Get Them Out Of Trouble
Customers will likely buy from you when you don't have social proof for one of two reasons:
Specific Status Level Jump. If you’ve been in the program more than a few weeks, we’ve almost certainly talked about this. People make decisions based on envy, not greed. They look to the left and to the right and decide they want to be better than their current peer group. That's how people measure success. You’ll get people’s attention and build their trust if you can say “you’re here, with these other people/companies, we’ll help you get there, with these more successful people/companies.” The amount of trust you’ll build depends on the level of specificity with which you’re able to describe “here” and “there.” If you can be more specific than competitors for the companies you target, you’ll win.
Urgency. There are few more powerful phrases than “you got yourself in a bit of trouble, but don’t worry — I’ll get you out of it.” The more specific you are around describing the trouble, what that trouble means, and what’ll happen if you remove the trouble, the more trust you’ll build.
I talk about Status Level Jumps a lot. Today, let’s talk Urgency.
There’s a saying that people "don’t usually buy their way into something, they buy their way out of it.” For your first customers, I tend to agree. At worst, it's a good thought exercise.
When I was 16, 17, and 18 years old, I cleaned pools during the summer. A management company that owned a bunch of developments that each had a few community pools hired me and gave me the vacuum and the skimmers and the pH kit + chemicals from May to September. I kept them in the back of my sister's SUV, which she absolutely loved. Anyway, I had the equipment so I figured I’d go out on my own a bit and start trying to clean other people’s pools in my spare time to make extra money. I put up a bunch of fliers around town — “I will clean your pool and balance the chemicals for $50.” No one bit, despite the price being absurdly low.
Finally, someone called up — they’d just got a pool put in over the winter and hadn’t realized quite how expensive everything would be. Filling it, heating it, cleaning it. So, they’d decided to do the chemicals themselves and … they’d royally screwed it up. Their kids couldn’t even get in the pool because their eyes burned so much. The money pit sat unused. Could I fix it? Sure, I said. I did it every day. Some Sodium Thiosulfate and Hydrogen Peroxide, which I had, would do the trick. I used the full names of the chemicals to make them sound intimidating. I charged $50 and said I’d come by every Saturday to rebalance the pH for $25. The customer had mentioned on the phone it’d been mortifying when the parents of their kids’ friends came by to pick them up and everyone's eyes were bright red.
I picked up on it. “I’ll make sure the parents who come by never see anything like that again.” I had a new strategy. I put up fliers: “Did you mess up the chemicals in your pool? Are all the kids eyes’ burning when they swim? Chemical balance is tricky — I’ll fix whatever's wrong and keep it fixed.” Loss aversion drives most decisions. You committed to something, you messed it up, and now you want to save it.
I didn't understand the reasoning when I was 17 — I just noticed that people were more likely to buy something from me when they thought I could clean up a mess they'd made. This is something to look for in early customers. Who’s already committed to something - the bigger the investment, the more committed they’ll be. Who’s publicly stated something as a goal, or bought expensive new software, or hired for a certain position. For B2C, did someone just buy a new house and now they have to furnish all the rooms? Did they not realize how expensive it’d all be? Can you help them? Am I projecting?Customers are usually more likely to buy something to get themselves out of trouble than to capitalize on upside. At least at first.
First, find the wedge which helps them get out of it (fix the chemicals you screwed up).
Then, after the trust, sell the product that helps them capitalize on the upside (keep your pool clean and balanced with weekly upkeep).