Tweet

Selling the Truth

Written by: Jason Rife

Article Overview: Most sales ads make statements or ask questions that will place the prospect in a certain mind set. Most of the time the thinking is guided by the question asked and the reply is to click away from your daft and obvious sales ploy. Emotions are the target to selling and logic is used to substantiate that buying decision. If you think that is not true I bet your not making as much as you liked from your current sales tactics.

Selling the Truth

“In your opinion how much would you need to earn to be able to do all the things you really want to do in life, try to be realistic?

You may think this is a bizarre opening line to ask, you may be wondering why anyone would want anything but the truth. Fact is many people know the truth when they hear it or read it (or so they believe) but do they?

When we write copy for marketing purposes, which if you think about it is almost everything that goes into print. We are attempting to persuade someone of our point of view. Internet marketing is the new playground of prose.

Under the conscious radar of your prospect.

This offers some great opportunities for those willing to spend a little time knowing how to really get under the conscious radar of your prospect.

Let me just turn back to TRUTH for a moment. In internet marketing we all attempt the HARD SELL because we have the statistics to tell us we have a minimal amount of attention span from our prospects. Ego; we need to sell fast!

Looking at this established theory, it may be established but it is not the truth. The real truth is that if we can become instantly familiar we can hold onto the prospect for longer. A good conversation, novel, film or song, all have an air of truth about them.

HOW DO WE INSTALL TRUTH INTO OUR PROSPECTS MINDS?

There are many ways to pry open the truth for your prospects. Be under no illusion, if you can get a 70% truth factor into your copy you will sell more.

Let me show you an example of truth (in the eyes of a major drug Co). The press release below is my example. In the context of this article it is not and never has been connected with any drug company. Truth…

“Today our scientists discovered a new drug that could bring an end suffering for millions of children around the world”. The trials planned over the next five years will be funded by private investors. A spokesperson for the department of health said. “We are delighted that Conuall drugs have made this announcement, we are however a little concerned they have investment only from the private sector. This may affect the price of this new drug to the NHS if the trials go according to plan”.

The paragraph above serves to illustrate the principle as to what this marketing article is about. We read similar events all too often in the press and yet no new wonder drug is ever actually revealed?

It is a fine example of distorting truth to fit the minds of the reader for profit. This subject is too big to cover in an article such as this so I will stick to the question at hand. How do we install truth into our prospects minds long enough to take money from it.

May sound a bit harsh but that is the bottom line, we all think it but we never write it, who are we kidding?

Prospects will stay longer if they are reading the truth…THEIR TRUTH not yours. Some people have had the pleasure of reading other information on NLPology (which deals with relative truth in marketing) bottom line, if you know people well enough they will pay attention to you.

Tips for writing the truth

First, take a good objective view of the type of person you are targeting. Now write a description of your prospect and make sure it includes the following area.

Know your prospects personality type


I believe that Personality Profiling your Prospects is the greatest untapped Internet marketing resource.


Let me give you a classic paragraph on a good marketing profile, this holds true today as it did back in the 1900’s when it was coined by the great
P.T Barnum. He was a legendary showman and circus owner who was said to have coined the phrase “Something to please everyone”.

What is a Barnum statement?

It is a statement that rings true with many people your daily stars are based on general statements that seem to fit the readers. This in psychology is known collectively as a Barnum statement. Use of these to give the impression of truth in your ad copy has been for the most part ignored.

Typical Barnum statements

1. You tend to be too self critical
2. You’re an independent and creative thinker
3. You do not accept what others tell you to believe
4. Some of your goals seem to be a little unrealistic

Adaptation to the above and countless other variations can be used to create credibility to your copy. Below I have used an example from a collective list of statements that could fit many but seem specific to the individual.

One of the important points to remember here is that everyone thinks they are totally different to all others. Considering most of the English speaking world shares the same media, this is becoming increasingly less so. It is the collective influence of our own communication that is closing this gap.

A small snippet form “Get that pay rise NOW!…

“Considering all the hard work you have put into your work is it about time you got something back? With so much misleading information it is hard to know what the truth is, how to know exactly what you need to do. The main confusion is that there are so many options and each draws you towards areas you may not want to go”.

“Your site needs as many buying visitors as you can get, you will get as many visitors as you work for. Once you have a good list, newsletter/E-zine or E books to sell affiliation and automation will then earn you money in your sleep.

So how do I get there?

“Consider the possibility that for a moment you have wiped the mind slate clean. Ask yourself; what do you need to promote your business on the internet? Don’t attempt to complicate the solution with your existing knowledge. What I have discovered is that making money in your sleep is possible but you have to know how to set it up first.”

For those of you who have read my previous article on “Sell anything to anyone” will no doubt recognized the formula I used above. Many of the statements are true for countless people in this industry.

Notice how much softer the approach is because your talking about how they really feel about themselves, by extension you are familiar with their plight, their TRUTH. More importantly look how many leading statements come into play, outright suggestions I want my prospect to do. Yet in the context of this conversation it does not seem unreasonable.

Consider the hard and soft feeling attached to these two words, in your opinion which is softer. You or You’re?

I would suspect the latter will be chosen by most because it is softer in its approach; it is not as sharp as YOU. Why shout when you can covertly suggest?

I have seen many ads that ask questions and set a particular thinking process in action in the minds of the prospect. All of them fail to identify with the client’s internal truth, I say talking because most questions actually make the prospect feel stupid.

Example

DO YOU WANT TO EARN WHILE YOU SLEEP?

Stupid question and one that most prospects will click away from.

Why?

Because they are desensitized to it, they have seen it so many times they know it is an established opener, usually from idiots with no imagination, what are they going to sell the prospect?

Asking for their (prospects) opinion as you would a friend in conversation the above question could be phrased to read like this…

“In your opinion how much would you need to earn to be able to do all the things you really want to do?

Think about it for a moment, calculate the figures and come up with a monthly or yearly figure. When you do this quick calculation an important observation may take place inside of your mind. (Did he just say your mine?)

For the first time you may become aware that if you have not made your fortune yet it is because you had not actually put a figure on it. Yes we all want to earn in our sleep, who wouldn’t! But in doing so we have to give our subconscious mind a little more to go on…a target!

The goal is now how much not the ambiguous fuzzy goal of “I want to earn in my sleep”. If you’re too lazy to think of a figure, you will never earn in your sleep.

Truth is relative and so is your copywriting so think what your prospect would think like, make relative truth statements and combine those with NLPology (New Language Patterns) of leading and pacing (See my other articles).



(c) 2005 Jason Rife

Related Articles
  To Tell the Truth
  Set Us Free
  Best Internet Business Lesson 3 - What Products to Sell?
  Boost Your Business -- Become An Advisor
  Handling "I'm Not Interested."

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
Me Too - So.... - I write. Its a form of 'pull' marketing that suits me, though I'm quite an outgoing person. I know all the stuff about it not being me, 'they're just not ready yet'. Truth is I'm not good with rejection and will walk if I get too much of it - so I do it differently. Each to his own I guess. Still, I wish I had the guts to do those 500, just to say 'I did it'! Will read that article!
Re: Kevin's Case Study #10 - When to become an entrepreneur? - When the bug bite you. A lot of successful entrepreneurs started in their teens or at school. Selling sweets to fellow students or lemonade to firends in the neighbourhood.
Re: This is Marketing Warfare! - Hey GT, I guess this was from a while back, and it'll test your memory a bit but could you possibly elaborate on Unique Selling Proposition? Can you give us some examples of good USPs?
Blog pinging - Thanks Martin - yes, I do ping and it has been very effective. I'm currently on the first page of Google for Mastermind Group and on the second page for Selling to Small Business.
Business magazines - Fast Company is pretty good if you're into technology although it can be very on the edge. Entrepreneur has become one giant advertisement and I cancelled my subscription. Selling Power also has some useful content if you're looking at improving your sales skills / presentations.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Live To Work Or Work To Live?

10 Ways to Handle Objections Effectively

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.