Good morning 🙂

Today I want to go back to the subject of AOVs (Average Order Value)…

Because it's just so damned important…

Yet too many marketers are still getting it wrong…

And, they're suffering as a result.

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That's why in this blog post…

I’m going to give away something insanely valuable:

The fundamentals to what I call my “AOV Money Close”…

Which is a collection of phrases and strategies I use…

To hammer my customer at the end of my sales copy…

In order to get them to buy more.

This works whether it’s a long-form text letter, video sales letter, or even an eComm page…

And, the big concept behind my AOV Money Close…

Is that “Smart People Buy More.”

That’s what we’re telling the prospect throughout the end of the copy…

We’re letting them know that when it comes to our previous customers…

The truly smart and savvy ones bought the biggest package we offer.

And, we’re also telling them that if they want to make the best decision…

They should buy the biggest package, too.

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This may sound obvious…

But I first started applying this concept back in early 2017…

And, for the very first sales letter where I did this…

The AOV increased from $150 to $220 immediately…

Which was crazy…

Because all I did was strategically add a few lines of copy.

Pretty nuts, right?

At 200 customers a day that equated to an extra $14,000 in revenue…

And over the course of a year, that added up to an extra $5MM+ in revenue.

And, considering our profit margins were around 30%…

That didn't suck 🙂

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Okay, so when I say “add a few lines of copy,” what do I mean?

Let me show you…

After I’ve introduced the product…

And gone through the features and benefits…

The next thing I do is build up scarcity.

So, I’ll say something along the lines of…

“Now at this point, I’m sure you’re excited to get PRODUCT…

And while there’s nothing I want more than to make that happen…

The truth is, getting PRODUCT can actually be quite a challenge.”

I then explain why it can be hard for prospects to get the product…

Whether that's limited inventory, limited production capacity, a limited promotion, or something else.

What I also do, though…

Is stress that in addition to whatever the reasons for scarcity are…

There’s the fact that people keeping ordering more and more of the product…

And that this is creating an even bigger demand for the already limited supply.

Does that make sense?

Here it is broken down again:

1. Supplies/Packages are limited because of ABC Reasons…

2. And because so many people are ordering the largest quantity of PRODUCT for XYZ reasons [XYZ = they don’t want to run out of it in the future, they’re sharing it with family and friends, they use it more often, etc]…

3. It’s putting even more of a strain on our already limited supply…

4. Which means the availability of Product is even more limited.

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This creates urgency for the prospect…,

But, it also signals to them that smart people are buying greater quantities of the product…

And we don’t stop there…

I also paint a picture of what life looks like with the product…

And specifically, I show them how life looks the best when they order the biggest amount.

So, for example…

If you’re selling an energy supplement, you can say something like:

“With 1 bottle, you’ll be on your way to feeling great…

With 3 bottles, you’ll be flooding your cells with clean, sustainable energy…

And with 6 bottles…

It’ll be as if you’re recharging your cells entirely…

Almost like you’re taking the batteries inside your cells and powering them from 0% to 100%.

And when this happens….

When you’re busting with energy and nourishing your cells month-after-month-after-month…

Life becomes a whole lot of fun.”

From there…

You’d go on to paint a picture of what life could look like once the prospect is feeling their best…

Tell them to imagine they're out dancing with their spouse…

Or crushing it at work and getting a raise…

Or whatever their big desires are.

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Oh, and another thing I’ll do…

Is that I’ll mention the biggest packages in my CTAs (call to actions).

So, sticking with the example above…

My call to action would be something like…

“So go ahead and choose the 6 bottle package right now (or whatever package is best for you).”

By doing it this way…

I get to explicitly tell them to take the 6 bottle package…

But I also give them flexibility.

That way, if they truly can’t afford the 6 bottle package…

It doesn’t mean they are disqualified or scared off.

And that’s an important point.

We’re not trying to say that they won’t get any benefits from the smaller packages…

Rather…

We’re simply communicating to them that the smartest people buy more.

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Let me give you a quick real-life example of what I’m talking about here.

This is for one of the health offers I’m running with my partner, Cody…

Where the prospect has the option to select from one bottle, three bottles, or six bottles on the checkout.

Originally, this offer was written by another copywriter and didn’t have the AOV Money Close…

So I added in my close to the sales letter (total it was about 400 new words of copy)…

And check this out:

For one of our biggest email affiliates…

The first time they mailed to this offer…

They did over 200 sales…

But their AOV was about $112.

Well, they sent it again today…

And we spit the traffic…

With half going to that original funnel, and a half going to the version with the AOV Money Close…

So far this morning they’ve done just over 100 sales…

And, here are the results:

The version without the Money Close has had ZERO people take the 6 bottle option…

While for the version with the Money Close the take rate is 20%.

That's a really big deal…

Because the 6 bottle option is $174…

So by simply adding 400 lines of copy to the close…

I’ve added $34.80 to our AOV ($174 x .20).

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Okay, that’s it for today…

I hope you have an awesome day!

– SPG

P.S. Don't forget – your prospects want to be told what to do. That's why the AOV Money Close works so well. We're explicitly telling them to take the biggest package. And when we do that, a shockingly high percentage of the prospects say, “okay sounds good.”

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.

The post The “Money Close” I Use To Drastically Increase AOV first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

Here’s an obvious but profound application of the 80-20 Rule as it applies to sales:

For anyone who sells anything – no matter if you’re a copywriter, a sales rep, a real estate agent, a retailer, an agency owner, or something else…

If you put in 20% more effort than the average person in your field…

You will automatically be more successful than at least 80% of those people.

Because here’s a boring secret…

The key to success really is just showing up and actually giving a f**k.

Truly it is.

But, ever since I first went out on my own as a freelancer back in early 2012…

I’ve been continuously shocked by how many people don’t seem to actually care about making the sale.

Here’s the story that triggered this thought:

Yesterday, I emailed a real estate agent about a beach house I saw that’s for rent. It’s in a great location, but when I walked by it I noticed the “For Rent” sign also said “no pets.”

So, I emailed the agent and asked how firm the owner was on the no pets thing.

I also mentioned that if there was some flexibility and we liked the house, we’d be open to paying an extra $500 per month to have our two small cats there with us.

Then I finished the email by saying that if the owner of that house was adamant about no pets, then no big deal…

But to let me know if he (the agent) has any other properties in the surrounding area that would be worth looking at.

Here’s the agent’s reply:

“Owner will consider small dogs. That’s it. Sorry.”

Sweet.

It’s nice the guy responded back…

But it also seems like he just missed a big ol’ opportunity.

The rental I emailed about isn’t cheap…

And yet, I’m saying I would pay above market value if we could bring our cats…

So even if the answer is no, which is fine…

It seems like I might be the kind of client this guy would want to build a relationship with…

Because in our first interaction ever, I’m indicating that I don’t mind paying extra for things I want.

And then there’s the fact that he completely ignored my question about other listings…

Which is kind of nuts…

Because I just found the guy's profile on Realtor.com a few minutes ago…

And the dude does have other listings…

Including a house that's listed for $2.3MM, and that’s in the same area as where we want to eventually buy.

It honestly looks like a pretty nice home, and I’d be interested in seeing it…

But I’m certainly not going to go out of my way to email that guy about it now…

Especially when he was so unhelpful in his first reply.

Maybe I’d still email the guy if that house looked like my absolute dream home…

But it doesn’t.

It just looks like a house I’d be interested in seeing.

Still though…

If the agent had mentioned that house in his reply…

There would at least be a CHANCE that I’d go view it…

And there'd be a chance that I ended up really liking it and putting in an offer.

Probably not, but it would have been a possibility at least…

And like I said yesterday, sales is all a numbers game, right?

A 3% commission on a $2,300,000 listing is $69,000…

So it just seems like with that being the case…

The agent would want to show the house to as many qualified buyers as possible…

Until he gets a bite.

Apparently not, though…

And this agent’s behavior isn’t some one-off…

This kind of stuff is happening all of the time.

Here are just a few other things I’ve noticed when it comes to real estate:

1. For the beach houses listed on Zillow, about 25% of the time the agent doesn’t use a picture of the ocean as the listing’s main image.

That’s a huge mistake. People who are looking for oceanfront homes want to know that they’ll be able to see… the ocean! But by just including a random picture of the kitchen, they’re killing their “open rates.”

2. I’d say that for about 10% of the listings, the agent doesn’t write a description. And these are for expensive properties that have been on the market for a while.

3. Then there’s the super amateur photos that are used for some of the listings. We’re talking about rentals that are $10k per month or more… and houses that are $2MM+… Yet the photos look like my grandpa took them on his 1997 flip phone.

4. About 50% of the time when Laura and I call or text someone to inquire about a house, we don’t get a call back until a few days later. Sometimes we never hear back. In the realm of sales, and especially real estate, you’ve got to be fast, but a lot of these agents aren’t.

And conversely – if I was thinking about hiring a real estate agent to list my home, I’d first find one of their current listings and call them to inquire about it. This way, I could see how quickly the agent answers or respond to me and what their demeanor is. Then I’d probably go so far as to schedule a walkthrough of one of their listings where I pretend to be a potential buyer. That way I can see how the house is staged, how hard the agent works to sell the house, etc.

Most of us don’t do that though – we just get referred somebody by a friend and go with that agent, without knowing if they’re actually any good.

And that’s just real estate…

But let me give you a few more mind-blowing examples…

5. I fly private sometimes. About 25% of the time when I reach out to an agent or a broker for a quote, they don’t respond back. This includes brokers I’ve used in the past. This is pretty common too – a person does a great job the first time you work with them, but then aren’t as solid in subsequent interactions. That’s no good. Consistency is key.

6. I recently inquired about season tickets for the Las Vegas Raiders. Instead of calling me, the sales rep sent an email with some generic info + a link to view available seats. The package I was interested in would have cost $70,000. I asked the agent a question about this package and he did respond. But then that was it. If he’d followed up with me a few more times, there’s a decent chance I would have bought the package. I just needed some convincing.

7. A little while back, I had a freelancer friend who said he was struggling to get clients and having money problems. I introduced him to a dream client. The freelancer took two days to reply, and then asked if they could get on a call the following week. The dream client didn’t respond and I don’t blame them. They had an urgent pain point and the freelancer seemed like the kind of guy who moves slow. Not worth it to them.

8. One more. Back in early September I went to the dealership and looked at luxury cars. One of the cars I liked a lot was the Rolls Royce Dawn. It was a little over $403,000. After I left the dealership, I emailed the sales rep and asked him to do the math for me on a lease. If I put 10% down (so $40k), what would my monthly cost be over a 36 month lease, and with how many miles? The guy never responded back. I even double-checked a week later to make sure I had his address right, and I did.

Honestly, I could write another ten thousand words about this…

But I think you get the point:

A lot of the secret to success is just showing up.

You don’t have to be the best at what you do…

You just have to be better than most of your competition…

And the bar is pretty low.

K that’s it for today…

Hope everyone has an awesome Monday.

– SPG

P.S.

For the copywriters on my blog…

Showing up means proactive communication with clients, meeting deadlines when you say you will, and being responsive. That’s it. Simply do those things and you’ll have differentiated yourself from 90% of the other copywriters out there.

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.

The post Why Most Salespeople Suck (And How You Can Be Better) first appeared on Stefan Georgi.