The Most Powerful Compliance Catalyst
in the Entire Known Universe …
In this issue:
- How to hook people on hungrily consuming your sales message …
- High shopping cart abandonment rate? Maybe you’re not doing this …
- Interactive technology gives an old idea new legs (bigger, brawnier ones) …
- And much more!
Dear Web Business Builder,
”Getting your foot in the door” has become a metaphorical expression for gaining an audience with a potential buyer …
As an online seller, if you could just get your foot in the door with more prospects, you could make more sales, right?
In the old days, it was commonplace for sellers to canvass neighborhoods, bang on doors, and hustle their way in to sell pots and pans, vacuum cleaners, piano lessons, and so forth.
The lady of the house would come to the door, and the salesman, armed with free samples, would engage her in a very deliberate, scripted, yet friendly and natural sounding conversation. At his earliest opportunity, the salesman would place one foot in the foyer.
Salesmen were actually trained to do this.
Some trainers believed a head in the door was even better. That way, if the lady of the house slammed the door, the salesman could keep talking.
But what’s the significance of “foot in the door,” and why is it such an enduring metaphor?
“Foot in the door,” is an example of a sales tactic that leverages the universal human trait known as “commitment and consistency.” Commitment and consistency says that we are powerfully compelled to act in ways that are consistent with our past actions.
So if the lady of the house allows the salesman to put his foot in the door — without slamming it on his leg — chances are really good she will not object a few moments later when he walks right in. He might even be invited to do so.
This is not the first time the salesman will use commitment and consistency to advance the sale. Once inside, his sales talk is deliberately designed to get Mom and Pop to agree with him.
If the salesman can get them to agree to even the smallest little thing, commitment and consistency kicks in and they become inclined to agree to the next, slightly larger thing, and so it goes.
When the salesman sees that dreamy, transfixed look on their faces (that magical moment when they mentally take ownership of the product), he moves in for the close.
And using C&C, he closes the sale so painlessly they hardly notice. He asks them how they spell their surname, and he writes it down on his order pad.
“It was the desert brown model that you preferred wasn’t it?” he asks, nodding his head. They nod back, and he checks that off.
“Shall we install this on Monday morning, or is Tuesday afternoon better for you?” And gradually he eases Mom and Pop into a new alarm system for their home.
It’s 2008, and door-to-door selling is all but dead. Commitment and consistency however is alive and well, and always will be.
If you want to get your digital foot in the door, it often makes sense to ask for a small commitment before you ask for the big one. If you can get a prospect to take a small action — opting-in to your e-zine for example — then that person becomes much more likely to buy.
How to hook people on
hungrily consuming your sales message …
When qualified prospects arrive on your sales page, if you can get them to read a little copy, you can get ‘em to read a lot of copy. How so?
Your reader is like a locomotive. It takes a great deal of skill and effort to get him moving, but once you do, the momentum tends to carry him. The more he reads, the more committed he becomes to getting the full story. Not only is he more likely to keep reading, he’s more likely to buy.
Involvement devices are also fantastic for leveraging commitment and consistency to encourage consumption of your sales message. You may have seen my headline quiz squeeze page a while back.
The page presents 8 pairs of split-tested headlines and asks you to pick the winning headline in each case. If you took the quiz, you’ll remember that at the end of the quiz you had to opt in to retrieve your score. That’s commitment and consistency.
The interactive sales letter is another great example. Your prospect comes to your landing page and you ask a question. For example: “Please select the application you intend to use xyz software for in your business?” Then you present a drop down box where they can make their selection. If they make a selection, what have they done?
Not only have they self-qualified themselves — so you can speak more specifically to their needs in the rest of your copy — they’ve also made a commitment to consuming your sales message and buying your product.
It’s very much like what the late great sales trainer J. Douglas Edwards called the “porcupine close.” If a prospect asked a question like “Can I use this software to listen to my voice mail messages on my computer?” the untrained answer would be “YES, absolutely!”
The trouble with this answer is, it does very little to create a sense of commitment on the part of the prospect. Instead, J. Douglas advised the salesperson to reply along the lines of, “Do you want it with that feature?” Naturally the prospect would reply “YES.” And when he did, what did the salesperson have? That’s right, a commitment!
High shopping cart abandon rate?
Maybe you’re not doing this …
Here’s another place where you can and should be using commitment and consistency to improve your conversion — on your shopping cart pages. Just the way a real live salesman assumes the sale when the prospect is ready, your shopping cart should do the same. How?
With copy written in the customer’s voice that confirms the sale, of course. When your prospect clicks on a “buy button” on your sales page, he should see something like this: “YES! I’d be crazy to miss out on this amazing one time deal. Please rush me your latest edition of … ” And the copy should go on to summarize the benefits of the product and the offer in the prospect’s voice. What’s happening?
Your prospect hears the copy in his head. Who’s doing the talking? He is. If he’s reading, is he committing? Hell yes!
And to remain consistent with that commitment what’s he going to do? That’s right, he’s going to follow through and order the product.
One more example …
Interactive technology gives an old idea
new legs (bigger, brawnier ones) …
Remember those testimonial contests that Procter & Gamble, General Foods and other consumer product companies used to run? To enter, the contestant wrote a short personal statement under the heading “Why I like Puffed Wheat (or whatever the company happened to be flogging).” These are classic examples of commitment and consistency tactics used in advertising.
Lately we’ve been seeing a lot of online contests haven’t we? “Come to my blog and tell me why you need my soon-to-be-released new product. The two or three contestants with the most compelling post win a copy!”
If I’m not mistaken, I think it was Jeff Walker who started this. Jeff (aided by modern interactive technology) found a way to actually stack many of the persuasion principles outlined in Dr. Robert Cialdini’s classic book Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion on top of one another to marvelous effect. By the way, if you haven’t read Cialdini’s book, you really should.
In a nutshell, Jeff asks his prospects to enter a contest where every contestant’s entry is visible on his blog.
Joe Prospect enters the contest. He goes on the public record as wanting a copy of Jeff’s product, including the reasons why he wants it. That’s a powerful form of commitment. Suppose Joe doesn’t win …
What action do you think he’s likely to take to remain consistent with his prior commitment when the product is finally released for sale? Sure, he’ll be compelled to buy it.
At the same time, he sees how many other contestants are raving about it. That’s “social proof,” another one of the principles documented in Cialdini’s research. If everybody is clamoring for this thing, heck, it’s gotta be good!
Of course, when the product is finally released, it will only be available for a limited time, and the first people to buy will get more value than everyone else. That’s “scarcity,” backed up with proof, right? On launch day, social proof turns into social competition. Lots of people are visibly on record as wanting the product, only so many available … another Cialdini principle.
But wait there’s more …
Using an interactive piece of media like a blog in this way also leverages “reciprocity” and “liking,” two more of the Cialdini principles. The prospect of winning a prize demonstrates Jeff is a generous guy. People feel obliged to reciprocate. And the outpouring of positive comments on the blog demonstrates a definite liking and personal bond between prospect and seller.
You’ve got to hand it to Jeff for taking these principles and applying them so brilliantly.
The Bottom Line:
Commitment and consistency is a powerful force of human nature, and a potent selling tool. It can help you to grow your sales and profitability online while helping more people to enjoy the benefits of your product. So why don’t we do a little brainstorming?
Let’s see how many other unique and innovative uses of commitment and consistency we can come up with. (Tested/untested, online/offline, anything goes.)
Just post your experience and ideas in the comment box below.
Until next time, Good Selling!
Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE
Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant and direct response copywriter based in Toronto, Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology, Masters of Copywriting, featuring the selling wisdom of 44 of the “Top Money” marketing minds of all time, including Clayton Makepeace, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, John Carlton, Joe Vitale, Michel Fortin, Richard Armstrong and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit http://www.SellingtoHumanNature.com
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3 Comments »
Join the Discussion!
Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
– Clayton
Comment by Mohawk Gringo — April 9, 2008 @ 12:14 pm
Here’s one that helped me land a beautiful young girlfriend using a few techniques from Cialdini’s book.
In December of 06, I met a 22 year old brunette that was home from college. We had been hanging out for maybe three weeks and I wanted to invite her to a New Years Eve bash in Orlando that I had planned with a dozen friends.
But, if any of you know about women (college aged or not), they change their mind. A lot. I didn’t want to invite her and just have her bail out on the last minute.
So, on a weekend trip down to the Florida Keys, I set up a foolproof way to get her to commit.
Including me and her, five of us would be going down to the Keys. Convienently, everyone but her would be in Orlando for New Years.
The whole trip I made sure to bring up how much fun we would have on New Years. But here’s the kicker, I didn’t beg her to come with us, and in each conversation I made sure to ask her, "Now…doesn’t that sound fun?"
And she would always answer yes.
After three nonstop days of talking about how this would be the end-all be-all New Years event, she would practically salivate every time we brought it up.
When I finally asked her, after a few dozen ‘yes’s’ from her, she enthusiastically agreed. And I knew there was no way she would back out.
We’ve been happily together ever since.
Thanks again for the great article Clayton.
Mohawk Gringo
http://www.mohawkgringo.com
Comment by Daniel Levis — April 9, 2008 @ 12:43 pm
Thanks for contributing Mohawk. Great use of C&C. I love that story.
Comment by Len Bailey — April 10, 2008 @ 9:24 am
Thanks for another great article, David.
And way to go, Mowhawk. Apply those same principles to your copy, and you’ll be a helluva hook-man!
Len Bailey