Overcoming Objections To Price
by Charlie Cook

How much more could you earn if your prospects didn't object to your prices? You'd close more sales and be more successful.

Like most service professionals and small business owners chances are you struggle with objections to pricing on a daily basis. You lose business because prospects get stuck on price. Your pricing will never satisfy everyone but the following ideas will help you eliminate pricing objections from the majority of your buyers.

MARKET TO PROSPECTS EMOTIONS

One of the biggest marketing mistakes you can make is to start by marketing to a prospect's head instead of their heart. If your marketing materials and presentations lead with a presentation of the product or service features and/or your own credentials, this is the wrong information to present up front to prospects and can hinder the sale of your products and services.

The majority of purchases are ultimately based on emotion. Vehicle purchases are a great example. Sales of 4 wheel drive SUV's has soared despite the fact 90% of the buyers never go off road or need the 4 wheel drive functionality. Porsche sales have grown steadily, despite the fact that most often their owners use them around town and in traffic, rarely if ever driving at the over a hundred miles an hour they are easily capable of going.

Your prospects buy your products and services for their own reasons, not yours. Getting their attention by focusing your marketing on their concerns. Use questions to bring their emotional reasons for making a purchase into the conversation. When you present the benefits of your products or services, do so in the context of your prospects emotional interests.

- Are you marketing to your prospects hearts or their minds?

UNDERSTAND THE EMOTIONAL REASONS PEOPLE BUY

Some people buy cars based on their perception of safety, others based on the potential for speed and others make their selection based on how little gas the vehicle consumes. If you want to be more successful in marketing you need to know the emotional reasons people buy your products and services.

Reasons prospects buy include fear, gain, comfort, security, pride and personal satisfaction. When it comes to making a decision these are the motivators that determine whether your prospects buy your products and services.

If you sell investment advice, fear of loss, desire for gain and security may all be motivators. If you sell wide screen TVs or audiophile stereo equipment, personal satisfaction and pride may be the motivators. If you sell graphic design, your client's desired image is a motivator.

Marketing is about helping prospects make decisions. If you understand the emotional reasons your prospects use to justify a purchase than you can pitch to their emotions in your advertisements, on your web site, in your brochure and in your presentations and conversations.

- What are the emotional reasons your prospects buy?

HELP PROSPECTS DEFINE VALUE

To help prospects understand the value of your services, don't tell them; ask them. Most people learn by putting new ideas into their own words. Use questions to get prospects to identify the ways they'll benefit from your products. Ask them what they want, what they are looking for, and how they expect to benefit. Get your prospects to define their aspirations and objectives for their purchase.

These questions actively engage your prospects. By describing the benefits they are looking for they begin to imagine how much better off they'd be with your products and services.

- What questions can you ask to get prospects to describe the value of your products and services?

PUT PRICE INTO CONTEXT

There is a reason a car salesman has you look at a car in detail and take if for a test ride so you can experience all the features before they'll discuss price.

Hedge funds are investment vehicles that can provide unique benefits such as being able to achieve steady growth in both up and down markets or unusually high returns. Some investors believe these benefits are worth paying hedge fund managers ten times the normal management fees.

After prospects' have defined the value of the service or product they're interested in and can see themselves using it, then you present price. A price of ten dollars or ten thousand can scare your prospects away if you give it to them too soon.

- Are you presenting your pricing information too soon?

Increase your sales by pitching to your prospects' reasons for buying. Use your questions to help prospects define the benefits of your products and services in their own words. They will have far fewer objections to price and you'll make

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Charlie Cook helps service professionals and small business owners attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing Guide, '7 Steps to Grow Your Business' and the 'More Business' newsletter, full of practical tips you can use at: Marketing For Success

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How I Write Hypnotic Copy That Sells
or, How a Little Italian Can Make You Rich
by Joe Vitale

Imagine someone hands you the following message--

"Riguardo a gli dice il mio segreto di dollaro di milione per scrivere di copia di vendite. Questo è qualcosa non ho mai detto nessuno altro nel mondo intero. Lo dirò giustamente adesso, se lei promette a tiene quest'un segreto. Stato d'accordo?"

You wouldn't be too interested in it, would you? It would look strange. Confusing. You might assume it's from another language, but unless you knew Italian, you would only be guessing to the language and the message.

What would you do?

Obviously, you would need to translate the message.

How? In this case, you might just go online at a great website for translating languages, enter the above text, and quickly discover that those words in Italian actually mean---

"I'm about to tell you my million dollar secret for writing sales copy. This is something I've NEVER told anyone else in the entire world. I'll tell you right now, if you promise to keep this a secret. Agreed?"

Ah! Now it all makes sense! Now you know what the words mean and you are free to enjoy them, act on them, or just dismiss them. But at least now you've gotten the communication. Relax. Breathe. Smile. Ahhhhhh...

But what does all this translation business have to do with how I write hypnotic sales letters, ads, and news releases?

In a nutshell, translating is EXACTLY what I do in writing sales copy.

When someone hands me a technical manual on a new software program--- with the idea they want me to write a sales letter for the software--- what I do is translate that manual.

In short, I do the same thing the language translation website does. I simply look at what the manual says the software does, and then I translate it into benefits that make sense to you, the consumer. In a way, the manual is written for techies, much like Italian is written for Italians. I have to translate both so you can understand and make sense of them. If I don't, you won't care.

Here's an example of what I mean:

Recently I was hired to rewrite a brochure. My client handed me their draft. It read well. There were lines such as, "When was the last time you felt OK?" Well, nothing wrong with that. It works. But I found a way to translate it into something more meaningful, understandable, and emotional. And I did it with just one word. I wrote, "When was the last time you felt fantastic?"

The translated line communicated better. It's the difference between hearing the line in Italian or in English. As Mark Twain put it, it's the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.

But maybe that example is too simple...

At another point in their brochure they were trying to explain the concept of suppressing emotions, and how suppression could be harmful. Their words were fine, just as Italian words are fine. But they didn't communicate in a way most people would hear. So I translated their words to, "Suppression is building bombs. When you bury an emotion, you bury it alive."

See the difference? I do this with all my copywriting. I take what I'm handed and I translate it into benefits, clear language, and bottom line emotion. This truly does feel like translating languages to me. And like learning any new language, it takes time to master.

I take the copy given to me, turn on the part of my mind that knows how to speak copywriting, and I translate the words in front of me into words YOU can understand.

I also do this "Copywriting Translation" with news releases. For example, last month I was hired to write a news release for a woman's book. I could have written a headline that said, "New book explains how to communicate better," which is what the book was about. But that's Italian. It doesn't speak in emotional terms or in a way most editors want to hear.

After doing some research and learning more about the author, I translated the above headline to instead read, "Female Pentagon Advisor Reveals Tips to Success." The latter is far more intriguing. All I did was translate her book into news. I took it from Italian to English. I took it from English to Emotion. I took it from words to power.

What's the secret to being a good "copy translator"?

I could probably quote a relevant line from any number of books on marketing. But I'll grab one from a 1965 book I just received today. It's by Robert Conklin. The title is "The Power of a Magnetic Personality." He wrote:

"Putting it simply, it means this: Every time you state a fact, describe how that fact will benefit the other person." There you have it. It's what I've been saying for years: "Get out of your ego and into your reader's ego." Translate what you want to say into simple words and concepts that make sense to your readers.

I hope I've done that with this brief article. I began with the idea to tell you how I write sales copy. But I didn't want to just say, "I translate all words into sales copy," which may or may not make sense to you. Instead, I wanted to describe, with examples, what I do so you truly comprehend it. Finally--

"Adesso che lei sa il mio segreto, va avanti e traduce le sue lettere di vendite, l'advertisements, e le liberazioni di notizie nell'ones che farà lei milioni dei dollari. Piacere!"

Translation: "Now that you know my secret, go forth and translate your sales letters, advertisements, and news releases into ones that will make you millions of dollars. Enjoy!"

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Dr. Joe Vitale is holding an intensive training in his copywriting methods September 11-12 in Austin, Texas. Only 10 can attend. You will learn Dr. Vitale's hypnotic writing formulas and become certified as a Hypnotic Copywriter. Cost is $5,000. To register, write copy@mrfire.com
Get a crash course in hypnotic copywriting by grabbing many of Joe Vitale's works at -- Hypnotic Library And get his famous writing software from -- Hypnotic Writing Wizard

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