‘Sell More by Selling Less’ by Daniel Levis

Daniel Levis’ latest ‘Total Package’ article is titled “Sell More by Selling Less”. [Copywriting Article]

Daniel Levis’ latest ‘Total Package’ article:

Sell More by Selling Less

gainst his own self-interest. When negotiating with the local farmer he wanted to hire to clear snow he would say things like, “this is the fairest deal I’ve ever seen,” before wrangling the man down.

When a cop pulled him over for speeding, he would congratulate the officer for pulling him over. And then proceed to wiggle his way out of the ticket. It was the damndest thing I’d ever seen.

He had this way of putting words together in such a way as to pleasantly startle people. And as I watched I realized these little shocks that he would administer had a wonderfully disarming effect. They seemed to open people to his point of view. And break down their habitual resistance.

And it’s true.

In a state of surprise, the mind becomes
fluid and more open to change …
The existing pattern of thought is interrupted, creating a momentary vacuum that sucks in the very next reasonable suggestion that comes along.

Years later I began using similar ideas in selling. One of my favorite techniques for dealing with resistive prospects was to spout these odd sounding anti-selling statements or questions and watch their reaction.

I’d say things like: “Why do you want to upgrade your phone system this month?” “Are you sure you need all that computing power?”

I found these kinds of questions that seemed odd coming out of a salesperson’s mouth built trust … yielded valuable information about buying criteria … and got the prospect to verbalize their desire for making the purchase. Later on I could refer back to these statements when closing the sale.

People can easily disagree with something you say. They find it much more difficult to disagree with something they said.

Here are a few more examples un-salesman-like utterances that helped me to close sales with resistant buyers …

“I don’t want you to go ahead with this until you’re thoroughly convinced it’s the very best decision you could possibly make.”

“This option is for advanced users, you’re probably not interested in that, are you?”

“By all means, go ahead and check out the competition before we go ahead with this. The more hours and days you spend investigating them the greater the likelihood you’ll do business with us.”

“Maybe you should let this problem get a little worse before you get serious about solving it. Are you sure you’re ready to tackle it right now?”

“Don’t decide now. There’s plenty of time for that.”

The common thread in all these phases is that they leverage the buyer’s resistance. The only way the prospect can resist them is by doing what you want them to do. They can either take the bait and fall into the trap, or reveal a hidden objection you can then deal with once it’s out in the open.

This strategy comes in handy in copywriting too …
Your prospects are almost as wary of advertised claims as they are of salespeople. So anything you say that at first blush appears counter to your interests as a seller can be very persuasive. It makes you look honest, and opens a little rift in the prospect’s innate skepticism, allowing the copy immediately following to be considered more fairly.

Here are a couple of quick examples of this from my swipe file.

This is the opening line from a Joe Sugarman ad: We’ve developed a new consumer marketing concept. It’s called “stealing.” That’s right stealing!

Does that get your attention? Does it interrupt your pattern of thought about what an advertiser should say to sell you a product?

I bet you’re wondering how Joe gets out of that one.

We’ll he takes his sweet time. Here are the next few paragraphs: Now if that sounds bad, look at the facts. Consumers are being robbed. Inflation is stealing our purchasing power. Our dollars are shrinking in value. The poor average consumers is plundered, robbed and stepped on.

So the poor consumer tries to strike back. First, he forms consumer groups. He lobbies in Washington. He fights price increases. He looks for value.

So we developed our new concept around value. Our idea was to steal from the rich companies and give to the poor consumer, save our environment and maybe, if we’re lucky, make a buck.”

And then Joe goes on to explain how his firm buys defective merchandise for ten cents on the dollar, fixes it up and sells it for half the original retail price with a superior guarantee. The ad is a work of art.

And one of the things that made it work so well is this shocking statement in the opening paragraph. It breaks the expected pattern, opening the mind of the prospect to Joe’s revolutionary new merchandising idea.

Here’s a different sort of example taken from a closing section of copy …

If you want to generate a $10,000 monthly income in the next 30 days ““ and potentially much, MUCH more in the months ahead ““ you’re going to have to make a substantial full time commitment to this.

Even if you’re not ready to jump in with both feet, and simply want to make a few thousand extra dollars a month while you continue to work away at whatever you’re doing now … it’s going to take some effort and persistence on your part.

If you’re the kind of person who says they want to be successful, but doesn’t want to do what’s necessary to achieve success … I have to level with you … this program probably isn’t for you.

What a refreshing change from the usual hyped up, push button promises you typically see in this genre. It communicates honesty, confidence and forthrightness. And because it’s unexpected, it has that mind-opening effect, laying the stage for the copy that follows.

So the next time you’re writing, perhaps to a skeptical market, or about a potentially contentious idea, or to counter a really tough objection … stop for a minute and think of the Judo master Takahiro.

Shock your reader by coming out in agreement with the opposing view. Steal its force and energy and then redirect it toward the conclusion you want your reader to make.

Until next time, Good Selling!

Daniel Levis

THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto, Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology Masters of Copywriting featuring the selling wisdom of 44 of the “Top Money” marketing minds of all time, including Clayton Makepeace, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, John Carlton, Joe Vitale, Michel Fortin, Richard Armstrong and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit http://www.SellingtoHumanNature.com.

He is also one of the leading Web conversion experts operating online today, and originator of the 5R System (TM), a strategic process for engineering enhanced Internet profits. For a free overview of Daniel’s system, click here.

Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

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*IMNewsWatch would like to thank Clayton Makepeace for granting permission to reprint this article.