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"How to pro t from people who say no." By Frank Kern
Over the last 16 years I've generated more than thirty million dollars in sales from people who mostly told me "no". Here are six ways I've learned to turn "no's" into sales online.
1. Most people say "no". Know why? Because they're supposed to. Starting from childhood, we’re taught to be wary of people we don’t know …and to never make a fast decision when it comes to buying something. So to expect your prospect to go against the very habits and beliefs that are ingrained in childhood is foolish.
That's why you should always ...
2. Get the email address rst. If you know that most people aren't going to buy at rst, then o er them something valuable and free in exchange for their email address. This way, you can build a relationship based on trust and value rst ...and then make the sale. You've heard that before, but it's not what you think. This has nothing to do with creating a "conversion funnel" based on email marketing. In fact ...
3. "Funnels" as you know them are worthless. Most Internet Marketing “experts” will tell you to send tra c to a landing page, get a prospect to opt in, and then put them into a “funnel” designed to get the sale as quickly as possible. And that “funnel” is usually a series of emails - sent by an autoresponder - with each one directing the prospect back to the sales page. The reason this approach will fail you is because most people who opt in to any “funnel” simply will not buy initially …no matter how persuasive your copy is. The reason why is the simple human nature I just told you about.
People aren't supposed to buy at rst. We're taught not to do it. But this is exactly what the “funnel” as you know it attempts to do. It’s exclusively designed to focus on the tiny percentage of “outliers” who defy human nature and buy quickly. …And it ignores (and usually irritates) everyone else. The real money is in the people who say “no”. Here’s how to get it: Instead of building a "conversion funnel", ...
4. Build multi-phased campaigns, all centered around “response indicators.” Here’s what this means: In every sales situation, there’s always an action or series of actions a prospect typically takes before he buys. We call these actions “response indicators”, and they are the key to your success. Example: In a car-buying scenario, people rarely buy a car without rst taking it out for a test drive.
Therefore, the test drive is the response indicator. This is why when you go to a car dealership, the salesman’s rst priority is to get you to take the test drive. Here’s how this applies to you. Let’s say you’re sending tra c to a page that advertises a free report in exchange for the prospect’s email. And let’s assume that in order for the prospect to trust you enough to buy, he needs to read the very report he’s opted in for. The act of him reading your report is the “response indicator” in this example.
Shocking Statistics Reveal Major Opportunity Research shows that over 50% of prospects never go and access the information they opt in for. They’re basically saying “no” to the very thing they just requested from you. And this means your chances of making the sale are immediately cut in half because statistically speaking, half of your prospects never made it through the rst “response indicator”.
The way you cure this is by creating sequences in your campaigns who’s sole purpose is to simply move your prospect from one response indicator to the next …until he buys. And they way you do that is to …
5. Use Behavioral Dynamic Response in everything you do. Behavioral Dynamic Response is truly the “holy grail” of Internet Marketing. It works by tracking what your prospects are doing in your campaign, and then dynamically sending them customized marketing messages based on their behavior.
Here’s an example. I recently created a 55 minute video designed to attract clients who were interested in having my company create their marketing campaigns for them. The video walked people through exactly how to create a winning campaign, and o ered them the ability to apply to speak with my o ce at the end. Here were the initial response indicators for the campaign: 1. To begin the video. 2. To nish the video. (So they would therefore see my o er). 3. Apply to speak with us about becoming a client.
And with this in mind, I knew the campaign had to be designed to simply get as many people through those response indicators as possible. So the rst thing I did was to track how many people were beginning the video. If they didn’t begin the video, I would send them email reminders to go and watch it.
But there was a twist. I made it so their access to the video would only be available for three days. If they didn’t begin the video they opted in for, they would get email reminders telling them their access was about to expire. I was even able to dynamically calculate the date their access would expire, and merge that date into the reminder emails for added response. So instead of saying, “your access expires in three days”, the email would say, “your access expires on Tuesday the 23rd.” This one little tweak alone caused just over 75% of the people who opted in for the video to actually go and watch it …which is head and shoulders better than the typical 50%.
That’s an immediate 50% increase over the “norm”.
…All because we identi ed the rst response indicator and created a specialized sequence that tracked their behavior and responded accordingly. If all other factors in the campaign remained constant, we’d just achieved a 50% increase in sales from this one small tweak. But this was only the beginning. The next response indicator was to get them to nish the entire video and therefore see my o er.
And That’s Where The HUGE Problem Was. This was a 55 minute video of me standing in front of a whiteboard talking about marketing. So special e ects, no animation, nothing.
It takes a special sort of masochist to endure 55 minutes of such torture. And that’s why I’m pointing this out to you. As you know, video is quickly becoming the primary way people consume content online. And if you’re using it to sell, your viewers need to watch the whole video so you can make your entire case. That’s obvious. But here’s a real eye opener: According to Wistia, less than half of video viewers make it through videos that are only two minutes long.
Two Minutes. Go longer than two minutes and it gets even worse. I don’t think they even have research on videos as long as mine because they are so uncommon. Anyway, getting people to watch that entire 55 minute video was a huge challenge. But it had to be done because I didn’t make an o er until the very end of the video. (This was strategically deliberate, by the way. I wanted to provide massive value up front …before asking them to do anything. This has always worked well for me.)
Here’s how I accomplished the impossible, and you can model my approach. Always how track what your prospects are doing and respond accordingly. In this campaign, I kept track of how much of the video they actually watched. If they le before nishing, I’d send them emails telling them what they were missing …and sending them back to go watch the rest. In other words, I tracked their behavior …and then dynamically responded by sending them customized messages to get them through to the next step in the campaign. I had special follow-up sequences built to go out if they le before the 15 minute mark, the 30 minute mark the 45 minute mark, and the end. Each sequence was a little di erent …referencing what’d they’d seen and telling them what they’d missed …based on how far along they’d gotten in the video …and telling them to go nish it. By doing this, I was able to get 38% of them to actually nish the entire 55 minute video, which is literally un-heard of.
The Biggest Breakthrough Yet Remember, our three response indicators were to get them to:
A: Begin the video. B: Watch the entire video. C: Apply to speak with my o ce about building their campaigns for them. And we’d done a great job of getting through the rst two steps. They were starting the video, watching the whole thing, and the feedback was amazing.
But there was still a problem. Even though they loved the video, only 2% of them who nished it were applying to talk to us about becoming clients. Now, at rst glance, this is acceptable because our services aren’t cheap and they’re certainly not for everyone. And I was very forthcoming about price in the video. So most people would be thrilled at a 2% “conversion rate” at our price point. But that wasn’t nearly enough. We don’t settle for “acceptable” or even “good”. We insist on exceptional.
Here's How We Got A 400% Increase In Paid Applications
(And The Secret To Increasing Your Response). If the video got a 2% conversion, that means 98% of the people who saw it said “NO” to my o er at the end. But they didn’t say “no” because they weren’t interested, and they didn’t say “no” because they didn’t want the outcome I could help them achieve. If that were the case, they wouldn’t have stayed for the entire 55 minute video. So in a situation where you’ve got prospects who have been through your campaign, read your messages, seen your videos, and still say “no” it’s almost always for one of these reasons: First, there’s plain old fashioned laziness. Many of your prospects won’t buy because they didn’t feel like getting up, nding their wallet, digging out their credit card, and then typing in all that information. Next, there’s procrastination. They’re interested and they want the outcome, but they’re distracted by something and tell themselves they’ll get to it later. And nally, there’s the need for more information. They’re almost ready to buy but they just need some extra push. They’ve got a question, or a concern, or might just need a little more time to make a decision.
These Are The People Who Will Make You The Most Money. Think about it for a minute. In this example, they opted in and watched an entire 55-minute case study video about the exact thing I’m o ering to do for them. You know they’re interested because they’ve behaviorally demonstrated it! This is the same as having a clothing store and being with a prospect who saw your ads, drove to the store, came in, and tried on a suit. As far as prospects go, they don’t make ‘em any better. So these are the people you want to focus the majority of your e orts on. And the way you turn them into customers online is to …
6. Use Multiple Conversion Points. This is another major breakthrough. A conversion point is any point in your campaign where you ask for the order. This can be your sales letter, your webinar, your sales video … whatever.
Most campaigns have only one conversion point. Here’s a secret. In any campaign,
More Conversion Points = More Money Period. So in this example, only 2% of the people who completed my video were applying to talk to my o ce. I wanted more, so here’s what I did. I wrote a PDF sales letter outlining the o er I’d made at the end of the video. The letter was thorough. Detailed. And had a strong call to action at the end. Then I emailed it to just the people who’d completed the video …but hadn’t yet applied. But I didn’t stop there. Like I told you earlier, Behavioral Dynamic Response is the holy grail of Internet marketing and you should use it in everything you do. So in this case, I tracked whether or not they clicked to download the PDF. If they didn’t download it, I had an email series that would remind them to go and read it. But I took it one step further.
I made it so the PDF itself would only be available for a limited time …and I let the prospect know when their access was expiring. I was able to dynamically determine the expiration date and merge it into the emails they were getting so they’d say, “This letter is only available until Wednesday the 19th” and so on … with each user seeing a di erent date depending on when they’d nished the video. The result was a
95.89% Conversion Rate! 95.89% of the people who watched the entire video responded to my email sequence about the PDF letter and downloaded it. This is literally unheard of in Internet Marketing. And is has nothing to do with the copy in the emails. Instead, it’s working because Behavioral Dynamic Response is being used to lter out who the most interested prospects are (those who nish the entire video) …and then putting the most energy towards them. Incidentally, just adding this one step …
Immediately Doubled Sales!
But remember …your sales are directly proportional to the amount of conversion points in a campaign. So I decided to double sales again by adding more conversion points.
Here's How I Doubled Sales Again. First - I shi ed my focus from “people who nished the video” to “people who also downloaded the PDF”. Remember - you always want to be analyzing your prospects' behavior and focusing all of your energy on the ones who demonstrate they’re the most interested. So here’s what I did. I created a three-part video series that literally showed them exactly what had happened to them each step of the way in the campaign they were in. At the end of each video, I created another conversion point by asking them to apply for a consult with my o ce. And I used the same “countdown” techniques to get them to watch each new video as I’d used to get them to download the pdf. Naturally, the majority of them watched the videos and I got even more applications.
The Net Result.
The Good Part: First, and most importantly, this campaign created massive goodwill with all the people who went through it. They felt like they were receiving very valuable and helpful content …not just a barrage of sales pitches. This is critical because it increases our chances of getting new business from them later on. Plus it helped build our brand and position us as a good company to deal with. (And it’s just a cool way to do business.) The “Bad” Part: It worked so well, we got too many applications. So we had to stop running it. To date, the applications we’ve received have resulted in $216,640.00 in new client billings (and counting). Most of the people who went through this campaign were already on my email list. However, I also tested running some “cold” tra c to it from Facebook PPC.
That Tra c Produced A 239.41% Return On Every Dollar Spent. Because the campaign worked so well, I was only able to run the ads for nine days before I had to turn them o . Here’s how the numbers shook out:
Total spend: $7,317.44 Total clicks: 7,651 Total Opt Ins: 2,318 Total Revenue Collected To Date: $24,836.00. For every dollar I spent on ads, I got $2.39 back …within the rst three weeks. Plus I got 2,318 new email subscribers and created tons of goodwill with them. So I’m sure more will come from it.
Here's The Bottom Line. It’s true. The fortune really is in the follow up. Just not in the way you’re used to. You can’t bludgeon people with pitches and o ers and expect it to work. But if you have a truly dynamic campaign that tracks user behavior and responds accordingly …you can see your sales grow like nothing before. If you want something like that,
Here's Some Great News.
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Here's What To Do Next. I’ve posted a short description of how this works, and my hidden motivation here. Go here to read it. Assuming you're OK with my "hidden motives", you'll want to proceed to the next step. That's simply a short video that shows you what a typical blueprint and campaign diagram might look like, and walks you through exactly what will happen during your session.
This Is NOT What You Might Be Thinking. If you're skeptical and are wondering if this is some kind of "bait and switch", that's understandable. The good news is, it's NOT.
In fact - it's quite the opposite. As you'll see here, I'm willing to pay YOU money in the event you feel this free service was a waste of your time. No strings attached. It's all spelled out in black and white here.
The "Catch" You've Been Looking For. There are two. First, we're unable to extend this o er to just anybody. There are some quali cations you'll need to meet - the "biggest" being that you're a real business, not a beginner, and not selling anything shady. The second is this is very time sensitive ...for a reason. We're a small company (by design) and can only o er a handful of these free blueprinting sessions each month. They're all granted on a rst come, rst served basis. So if you found this article helpful, and would like to see exactly how these types of strategies could improve your sales on a consistent basis, go here. We've set aside some time to design a fully customized campaign for you ...using the exact methods I descibed in this article. ...And we'll do it for free. If that sounds like something that could help you, go here before all availability is taken.
