The Six-Figure Second Income: How to Start and Grow a Successful Online Business Without Quitting Your Day Job (31 page)

the complete kit includes DVDs but the deluxe one has DVDs, plus audio and a

members-only web site that is updated from time to time.

Right after talking about the investment, explain how they can get your materials: “It’s

easy to reserve your copy of my guide. Just go to www.HarleyTuneupSecrets.com or cal

123-456-7890.”

Money Question Seven: “What’s My Risk?”

You got their attention and then gave them good solid information. You felt their pain and

then provided a solution at a reasonable price. You’ve achieved an important milestone

—now they can imagine themselves in a better place after buying your product. They

want it and think they can afford it but one last defense mechanism kicks in—What if I

get it and am disappointed?

It’s a good question because we’ve al been in that position many times. Here’s where

most marketers do a poor job of reinforcing prospects right before they become

customers. The blow it with al their Return Authorization, and their 15 percent restocking

fee, and the ever-popular: You must return it in saleable condition with al documents and

packaging intact. That has the effect of dousing any fire of desire for the product. It gives

prospects an excel ent reason to think:
″Whoa,
I better be right about this. Maybe I

should think about
it.″
That results in delay and delay is the death of a sale.

Let’s contrast that typical marketer with the legendary company, L.L. Bean. What’s

their return policy?

Our products are guaranteed to give 100 percent satisfaction in every way.

Return anything purchased from us at any time if it proves otherwise. We do

not want you to have anything from L.L. Bean that is not completely

satisfactory.

You can imagine a lawyer or bean-counter going nuts with such a return policy:

“Everything is guaranteed? Forever? No matter what the customer does to the

merchandise? Even
if it′s
not our fault? You gotta be outta your mind to offer that! I can

tel you this for a fact—you’l be taken advantage of by crooks and wil be out of business

within a year!”

That’s funny. L.L. Bean was founded in 1912 and has $1.5 bil ion in sales.

The bad news is that some people wil indeed be dishonest and wil take advantage of

L.L. Bean—or you—by getting good use from a product and then returning it. The good

news is that the percentage is highly likely to be smal compared to the much larger

sales your strong guarantee wil generate. In other words, your refund rate wil go up but

your sales and profits wil go up even more, after factoring in the cost of refunds.

Also keep in mind that the book you’re holding is not primarily about sel ing pants and

gloves, but information products. In the best sense of the word your profit margin is

obscene compared with L.L. Bean’s. You most definitely can afford to give a powerful

guarantee that sets your prospects’ minds at ease. Here are other pointers for your

guarantee.

Do Make Your Guarantee a Competitive Advantage

Point out how it’s so much better than others. Say, “I don’t play games with al that return

authorization or restocking-fee nonsense. You must be delighted with the value you get

from my guide or I wouldn’t feel right keeping your money. You’l get a complete and

prompt refund, no questions asked.”

Don’t Introduce Negatives into Your Guarantee Language

Ninety-nine percent of al marketers do not understand this! They say sil y things like, “If

you don’t find my materials helpful, then simply return them. . . .″Why introduce that

negative into their minds? It only reinforces their expectation of disappointment. Here’s

the way the very savviest marketers phrase it: “You must be completely delighted with my

Schnauzer Grooming Secrets Guide and must conclude that it was easily worth every

penny of your investment, or you can return it, no questions asked.” I said the same thing

but I reinforced the positive future outcome, not the negative one.

Do Restate Your Benefits in the Guarantee

It can be along the lines of: “Open my kit and try al the dozens of specific techniques for

saving time with your Widget. You’l wonder where this guide has been al your life and

must conclude that the checklist alone is worth your entire investment, or you can return

it. . . . ″

Don’t Go Cheap on the Length of the Guarantee

The shorter the guarantee period, the more people wil write it in their calendars and

count the days they have left to return it. The longer the period the more they relax and

think,
″Wow,
that’s a long time. No need to count the
days.″
I know this is counter-intuitive

and many marketers don’t have the guts even to test a longer guarantee and see for

themselves. Then there are the L.L. Beans of the world who have become bil ion-dol ar

companies and their guarantees are forever. If you don’t want to go quite that far, you

should guarantee your product for at least 90 days and preferably for 1 year. You’l thank

me later.

Money Question Eight: “What Happens After You Have My Money?”

This is the final wrap-up to your sales material, and it’s real y just a summary of your offer

and a forward-looking statement.

You want to leave your readers with a sense that they’re at a crossroads. On the one

hand, they can continue to suffer with their current problems and that’s an option—or, on

the other hand, they can choose to try out your guide and see for themselves how it helps

them in several ways. It’s their choice.

Notice how I said try out your guide and not buy your guide. I recommend that you

further reduce the perceived risk by explaining that your guarantee covers their

satisfaction, so in effect they’re not saying yes to your offer—they only need to say

maybe and see for themselves once they have it.

You can restate the benefits and how much easier their situation wil be after they have

your materials—indeed, how they absolutely must be delighted with them.

Remember to restate the reason to take action now rather than to wait, and then tel

them again how they can get your materials.

At the very end of the letter you can also throw in another bonus tied to a reason to act

now rather than later. For instance you might say:

In the course of creating this grooming secrets kit I came across more than

a dozen great online and offline sources for Schnauzer products and advice.

I want to reward people who know a good deal when they see it and take the

simple step of trying out my guide without delay. Therefore, if you get your

guide before June 1, I’ll include this private list of Schnauzer resources just

for you for free. But it’s only available if you respond before June 1.

Remember, your investment is completely guaranteed and, no matter what,

you get to keep the resources list.

If you fol ow these Eight Money Questions, you’l make the cash register ring, as they

say. You wil have made a solid and compel ing case for your product while enhancing

your reputation for honesty and integrity.

You wil also have laid the foundation for a powerful and very lucrative information

products business.

As good as these sales wil feel to you, there’s an even better feeling in store for you

—it’s the continuing stream of income you’l experience when you apply what I discuss in

the next chapter.

I (Jon) was in the market a few years ago for a car. I did the research and knew exactly

what I wanted. I walked into a big Honda dealership, took a test drive, and said, “I’l take

it.” The car was about $40,000 and I paid cash. The salesman was very nice.

That was 7 years ago and I haven’t heard from him or the management since. Let’s

examine the situation: The dealership is stil around and presumably stil looking for

Honda buyers. I walked in with cash and didn’t require even a moment of arm-twisting.

My family was with me, including three kids who someday would become drivers and

need their own cars. And I might have a buddy or two who would be buying cars in the

future. What’s wrong with this picture?

It’s the business equivalent of Wham bam thank you ma’am. It’s the businessperson

whose DNA seems to be tied to one-night stands where it’s al about cruising for

prospects, sweet talking, making the score, and moving onto the next target.

It’s been said that 90 percent of success is showing up. In the context of your six-figure

second income, 90 percent of success is avoiding the errors I’ve covered in this book

and then applying the simple steps I’ve given you.

One of the most profound of those steps is to realize that, when you make a sale to a

new customer, it’s not the end of a profitable transaction but the beginning of a profitable

relationship. Customer bonding occurs after the first sale, not before.

I was not surprised in the least that the Honda dealership treated me that way and lost

a large, continuing income stream. I expected to get perhaps a Christmas card for the

first couple of years and maybe a cal after another year or two, inquiring if I was in the

market for a new car or if I knew of anyone who was. I suspect that you have similar low

expectations for continuing contact after buying something—you think either that you’l

never hear from them again, or that you’l only hear from them when they want to flog

another product for you to buy.

That’s what is such extremely good news for you and me. If we just do the basic, no-

brainer fol ow-up with our customers they’l be blown away. Even more good news is you

don’t need that many blown-away customers to make an extremely good living. First,

they’re likely to buy anything you create in the future, and second, they most likely hang

out with people who share the same interests. It’s only natural for the conversation to shift

to especial y bad or good recent experiences and you wil definitely fal under the latter

category.

Each of your future products wil require less and less effort because you’l have a

battalion of loyalists doing the talking for you, kind of like walking testimonials singing

your praises.

If you agree that this is a desirable business situation to be in, then you need to use e-

mail to deepen those business relationships. In Chapter 4 I talked a lot about the type of

commercial e-mail system you need to generate leads, and you can use that same

system now to cultivate relationships with your customers.

AUTORESPONDERS VERSUS BROADCAST E-MAILS

Your e-mail system wil have two capabilities. The first is often cal ed a broadcast. It’s

pretty much like your personal e-mail account where you turn it on and send out an e-

mail. The difference, as I explained earlier, is you can reliably send a broadcast e-mail to

hundreds or many thousands of people without being regarded as a spammer and

having your personal e-mail account shut down. Broadcast e-mails are sent on the spur