Questions That Keep Them Involved

Questions are equally vital during presentation, i.e., in body of your web copy, for clearly explaining how your product or service solves your prospect's problem in an easy, fast, or cost- effective way. Therefore, install questions within your sales copy that capture attention. Keep your prospect involved, and keep his mind from wandering off in a different direction by using intriguing questions that grab his lapels and jerk him toward you. For length of time that it takes a prospect to answer a question in his mind, you have his total attention. The prospect is drawn more and more into sales process as your questioning proceeds. If your questions are logical, orderly and sequential, you can lead prospect forward toward inevitable conclusion to purchase your product or service.

Tip: Never say something if you can ask it instead! Think of how you can phrase your key selling points as questions. The person who asks questions has control!

Closing Questions that Presume Sale

Just as questions are important at beginning and body of your web copy, they are even more vital at end in gaining a commitment to action.

The key to asking a closing question is confident expectation. You must skillfully craft your question to convey that you confidently expect prospect to say, "Yes" or to agree to sale.

For example, you can pose following question in your web copy: "When would you like to start using to multiply your profits?" In other words, you don't ask if they want to buy your product, but when. This way, you're asking for sale expectantly, and more confidently you expect to sell, more likely it is that you will sell.

Tip: In crafting your closing question, include benefit that your prospect will get from your product.

When you ask a compelling closing question, you diffuse tension that normally creeps up on your prospect at "moment of truth." A prospect's tension leads to hesitance that kills so many sales - both online and offline.

To be truly persuasive in selling process, learn to use questions judiciously throughout your web copy. Instead of trying to overwhelm your prospects with reasons and rationales for doing what you want them to do, ask strategic questions instead. When you take time to plan wording of your questions, your prospect will become more interested in your product -- and consequently, you will make more sales.

Is this technique effective? You bet. In many tests, I've doubled response -- sometimes by adding just one sentence that conveys a good satisfaction conviction.

I received an e-mail from a company, a subsidiary of eBay, requesting my advice. They had an e-mail solicitation that wasn't drawing response that they had expected. What was wrong?

Looking over what they had created, I saw several mistakes, many of which would have been avoided if they knew psychological triggers that cause people to buy. Let me give you just one example.

In subject line of most e-mails that have solicited me, I have been able to tell, at a glance, that solicitation was for a specific service or an offer of something that I was clearly able to determine. Examples such as "Reduce your CD and DVD costs 50%," Or "Lose weight quickly," pretty much told me what they were selling. Was this good or bad?

The problem with those subject lines is that reader was able to quickly determine: 1) that it was an advertisement; and 2) that it was for some specific product or service.

Most people don't like advertising. And most people won't make effort to open their e-mail solicitation if they think they are getting an advertising message -- unless they are sincerely interested in buying something that advertisement offers.

The subject line of an e-mail is similar to headline of a mail order ad, or copy on an envelope, or first few minutes of an infomercial. You've got to grab somebody's attention and then get them to take next step. In case of envelope, you want them to open it. In case of an infomercial, you want them to keep watching, and in case of an e-mail, you want them open up e-mail and read your message.

The key, therefore, is to get a person to want to open your message by putting something into subject area of your e-mail that does not appear to be an advertising message -- one that would compel them to take next step. And best trigger to use for this is trigger of curiosity.

There are a number of ways you can use curiosity to literally force a person to take next step. You can then use this valuable tool to put a reader in correct frame of mind to buy what you have to offer.

Once again, all principles apply to every form of communication -- whether it be advertising, marketing or personal selling. And to know these triggers is key to more effective communication and most importantly, avoidance of costly errors that waste time and money.