Either you sell $5 haircuts, or you fix $5 haircuts. If you’re selling services, you know what I’m talking about.
Whether you’re selling car washes, copywriting, carpet cleaning, or kitchen remodels, you’ve likely noticed the once-burned aspect of your best customers. The clients who pay your premium price most willingly and are most appreciative of the differences between you and the price-based competition are usually the clients who already tried the cheapo-charlies and got burned.
And you also probably still pull your hair out when never-burned prospects pass you up for the cheaper option. Or for no-option and procrastination.
This is where fortune-telling can fill your pockets with gold.
Because you’ve seen this movie before, you know how it ends. You can predict the precipitant event that’ll jar your prospects from procrastination, or the exact moment of clarity and regret that’ll send them screaming back from the “cheaper” alternative. And you can describe it with eerily vivid detail and precision — all long before the prospect ever makes his wrong turn.
That way, when your words prove prescient, your dearest prospect will want someone who understands the jam he’s in and who can help him fix it. So with just a little intelligent planning on your part, you can weave into your storytelling the exact “script” for his return to you, including:
- The best points in the process for your prospect to switch service providers
- Justifications for his change in mind
- Exactly how to contact you
- What information he’ll need to have on hand
- What to expect for a solution, etc.
Yes, you can do this in person. But you can also do it with your Web copy, which will give you 3 major advantages:
1) You reach early stage buyers who are just doing research and potentially re-frame their buying criterion to your advantage. A few vividly told horror stories sometimes swings decisions around and increases immediate sales.
2) You forewarn even the prospects who still chose the cheaper alternative. After reading your story, prospects who do chose the cheapo charlies are a lot more wary of what can go wrong and head the warning signals earlier in the process, when stuff first starts to slide.
3) You gain instant credibility when newly-burned clients find you from a pain-driven Google search. You may not pop up for google searches on “inexpensive fashion haircut,” while easily placing 1st for “fixing horrific hair cuts.” And when that happens, everything you wrote about the daners of the $5 haircut will ring true for the visitors coming to you from that kind of search. You’ll have just created all kinds of credibility for yourself.
Just do yourself a favor and be as specific and vivid as possible. Because when you’re describing a future event, specifics make the event feel closer.
And make sure to emphasize your ability to pick-up the pieces when prospects experience a cheapo-charlie disaster. Direct the movie in your prospect’s head. Give them a new ending to the film. Give them a happy ending and watch them flock to your theatre to see it — higher ticket price and all.
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