What I’m after is an opportunity to amaze at the point of sale. Sonia Simone at Copyblogger hit it out of the park with a recent post on conversion killing. People don’t have trust. When they DO buy, that’s another time to make your systems work. After you have that retail hit of euphoria that people get, what then? You always feel a little let down. I have that ‘this is it’ feeling when I buy stuff…especially after skilled internet marketers get me emotionally hooked.
What happens RIGHT after the sale is an opportunity. Folks like Dave Navarro show some basic competence and good instincts by offering a truly good deal after that. But, I wanna go beyond. WHEN people buy…I want them to be amazed. That instant. Blown away.
Seth Godin talks about making things less annoying. I don’t want to stop there. I want to go far beyond, and overdeliver. Every purchase–every job gets a package of goddies that you made to be super successful
See, people save their offers for securing the sale. I want to put all of my ammo into securing lifelong trust. I want people to feel smart and relieved when they buy from me, so the NEXT time they buy from me, they know that they’re getting a sweet, sweet deal.
I see all of these posts with things that offer $10,916 in FREE bonuses, and I’m insulted and squeemish. I don’t want to be that guy. I want to be the guy that does that for my customers. There are opportunities to do this with everyone.
You could:
- Give away your back catalog for new customers.
- Develop a product/service MORE VALUABLE than what you sold, and give it way for free.
- Deliver it in more & higher formats–if they bought a book, make it in an MP3, if they expect an MP3, make a video.
- Package OTHER People’s good stuff on the same topic in an-i’ll-share yours-if-you-share mine.
Some of this is being done, but far too little I’d think is being done. Once you secure a customer, THEN knock their socks off. Overdeliver by an order of magnatude and then all the work you spent on getting that customer will be rewarded each time you sell something.
If someone has been treated amazingly well, then they’ll be back. Again, and again.
One of the things that Starbucks used to (and I mean used to) have in its culture…was the ability to surprise and delight. When you went, you’d get coffee and panache, a smart person would look you in the eye and try to do make your day happy. Your Third Place, yada yada. Ya go there now, and you trip over CD racks, and you feel used and monetized. And, I was in recently and the place had the stench of greasy eggs in it. I come for coffee. Live by coffee die by coffee. I come for coffee and public privacy, and the good pure smell of beans and hot water.
They used to give more for your $2.00 than you’d have a right to expect. They fell when they wanted you to be monetized. What if we did it right–what if we committed to having an astonishingly good experience with FREE bonuses?
How would we work it out so when they bought they didn’t feel simply like you were shoveling out free stuff?
How would we work it so that it DID impress people that are cynical and bitter?
How would we work it so that, say 20-25% of people saw our commitment to being amazing?
How would we work it so that people were not let down after the purchase, but had stuff to do, had marching orders and felt great about what they just bought?
Then we’d be slaying trolls left and right.
