During my dark teen ages, I had a terrible acne problem.
In hopes to get rid of it, my mom decided to buy a Murad acne treatment regimen for me.
When my package arrived, I was excited! I thought this was going to be the golden ticket to restoring my baby-butt smooth face. I looked at the pamphlet that came with the package. It laid out how to use the regimen and it said something along the lines of this, “Your skin will clear up after 30 days of using the regimen.”
“Ok, I thought, “I can endure this acne problem for another month.”
Fast forward 30 days and, lo and behold, my face hasn’t changed. In fact, it looked like it got worse.
So what did I do?
I stopped using it and threw away their products. Looking back and knowing what I know now, Murad made a huge mistake!
They made a specific promise to their customers.
Since Murad promised that I’ll get a clear face in 30 days, I expected a clear face after 30 days. And when I found out the results didn’t show, I assumed their product doesn’t work. That’s one of the dangers of making specific promises.
But, when you make vague promises to your customers, they’ll think that the product will eventually give them the results they were promised. So they’ll keep using your product in hopes that the results will show one day.
You see, hope is a great selling tactic. But just like any other great selling tactic, it can backfire on you.
A perfect example: Network marketing companies.
They make all these wild promises of financial independence, being your own boss, setting your own hours, yada, yada, yada. You get it, . I’m sure you heard this pitch before. But because network marketing companies have terrible reputations, the hope selling tactic backfires on them.
So the key is: You first have to build your business’ reputation. Only then can you properly use the power of hope to sell your products.
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