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One of the biggest challenges you need to overcome in order to create more sales in your business is getting people to trust what you say. Now you may very well have a great deal of integrity and be very trustworthy when it comes to your business (and I'm sure you are). But do your customers know that? And how can you make sure that they do?
'Lack of trust' is a big problem in advertising. You probably don't realise how many customers don't believe what you say or claim in your advertising. In fact, the best rule of thumb to go by, is that NO ONE believes you. We often see on TV current affairs shows, people who get ripped off by businesses. And it might only be 1 in 1000 businesses in that particular industry, but of course it's that one that will always get the headlines.
Then the general public see this and make a broad judgement on that industry to protect themselves, and then they become wary of every business. So it's not enough to just tell people that you have this fantastic, well-respected reputation... and so therefore you're the company to choose. It just doesn't work that way anymore, you need to go much further these days. Here are two powerful tips that will have more people trusting what you say.
1. People believe more of what other people say about you...than what YOU say about you.
If you were to tell me that you are the best basketball player in your state, that you score more than everyone else and hand out more assists, I would have a fair bit of scepticism as I haven't heard anything about you. But if 10 people came up to me and say stuff like, "Have you seen this guy? He scored 40 points last week! He was simply amazing. Plus he handed out 12 assists, he was on fire!" then you can see that makes it more readily believable right away. So go to your customers and ask them for their opinion of you. Get them to write down th
e wonderful experience they had dealing with you, then you can use it to show others why they should do business with you!
There is however, good and bad ways of writing a testimonial, so I'm going to tell you the best system to use. It goes something like this - 'once I was lost, now I'm found'. For example, if you're promoting a weight loss program, tell people how your customer 'once weighed 180kg, and just by eating this amazing fruit bar, I lost 80kg in 2 months!' That's just an exaggeration of course, but just to illustrate the point. Plus, you should always include the full name and suburb, and if possible a phone number. The more information you provide the more realistic it is, and therefore more believable for your customer!
2. Simply guarantee what you do.
You are required by law to guarantee your product or service. If something doesn't work, or breaks, or goes wrong, 99.9% of business owners will return the money, or at least replace the product. But the thing is, most business owners keep that fact hidden. If it's something you already do, why not tell people about it, and use it as part of your marketing? You would do it anyway right? And you could increase your advertising reponse just by telling people that you stand behind your product or service 100%! A guarantee takes the risk off the customer and puts it on you, and if your customer knows you're prepared to take the risk then they'll feel more comfortable doing business with you.
The reason most business owners will keep their guarantee hidden is that they are worried about their customers taking advantage of them. Let's say you're getting a very low return rate now like 1% or 2% and by offering a guarantee it goes up to 6%. So your returns go up by 3 times, but by doing so you also
triple your SALES, doesn't it then make financial sense to offer that guarantee up front?
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