Big Lead Mistake #6: “Selling Too Soon”

Good morning!

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Okay, so I thought I was done with my series about common lead mistakes…

But then, yesterday I realized there was actually one more biggie needed to go over with you.

I’m going to share it with you in just a second…

But, before I do…

If you didn’t catch the Zoom Call we did recently…

I posted the replay on my YouTube channel.

Here's a link to my YouTube channel in case you’re not subscribed to it yet.

I taught for like an hour straight about different lead mistakes and showed a ton of examples.

So, if you didn’t get a chance to see the video yet…

It’s worth checking out when you have time.

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Okay, and with that being said…

Let’s move on to today’s blog post…

Lead Mistake #6: “Selling Too Soon”

I’m thinking maybe the reason I forgot to mention this one previously…

Is because it seems kind of obvious.

But then, I was going through a ton of offers on Clickbank yesterday…

And I found that a LOT of writers are still making this mistake.

Remember what I’ve been saying in previous blog posts:

The point of the first sentence is to get the prospect to read the second…

The point of the second is to get them to read the third…

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And so on.

The entire point of the lead is to evoke curiosity…

Call out the prospect’s pain point…

Promise to credibly solve that pain point…

Connect with the prospect emotionally…

And tease them with fascinations.

When you do those things in your lead…

It’s hard to screw up…

But, nowhere in this list do we find “try to sell the product.”

Why?

Because that’s not the job of the lead.

We don’t want the prospect thinking they are being “sold” at the beginning…

In fact, we don’t want them even thinking about our product PERIOD until pretty close to the end of our sales letter.

It’s the same thing when you do a sales call too btw.

Or when you’re quoting a client.

Or making a pitch.

You don’t jump right into the pitch…

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You build an emotional connection…

  1. Demonstrate understanding of the area where the prospect is struggling…
  2. Prove you have the competency and mastery required to solve this struggle…
  3. Dismiss alternative solutions as being inferior…

And, only then is it time to start telling the prospect about your product or services and asking for the sale.

So don’t be in a hurry to make the sale here, take your time.


Now, there are a few exceptions to everything I just said…

In Direct Mail, where you send a prospect a physical sales letter…

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It makes sense to talk about the product earlier on.

I still don’t think the product needs to be on the front page…

But, you don’t need to wait until the very end either.

Why?

Because with a physical piece of mail…

The prospect is probably going to be leafing through it anyways.

Much in the same way they’d leaf through a magazine or the newspaper…

And, you might as well not wait until the very end to share about the product.

When it comes to online sales letters, though…

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The prospect’s journey is more linear.

They’re either watching a video that they can’t skip forward in…

Or, they’re at least scrolling down slowly through your copy…

And, in these cases, you can take your time.

Another exception is with eCommerce pages (sort of)…

If you have a really short eComm page for a product…

Then yeah, maybe it’s okay to show what the product right away…

But, even in those cases…

If you can begin by teasing the problem/solution…

And then inject a brief emotional story into your lander…

Typically, it’s going to convert better than if you just jump right into the features and benefits of your product.


Hopefully, this makes sense to you.

I do enjoy writing out examples for you guys…

But I have a call in fifteen minutes, so I’m gotta cut this one short.

Have a great Saturday!

-SPG

P.S. Last night Laura and I drank some White Claws and then spent 40 minutes dissecting a random Clickbank sales letter while recording ourselves doing it. We had a TON of fun and I think we also provided some killer insights. By the time you read this, the video should be uploaded to my YouTube channel, so make sure you check it out here!

P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

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