Of course, there are some closing techniques that are more applicable to Web than others -- but I'll show you magical closing secrets that can dramatically increase your web sales, and rapidly increase your online income. This works best on direct response websites - i.e., those that focus on getting an immediate response in form of an order or lead.

Before we get started, I must emphasize that much of sale is made in presentation. The close is largely determined by how well you've presented product to prospect. Your objective, then, is to take prospect smoothly past point of closing, making it easy for him or her to come to a buying decision. You can accomplish this with strategic use of questions.

The All-Important Opening Question

When you're selling online, you don't have benefit of interacting with your prospect way you would in face-to-face selling. Therefore, first thing you say in your web copy has to be something that breaks preoccupation, grabs attention, and points to result or benefit of your product.

At any given moment, your prospect's mind is preoccupied with dozens of things. Therefore, a well-crafted question will cause prospect's thinking to be directed to what you have to say.

Your opening question must be aimed at something that is relevant and important, and at something that your prospect needs or wants. What do sales managers, for instance, sit around and think about all day long? Increasing sales! Therefore, if your target market consists of sales managers, here's an example of a question you can use as a headline or as first part of your copy: "How would you like to see a method that would enable you to increase your sales by 20% to 30% over next 12 months?"

Knowing subconscious reasons why people buy, and using this information in a fair and constructive way, will trigger greater sales response -- often far beyond what you could imagine.

I recall a time when I applied one of these subconscious devices by changing just one word of an ad, and response doubled. I refer to these subconscious devices as psychologal "triggers." A psychological trigger is strongest motivational factor any salesperson or copywriter can use to evoke a sale.

There are 30 triggers in all, some of which I will reveal to you in a moment. Each trigger, when deployed, has power to increase sales and response beyond what you would normally expect.

There are triggers, for example, that will cause your prospect to feel guilty if they don't purchase your product. Let me give you an example. Whenever you receive in mail a sales solicitation with free personalized address stickers, you often feel guilty if you use stickers and don't send something back -- often far in excess of value of stickers. Fundraising companies use this method a great deal. You receive 50 cents worth of stickers and send back a $20 bill.

Another example are those surveys that are sent out asking for you to spend about 20 minutes of your time filling them out. Enclosed in mailing you, might find a dollar bill included to encourage you to feel guilty, and entice you to fill out survey. And you often spend a lot more than one dollar of your time to do that.

Guilt is a strong motivator. I have to admit that I've used guilt in many selling situations, in mail order ads and on TV -- with great success, I might add.

I call one of most powerful triggers a "satisfaction conviction," which is a guarantee of satisfaction. But don't confuse this with typical trial period you find in mail order, i.e., "If your not happy within 30 days, you can return your purchase for a full refund." A satisfaction conviction is different. Basically it takes trial period and adds something that makes it go well beyond trial period.

For example, if I were offering a subscription, instead of saying, "If at anytime you're not happy with your subscription, we'll refund your unused portion," and instead said, "If at any time you're not happy with your subscription, let us know and we'll refund your entire subscription price -- even if you decide to cancel just before last issue."