A Sad Truth That Makes You Rich
by Eo Lim

Have you ever faced this situation before?

Imagine this.

Salesman A sells you an expensive vacuum cleaner.

He spends an hour telling you the benefits of his product.

He further boasts his product is the best. He shows the features clearly to you. super long extendable hose. power drive motor. extreme low energy consumption. etc.

This salesman virtually uses powerful words to trigger you psychologically to open your wallet. And, he offers full money refund, 3 years warranty and no-questions-asked conditions

This seems to be the best offer that knocks your socks off.

But, you hesitate. You want to think about it.

Another salesman, Mr. B, comes few days later. He sells the same product to you.

Mr. B does almost the same thing as salesman A. But, this time he shows the weakness of the product. He emphasizes the weakness is not really important. The product is designed to compensate it.

Who will you buy from?

If I were you, I would buy from Mr. B.

On the surface, it looks like a pathetic move by him. But, it strikes our hearts. We're looking for honesty.

See now?

The legendary adman James Webb Young did this before.

He sold fruits by mail. Let me tell you his story.

There was a violent hailstorm nearly ruined an apple-growing season. The ice pellets hit the apples bruising and scarring the skins.

Young feared massive complaints and returns if he shipped those apples to his mail-order customers. His business would be destroyed if he didn't fulfill the order. The customers would ask for refund.

In fact, there were only cosmetic damages. The skins were discolored. But, this didn't affect the freshness of the fruit.

To solve the problem, Young included a pre-printed card in every order.

He honestly told the customers that the apples were scarred. He further assured that this was the proof that apples were grown at mountain where extreme cold caused hailstorms. Due to the weather, the fleshes of apples were firm and sweeter.

According to Young, not a single order was returned. In fact, the customers even requested scarred apples the following year.

Isn't it interesting human behavior?

Yes. Honesty does sell!

How can you use this to your advantage?

Let me give you an example.

If you're selling hand-made violin on the Internet, how can you beat your competitors?

You must show your prospects that yours are not as perfect as those machine-made violins.

Honestly tell them this.

"Occasionally, there're some scratches on the surface. The tune of each string is also not calibrated by computer. The worst is that every violin doesn't come with perfectly equal size and sound.

But I assure you that this is the proof of violin make by experienced craftsmen and monitored by best violinists.

That makes each violin authentic and unique. It has the character that you can't get from machine-made violins."

This is how you use this strategy.

Whether you honestly or deceitfully show your honesty, it doesn't matter. The sad truth is that people can be persuaded to buy when you intentionally expose the weakness of your product.

Unfortunately, many marketers rarely do it. Most are educated to show only benefits-loaded sales messages to prospects. It is especially overdone in the Internet.

This is your chance now! Be different and be more empathic to customer influence.

Just pick one weakness of your product. Talk about it frankly in your marketing. Show how the weakness is not an important issue and is compensated by the strength.

This is how you make more sales. You appear to be weak yet you're strong.

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