Traffic Conversion Secrets Lesson 12 - Debug First

If you ask a sales person whether an objection to their
sales presentation is bad, you'll get the answer: No. A
good sales person knows that with any presentation or
marketing, objections will arise. That's a good thing
because once an objection is raised by the sales prospect,
most marketers can resolve it and dismiss it, leaving the
way clear to buying their product. So, objections typically
are raised by the customer in most sales transactions, but
this strategy is done by the seller and not the potential
buyer. That's right, you will be the one raising the
objections so that you can just as swiftly dismiss them and
get to the closing.

The reason this particular strategy is important in online
marketing is because you are not interacting with the
potential buyer face to face. They visit your site, find
something they like, and like any reasonable customer they
will start to think of reasons they shouldn't buy it.
That's just what most people do; they resist being
marketed. So, if your product has any obvious flaws that's
exactly the first objection that will be raised in their
mind. Maybe the product is ugly, or it costs too much, or
it's gotten bad reviews. Don't wait for the customer to
raise that objection in their own minds and click away,
instead you raise it first! So, if you know your product
costs more than all the competitors, raise that first by
saying that your product costs more specifically because
its better than your competition. Then go on to use that
as a lead into the benefits.   The Technique

The strategy is to disarm your buyer by bringing up the
objection first, before they even have time to think about
it or utter it in their minds. This works whether the
product has some faults or not, but it is especially
effective with those that have obvious faults. Don't
believe that a buyer will miss a flaw with the product or
that if you concentrate on only highlighting the good
qualities that the bad qualities won't be noticed.
Consumers are very sophisticated these days. 

Online retailing has made it incredibly easy for them to
comparison shop without having to visit multiple stores.
Some sites even have reviews of products online that tell
them which kinds are the best. Of course, magazines like
consumer reports will tell buyers what basic features they
can expect from a product and what makes one a better deal
than another. It's a bit nave to think that you will have
a totally uninformed consumer drop by your website and not
notice anything that is obviously flawed about your
produce. That doesn't mean you can't bring that up first
and either make it a feature or find a way to resolve that
objection that satisfies them as fair.

The Secret

When you bring up an objection first it has a couple of
effects. First, it makes you appear to be honest and
forthright because you willingly brought up the subject
first. It also decreases the resistance your buyer may have
to the objection because you've reframed it in a way that
acknowledges the flaw, but gives them a way to justify it.
So, by simply being willing to be upfront, you can undercut
the objection before it happens. This is a way of disarming
the reaction of the buyer by simply acknowledging the
concern upfront.

If, on the other hand, you took the tact of trying to avoid
the flaw and hoping they didn't see it, you would appear to
be deceitful and the person would lose confidence in the
sale. If you brought up the flaw, but minimized it as a
valid objection, your buyer will wonder what else is wrong
with your product that you don't think is worth mentioning.
But, if you bring up the flaw, acknowledge it, and then
resolve it for them in a way that they can justify the
purchase, you close the deal.

In a way, the buyer is more likely to trust the rest of the
presentation because you didn't gloss over the bad features
of your product. Since you were honest enough to be
upfront, that lends you credibility and that credibility
rubs off on the product, whether it deserves it or not.
And, when you go on to actually talk about the positive
features they are given more weight, because you were
honest with the negative ones. While you might think people
would be turned off by acknowledging a defect, hiding it
under the rug is a worse offense in most people's minds.
How to Make it Work

This is something that you should consider when you have a
product or service with an obvious flaw. So, let's say that
you are trying to sell used tires. Okay, used tires are
obviously not as good as new tires, are they? Well, you
can't advertise the tire like new tires. So, you admit 
hey, they're used tires. Then, you can go on to say that
despite the fact they are used tires and not brand new,
they are checked to make sure they have sufficient tread on
them, they pass some inspection for holes etc., you offer a
guarantee should they not last a certain amount of miles,
and you can still offer the same brands that other retail
people sell brand new. Oh, and don't forget that if they're
used, you save money too because the price is lower for the
same name brands. This works very well if you are selling
items on eBay and they are not new or they have some
obvious defect. You want to be completely upfront with that
defect. It should be the very first thing you discuss, so
that there is absolutely no misunderstanding that the
product may be perceived to be flawed by other standards.
The worse thing that can happen online is that your
customer gets a product delivered to them that doesn't
match the description on your website. You can expect them
to not only never buy another thing from your site, but on
eBay and places that allow your customer's to provide
feedback, you will get negative feedback and scare other
customers away. However, that doesn't mean that you can
only sell new products that are in perfect mint condition
online. Far from it! It means that you need to be explicit
about the condition of the items that you are selling and
very upfront about them.

Another way to implement this is to offer a limited
guarantee on the product. That way, if the person is
completely unsatisfied, they can return it or get some form
of compensation for their troubles. This is one way to
dismiss many objections people might have about buying
items that aren't new or in perfect condition.
Unfortunately, online, people don't always read every piece
of copy you put up about your product. However, they do
usually read the very first part of the copy before
scrolling down. It seems strange, but that's where you will
put the acknowledgement of the defect. If you bury it
elsewhere in the copy and get an order and the customer
becomes irate, directing them to the online copy where your
flaw is buried two-thirds of the way down the page is going
to make them even madder.

On the other hand, if you say, Yeah, this piece of art is
BUTT-UGLY..., it's a great way to get attention and
dismiss the worst defect you have on the product. Maybe the
piece of art you are auctioning is butt-ugly, however, it's
also one of a limited collection of prints made by a
celebrated artists and worth hundreds of dollars! The
customer scrolling through eBay or your site will initially
be shocked to see that you actually admit that this product
you are selling has an obvious flaw. They may even find it
humorous. It will definitely get their attention, and that
will lead them to read the rest of the copy which explains
all the other benefits and how you can dismiss the defect
as either part of the charm of the piece or as not
consequential to its actual value.

Don't be afraid to get down the real nitty gritty details
of why the product is flawed. Maybe it's ugly because it
has too many loud colors. Maybe it's ugly because it has
drab colors. Maybe it's ugly because it's abstract or too
primitive. Whatever the problem is, be very clear that you
understand that this is something that most people would
consider an undesirable trait. Then, go on to dismiss it by
building up the positive benefits of the product
immediately afterwards. You are dismissing the flaw either
by addressing the concern directly or you are going to show
that despite this flaw the benefits of the product far
outweigh the flaw mentioned.

This strategy is often used by real estate agents when they
show houses with obvious flaws. They might point out the
fact that the house is a little older than desired by their
client, but the location is so good that the money they
save in buying an older house can be used to update it and
then they have both a good location and a newer home. They
might show off the carpet with badly stained carpets and
tell their buyers that since the carpets are so badly
stained they can ask for a carpet allowance and put in
whatever they want after they move it, making it their own.
The trick here is to do this as people are considering
buying your product, not as an introduction, but as part of
the description of the item. Obviously, this strategy is
best left to the actual sales page than as a way to
introduce a product to people on online forums or
discussion groups. It's for people who already have a good
idea that they want to buy in this category and that they
may have some decisions to make on whether a flaw that is
apparent is a deal-breaker or not. 

The time to bring up a default is not after you've sold
them on the benefits, but before. It should be brought up
immediately before the person has time to discover it
themselves, but not as an introduction to people who
haven't had a chance to discover your site yet. It's like
the difference between seeing a house on the market and
wanting to visit it and being at the door of a house and
opening the door to actually experience it. If you are
imagining the house from afar, if you start to talk about
the flaws even before you've visited it, the value of the
house plummets and you're less likely to visit the house.
You haven't had a chance to experience it so that the
better characteristics of the house can outweigh the flaw.
So, don't mention these items unless they are already in an
area where they have an option to buy and can have a full
experience of the product you are offering it. 

Then, it's more like you are there with the potential buyer
and they are walking through the door as a real estate
agent to show them your property that is for sale. If you
are walking into a house as a real estate agent, you can
say, the appliances are old, but you can always ask for an
appliance upgrade if you like the house. 

You don't wait until the person walks into the kitchen,
stares at the appliances and then says: "The appliances are
outdated! If you've been in this house before, you should
know the negatives, and it should be said as you're opening
the door to let them in, preferably before they've even had
a chance to see the kitchen. If you bring it up early in
the experience (but not before they're actually there with
you visiting the products), and in all its gory detail,
they imagine something far worse and when they get to the
kitchen they might even mutter, Its not that bad! That's
because you are so upfront with them, that they realize
it's not a big deal.

Online, you don't want to put all kinds of objections on
your home page, but you do want the sales page to have them
if you know there is a problem with the product. If you are
doing eBay to make sales and using them as a sales partner,
you will want to make sure it is in bold and a title
heading at the top of the page. You don't want people to
miss it and then end up with something they object to AFTER
they've already paid for the item. That will only get you
irate customers and negative feedback. So, the best timing
is always right up front. 


To Your Success,
YOUR NAME

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