Offers that Turn Lookers into Buyers

Offers that Turn Lookers into Buyers

If you're getting only a sluggish response for a product or
service that people genuinely need, wake buyers up by
spicing up your offer. I've seen losing propositions become
winners with these kinds of changes, which in most cases
cost you nothing:

1. Guarantees. With a strong, simple guarantee, you can
overcome the doubts of people who have not done business
with you before, and calm down worriers who don't act when
they can think of too many "what ifs." The guarantee does
not have to promise a refund. Someone hiring an
exterminator service wants those darned critters out, not
their money back. "We guarantee you'll be pest-free for a
year, or we'll come back and spray again for no extra
charge" is the thing to promise them. Direct-mail
professionals tell us that a one-year guarantee sells
better, with fewer refund requests, than a thirty-day
guarantee, and a lifetime guarantee does even better.

2. Package deals. If you sell office supplies, you might
think that folks going back to school know how to select
what they need. Perhaps, but why not make things easy for
them -- and more profitable for you -- by shrink-wrapping
three spiral notebooks, two packets of pens, a pocket
calendar and several semi-necessary items together in a Back
to School packet? This often persuades people to spend more
than they would on separate items.

The same principle applies to services, where you can
mobilize people who shy away from hourly fees with fixed-
price bundles: only $350 for a will and a consultation on
estate planning. A name makes your bundle more appealing:
$150 for the "Get Organized Special."

3. Premiums. Try rousing sleepy customers with bonuses --
spend more than $100 and receive a free whooziwhatsit, which
isn't available any other way. One mail-order company
offered a free booklet with any order from that catalog, and
received 13 percent more orders from that catalog than
previously. Similarly, frequent-buyer programs have now
spread far beyond airlines, because they work. If
convenience-store patrons have a card to buy nine cups of
coffee and get the tenth free, they're more likely to
consolidate their coffee buying rather than buying sometimes
here and sometimes there.

4. Payment terms. When you let clients know they can
spread payments out over two or four months, you'll snag
some wavering over the money issue. But changing payment
terms doesn't necessarily mean you get your money later. I
know speakers and consultants who offered a 2 or 5 percent
discount for payment in advance, and received their money a
whole year before they would have otherwise!

With any new offer, test, test, test. You can't know any
other way whether "Buy one, get the second one free" works
better or worse than "Buy two and each is half price."
Human beings are illogical creatures, and unexpected offers
can turn this fact to your advantage.