One of the most important contributions to sales and marketing was a simple piece written by David Frey some years ago. I have no idea who he was or when he wrote it. And I also do not remember who recommended it to me – probably someone when I was doing an online course. But when I came to look at it, it provided me with a new light into one of the most important topics in digital marketing: understanding what in the world goes on inside a buyer’s head.
If you are looking for a formula for mass control or a better model than AIDA or Hubspot’s you will not get a clearer understanding of what this formula should be.
The 12 steps for the perfect sales letter were written with a goal in mind: how to contradict all the rebuttals that may happen during a sales process. In other words, how could a single letter produce a reply to all possible refusals to buy a product or a service?
With this goal in mind, David Frey stressed 12 steps that need to be taken in order to sell stuff more efficiently to anyone. So here they are.
Get attention. You need to grab the attention of the buyer with a strong statement about you or your product and service.
Identify the problem. You need to understand what the main pain points of your customers are and be clear about them.
Provide the solution. If you know the pain points then you can provide a solution or you can galvanize the buyer because you show him or her how to achieve the dream they are looking for. Your product or service needs to be that dream, that aspiration, then end-goal.
Present your credentials. Then you need to present who you are, what you do, where you come from. This starting building your story inside your customer, he will identify with your story and start bonding with you.
Show the benefits. Once you present yourself you go back to your product or service and start showing the benefits. This is your talking about what you can achieve.
Give social proof. Social proof is asking other people to recommend your product or service. This is a strong validation of what you are doing and have achieved. The better known the person the strong your argument will be in this stage.
Make your offer. Once you present your dream, start bonding with your customer and convince him of the results you can bring, then it is time to start selling. Make your offer.
Inject scarcity. Exclusivity my friend, exclusivity is a huge thing in digital marketing. You can inject exclusivity via scarcity.
Give a guarantee or offer more products. You can also give a guarantee to further take the pressure away from the sale. Or you can offer more products here if the client buys whatever you have to sell.
Call to action. Again once you made the first offer it is time to reinforce the offer. Call to action is highly important at this stage.
Give a warning. Remind your client of the offer you are running and how it will end if he or she doesn’t buy. Close with a reminder of the sale in the form of a warning.
So what are the fundamental stages to understand buyer’s psychology? For me there are 6 fundamental stages. First you need to grab the attention and really understand what you can accomplish with your product or service. Second you need to bond with people, they need to know who you are what you do, what you eat, or whatever. Bonding creates rapport, people acknowledge you as a person, they identify with you – or not. But this is crucial. Third, you need to prove you are good – either with personal arguments or with some form of social proof. Then you need to make your offer and inject it with some scarcity, some exclusivity. Then you need to give guarantees and call people to action. Finally, you can threaten people – especially if you have a sale associated with your product or service – and close with a reminder.
Here goes, the holy grail of buyer’s psychology in a nutshell. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars anymore is shitty courses. You are welcome :=)
