Surefire Sure Has This Right

I got this newsletter from Yanik Silver and it touches on a lot of hot topics so I thought I would post it.

enjoy!

What does a mafia boss know about marketing?

Lots. Read on to find out…

Do you remember in the movie “The Godfather” when Don Corleone
says, “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse”?

And it’s this simple concept that’s the backbone of any
successful sales proposition you make. (However if I were you,
I’d probably leave out the threats of violence in your sales
piece.)

From now on, your job is to create such powerful offers that
anyone reading it would say to themselves, “My goodness, I’d
have to be a complete idiot not to take them up on this deal!”

And creating a powerful offer like this is easier than you think.

Let me share with you one of the most compelling offers I’ve
seen. It took a dying hotel on the wrong side of the Vegas
‘strip’, where you had to watch your wallet at every turn, and
transformed it into a super moneymaker.

This is from a very successful ad that used to run for Bob
Stupak’s Vegas World hotel. Listen to this deal and see if you
wouldn’t act on this even if you were just an occasional
gambler:

"Act now, to receive a virtually free Las Vegas vacation. For
$198 per person or $396 per couple I will:

  1. Put you up in a luxurious mini suite in an exciting Las Vegas
    hotel right on the famous strip.

  2. I will give you free tickets to a show with name entertainers.

  3. I will put a chilled bottle of champagne in your room for
    free.

  4. I’ll let you drink as much as want for free, whether you’re
    at the gaming tables, playing slots or in one of the lounges.

  5. I’ll hand you $1,000 of my money to gamble with for free.

  6. I’ll let you keep all your winnings.

  7. I’ll guarantee you’ll win a color TV, VCR or a faux diamond
    ring.

Obviously I’m not going to give this incredible deal to
everybody in the whole world. There can only be (small number)
of these vacation packages available. First come, first served."

If that’s not an irresistible offer, I don’t what is. The closer
you can get to something like this, the more customers you’ll
have falling all over themselves to give you their money.

Does this give you a few ideas?

Using The Bonus Pile On

Vegas World’s offer uses a concept I call “Bonus Pile On”. And
the way it works is to keep piling on bonus after bonus until
finally you have to say “no mas” and whip out your charge card.

It was the same thing with the famous Ginsu knife commercials a
few years back. They used this technique perfectly to sell
millions of dollars of cutlery. The announcer would say “And if
you act now you’ll also get…” and then about 15 different
knives and kitchen gadgets would pop up on the screen.

It made you think about how much value you were getting for
such a little price. That’s the power of the “bonus pile on”.

So what’s the best way to start using this in your business?
Well, one of the best ways I know is using paper and ink. You
can give away a series of valuable reports with any purchase.
What’s more, you could even make this information available
as a download from your website so you’d have zero distribution
cost.

Or you could make deals with other businesses where they’d let
you give away a product or service from them to your customers.
If you really use your imagination here you’ll come up with
lots of ways to create a “bonus pile on”.

Make Prospects Take Action Now!

There’s no doubt about it - deep down, everyone of us is a lazy
procrastinator. That’s why you need some kind of deadline or
scarcity factor to make prospects take action now. If your
prospects believe an offer is going to be around forever, there’s
no reason to take action.

That’s the reason deadlines work so well. In one of my
businesses, I’ll stamp a red deadline on the order form for the
last day prospects get over $2,000.00 in free bonuses. And
believe me, it’s not unusual to get people ordering right on the
very last day of the deadline just because of this stamp.

100% No-Risk Guarantee

Finally, the last component of a powerful offer is to make your
deal as risk-free as possible. Nobody wants to make a mistake
and be stuck with something that doesn’t deliver as promised.

That’s why you should make every effort to lift the risk from
the prospect and place it squarely on your shoulders.

Make a bold guarantee and make it for as long as possible. If
you have a quality product, you shouldn’t worry because most
often return rates will drop the longer you extend your
guarantee.

Another strategy to try is offering a 30-day “hold-your-check
or charge slip” trial. That means people will send you checks
postdated 30 days out or you won’t charge their credit cards
for 30 days. Joe Karbo used this to sell tens of thousands of
copies of his book “The Lazy Man’s Ways to Riches”.

Now you have all the keys to creating your own irresistible
offer and watching your sales soar. Just keep adding value and
more bonuses until you come up with an offer than makes your
prospect feel guilty for not ordering.

Yanik is an excellent marketer that has made millions. His website is-
http://www.instantsalesletters.com

My wife and I eat at a local italian restauraunt called Grande’s. We also happen to clean the windows there every two weeks and have gotten to know the owner. I was thinking about proposing an offer to him that would give him free advertising and hopefully new business for me. On our post cards and local advertising we would offer one free dinner at Grande’s when a residential customer would sign up for a minimum of three cleanings per year. Of course it would most likely be buy one get one dinner.

Personally…I hate fake free dinners. Where you have top pay for one dinner and get one free.

Free should be free.

Just my personal thoughts though.

We get those Happenings coupon books and they are loaded with buy 1 get one free. Me and my wife tried 9 or 10 restaurants last year we would have never went to otherwise.

I love buy one get one free. It is too costly for a business to cough up an entire tab.

I spoke with the owner yesterday and he seems positive about the idea. We are going to meet next week to discuss the details.
Thanks for posting another great thread.

Regarding the original post, I would save this [I]over the top[/I] marketing approach for the slowest part of the window cleaning season, if at all.

This time of the year my biggest challenge is fitting everyone on the spring schedule. I’m already nearly booked for the next 3 weeks, 6 days a week and I haven’t even sent out a single flyer yet. I’ve been handing out quotes all week with the average home going for $300 or more and I’ve landed everyone so far.

I’ll save the specials for the dog days of summer (late July, early August).

But I’m speaking from my own experiences and market environment, others may be different.

If you are satisfied where you are at, great!

For those looking to go beyond, great!

Just some food for thought, nothing more