Once you have garnered some trust with your visitor, and have your foot in the door, so to speak, it’s time to actually make the sell.
People buy the deal.
Let that burn into your psyche and repeat it to yourself every single morning.
People buy the deal.
My job, as an online vendor, is to put together the best deal possible, then sell the benefits of that deal.
What do I mean by the best deal? Do I mean the lowest price?
Not necessarily. Price is important, but the deal itself consists of all of the benefits which the customer receives as a result of buying my product or service. You don’t have to compete on price, at all, if you can give the customer more perceived benefits than your competitor.
Benefits can be tangible or intangible. The important thing is – how will purchasing this product or service enhances the purchaser’s life?
Let’s look at a real world example?
Let’s say that there are two espresso stands in my town.
Both offer identical lattes for identical prices.
The first stand is owned by a faceless corporation in Seattle.
The second espresso stand is owned by an enterprising young man named Jake who is using the income from his espresso venture to put himself through college.
Where do I buy my Latte?
Obviously, I go to Jakes place because he offers the better deal.
“Wait a second, Larry! Didn’t you say that the lattes are identical and the prices are identical?”
That’s right. But the deal is more than the price and the product. The deal is the sum of all of the benefits which I derive from the purchase.
The fact of the matter is that I like this kid, Jake, and receive a lot of satisfaction from knowing that I’m helping to put him through school. That sense of satisfaction is a huge benefit. In fact, I’d even pay slightly more for the Lattes at Jakes place, but don’t tell Jake that.
Because I receive more benefits from frequenting Jakes espresso stand, that’s the better deal.
People buy the deal.
The deal consists of the benefits I receive.
That being the case, doesn’t it make more sense to sell the benefits than to sell the product?
All too often, we try to sell the product, and spend all of our time talking about the features of the product or service we’re trying to sell, instead of talking about how this product or service will benefit the purchaser.
I fall into this trap all the time. Because I’m kind of a techie, and because 123 eCart has so many cool features, I sometimes slip up and begin selling the features.
Let me give you an example:
123 eCart has an affiliate program built right into the software. This feature allows you to launch your own affiliate program which is already integrated with your online store. For those who don’t know what an affiliate program is, it’s where I persuade website owners to place my ads on their site, and I’ll pay them a commission if anyone clicks through and makes a purchase. It’s a great way to drive traffic to my site without putting out a lot of upfront advertising dollars.
Now my tendency is to try to sell 123 ecart by pointing out this feature.
I might say something like:
“You should buy 123 eCart because it has an embedded affiliate program.”
See – that was selling the feature.
Instead, I should have pointed out how this feature will BENEFIT the purchaser. I should have said something more along these lines:
“Because your 123 eCart store has it’s own built-in affiliate program, you will be able to drive more traffic to your site, meaning more money in your pocket, and you won’t have to mess around with trying to integrate off the shelf affiliate software with your shopping cart. It’s already been done for you”.
Do you see the difference? I sold the benefits of more money and less hassle instead of the feature.
People buy The Deal, and the deal consists of all of the ways this benefits me.
Sell the benefits, not the product.
