s right,” they’d say, “we don’t get the paper.”
“Well, let’s fix that,” I’d reply, “right now you can get all seven days of home delivery for just $2.50 per week.”
And, admittedly, that sold some papers.
The newspaper is an interesting thing. It has such a legacy that there is always some percentage of people who are interested in subscribing.
And so if we called enough people, all day long, we’d sell papers that way. (And trust me, the computers were set up to dial, dial, dial!)
But then occasionally, I’d have a real conversation with folks.
“You ever read the paper?” I’d ask…
“Yeah, sometimes,” they’d reply…
“What parts?”
“Oh, I like reading it during the Huskers season. Keep up with the football news that way. My wife also likes to get the coupons out of the Wednesday, for grocery shopping. And on Sunday we usually sit down and read it over coffee, before church.”
Suddenly I know some interesting things about this person!
“It sounds like you have some very specific days you like to read it. And since it’s not football season, you probably wouldn’t want to pay $2.50 per week for all seven days, but you should know you can get just the Sunday and Wednesday for just $1.50.” I don’t let them talk yet.
“And here’s the thing. You’ll have that nice Sunday morning reading time, and that sounds like it’s important to you. But you’ll also know that your whole subscription will be paid for with just a couple coupons a week out of that Wednesday paper.”
“So even though that’s $1.50, since you’re using those coupons for your grocery shopping, you’re going to come out ahead. Can I start that delivery for you this Sunday?”
This conversation always ended very differently.
I wish I’d seen it more clearly at the time. I would have more proactively sought out these conversations, and not the others.
Because I failed when I made it about what I had to sell…
And I succeeded when I made the conversation about what they prospect wanted!
And it didn’t matter whether I was on the phone, in person, whatever… That was the secret to making more sales.
This is the lesson to apply in all of selling…
The question your prospect is always asking — subconsciously — is, “What’s in it for me?”
As a salesperson, marketer, copywriter, whatever… When you get good at answering that question in a way that actually matches what your prospect wants… You’ve just found your goose that lays the golden eggs!
Because when you’re able to match your message and your offers to what it is your prospects are most interested in, the benefits they most want, the challenges they most want to overcome…
They’ll be asking you to sell them things, instead of you asking them to buy!
“What’s in it for me?”
Some sales people abbreviate it as “WIIFM?”
If there’s a “magic formula” for selling, that’s it.
You need to find out what your prospect wants, and make your entire sales presentation about how to give it to them. Not only that, make your product fully match what they want, so it fulfills on your promises in spades.
This is all about empathy…
At the very core, basic level, this is about understanding and being able to take the perspective of the “other.”
That is, trying to crawl inside your customer’s head, and understand them from the inside out.
What are their fears, their frustrations, and their failures? What dreams, desires, and sense of destiny drive them forward?
What is it about your offer or your product that help alleviate the fears and failures, and get them ever-closer to what they most desire?
How can you — as the sales person — make this crystal clear?
The reality is that nobody really cares about you. They only care about what you can do for them.
I’m not saying that’s good or bad. But it’s human nature. Even the most “selfless” people are driven by the selfish motives of being seen as good in the eyes of their god or fellow humans, of making it to an afterlife of eternal happiness, or any one of thousands of other ultimately-selfish motivators.
Get inside their heads — whoever your customers are — and find out their motivations.
Ask what they want.
And find out how you can answer “What’s in it for me?” in a preemptive way that ensures them that you’re going to give them what they want and need.
This is one of my secret weapons…
It’s definitely served me well in selling and in copywriting to have developed this sense of empathy.
I’ve further refined it through things like Ryan Levesque’s Ask survey methodology, and using testing as a way of understanding market motivations.
And at this point, it’s almost become a sixth sense.
This is where you want to get to.
But if you haven’t yet, and it would mean a lot to your business to understand what really drives your customers… Well, maybe you’d be a good fit for a half-day consult with me.
We could break down your business, your market, your customers…
Look at what it is that they most want…
And figure out how to work that into your sales process.
And from now until October 31st, I’ve cut a full $700 off the price tag for this half-day consultation — to reserve my remaining spots through December.
Normally $3,500, though it’s just $2,800 though the 31st. Once your payment is received, I’ll reach out for scheduling, and to tell you what you need to do to prepare.
It’s also fully guaranteed in that if you decide you didn’t get tremendous value and specific actionable advice on the level of 10-20X ROI, you will receive a prompt and courteous full refund.
Click here now to book a half-day consultation with me at 20% off the regular rate.
If you want to pay by check, please contact me at [email protected] for payment details.
For the right businesses, this will be a complete and total breakthrough.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
Editor, Breakthrough Marketing Secrets
