In This Lesson: The right picture is worth a thousand words.
If you complete this lesson you’ll learn how to make your customers feel good about you without saying a thing. You’ll also remove a huge part of the worry that comes with our fear of the unknown.
The Challenge: We developed the ability to see, long before the ability to read.
The written word is an amazing technology. Invented to allow us to transport ideas through time and space without distortion. But we’ve been learning through watching people for eons before we learned to speak, let alone communicate through written language.
What this means is, if we want people to really understand us, we should always attempt to demonstrate what it is we’re selling. And the more dramatic and exaggerated that demonstration, the more emotional impact it will have.
Is your product demonstrable?
If you can demonstrate your product through video, all the better. But for the sake of this format, the sales letter I just want you to ask yourself the question – how can I visually demonstrate what I’m saying?
When I’m describing the Problem, can I SHOW the problem?
When I’m describing how the Problem could get Worse, can I SHOW it?
When I’m describing how life could be Better, can I SHOW it, over and over?
Hi, I’m Billy Mays!
Infomercials can be great sources of inspiration to spark your creative juices. Those guys are the masters of dramatic theatre. In fact no product makes it onto shopping TV without answering that fundamental question – Is it demonstrable? If it isn’t, they don’t even attempt to sell it. That’s how much more powerful a demonstrable product is.
Billy Mays (RIP), king of the pitch men, has driven a car over his hand, hit himself with a hammer, cut a car in two, and made countless whites whiter. All in the name of demonstrability. He’s sold billions of dollars worth of products because of his ability to demonstrate, right there in-front of the customer, how well a product works.
Inject some humanity, people prefer to do business with people.
When you’re thinking about how to demonstrate your product and its benefits visually, I don’t want you to forget the context. It’s PEOPLE who use products.
If we are of an engineering, technical or design nature, we often think about the things, ahead of the people. But it’s people who are going to get the benefit. It’s people who are going to do the buying. So we have to include the product in action, with people.
Don’t hide behind a brand.
Too many small companies try to hide behind a “brand” so as not to expose themselves to rejection or ridicule. The truth is, it can take a decade to build a brand. And ironically, every major brand spends a fortune trying to make themselves seem more human and down to earth. McDonald’s has Ronald. KFC has the Colonel.
The need to connect with a face, to feel like we are transacting with another person is huge. We have been trading with other humans and pre-humans (and working out whether we trust them) since the beginning of our time. Brands are an invention of the modern world, so hiding behind one just won’t cut it.
Pulling the “introvert” card doesn’t work.
We have to give our customers a face, a name, a personality to connect with. Some of the best writers, thought leaders and believe it or not, public speakers, are highly introverted. But they want to build a successful business, more than they want to hide.
Whilst we, as the founders and creators of companies are critical to the sales process, people also like to see the real faces of other customers. This creates a strong sense of social proof. So it’s worth going to the effort to include headshots, or video of everyone who talks about you.
Putting It Into Action: Estimated Time – 60 minutes.
Add images of as many people, (especially close ups of their faces) as possible to your pitch. Faces that communicate the necessary emotions you are trying to convey. Faces of previous customers. Your face. All the faces! (But use real people and avoid stock photography). Include images or illustrations of how real people benefit from your product. If you can, demonstrate your product or service with some drama.
What you think of as incredibly showy, will likely be seen as conservative by your customers in a busy, noisy world. So, be bold.
The Final Step
This is the final step in the sales pitch process! So after adding your images, post a link to the final draft of your sales pitch in the comments.