TRIGGERS FROM PAGE 10

Trigger 15: Satisfaction Conviction. / Chapter 16 - Mass delusion and other Good Marketing Ideas: One of the very critical techniques that I have used in my mail order ads is a process called “linking.” Basically, it is the technique of relating what the consumer already knows and understands with what you are selling, to make the new product easy to understand and relate to. One of the easiest examples of this trigger is to explain how it works in a fad. A fad is simply a craze that usually captures the public’s consciousness and quickly creates strong demand, awareness or behavioral changes. The demand can be for a product such as for the Beanie Babies in 1998 or the citizen band (CB) radios back in the ’70s. It can be simply the strong awareness of a product or concept, such as the Viagra craze in 1998, or it can be for behavioral changes, such as women throwing away their bras during the women’s liberation movement of the late ’60s. There are also fads within specific industries. For example, in the exercise industry there might be a fad for abdominal devices; on infomercials, there might be a glut of business opportunity shows. Usually the fads come and go quickly. But the importance of the fad examples is to show you the process of linking on its most basic and obvious levels. Then I’ll take it deeper to give you a sense of how linking can be used to effectively sell a product or service. First, a few stories about fads and how this linking process works. A good example of recognizing fads and knowing what to do with them comes from an experience I had with Richard Guilfoyle, a direct marketer from Boston. He had a strong sense of history and prided himself on creating replicas of famous American objects—Paul Revere’s lantern, George Washington’s statue at Valley Forge, a salt-and-pepper set from the time of the Revolutionary War. In 1975 his company was doing quite well. And no wonder—the country was about to celebrate its 200th or bicentennial anniversary, and this class of merchandise was being recognized as a way of celebrating the birth of our nation. Sales were brisk. Richard was capitalizing on this current fad for any product that celebrated America’s 200th birthday. Then the bottom of his business fell out. Sales plummeted and he couldn’t figure out why. And it all happened just prior to July 4th, 1976—the date of the bicentennial. When he attended my seminar, he was really quite disappointed with his business. What happened? I suggested that maybe it was because people were associating or linking his products with the anniversary of the United States. Because that date had already passed, his sales reflected this perception. But Richard insisted that this wasn’t the case. “My products have true historic significance and have nothing to do with the bicentennial.” Could I simply look at his copy and help him improve it? After looking over his copy, which was actually quite good, I saw clearly what the problem was. He had not recognized that consumers linked his products as part of the excitement of the U.S. bicentennial, rather than as a part of American history that they could save and own. He then showed me a few ads he had prepared after attending my seminar. One of them was for a necklace consisting of a small replica of a Paul Revere lantern that had a small diamond in the center reflecting light as the candle flame. It was a beautiful piece of jewelry. I read the copy and said, “You have a winner here. This ad will do well—not because of the historic nature of the necklace but because of the beautiful piece of jewelry that it is. You’re now selling jewelry, Richard, not good old Americana.” Sure enough, the ad was a huge success and he soon realized how a powerful fad can grow and fade. And how sometimes fads aren’t recognized as fads. I used fads as a way of generating publicity when I was doing public relations for a few of my clients. One owned a ski resort and was trying to increase the awareness of snowmobiles at his resort. At the time, during the mid to late ’60s, the women’s lib movement was new, strong, and passionate. I suggested that the resort owner ban women snowmobile drivers and I issued a press release proudly announcing this fact. The publicity went national. He rescinded his ban after the publicity died down and snowmobile sales grew dramatically from the national publicity and attention. In short, he linked a marketing problem onto a fad and consequently got enough publicity to increase his sales. At about the same time, one of my accounts—Jerry Herman, owner of the Spot pizza restaurant near Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois—wanted national publicity too. Women were in the middle of an unusual fad—throwing their bras away and going braless. I suggested to Jerry that he design a bra-shaped pizza and link it to the fad. He too got national publicity. Later I used an awareness fad as a way of selling products. When it was discovered in 1973 that Nixon was using phone tap equipment to record all his phone conversations, there was enormous publicity about it. I immediately put together a JS&A offer for a system with which anybody could tap their phones and ran it in The Wall Street Journal under the headline, “Tap Your Phone.” That ad was a mistake. The FBI showed up at my door and The Wall Street Journal threatened never to run my ads again. Even worse, I didn’t sell many of the systems and lost money on the ad. In contrast, I caught another fad at just the right time. I offered a walkie-talkie right at the height of the citizen band (CB) radio boom in the U.S. By calling my walkie-talkie a Pocket CB, because it broadcast on the CB frequencies, I was able to capture a major chunk of the CB market fad. The minute there is a lot of publicity about something and it has the potential to turn into a fad, it could be a great opportunity to link it onto something that you’re doing, either to get publicity or to promote a product. Recently the Viagra impotency pill presented an opportunity for some BluBlocker publicity. The three side effects of the pill that affected a small percentage of men were blurry vision, sensitive eyes, and seeing a blue cast after taking the pill. BluBlocker sunglasses helped alleviate all three side effects and I issued a press release to announce that fact. Publicity appeared all over the world. In another example, I realized that there might be a baby boom from the use of Viagra. With 20 million pills prescribed and the increased “fire power” that men now had, this was a real possibility. I contacted Success magazine and suggested that they issue a press release on the possible baby boom and the future economic effects of both the drug and the lifestyle changes possible because of Viagra. They loved the idea and followed the idea up with an article in their next issue. Fads are very powerful. And you now understand the basic concept of linking. But how does this help in the selling process when there isn’t a fad? And how could this trigger be used in a personal selling situation?Whenever I sell a new product or a unique feature of a new concept, I use linking. I take what is familiar to the prospect, relate it to the object I am selling, and create a bridge in the mind of my prospect. Because of this linking, the prospect needs to think a lot less to understand the new product. The product is easier to relate to the needs of the prospect. Everybody wins. An example of this process was in my ad on a smoke detector. The headline of the ad was, “The Nose.” I talked about the smoke detector not as a smoke detector (many such devices were already being sold) but as a nose that sat on your ceiling and sniffed the air. When it smelled smoke, it set off an alarm. I took the very human and simple concept of a nose—a part of the body whose function is well understood—and then linked it to an electronic device. In the ad I also used linking to express quality. For example, I talked about the integrated circuits using gold for the contact points. My prospect was then able to link the expense and quality of gold to this product and come up with a quality image of this product and a justification for its higher price. In actuality, every integrated circuit used gold for its contact points, so this wasn’t revolutionary, but nobody had taken the time to explain it to the consumer. I have used linking in many other ways. For example, I had a product that was a remote car starter. You pressed a button on a remote control device and your car automatically started. I called it “The Mafia Auto Gadget.” Can you see the linkage with this product? No? Well, I explained it in the ad. The Mafia often used car bombs to eliminate competition. Because this device started the car for you at a distance, it eliminated the fear and concern for any Mafia member. Of course, the market was also broadened to include those people who simply liked the convenience of pre-starting their car on a hot or cold day and having the car reach a pleasant temperature before they got in. But the positioning of the product was done with a link that the consumer could understand—that of linking it to the Mafia. I could give you hundreds of examples. But the main point to remember about linking is that it should relate the product or service you are selling to something that is easy for your prospect to identify so that you bridge the mental gap in the mind of the prospect. Usually products are simply improved versions of previously sold products. You need to relate the older product to the new version to explain the advanced product. One of the hardest things to use linking for is a miracle product—a product that is too good to believe. For example, I was selling a small pill that you put in the gas tank of your car. It improved gas mileage, cleaned out the engine, and had 10 times the fuel additives that you get from super unleaded fuel. It was truly a miracle product and difficult to link to anything that existed in the marketplace. We used the phrase, “Vitamins for your car” and “tune-up in a pill” as a few of our links. Linking is a basic human emotional system of storing experiences and knowledge and then recalling those experiences and linking them to something we have to deal with on a daily basis.We often link things together in our memories. I remember when President John F. Kennedy died. I remember where I was at that precise moment and remember the confusion and the personal pain and emotion I felt. I linked every image and emotion to that moment in time. I can even remember my very emotions and the precise time and location in a forest when I was hiking with my high-school sweetheart, talking about life and our deepest fantasies. My fantasy was to be very successful and own an exciting sports car, live on a tropical island, and someday write a novel. She confided to me that her fantasy was simply having sex with the entire Brazilian soccer team. In the personal selling process, simply be aware of how linking works. Presenting your product or service by linking it to something the consumer can relate to and understand is very powerful in that selling process. Trigger 16: Linking./ Chapter 17 - The National Hermits Convention: Let me make a few observations that are critical to understanding this next important psychological trigger. First, you buy from an emotional level, as you’ve already learned. You’ve also learned that the purchaser of a product justifies that emotional purchase using logic. But here’s the unusual part. Often the purchaser who uses logic to justify a purchase knows the exact logical justifications for buying the product but does not realize the emotional reasons. Why do people own Mercedes automobiles? Why do they smoke Marlboro cigarettes? Why do certain fads catch on? It is because these people subconsciously want to belong to the group of people who already own that specific product. In the case of Marlboros, the smokers subconsciously want to join that group of smokers who have responded to the rugged western image the cigarette’s ad agency has created. The people who buy Mercedes often want to belong to that special group of successful and affluent car owners who drive Mercedes automobiles. Do you think it’s because of the special braking or suspension system? Forget it. They’re going out and spending megabucks to buy something that’s maybe only slightly better than many other automobiles. The other cars can take you to the same places at the same speed and yet these same people—all very intelligent—will go out and buy a Mercedes. And the list goes on. You name a product that has an established image and I’ll show you a purchaser who, somewhere in his subconscious value system, wants to belong to the group that owns that product. Fashion, automobiles, cigarettes, gadgets, whatever the category: the consumer who buys a specific brand has been motivated to buy that brand by a desire to belong to the group of people who already own that brand. Period. When Volvo discovered that its customer base had one of the highest educational levels of any of the car manufacturers, they publicized this fact. They then noticed that when the same survey was conducted a few years later, the percentage jumped even further. The percentage jump was caused, in my judgment, by the association new buyers wanted to make with the more educated owners—they wanted to belong to that group. I’ve had my students say to me, “Well, what about hermits? Don’t tell me they have the desire to belong.” My answer: they want to belong to the group of people who consider themselves hermits. There must be thousands of them. To belong to the group means you don’t necessarily have to be with anyone or be very social. And maybe the key word here is identify. The Mercedes owner wants to be identified with the class or group of people who also own Mercedes. Owning a Rolls Royce in California in the ’70s was the ultimate status symbol. I was amazed at how impressed people were with other people who owned one. Being a Midwest boy and not growing up on the car-conscious West Coast, it was culture shock to realize how much a Rolls meant to somebody from the West Coast. Yet the car itself was one of the most conservative and old-fashioned-looking automobiles on the road during its time. The desire to belong to and identify with a group of people who own a specific product is one of the most powerful triggers in selling and marketing. For example, if I knew that one of my prospects wanted to buy a certain branded product, it would first tell me psychologically what group that person wanted to belong to. I could then craft my presentation to take into account all of the emotional reasons for belonging to this other group that also corresponded to my product or service. Let’s take that Mercedes example. The person buying a Mercedes would be somebody who might want to be treated as a wealthy person who expected quality and service. Realizing this would then allow me to offer those services, options, and perks that a wealthy person buying the car would expect as part of the purchase and as part of a wealthy person’s psychological profile. I might expect exceptional and respectful service. Maybe a good-quality loaner car when mine was brought in for service. I might expect special free road service if anything happened to my car. I might expect to be offered other after-sale considerations that only the wealthy would expect. My gift from the salesman might be an expensive pen and pencil set instead of a cheap key chain. Some of this is really common sense. But too often we don’t look at the core motivation for the purchase of a specific product, which could reveal a lot more about our prospect. Think of any product, magazine, service, or even location. What is the psychological profile of the person belonging to that group of people who buy the product or service or live in that location? It will give you some great ideas on how to treat the person. And it will help you realize what would motivate your prospect to consider buying your product. These clues to the emotional appeal your product has, when matched to the clues you can get from knowing your prospect and her ownership trends, is valuable knowledge at its most basic, core psychological level. In direct marketing, which is a very scientific field, we segment our mailing lists both demographically and psychographically, to make the mailings more efficient and profitable. For example, my best electronics buyer while I was selling electronics might have been somebody who subscribes to Popular Science, bought a camera recently, and flies an airplane. I can then take the lists of pilots, Popular Science subscribers, and recent camera buyers, put them all together, and determine the names that are common to all the lists. Look how efficient this system is for targeting your prospect. As a final example, I found the most ideal customers when I was selling electronic gadgets in a new catalog I started, called Gadgets. The catalog was themed throughout with a toll-free number 1-800-GADGETS and even an editorial page on the love I had for gadgets. I even had a special graduation certificate proclaiming your achievement as a Doctor of Gizmology for anybody who fit in either of two categories, which I tongue-in-cheek listed as follows: Category 1: You must be a graduate engineer in electrical engineering as well as a certified multi-engine, instrument-rated pilot, plus an active amateur radio operator along with being a serious amateur photographer. Now we realize that not everyone qualifies, especially for all of these skills. So we’ve made our second category somewhat easier. Category 2: You qualify if you purchase any product from this catalog. No matter what you buy, even if you can’t read—just ordering something makes you so qualified you wouldn’t believe it. Pass the qualifications in either of these two categories and we will send you a beautiful certificate. You can proudly display the certificate on your wall announcing to the world that you have passed the rigorous qualifications necessary to earn the title of Doctor of Gizmology, and consequently have become a registered Gizmologist. Almost a hundred people sent me their qualifications, which matched exactly the very strict qualifications listed in Category 1. What I had listed in Category 1 were practically my own qualifications. Although I didn’t graduate as an electrical engineer, I did study electrical engineering for three and a half years in college until I was drafted into the Army. Other than this one fact, I met all of the other qualifications. I was an instrument-rated, multi-engine pilot, an active amateur radio operator, and a serious amateur photographer. In short, I was looking for all of those gizmologists who not only had the same tastes in gadgets that I had but who had also experienced many of the same things that I experienced in the pursuit of my love of gadgets. They indeed belonged to my group. The desire to belong is one of the strongest psychological triggers on why people purchase specific products or services. Use it to your advantage by realizing what groups your prospect belongs to and then matching the needs and desires of your prospect with those of your product. Tigger 17: Desire to belong./ Chapter 18 - Airplane Tail Collection made easy: In direct marketing, there are products classified as collectibles. Stamps, plates, dolls, and coins are but a few that have been offered by direct marketers in the past, and it is a very healthy and robust market niche. It’s pretty easy to understand that an emotional urge exists to collect many of these items. But what you might be surprised to learn is that collecting is also true in practically every business. Take my experience with a mail order watch buyer. An enthusiastic watch buyer is your perfect prospect for another watch. When I was selling watches in my catalog, I would periodically send mailings to customers who had previously ordered other products from me. I also mailed to my customers who had ordered watches. My best list for watches consisted of my existing watch owners. Now you might think, if you had a watch, what would you need another one for? Wrong. Many people actually collect them. They’ll have several watches, several pairs of sunglasses, several pairs of jeans, a library of videos or compact disks, and even a dozen Hawaiian shirts. The list is endless. I’m always amazed at the number of dolls collected by QVC viewers. Some of their viewers are older women, long past childhood, yet among QVC’s most avid collectors. And they have dozens of dolls. Small car models are also sold on QVC. They are some of the most popular products for men. And not to be outdone, there must be thousands of viewers who own many BluBlocker sunglasses—some in several different styles. The point is, when selling (whether in print, on TV, or in a personal selling situation), recognize that there is a very large segment of the population who, for whatever reason, has an emotional need to collect a series of similar products. These products bring great joy and satisfaction and in some cases utility. Think about those who collect real cars. Many who can afford them have collections that range up to hundreds of full-sized automobiles. What kind of emotional need are they fulfilling? One of the ways the direct marketers optimize sales via the collecting instinct is by first sending, free of charge with the very first shipment, some sort of device to hold the collection. I can remember ordering silver airplane tails with various airline logos embossed on them from the Franklin Mint, a successful direct mail company that specialized in collectibles. I started collecting them to see how the Franklin Mint conducted its program rather than from any emotional interest in collecting airplane tails. Each one of the flat, eighth-inch-thick tails was made of pure silver, giving it value. The tails consisted of the vertical tail element, the part where the airline logo and symbol are located. And each of the logos was engraved into the silver tail. They were only a few inches wide, weighed about an ounce, and by virtue of just their silver content, they were obviously valuable. I received a beautiful four-drawer hand-crafted walnut chest with cutouts for each of the silver tails. The chest was so expensive-looking that I felt a subconscious sense of guilt. I had to do something in return to show my appreciation to the Franklin Mint for sending it to me. Something like filling it up with airplane tails. Now I realize that you might think I’m exaggerating but in truth, these were some of the emotions I felt when I received the chest. Then another emotion came over me. The chest had all these cutouts in which you placed the tails. I had this overwhelming anticipation of wanting to fill up each of the cutouts. Kinda like when I was a little kid and put round pegs in round holes. We’re talking some very basic early childhood stuff here. And those tails indeed came once a month. I remember the thrill of seeing the Franklin Mint’s envelope arrive each month and my anticipation in opening the envelope to discover what airline’s tail I had received. After opening the envelope and placing the tail in my hand-crafted walnut chest, I saw I was getting closer to filling up the slots. First filling up the first drawer. Then I started the second drawer. I looked at my collection each time I put in a new tail and felt the pride of knowing that my tail collection was growing. That indeed I was accomplishing something that was not that hard to do, something I didn’t have to really work hard to accomplish, but showed that I had real consistency in my life, like that scientific and psychological stuff I talked about in Chapter 1. Finally, I had enough tails in my chest that when guests visited in my home, I could show them my collection which was now in a prominent position in my living room. I had achieved a level of self-actualization, of self-esteem, and of accomplishment that I had not felt before. I finally sobered up and stopped collecting. It was costing me a fortune and after all, the only reason I started was for the research—to personally feel the emotional reasons why people get sucked into these schemes. And the collection was kind of silly to start with. The airlines were either merging, going out of business, or changing their names so fast that even the Franklin Mint couldn’t keep up. But this experience convinced me that there were lots of opportunities in the sales process for selling products to people who would not normally be considered collectors. I found that there were even people who collected gadgets or everything I offered, for that matter. To these people it was like I was their drug supplier. They couldn’t get enough of my products. Just because you have sold a customer a product, don’t ignore the opportunity to sell him the same product again or a new variation of that product. Just as I found out that my best watch customers were the ones who already owned watches, you might find that your best prospects are the ones who are already your customers and own an almost identical product. They often represent a powerful and overlooked market. A printer might like to collect printing presses; a gardener might like to collect garden tools; an architect might like to collect unusual drafting tools. You name the category and there will probably be some large percentage of prospects in that group who have the motivation to collect whatever you are offering. This is often associated with consistency, as I outlined in Chapter 1. Once you have set a buying pattern, it is easy and comforting to be consistent in your future buying activity. The desire to collect extends beyond the obvious collectible products. If you’ve sold your customer a product, consider the fact that the customer might also like to collect similar products. I wonder if there is a market for old airplane tails? Trigger 18: Desire to Collect. / Section Two: The Pain Continues: As I completed this book, I realized that something was missing. Something of such major significance that it would cause me to stop the presses and hold up production and make a change. Yes, I needed to break this book into two sections. And so I stopped the presses and here it is. Section One consists of the psychological triggers that motivate, persuade, and influence. Section Two consists of the psychological triggers that motivate, persuade, and influence. “Wait,” you say, “Both sections sound identical.” You’re right. They are. Then why would I divide this book into two sections? To provide a clean break in the middle of the book? Possibly. But if the break doesn’t matter, why do it? Is it to differentiate the first half of the book from the last half? Hardly. The entire book consists of pretty similar chapters, each of which can almost stand on its own. Could it be to plug one of my other books that would be relevant to this book and to my readers? That’s ridiculous. It would appear as crass commercialism appearing right in the midsection of this volume. But, on the other hand, I’m not stupid. This certainly would be a wonderful opportunity for a plug. After all, this is a book on selling, and you might as well get a first-hand taste of it. Or should I say smell? And so, with a little bit of humility and a lot of chutzpah, I’d like to mention three books in this section break that you should definitely get your hands on. Quickly. Order any of the following books and as a special gift, you’ll be entitled to a free, three-volume slipcase that will hold all the books in my trilogy. This handsome case is in full color and is a beautiful and attractive way to hold all three books. It is also a very clever way to get you to collect all my books, similar to the way I was sucked into buying stupid airplanetails when I received that expensive chest from the Franklin Mint. If you have a slipcase that holds three books and you have only one in it, you will feel this burning desire to get the other two books to fill the vacuum. And instead of ending up with a stack of silly airplane tails, you will own one of the best collection of marketing books in the entire universe. And I’m not just saying that. Well, I am, but it’s based on a lot of wonderful reviews.I hope you won’t feel too manipulated and will realize that the collection is well worth getting sucked into. When you receive any one of the three books, you’ll read about the free slipcase offer on the last page. All three books are written in the same style as this book. I write my own books, so what you get is pure me, not some hack I’ve hired to express him or herself with fancy words and proper English. I’m sure you can tell I’m writing this. My first book is called Advertising Secrets of the Written Word. It is the ultimate resource on how to write effective advertising copy, but it is much more than that. Every salesperson can use the skill of writing powerful copy—whether it be in sales letters, personal letters, or brochures. This book guides and teaches you, not only how to write copy but also how to make what you write even more effective. One of the 36 chapters in this 300-page book is called “Psychological Triggers”—the same theme as this book. But it covers the triggers just as they apply to copywriting. There are other chapters on insights that will help you communicate better at every level of your business career. It’s an invaluable how-to book with plenty of illustrations, written in the same style as Triggers. I urge you to order it from your favorite bookstore before you finish this book. ISBN 1-891686-00-3. The second book is called Marketing Secrets of a Mail Order Maverick. This 400-page book is packed with stories and lessons on how to find a product and then market it through various forms of print advertising, such as catalogs, direct mail, and print ads. The use of magazines and newspapers is discussed and there’s a lot of information on how to make media work for you. As a salesperson, many of the stories will give you valuable strategies that you can implement immediately, utilizing many of the triggers you’ve learned in this book. Marketing Secrets too is packed with valuable information that anybody in marketing can learn from and appreciate. ISBN 1-891686-06-2. The final volume in my three-book trilogy is a 300-page book entitled Television Secrets for Marketing Success. It contains insights for getting your product on national television and promoting it to the mass market via the most powerful medium ever created for the sale of products. If you have a product that you’d like to put on a home shopping show, or use in an infomercial or even a short one-minute direct response spot, this is the book to invest in. There are plenty of stories and experiences to enjoy and learn from. ISBN 1-891686-09-7. But act quickly to order the above books before I burn down a garage—as you will read about in the next chapter when I cover the psychological trigger that I call “a sense of urgency.” / Chapter 19 - Help, It´s a Fire: This is a true story. I had just acquired a squirt gun and a pack of matches. The matches were for starting a fire and the squirt gun was for putting it out. Simple concept. One day, with nothing to do, I burned a piece of paper and then with my squirt gun, I put it out. The concept worked. Water will put out fire. I then wandered over to the empty lot located down the block from my apartment building and found an old abandoned garage with all the windows and doors missing. It looked like the graying wood of the garage structure would one day blow over in a strong wind, but for now it was still standing. Somebody had dumped some fresh branches just outside the garage. I took one of the branches, still full of green leaves, and carried it into the garage. I started a little fire in a small circle of bricks I had built to contain the flames. As the flames grew I saw that it would take too long to squirt them out with just my squirt gun so I employed another firefighting concept to put out the flames—the leafy branch. Hitting the flames with the branch smothered the fire, and I simply put out what remained of the embers with my squirt gun. he branch was so effective that I wondered what would happen if I spread the fire around the garage first, then smothered the flames with the leafy branch and finished the job off with my squirt gun. As I spread the fire throughout the garage, the flames were everywhere. I mean, it looked like there was no way I was going to put out those flames, even with a fire extinguisher. But I then took my trusty branch, swung at the fire and within a few minutes the fire was only smoldering. In fact, there was very little left to put out with my squirt gun. I could do it all with a leafy branch. Then I had the big idea. Impress the eight-year-old girl, Robin, who lived upstairs and on whom I had a mad crush. I could never get to first base with her. But now was my chance Now was the opportunity to show her how tough and brave I was. The plan was simple. In all the movies I saw, it was always the hero who saved the female star at the last minute from a flaming building or from sure death at the hands of an Indian
attack. John Wayne did this a lot. And so I reasoned that this would be a good way to jump-start my relationship with Robin. I would save her from sure disaster, she would be forever appreciative, and I would get the girl. I got some scissors, rope, and more matches and went back to the garage. I placed the lush green branches in a pile right outside the garage. I set up the bricks to contain the fire. I filled the brick circle with paper and twigs. I placed the scissors in the corner of the garage and filled my squirt gun with water. When everything was all in place, I went home to invite Robin to watch what I told her was a surprise that I had set up especially for her. She agreed to go with me to see her surprise. Robin wore a pretty white dress that day, with ruffles along the bottom, and funny-looking Buster Brown shoes. I didn’t say much as we walked toward the garage. I was focused on my mission. In the garage, one of the two supports that held up the roof structure had a small bench leaning against it. I asked Robin to sit on the bench and told her that I was going to tie her up but to trust me, as I wouldn’t tie the knots too tight and only if she let me do that could I show her what I had in mind. I acted with an air of confidence like I knew exactly what I was doing. Which of course, I did. Robin obediently followed my direction. Robin sat on the bench and I tied her to the support as well as to the bench. There was no way she was going to escape without my cutting the rope with the scissors. I then ignited the paper and twigs. As the flames grew, I then took the stick leaning against the other support and spread the flames throughout the garage. Fire was everywhere. Robin looked stunned. As the flames started to get near where she was tied up, I shouted, “Robin, don’t worry. I’ll be right back to save you.” I ran out of the garage to where the lush green branches were placed. But they were gone! Somebody had taken them. The garbage collector maybe? I raced back into the garage to see a terrified expression on Robin’s face. It was at that very moment that I learned the true definition of a sense of urgency. Robin started to cry and scream. I pulled out my squirt gun but, quickly realizing that this wasn’t going to solve my problem, I started looking for the scissors. But I couldn’t find them. Flames were everywhere. Robin started screaming at the top of her lungs and then, with what seemed like only seconds to spare, I tried desperately to untie the knots. I couldn’t untie them fast enough. But in the process I finally spotted the scissors, cut the ropes, and released Robin, who sprang out of the garage like a gazelle and ran home. I had indeed saved her from certain cremation, but somehow my plan had not turned out the way I had pictured it. The garage burned down completely. And of course I got into trouble. Plenty of it, too. And Robin, who did not fully see my act as heroic, would never go near me again. Nor would any of her other playmates. The sense of urgency I just talked about is most effective when you realize that you are going to lose something that might be of benefit to you. I realized that not only was I losing the garage, but the odds were pretty good that I would also lose Robin. In selling, the concept of a sense of urgency involves two emotional aspects in the selling process. One is loss or the chance of losing something, and the other is procrastination. Let me give you an example of procrastination first. You’ve completely sold Harry, who is your prospect. You’ve done an outstanding job. You provided Harry, who started out as one of your biggest challenges, with all the logic and information he needed. You raised all of Harry’s objections at the start of your presentation and then resolved them masterfully as the presentation progressed. You showed passion and respect, integrity and credibility. Harry is nodding yes as you get ready to hand him the pen to sign the paperwork but then he suddenly stops, looks straight into your eyes, and says, “Well, let me think about it first.” It is a proven fact that when this happens, chances are the prospect won’t buy. And the reasons are really very logical. First, in time, that excellent sales presentation you gave and that was nicely received by Harry will be forgotten. Secondly, if you’re lucky and it isn’t forgotten, it doesn’t have the same impact it had when it was first presented—and you know how much of an impact you need to turn a prospect into a customer. That old saying, “out of sight, out of mind,” holds true in a case like this as well. Therefore, to avoid Harry’s delaying tactic, you’ve got to provide the prospect with an incentive or reason to buy now. In fact, if you do your job right, the customer has to feel guilty if he or she doesn’t buy right now. And yet you’ve got to make sure you save face so the prospects can change their minds and go from “thinking about it” to “buying it.” But how do you do it? First, here’s what you don’t want to do. You’ve spent a lot of time with Harry and you’ve convinced him to buy. The one thing you don’t want to do is blow your integrity by making a statement that is not true. A statement like, “If you don’t buy within the next few days, we’ll be sold out,” or some other lame, untrue statement that may turn your prospect off. So be careful. Whatever you say at the end of your presentation, whether it’s a call for action or to enhance a sense of urgency, should be the truth and should be crafted to maintain the same integrity expressed throughout your sales pitch. Now, what can you do to create a sense of urgency? You might have a great pitch and express a very good sense of urgency, but a fatal error might still kill your sale. What is that fatal error? Omitting important information that the buyer needs in order to make that important buying decision. Then the buyer has the excuse, “There’s a question I have but if you don’t have the answer, let me know when you do,” or a similar cop-out. In short, even a great sense of urgency can be wasted if you leave some critical information out of a sales presentation./
We used to run all our new product introductions with the phrase “National Introductory
Price.” This didn’t mean that much, except it raised the possibility that the price was
temporarily low and it might go up. Most introductory prices usually do. In actuality, the
prices of calculators and electronics were deteriorating so quickly, they always went down,
so we eventually dropped that phrase.
The number of possibilities is limited only by your imagination. The sense of urgency
statements always go at the end of your sales presentation. And it is at the end where the
sense of urgency meets several other important concepts, all of which must be considered
and blended seamlessly together.
Always make sure there is a sense of urgency in your sales presentation so that the
prospect does not leave without you making that sale. If you do leave without the sale or a
positive commitment, your chances of making that sale, in most circumstances, are pretty
slim. What can you do to create a sense of urgency? There are plenty of possibilities.
You can say: “I know your competition is just now installing the same piece of equipment.
What can I do to help you make that decision now?”
And then there’s: “Hey, I was told that our cutoff for orders is today for the rest of the year. Is
there anything I can personally do to convince you that my product is perfect for your
company?”
When I was in New York in 1959 studying every book I could on salesmanship, I came
across one by Elmer Wheeler entitled Selling Dangerously. I’ll never forget the book for its
simple yet powerful premise.
Wheeler recognized that if you reached a point when your prospect says, “Let me think
about it,” or “Let me discuss this with my partner,” chances are you’ve lost the sale. He
therefore reasoned that you had nothing to lose if you tried something bold and almost
dangerous to make the sale, even if it meant being kicked out of the prospect’s office.
One of his stories told of the salesman who failed to sell his prospect and finally, at the end
of the presentation, said, “Look, obviously I’ve failed to convince you of the importance of
buying now. I know your time is valuable, so let me pay you for your time. Let me give you
$200 which should give me at least 15 minutes more to convince you why you should buy
my product now.”
There were other bold examples, like the statement to a prospect who wants to see his
partner first before making a decision: “See your partner? Doesn’t your partner trust you to
make decisions by yourself?”
A common excuse by a spouse is to have the other spouse approve of a purchase. This is a
very common delaying tactic. Wheeler talked about the time when a salesman, trying to sell
a housewife on purchasing an iron, got the very common response, “Well, let me discuss
this with my husband.”
The salesman shot back with, “What day of the week does your husband do the laundry?”
The woman, taken aback, told the salesman that she did the laundry, to which he replied,
“Then it is your head that aches on wash day, and your back that hurts—not your
husband’s.”
The salesman allows these comments to sink in and then murmurs confidentially, “Your
husband never discusses with you the labor-saving devices for his back and head in his
office, does he?”
Triggers by Joe Sugarman
file:///C/My Documents/ebooks/triggers.htm (51 of 89) [7/17/2001 2:52:57 PM]
It is critical that you make the sale and not accept a delaying tactic. Create a sense of
urgency that makes sense for the type of product you are selling.


TIMES NEW ROMAN 8 NORMAL