Why S.E.X. sells

Come to a seminar on how to get it ... to increase your revenues, profits and customer service!

It has been said that all people really want in life is S.E.X. That is ...

Security, Essentials, and the eXtras in life. And in that order too.

Most businesses are trying to sell something they consider to be Essential or eXtra; but before they can effectively do so, a buyer wants something far more fundamental from them ... they want Security.

What type of security would that be?

If you want to dramatically improve the number of new business enquiries that you generate, and massively increase your conversion rates, then settle down and pay close attention to what follows ...

Rationale

Isn't it true that most potential new buyers of your product or service are sceptical? And in most cases ... really sceptical.

And why wouldn't they be? Today's consumer has been lied to, exaggerated to, cheated, ripped off and exploited many times, and probably at least once already in your sector.

Isn't it also true that buyers today - and this includes retail consumers as well as B2B buyers - are far more 'marketing savvy', and have far greater vendor choice, than buyers only a few years ago?

And isn't it also true that most markets are being increasingly 'commoditised' so that many suppliers find themselves offering exactly the same 'product' as their competitors.

Given these observations; how do you plan on convincing potential new buyers that you truly believe that your products and services are the finest available and should be purchased only from you?

Notice the underlining?

The 'security' that a potential new buyer is seeking is about you! They want to know if you can be trusted.

Trust

How do you know if someone truly believes is what they are offering? Take a moment to really ponder that important question. Because the answer will reveal to you the most potent business principle used by successful businesses world-wide for decades.

It is vital that you answer this question because it is the exact question that potential new buyers ask themselves before they buy from you ... every time.

So put yourself in the buyer's shoes for just a moment and you'll find the question is easy to answer.

The only way you really know if someone truly believes in their own offer is if their money is on the line, not yours. Let us explain ...

Care

Firstly, compare the phrases 'buyer beware' and 'customer care'. Can these two concepts co-exist in any business ... in your business?

Traditionally, customers have been invited to bear the risk of each transaction. Certainly refund policies have gone some way toward sharing the perceived risk. Indeed the direct mail sector relies on these. But many refund policies do not work because we've all read the fine print by now, and we know it's stacked in favour of the supplier. Collecting most refunds is hardly worth the effort, inconvenience and emotional anguish. So buyers are far more apprehensive these days, and therefore require far more Security before proceeding with any purchase than is offered by a simple refund policy.

So what can you do as a supplier to provide the necessary Security, the reassurance, that your potential new buyers now require?

That depends very much on how you answer the following question ...

Confidence

'Do you truly believe in your own products, services and business?' Put another way (possibly to help you get past your own marketing hype) ... 'Would you buy from your own company?'

If you can't confidently answer 'Yes' to the above; then how can you expect any potential new buyer to be persuaded by you or any of your marketing? And even if you personally are confident ... how confident are you 'corporately' ie how confident in you and your business are your staff?

Put another way ... if your business can't establish a minimum standard of performance and promise to reach it every time ... then why are you in business?

Gone are the days of 'all care, no responsibility'. Buyers want to know that you really believe your own marketing. And with so much hype about, the way to show you really mean it is to put your own money where your mouth is.

Of course, if your answer is 'Yes', then the way to turn your business into the revenue and profit generating machine that it should be, while at the same time improving customer service, is to bear at least as much and preferably more risk than your potential new buyers. That's right ... you take on the risk of doing business with your company; not the customer; because you know you can deliver, so what have you got to lose?

Risk

At this moment you are in one of two camps ... either very excited about the possibilities that this proposition carries; or every neurone in your brain is feverishly searching for arguments against it. Most of you are in the second camp (which is why so many businesses clamour for small percentages of market share) and this is even better news for those of you in the first camp.

Either way, please be encouraged to persist with this proposition a little longer, as it will transform your business fortunes if you will act on the strength of your own convictions.

Again, put yourself back in the shoes of a buyer. What are the only reasons that you would not buy a product or service that would benefit you in some measurable way? It's either you don't have the money, or you don't believe the person selling it to you. Isn't it true that if you had absolutely no risk to try something new that was likely to hold some benefit for you, that you would try it? Of course you would.

Becoming a good sales person is about mitigating perceived risk ... showing how the sum of potential gains outweigh the sum of potential pains. A large part of the potential pain is in the risk of making a poor decision. Buyers sub-consciously assess emotional risk factors with questions to themselves like:

"If this doesn't work out for any reason ...

• will I feel like a fool?
• how will I go back to my old supplier?
• will I look gullible?
• what will I say to my boss?
• will I be wasting my time?"

After all, aren't these the sorts of things that go through your head whenever you're making a major buying decision? Changing vendors is a big deal for most people. Telephone companies would do well to realise this!

Extraordinary Guarantees

Becoming an exceptional business is about reversing this risk. Or more accurately, it's about deserving the trust. There is no better way to change the perceived benefit of your products and services than to offer an 'extraordinary guarantee' that completely eliminates the risk to the buyer; a guarantee that screams out ...

"I'm so confident in our products, services and business that I'm prepared to put my own money where my mouth is and make it impossible for you to lose out on this transaction."

The potential new buyer needs to know from you, at the moment of purchase, that they are at no risk whatsoever in proceeding with you. And if you will make that sort of offer to them; your competitors won't stand a chance against you.

Since fear of pain is a much stronger motivator than promise of gain, an 'extraordinary guarantee' of the sort we advocate is often enough on its own to cause the potential customer to buy ... even without a lengthy sales pitch outlining all the benefits. Showering potential buyers with offers of Essentials and eXtras counts for nothing without Security in the supplier.

This is exactly where traditional businesses get it all wrong. Basically they are unwilling to empathise with the concerns of their clients because they themselves are in massive fear ... just like the customer!

Ask yourself, in all honesty, while reading this so far, has your mind been circling relentlessly around the question of whether your guarantee would be abused, or whether it would dramatically encourage new buyers?

Do you think you can truly live up to the realistic expectations of new clients; or is your business really the business that potential new buyers suspect it to be?

For example ... if you were in the market for a new car and the 3 manufacturers you were considering offered essentially comparable models in terms of features and price, but one of them offered a 1 year warranty, another 5 years, and another 15 years ... which car would you choose? Clearly the one offering a 15 year warranty believes in their product more than the other two. Do you agree they would own their market in a very short space of time?

The same level of confidence can be applied in the provision of services. What about a home builder whose guarantee reads ... 'Your project completed on time and within budget - or it's free'. This is a real example!

What to do?

In practice, guarantees can be designed and offered along a spectrum suited to the aspirations and abilities of any business.

Guarantees, and especially those that are in some way even better than money back, are proven to drive more enquiries to your door, and to convert more prospects more readily. But you have to know how to do it the right way in order to turn potential 'guarantee abuse' into better revenues, profits and customer service.

To find out how, make your booking to attend Edensilk's next 'Extraordinary Guarantees' half-day workshop. Contact us to find out when we can organise this for you.

The Extraordinary Guarantees workshop is exclusively for business owners and senior managers who are in a position to implement the kinds of changes that are often required for a business to truly align itself with the interests and concerns of customers.

We limit attendance ... because as you should expect, we offer our own extraordinary better-than-money-back guarantee to delegates as follows:

'If at any time during or by the end of the workshop you do not believe (for any reason that you need not disclose) that the content will benefit your business to at least the value of the booking fee, we will insist on writing you, right then and there, a refund cheque to the full value of the booking fee, and in addition, present you with a restaurant gift voucher to the same value again as compensation for your time investigating our proposition.'

In short, Edensilk is so confident that you will benefit from our instruction on why and how to structure and implement an extraordinary guarantee policy that we are prepared not only to remove all risk to you in finding out, but in effect to pay you for the trouble of finding out if it turns out that it's not for you. And we'll let you be the sole and undisputed judge of that.

Do you wish you could make offers like this for your own products and services? Then call us on 08 9271 7661 to book a workshop or find out other ways that we can help you have the confidence and means to be the business that your potential customers expect you to be.
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PS Will this offer be abused and Edensilk suffer? You'll have to attend a workshop to find out, since these programmes include a full analysis of our own promotion as a real-life example and as a way to explain the psychology of how to profit from potential abuse!

PPS Still not sure that a guarantee policy will work for your business? Not having one - and not attending this seminar to find out how - means it certainly will not ... we can guarantee that too! Or come along ... and the worst that can happen to you is that you come away with a restaurant gift voucher.

PPPS Still not prepared to book? Does that mean you don't believe us, or you don't believe in your own business? Either way, we need to talk!

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What you will learn

By attending Edensilk’s ‘Extraordinary Guarantees’ workshop you will learn:

1. Why you can’t lose by offering a ‘better than money-back’ guarantee
2. How to develop a guarantee policy that:

• Increases your new business enquiry rates
• Increases your conversion rates
• Increases the average value of your sales ie up-sell and cross-sell more
• Improves your profit margin on each sale
• Enhances customer loyalty
• Boosts referral rates
• Improves customer service levels    
• Reinforces quality control
• Increases employee productivity levels
• Increases your overall revenues
• Increases your gross and net profits
• Accelerates your cash collection

3. How to write it, what to say, and how to say it
4. How it is going to be received by potential clients by testing it on other workshop delegates

Accordingly there will be no competing businesses at any single workshop. Only the first 30 bookings can be accommodated to ensure good group dynamics, so don’t delay.

And on top of everything else, this could be one of the best opportunities you’ve ever had to network with other business owners and operators who are as serious about growing their businesses as you are about growing yours!

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