Have you ever stood at the checkout at the supermarket or WH Smith, just waiting to pay, while the cashier tries to sell you additional products?
I don’t know about you, but it drives me crazy. I am highly resistant to these “special deals”, which are usually of no interest to me whatsoever.
“Would you like this bar of chocolate, at 50% off?”
Nope. I don’t even eat chocolate.
“Would you like to sign up for our store credit card?”
Never.
“Would you like three bottles of water, for the price of two?”
Noooooo! Not thirsty. Just let me pay and go home already…..
But the truth is that there must be an awful lot of people out there who are tempted by these last-minute offers, because otherwise these shops wouldn’t push them.
And I can completely understand why.
When you’re standing at that checkout, with your cash or credit card already in hand, you’re in buying mode. Your mind is more open to new purchases, because that’s what you’re already doing.
Adding just a few pounds more to the final bill feels easier, if you’re already about to fork out £20, £30, £50.
“Go on then…. Throw in another one!”
So how do you apply this to your online marketing?
If you were on my Hot Leads webinar last week, you’ll have heard me talk about ‘skimming the cream off the top’.
The idea is that whenever a group of people join your email list by downloading a piece of content, there will always be a small percentage of them who are ready to buy immediately, even before they really know much about you. So it’s important that you always give new subscribers a small offer, so you can identify your keenest buyers straight away, and turn them into customers quickly.
Normally, we’d still wait a couple of days until we sent them that initial offer. After all, you don’t want to hit people over the head with your product, right? It would be offputting.
Well, maybe not.
In some of our sales funnels, we’ve started promoting that initial offer as soon as our new subscribers join our list – quite literally, within seconds. The offer is the very next screen they see immediately after they put in their email address to download the eBook.
The result? Conversions have exploded.
Roughly a quarter of people who opt into the email list also take up the offer on the next screen, seconds later.
Why? Call it the WH Smith phenomenon…..
They’re already in “buying mode”…. Or at least, “action mode”. Even though no one pays for an eBook downloaded off the Internet, downloading it is actually a real commitment, because it involves giving away your email address.
Making another commitment, to a small purchase, a consultation or a webinar, is easier when you’re already in that mental zone. Especially if that offer is directly related to the eBook they downloaded, and helps them with the same issue.
The moral of the story? In sales, strike while the iron’s hot.
And maybe I’ll try to be a little more forgiving to those cashiers, next time they try to flog me a cheap bar of chocolate…..
