INCREASE YOUR SALES BY INCREASING YOUR BELIEVABILITY
People won't buy from you until they're confident you will
deliver exactly what they expect to get. You can help them
develop that confidence by making certain every claim you make
about your product or service is fully believable.
Here are 3 ways you can increase your believability with
prospects -- and generate more sales. All 3 work for any
business. And you can use them with any marketing method
including the Internet.
USE TESTIMONIALS
Testimonials from satisfied customers are powerful selling
tools. They establish your believability because they prove you
already delivered what you promised to other customers.
The most effective testimonials describe a specific result your
customer enjoyed by using your product or service. For example,
"In just 2 weeks I lost 9 pounds, felt years younger and still
enjoyed all my favorite foods".
TIP: Get permission to use your customers' names and addresses
with their testimonials. Personal testimonials from real people
are more believable than anonymous testimonials.
PROVIDE SPECIFICS
You can also increase your believability by converting general
statements into specific descriptions. "It's fast, easy and
inexpensive" may accurately describe your product or service.
But a specific description of how fast, how easy and how
inexpensive is more believable.
Also, try to avoid using round numbers (10, 25, 40, etc.) in
your claims. Instead, reduce them to specific odd numbers with
fractions or decimals. Here's why...
Which of the following 2 statements sounds more authentic to you?
1. Our clients average 30 percent more sales. 2. Our clients
average 27.7 percent more sales.
Most people choose the second statement. 30 percent may be the
accurate number. But 27.7 percent is more believable.
BONUS: Specific descriptions also create impact and excitement.
They motivate more of your prospects to buy.
TONE DOWN YOUR CLAIMS
If the actual results you can produce for your customers or
clients sound too good to be true, your prospective customers
will assume it's not true. It happened to me...
I once developed a direct mail postcard that generated over 20
percent replies when I sent it to names on a special mailing
list. Most of the businesses I approached with a lead service
using this postcard didn't believe I could really get that high
a response rate for them.
The service was difficult to sell unless I substantially
understated the projected rate of response. I eventually
discovered that projecting a 7 1/2 to 9 1/2 percent response
rate produced the largest number of sales. That rate was still a
substantial increase for any company -- and it was more
believable than the actual rate of more than 20 percent.
SPECIAL ADVANTAGE: Understating the results your customer can
expect also enhances your credibility. Imagine your customer's
reaction when your product or service produces substantially
better results than you promised.
How believable are the claims and promises you make to
prospective customers or clients? Do you use testimonials and
provide specifics? Are there any claims you need to tone down
because they sound too good to be true? Prospective customers
won't buy from you unless they fully believe every claim and
promise you make.