I had come to believe I was the world's worst salesperson. I have an offering which is guaranteed to produce a 10x return on investment (ROI). When properly applied it results in 200%-500% increases in revenue-per-email I have presented it to a variety of companies. A few have tested it and achieved the results. The rest have either ignored the results or said "too good to be true." As I said, this had brought me to the conclusion that I must be doing something terribly wrong.
Then I read Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner in economics. ( http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/book-review-thinking-fast-and-slow-by-daniel-kahneman-10272011.html) I realized that the reason that our LifeStyle research is receiving such a dismissive response is that I have been talking to my prospect's System 1 frame of mind. This is the lightening fast mechanism we are all equipped with that helps us decide what to pay attention to and what to ignore. It relies on heuristics developed over time. My prospects have all been taught that "if something sounds too good to be true it probably is." So now it makes sense to me that this work has received the initial reaction that it has. It is not that I am the world's worst salesperson. It's that I have a totally new idea to present. I should expect this.
What I need to do, I realize, is anticipate this initial reaction and immediately address the "too good to be true" objection. How does one do this? Kahneman, whose work challenged conventional wisdom, gives a suggestion in the book. He indicates that people are more likely to change an embedded attitude if confronted with a particular and striking instance which demonstrates the new point. Kahneman says that people can sometimes "go from the particular to the general" and change an opinion. It is much harder to go from the general to the particular.
So, it will be better for me to start with the case histories (the particular) and move to the benefit (the general 200-500%) rather than state the benefit first and then move to the demonstrations. A good lesson for a marketer to learn. Thank you, professor.
