It was Monday morning when Simon gave me the awful news. “You’re not going to like this…” I braced myself as he told me that a number of our websites had been disabled by our web hosting company… and a significant part of our business was offline for an unknown period of time.

Simon got in touch with our web host and, after some to-ing and fro-ing, it turned out that a hacker had exploited a vulnerability in one of the scripts we were running on the web server (the computer that hosted our sites). But before I go on, let me say that what I’m about to reveal holds some critical lessons for you.

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According to Andy Jenkins, your prospects are all just ‘lazy skeptics’ who read your sales copy with two thoughts upper-most in mind:

“Why should I bother?”

“This can’t possibly be true.”

In other words, they don’t want to do anything they perceive as hard work - whether it’s taking out their wallet or following your home study course - and they don’t believe what you’re saying anyway.

If true… such beliefs surely lie in the way of converting your prospects into customers. So how do you overcome such barriers and get them to buy from you.

Andy Jenkins recommends harnessing your prospect’s inherent laziness and skepticism to your benefit. To do so, you emphasize how EASY it is to take the desired action… and that what you’re offering DOES sound too good to be true (appealing to their latent skepticism) but really isn’t.

Take a look at Andy’s article for how he recommends you do this, but here are two ways you might appeal to/dismiss prospects’ laziness and skepticism respectively:

1. Laziness

Use words such as ‘easy’, ’simple’, ’step by step’, ‘in just 3 steps’, and so on. For example, which of the following appeals to you?

“A weight loss guide”

“An easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to losing weight”

2. Skepticism

Agree with the prospect (never DISagree with them!) that what you’re offering sounds too good to be true and provide a LOGICAL reason why your solution is an exception to the rule. For example, if you build up the value of a software program to such an extent that it could reasonably be worth hundreds of dollars, but then offer it for just a fraction of the price, a skeptical prospect may wonder if the product really is as good as you say it is. To combat that response, you might use a logical argument that, for example, you wish to ‘beta test’ the product among a select group of people before you formally launch it, or that you are offering the software as-is with no helpdesk support, etc.

Source: Andy Jenkins, “Use Emotion AND Logic to sell MORE”, StomperBlog, October 1, 2008

Yesterday I mentioned my weekend away at Daylesford, a small town north-west of Melbourne.

I explained how the bed-and-breakfast my husband and I stayed at failed to keep the “promise” it made to us: the promise of a good night’s sleep.

Then I proposed that everyone in business makes “promises” to their customers… promises that may not be obvious, yet are always assumed… And that if you break them, you are likely to lose your most valuable, loyal customers.

So how do you know what promises YOU make to YOUR most loyal customers?

Well, here’s the first hint: these promises may not have anything to do with your “unique selling proposition,” or your slogan, or your company’s mission statement.

You may not even mention them in your sales and promotional materials.

In fact, they are to be found among the daily activities of your business.

They are often the “little” things you do everyday - or should do everyday - and that your customers expect.

Let’s take three promises an online business is likely to make:

• Providing detailed, user-friendly instructions (e.g. for a software program or an Internet based service);
• Providing an acknowledgement when a customer sends them an email or purchase request; and
• Delivering prompt, friendly and helpful customer support.

Nothing major here, right?

Yet how many times do you purchase software, or sign up for an online service, only to find instructions that are impossible to understand?

How many times do you send an email, a support ticket, or even buy something… and receive no acknowledgement that your email, ticket or purchase was received?

And how many times do you request customer support… only to be told to read the instructions? (That ain’t providing the customer with “support”, folks)

Let me be frank. Failing to keep basic promises like these will turn otherwise loyal customers away in droves.

Okay, so if you offer a unique, superior product or service, maybe they’ll stick around despite the difficulties of doing business with you.

But as soon as someone comes along with a comparable product or service that keeps those promises… YOU’RE TOAST!

So have a think about these and any other promises you might be making… and breaking… to your loyal customers.

Then do whatever it takes to keep those promises!

You’ll not only keep your current customers, but you’ll spur them to refer you to their friends… which means MORE customers and MORE sales and profits for you.

Not too long ago, I discussed the merits of building a list of optin subscribers.

Of course, this begs the question: how can you entice people to opt in to your offer? What kind of offer should you make?

Well, an enticing offer is essentially something that has high perceived value to your target market. Something that people are willing to exchange for their name and email address (or any other details you request).

It might be a free newsletter subscription, report, whitepaper, email mini-course, software program, screensaver, audio clip, CDROM that you send in the mail, or… anything really!

The key is that it has high perceived value in the eyes of your target market.

Newsletters, for example, are a dime-a-dozen these days. Unless you’re offering a unique perspective, timely information, or particularly valuable information unavailable elsewhere, a newsletter may not be attractive enough in itself.

However, it may be attractive enough if it’s combined with something else.

At the end of the day, it’s a matter of innovation, testing and tracking to see which offer generates the most optin subscribers. But it’s not just the offer that impacts on your optin rate… It’s also how your offer is presented. We’ll talk about that next time.