Marketing on a Shoestring

I spend a fair bit of time surfing the net, always looking for ways to improve my own website. One thing that I have discovered is that although many internet marketers give you plenty of great content, they make one simple mistake which kills their sales.

The problem is that they don’t ask for the sale and if you don’t ask, you will never make the sale. Just look at the websites and sales letters of the heavy hitters. On the heavy hitter sites, you will find some sort of sales button every couple of paragraphs. It may say click here for more information or click here for instant access but whatever it says, they are not afraid to ask for the sale.

On many newcomer sites that I visit, I find it very rare that they actually ask for the sale. They will tell you all about the product they are marketing and what it will do for you but, they fail to ask for the sale. If you don’t ask, they don’t buy.

Many years ago, I was a real estate broker and one of the first things that you learn is to ask for the sale or use something called assumed consent to close the deal. Asking for the sale is great. It is a simple answer-either yes or no. Assumed consent is slightly different and in some cases it can be more effective.

In the assumed consent approach, you assume that your customer wants and will buy your product so instead of just asking a yes or no question, you offer them alternatives as to how they want to buy your product.

For example, after you have completed your sales pitch, you simply ask the customer: Would you prefer to use credit card (click here) or would you prefer to use PayPal:click here. It makes it much easier to ask for the sale by giving these alternatives rather than risking a yes or no answer.

Either way that you go, it is important in a sales situation to give your prospect your closing statement (ask for the sale) as often as you can without going overboard.

As I said earlier, this is probably the most common mistake that newcomers make. They are fearful of asking for the sale and as a result it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy and they don’t make the sale. Before long, they become discouraged and drop out of internet marketing thinking that they will never make any money and they are right if they don’t have the nerve to ask for the sale.

You can make a fortune on the net but, you will never make a dime if you don’t actually ask the customer to take action and complete the sale. Remember, ask and ye shall receive.

It doesn’t matter if you are building a web page, article marketing, or any number of methods of promoting your business, understatement may be key to your credibility and ultimate success.

In any area of internet marketing, the public has become very sensitive to hype and if you bill yourself to be the very best at what you do, the public is going to believe that anything you say or do becomes suspect. There is simply far too much hype in the internet marketing business.

On the other hand, if you present the understated case that you are very good at what you do and then compare yourself to the Gurus in your field, your readers are much more likely to trust you.

For example, if you have spent years studying Golf and along the way have learned many of the tips and tricks of the trade, you can certainly make a legitimate case for reading your web site or newsletter. At this point, you might also be able to mention that Tiger Woods in one of your heroes and that is why you promote his products. What you are basically saying is: I’m no Tiger Woods but I can help you improve your game. Understating your expertise in this manner builds your credibility and your readers will not see you as simply trying to hype yourself.

Golf is not my niche, affiliate marketing is mine and I have become good at it but, I am not the best. There are true Gurus in my field (for example Ewen Chia) and if I try to promote myself as being on a par with him, everyone will know that it is nothing more than pure hype and my credibility is going to go down the drain. In affiliate marketing, we call the very best to be Gurus and that is why I both buy and promote their products. If I were to promote myself as a Guru, there would be an instant loss of credibility and readers are going to see it as just more internet marketing hype.

So, the next time you build a web site, send a message to your list or write an article, use a little understatement and watch your credibility and your business grow. In a field filled with hype, a little understatement goes a long way.

It doesn’t matter if you are an internet marketer with your own product or an affiliate, at some point you have to be a salesman. Although you may think that it is all about product sales, you would be wrong.

What your prospect is really looking at is: Why should I buy from you and what is in it for me? There are plenty of great products and bonuses that you may promote and certainly you are going to tell the customers about these it’s features but, what you really need to know to make the sale is what are this customer’s hot buttons. Remember, the customer has probably seen several similar products or programs. He is not all that interested in what the product is but, what the product is going to do for him.

Each customer has a different hot button and your sales copy must hit as many of these buttons as possible. What is in it for me? Will I make a fortune, will it make my life easier, improve my family life, sex life, improve my golf score by 10 strokes or maybe it will add to my prestige. These are the types of questions your customer is really asking.

Ask yourself, why does one person wear a Timex and another a Rolex? For the most part, they both do the job equally well. Why does one person carry a Visa card that they got for free and another person carry American Express that cost the around $55 a year. The Amex card does not even carry a credit line and it is accepted in far fewer places. Perhaps the answer lies in Amex’s slogan: “Membership has it’s privileges.” A Ford and a Ferrari both have the same basic purpose-transportation. So, why buy a 250 thousand dollar Ferrari when a Ford performs the same basic job for one tenth of the price.

As an internet marketer/salesman, this is your job to find out and learn how to push those hot buttons. Marketing and sales are not the same thing but in the end, if you are going to build a business on the net, you have to develop both skills.

In the world of brick and mortar sales, the salesman always assumes consent and offers the buyer alternatives in making their purchase. In the online world, we make a simple yes or no pitch and that makes for a ton of lost sales. If you had offered a couple of simple alternatives, you make it much easier for the customer to buy.

In online sales, we don’t have the luxury of meeting the customer face to face. But, like face to face sales, we do have the ability to offer alternatives rather than the common click here to buy. That approach in our sales letters makes it much too easy for the customer to simply click on the next site he wants to visit.

Instead, if your sales letter is really good, assume that the customer wants your product and then offer alternatives in how to make the purchase. For example, click here to instantly download XYZ Product or click here to not only download the XYZ Product but, also get a
free 2 week trial membership in XYZ Products Unleashed. The alternatives could be anything from free trials, automatic lifetime product updates or maybe a CD version of the product.

It is a simple idea but it works. If we simply ask for the sale, it is much too easy for the customer to say no and be on his merry way. But, in offering alternatives, we are not asking simply buy or don’t buy, we are making the customer think about how he wants to buy the product. Back in the day, I never asked a customer if he wanted to buy the house. That would have been a sure deal killer. The question was: Would you prefer to move in Tuesday or would next Wednesday be better for you.

So, assume consent, offer purchasing alternatives and make it easy for the customer to buy. By the way, will that be credit card or would you prefer PayPal?