Recently, Terry Dean wrote a story about how he and his wife received free ballroom dancing lessons, but declined to continue the paid lessons because the instructor said, “This will be the hardest thing you have ever done.”

While Terry found this statement to be a big turn-off (so much so that he decided ballroom dancing wasn’t for him), I found it to be quite appealing. If I had been in Terry’s ballroom dancing shoes, that statement would have motivated me to sign up right away.

Hard Work as a Selling Appeal

Claiming that a particular product or service could make your life harder is a legitimate selling appeal if there’s a commensurate pay-off on the other side of that effort.

For instance, you might say, “It’ll be the hardest 2 weeks of your life, but once you’re done… benefit, benefit, benefit.”

This kind of approach does two things:

1. The up-front damaging admission automatically gives more credibility to the benefits you describe.

2. Saying that something is difficult is a takeaway selling approach. You’re implying that not everybody can do this or have the end result. This exclusivity will automatically increase desire for your product or service.

I bring this up because it’s critical to understand who your target market is.

I actually like a challenge, always have. And when somebody uses a legitimate qualification process to filter out people, it actually motivates me to see if I can qualify. If somebody claims that their approach is extremely difficult — yet produces amazing results — I immediately want to prove I have what it takes to succeed.

Obviously, this approach doesn’t appeal to everybody. Some people like things to be easy and effortless. And, in certain areas of my life, that’s definitely true for me, too. But in other areas, I’m eager to be pushed to my limits.

For instance, I’ve been going through the P90X program the last four weeks. It’s grueling, but I love it. More than 7 hours of intense exercise every week, and this is in addition to my league racquetball games.

If you’ve seen the P90X infomercials, then you know that they’re not selling “easy” — although they are selling relatively fast results (in 90 days). But the approach must be working because more than 32 million P90X DVDs have been sold to date. Plus, P90X has more than a quarter million Facebook fans.

More Proof that Hard Work Sells!

It’s not just P90X that sells a “hard” approach successfully. Another Beach Body program called Insanity practically has “hard work” built right into the name!

What’s more, the very first line of sales copy says, “Are you ready to dig deep? Then you might just complete the hardest workout program ever put on DVD.”

They’re not just selling “hard” here; they’re selling “the hardest workout program ever put on DVD.”

Sign me up, baby!

(Seriously, I’m in the middle of P90X and there’s a part of me that really wants to try Insanity, too.)

The point is: Know your audience. Know which appeals are going to resonate with them — and which appeals are going to turn them off.

In some markets, you’ll want to promote how easy your product or service is. But in other markets, you may want to go to the opposite extreme and promote how difficult it is, or use a strong takeaway selling approach.

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

• The Dark Side of Advance Selling
• 3 Easy Ways to Start Writing an Ad
• Local PR as a Business Growth Strategy
• A Simple Strategy for Creating and Launching More Products
• Eight Months to Write a Letter?

For the first time ever, I bought a product being sold on an infomercial.

Yep.

Was sitting there in front of the TV with my wife as Jack Lalanne demonstrated the merits of his Power Juicer.

Now, I’m kinda hip to marketing. So I know a little bit about what to expect in an infomercial.

But it was hilarious to watch my wife’s response as they went from 4 payments of $49.95 to 3 payments… and then all the way down to 2 payments.

My wife literally blurted out, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

At that point, she was totally sold. They’d created so much value… and made the offer so compelling… it was literally a “no-brainer.”

Since I try to be a good husband, I picked up the phone and called the 800-number to place an order.

And like I said, I know a little bit about marketing, so I expected a few additional offers after ordering the Power Juicer. But I did not fully appreciate just how many offers to expect.

I’ll share the entire offer funnel in a minute. But first, let me share with you what I think may be the most valuable lesson here:

They asked for my name and credit card number immediately. They didn’t even ask why I was calling or anything. Just:

1. “What’s your first name?”
2. “What’s your last name?”
3. “Okay, Mr. Healy, would you like to use a Visa, Mastercard, or American Express?”
4. “What’s your credit card number?”
5. “What’s the expiration?”

Only after they’d captured all my payment info, billing address, and shipping address did they even mention the Power Juicer.

You see, the sale was assumed from the moment I said hello.

The quickest way to kill a sale is to keep on jabbering after a person has already decided to buy. And that’s why the sales folks didn’t waste any time capturing my credit card info.

This actually serves two purposes.

First, it practically guarantees the initial sale.

Second, it makes it super-easy for the buyer to say “yes” to all the successive offers.

And that’s when the real fun begins. :-)

Below you’ll find every single step that the telemarketer ran me through. I probably got to see more of the offer funnel because I said “no” on a number of things. Some people may get fewer offers… and some people may get more.

Step 1: Confirm order for the Power Juicer for 2 payments of $49.95 + S&H

Step 2: Offer to upgrade to a better model of the Power Juicer

Step 3: Chance to buy refurbished Power Juicers at a discount

Step 4: Upgrade to 6-yr. warranty

Step 5: Upgrade to 3-yr. warranty

Step 6: Accessory pack with glass stand, cleaning brush, and pitcher

Step 7: Jack Lalanne’s book Live Young Forever

Step 8: Jack Lalanne’s recipe book for how to use the leftover pulp in muffins, breads, etc.

[Upsell funnel pauses here as agent processes my order.]

Step 9: A free $15 gas card to speak with an accident insurance agent

Step 10: A free 2-day trip to the Bahamas (an agent will “answer your questions”)

Step 11: A free $25 gift card to Wal-Mart with 3 free magazine subscriptions

Let me tell you, that is a LOT of steps! I was on the phone for nearly 30 minutes. And when all was said and done, I had spent just over $300, including shipping.

What I found particularly interesting were the last three upsells. These were free gifts being offered as incentives by different companies. And I’m sure that the company selling the Power Juicers gets paid a flat fee per lead that they refer out to these other companies.

I said no to each offer because I didn’t want to be submitted to a second “sales gauntlet.” But I’m sure they get a lot of takers.

I mean just look at the last offer. They’re paying you $25 to accept three free magazine subscriptions! Seems kinda weird. But the company that’s trying to generate leads must really know its numbers.

For instance, the magazines themselves might pay for each new subscriber… even if he’s not “paid up”… because they can then justify or increase their ad rates based on higher circulation.

It’s all very interesting.

One thing I took away from the experience is that a multi-step upsell process works.

Another thing I took away is the idea of offering affiliate products at the end of your offer funnel — even if you’ve already walked through all the products you have to sell.

Bottom line: You can pick up a lot of good marketing ideas just from watching infomercials. You can pick up even more when you decide to actually order something. (Just take good notes during the sales process!)

-Ryan M. Healy
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Get this: Amazon just kicked off an advertising contest where the winners get $20,000 in Amazon Gift Certificates. Looks like they’ll be choosing two winners, and they’ll each get a $10,000 gift certificate.

I figured you’d want to know about it because chances are you’re good at writing copy… or… you want to get good at writing copy. And even though the contest involves creating a VIDEO ad, I figured it would be a fun exercise in advertising.

Who knows? Maybe it will push you to broaden your copywriting horizons.

Personally, I plan to carve out some time for this, just for the fun of it. Plus, it’ll force me to buy that Flip video camera I’ve been eyeing for the last year.

Interested in learning more or creating an ad for the contest? Go check it out here:

Amazon Advertising Contest

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

• And the Winner Is…
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