Do you know what’s the #1 sign that copy has been written by an amateur? It reads like a Go Fund Me page. And by that, we mean it reads like you’re asking your customers to do you a favour.
Many people start a business in order to make money; everyone knows that. But your business should solve a problem for your customers or provide something they need. Otherwise, why should they be willing to pay for what you sell?
Why You Shouldn’t Sell Favours
Everyone has experienced a time in their life when their friends have started selling products to their network. Whether it be Tupperware, cosmetics, or candles, we have all experienced the awkwardness of this business model. Maybe the first time, you’re happy to purchase a product and try it out. You may even need one of the products. But the sale is very much based on goodwill between friends. You don’t mind buying once in order to encourage your friend in their new business.
But then every time you see them they are asking you if you want to buy something and you don’t know how to tell them that the sale was not about the product, you wanted to encourage your friend. Business is the same; you need to create a good product and market it to people who want it. Without these two things, you are just asking your audience for favours. You may be successful in asking for favours for the first few months, but it is not a sustainable business model. Just look at charities that are always running campaigns. They are constantly out there creating new marketing material that tugs on more heartstrings than their previous ones. The reason for this is their business is not based on customer pain points or providing something that people want.
What Is Win-Win Selling
Win-win selling is when you are providing your customer with a win in exchange for money. Your customer wins because their life improves in some kind of way; you win because you make a profit. Wins don’t have to be a large; most products on the market don’t change lives in a substantial way, but they help people:
- Save money
- Save time
- Streamline repetitive tasks
- Feel more confident
- Achieve goals
If you look at most marketing, they are selling the life after the product. They aren’t selling weight loss; they are selling feeling confident in your own skin and fitting into clothes you love. They aren’t selling business systems; they are selling the ability to claw back some semblance of work-life balance and reduce the time suck of boring tasks that don’t directly make your business money. This is what win-win selling is all about. It focuses completely on the customer’s win. If you don’t do that, you don’t get your win, plain and simple.
The stories of influencers who make a full-time living from promoting the products of other companies to their audience but fail to sell their own merch are examples of what happens when you don’t sell the customer win. Public figures often pitch their products as a way for fans to support them. But that type of marketing focuses on the seller, not the buyer. You can’t bombard your fans with content of you living their dream life and then ask them to financially support that dream life, no. Influencers often fail to remember that they are successful in selling affiliate products because people want the life the influencer has. They want to look like them, so they’ll buy the makeup they use. They want to experience their life, so they’ll go to restaurants they go to or stay in the same hotels. When you sell merch that you don’t actually wear or use, you are not selling your audience a chance to buy into the life they want (yours.) The influencer merch that sells well is merchandise that offers value to customers or a chance to live their dream life.
Influencer collaborations with brands they use often do extremely well for this reason. A perfect example of successful influencer/public figure merchandise is Kylie Jenner’s Lip Kits. Kylie Lip Kits sold out because Kylie Jenner had cultivated an image of always having great makeup, and she created an easy solution for lip makeup. Until the Lip Kits, people would have to buy lipstick and lip liner separately and try to match the shades. Kylie Lip Kits sold the two together, creating value in the form of simplicity. Of course, exclusivity and the Kardashian marketing machine made the product a cult beauty item, but it performed way better than other Kardashian products because the product already added value.
How to Use Win-Win Selling
Go back to the basics of selling and focus on how your product benefits your customer. Your sales pitch or copy should focus on the biggest win your ideal customer type will experience from your product. You can weave some additional benefits in there, but you really need to drive home what your customer has to gain.
So how do you tell if your copy is win-win? Count the number of times you have used the words “we,” “me,” and “I.” Then, count the number of times you have used the word “you” and “your.” The copy should be focused around your customer, so “you” and “your” should feature heavily in your text. If it doesn’t, then you are approaching this from the wrong angle.
When you use “we,” “me,” and “I,” you are trying to convince customers to like you, and therefore buy from you. You are asking them to do you a favour. Likeability should be a goal for businesses, but it is not a selling point for your customers. It will keep people consuming your content and perhaps give you a small edge in buying decisions, but it will not make a sale.
Refocus your copy around your customer and what your product does for them. Remember, you can’t get your win if you don’t deliver your customer’s win.