How can the immensely popular Lorraine help you with reducing the risk for your customers. Read on and I’ll explain.
A beautiful July morning, my training workshop that day was in the same hotel I’d spent the night in, the training room was ready as I’d set it up the night before. So I wasn’t in a massive rush that morning to get away, so I had the TV on for company. Whilst putting on my tie I glanced at Lorraine on the TV. She’s a hugely popular TV presenter for ITV with a massive and loyal following here in the UK. As is usual with mass audience TV, looking to get its viewers involved to build even more loyalty, up comes the usual competition where you win a £100,000 prize.
You know the ones. How many years in a century? A, 50 years, B 75 years or C, 100 years. Phone this number now to win a grand prize. Durrrr!
I always wonder whether they think their audiences are a bit dumb as the questions are just not difficult. But this time something unusual happened.
Just after the quiz was announced, Lorraine took us to a clip of a family who had won the last competition. Sitting in their kitchen the man was chuffed to say how his life had been changed, how useful the £100,000 had been and how fab was the new car he was driving. As soon as we’d seen the clip we had proof that real people win the prize. The risk was reduced.
Now Lorraine was working with the new normal in sales, the new normal requires that we reduce risk, provide proof. In a slowly improving economy, people don’t want to make any mistakes with their purchasing, they can’t afford it. They’re still buying but the purchase must be the right one and to help tm to do this, we must provide proof or do what we can to reduce the risk.
It’s the new normal.
So how do you reduce risk for your customers? Do you provide money back guarantees, do you provide free customer care, do you give free training on the product, do you give testimonials from recently satisfied customers, not 6 year old ones, affidavits. Do you use a credibility statement right up front to relax customers, build a solid rapport with customers, show them your experience and expertise?
Whatever you do, make sure you do something to reduce the risk, make it certain they are buying the right thing and they’ll be happy to go ahead and close.
And did I enter the competition? I knew the answer was 100 years. No, I glanced at my watch, realising I was running late having got sucked into their persuasion techniques so I had to dash from my hotel room. But I did like the car the man was driving and I guess he’d have plenty of change from £100,000 to spend…and I knew the answer to the quiz…it was A.
Have a fantastically brilliant week, unlike my football team Manchester United, and I’ll speak with you next week.
