This trigger comes as part of a set of powerful psychological influences that are explained in my eBook Product minus Sales equals Junk.
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That often quoted passage, “the truth shall set you free” should be revised to “the truth shall set you financially free”! Your mother always told you tell the truth and you didn’t know that she meant in your marketing also.
A well known example written by John E. Powers, one of the top copywriters in the 1900’s, for a Pittsburgh department store in severe financial trouble
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“We are bankrupt. We owe $125,000 more than we can pay, and this announcement will bring our creditors down on our necks. But if you come and *buy* tomorrow, we shall have the money to meet them. If not, we shall go to the wall.”
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Instead of yelling ‘SALE’ like so many other stores would, he’s telling the truth about why people should spend their money at this store. And this ad was said to be responsible for saving the store.
Another ad written by Powers, for a different merchant, proclaimed “We have a lot of rotten raincoats we want to get rid of.” This sold out the entire inventory of raincoats by the next morning. Hey, it was the truth and it worked!
Imagine the difference we would view rugs and carpet vendors if they only told the truth about their closing down sales. I mean which year this decade were they actually planning to close down.
Here’s something else, you should try to include a “damaging admission”. This will dramatically boost your credibility and truthfulness in the eyes of your prospects. Here’s what I mean:
Back in the day when I was involved in the health and fitness industry we promoted courses for Aerobics instructors. In our ads we used to tell prospects that not all of them would be cut out for this profession:
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“Finding and keeping good Aerobics instructors for our chain of health clubs is hard work. Once you train an instructor and make them popular, they set out on their own in their own businesses or up and leave and get a job on a cruise ship traveling the world doing aerobics classes.
We are so in need of new quality instructors that we have started our own school (after all we are in the best position to know just what skills an Aerobic instructor needs), so by answering this advertisement you will be in effect paying us to train you so that you can get a high paying,secure and highly sought after career with us. Once you are trained and living the dream Aerobic instructors lifestyle you will be so pleased that you answered this ad!
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Wow- if that isn’t honest I don’t know what is.
But let me tell you, the ad worked it’s socks off.
By pointing out the truth of a situation it gains all kinds of credibility with the prospect.
Remember, prospects have a built-in B.S. detector so if something doesn’t sound like the truth- they won’t believe you and won’t buy from you. This secret also goes hand in hand with “reason why”.
