Turn Your Sales Pitch Upside Down

As copywriter’s we know what our audience wants, right?

All we have to do is give them an unbelievably good offer and they’ll say yes. They’ll identify our product with the life they’ve always wanted to live so they’ll snap our hand off just to get it.

Great – but is it?

Does life really happen like that?

Wake up to the real world

There is a problem here; one that you may not have thought of.

What if they really don’t what your product?

“Ha! Of course they do – how can they possibly refuse the offer?”

Oh boy, there’s the problem straight away. You’re assuming they’ll buy your product no matter what.

You can’t lead a horse to water…

OK, I don’t have a horse but that heading sounded better than “You can’t lead a Spaniel to a tablet”.

Take my Springer Spaniel, Jerry (yes, he’s Jerry Springer) – he may not be the most intelligent dog in the world but he knows about medicine. Just like a kid, when he’s given a course of tablets from the vet, he’ll do anything to avoid taking them (not that I take my kids to the vet, it’s just that they know medicine usually tastes horrible and really don’t want to take it).

Put it in his bowl of biscuits and he’ll eat every crumb but leave the pill. Put it inside a piece of cheese and he’ll eat round it.

The trick is to find something he will eat (please note this is not a problem with my other dog, Scooby. But then again he is a Labrador and will eat anything). I have learned to tailor my ‘sales pitch’ to him.

The only way I can get him to take his medicine is by grinding up his tablet and sprinkling it on a piece of bread thickly spread with Marmite. Hand that to him and he’ll take your hand off and love you forever.

The moral of the story is – research your market

At the end of the day, if you pitch the wrong product to your audience they won’t buy it.

Pitch correctly, to the correct audience and you’ll end up with a loyal customer base that’ll come back again and again. They’ll value the product you sold them, remember you as a company that ‘doesn’t force their products down their throats’ and will trust you for future purchases.

Remember then, people not buying doesn’t necessarily mean your copy is poor or your offer is weak. You can’t make people buy simply because you want them to. Make sure you research your market thoroughly – make timely offers to the right audience and you’ll grow a marketing list that’s worth its weight in gold.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter