Forget Benefits
Many years ago, as a high school teacher, I sold snacks to the students in order to raise money for a sports club. When the need to help the club expired I decided to continue selling the snacks and keep the profits for myself to help my meager teacher’s salary.
There was one kid nicknamed Chalky who was not very gifted academically, but was a master salesman. I remember once he approached the principal of the school to try to sell him a snack to which he declined. The principal claimed that he had no need of the snack because he didn’t eat that kind of kid’s stuff.
Chalky immediately fired back with, “But you have two daughters, why not buy for them?”
The principal was speechless. He didn’t have a comeback for that one. His objection was nuked.
As an observer I was impressed by this 12-yr kid who never read a sales book like I had done and how ‘natural’ he was at selling. I still think there’s such a thing as a ‘born sales person’.
Now copywriters can often get sucked into the mechanics of the language and layout of a sales letter and forget that copywriting is really selling. This is the reason why I listen to sales seminars and read books on how to sell, along with reading great copywriting books by the masters. Copywriting is really selling with the written word. The task comes down to persuading people to part with their hard-earned money for your product or service.
Now one of the big tenets of copywriting and selling in general is the WIIFM rule. When writing a sales letter you are told to answer the prospect’s question, “What’s In It For Me?”
This usually leads to the other ‘rule’ of emphasizing benefits and not features. So a drill bit is a feature but the hole is the benefit.
What is often missing in a sales letter is giving the prospect a reason to buy that is outside of a direct benefit he would receive. As in the incident with Chalky, it was the father’s love for his daughter in getting them a gift. Chalky was able to turn the question from himself to his daughters.
Now it could be argued that the satisfaction this father would get from making his daughters happy is a ‘hidden’ benefit to himself, but most copywriters do not think about these subtle benefits.
But still outside of these hidden benefits comes the fact that we often buy based on emotions and justify our decision afterwards with logic. So a prospect needs a REASON to buy. And these reasons can often be very strange indeed. Why strange? Because they are far removed from the benefits of the product or service.
A few examples may help to illustrate this point.
Often times my wife would go shopping and return with a product that I judge useless. When I question her on why she bought this item, she tells me that it was on sale.
So let’s see: “You have no need of the product, but you bought it simply because if was on sale?”
Now before you go thinking that I’ making fun of my better half this is a general HUMAN trait. Maybe you have done the same thing as well. Yes, bought that late night TV special because it was on sale?
In fact, I did once. (Well, maybe more than once.)
I recall I was in a motel, lonely, missing home and decided to watch some late night TV. There was that infomercial for the vacuum packer. I was immediately mesmerized by it’s capability and its ability to store foods for longer periods of time. So I pulled out my credit card and ordered, accepted the “one-time special” up-sell for more packing bags and eagerly awaited the arrival of my new kitchen tool.
I used that machine once to make sure it was working and it’s still packed away. Maybe I should sell it on eBay. I guess I really bought that machine to surprise my wife, rather than for its practical use.
The “damaged goods” sales letter technique is also very effective because people are given a reason to buy, even apart from the direct benefit of the product. The same applies to ‘fire sales’ as well.
So many marketers complain about the ton of eBooks they have rotting on their hard drives. Why? They bought for some other reason than the direct benefit.
Now how can a copywriter use this common human trait to make more money? Always give a reason to buy apart from the direct benefit.
Reasons such as, money from the sale will go to the buyers favorite charity, you are going out of business, owner is retiring, it’s your birthday, anniversary, Friday! The reason could be, for all practical reasons, foolish and contradictory. People need a reason to buy.
I recently had a sale based on the fact that I needed to raise money for my move from Michigan to Florida. Of course the product is no way related to my move but buyers need a reason to buy and it’s best if you can suggest a few.
And that’s my suggestion.
Filed under: Online Copywriting
