The Secrets Behind Getting Paid Today

There are some secrets to getting paid in this economic downturn, when everyone is hanging on to their money in tight-fisted palms. Read on for the top three secrets behind opening your customers’ wallets.

Eliminating Fear

Scared money doesn’t spend.

If you don’t address fear, you won’t get anywhere. You’ll have to wait around until people “feel” better.

That’s right, it’s an emotional state that’s holding up your getting paid most of the time!

There are two fears that are keeping people from spending: The economy in general and their own personal economy in particular.

So how can you overcome this?

Show them that they will get more than their money’s worth out of your product. That it will be a benefit to them today, tomorrow, and every day after that.

Show how your product gives them an edge in today’s economy.

Show testimonials from yourself and others that demonstrate how much better off you all are now.

Make people feel better, and you will have no problem getting new customers.

Guaranteed to Work

Offering guarantees is a great way to eliminate the fear stopping your prospects from becoming customers.

Afraid people will want their money back? Don’t worry too much.

Some will, but most won’t. It’s too much effort to ship the product back, with no evidence of being used.

Of course, you have to weigh the benefit of extra sales versus the risk of some returns here.

It doesn’t hurt to try it for a while and see what happens. If it increases the amount of your sales, it just might be worth it.

Divide & Conquer

It helps also to minimize the size of the price tag – if only in your prospects’ minds (after all, that’s where the fear is).

For example, equate the price of your product to a cup of coffee. “For the cost of a daily cup of morning coffee at your local coffee house, you can instead build financial freedom for your family….”

Those coffees add up, especially if you like the $4 kind. Four dollars a day doesn’t sound like much. Until you do the math. That’s $1,460 a year on coffee.

Or, try lunch. Most people spend at least $5 – more like $8 or $10 – a day on lunch. That $8 a day lunch will cost you $2,920 over a year.

Let’s say it’s a family of four who goes out to eat once a week. That’s easily $100 a trip. And $5,200 in a year.

Or instead of buying a new car, keep your clunker for one year – just one year. Would you give up one year of new car driving to ensure your family’s future?

Most people would. I’d bet they’d even be willing to give up two to three years of new car driving if they could.

Well, assuming a car payment of $600 a month (not too far off the mark when you consider the cost to add insurance) that gives you up to $7,200 to work with for one year, $14,400 for two, and $21,600 for three.

Incentives Sell 

Offer an incentive that is worth the value of the product.

Remember all of those free vacations you get when you purchase certain items? You can offer that, too. There are lots of promotional companies that specialize in this (by the way, they make money because most people don’t take the vacation, just like most people won’t make the return, either).

You’ll pay about $30 for those free vacation certificates. Even though most people won’t use it, it still gets them over the fear hump long enough for you to make the sale.

Creating Urgency

Special deals, promotions, and limited-time offers. They’ve worked for many years, and they still work today.

You have to tell people the difference between the price they’d pay today and the price they’ll pay tomorrow if they wait. Because for them to buy now, there has to be a significant difference between those two numbers.

If you don’t want to lower the price too much, or you can’t, try adding other extras in that people will perceive as valuable. Like free guides, subscriptions, even desk calendars.

We all want free stuff! Yes, we’re paying for it, but the word free has hypnotic power. Use it!

Making it Easy

Give people as many options for payment that you can.

Credit cards allow people to finance purchases – even for years. So they buy today, pay whenever… but you still get paid today. And don’t forget PayPal, which has a huge comfort factor for most Internet users.

Divide and conquer works here, too. You can offer “three easy payments” with low amounts. Although you have to wait to receive the full purchase prices, something now is definitely better than nothing! 

I know this all sounds pretty old school, doesn’t it? Well it is. Because the things that motivate people to buy – and buy now – haven’t changed for hundreds of years.

Maybe our grandparents didn’t have Paypal. Maybe they shopped out of a catalog instead of clicking through the Internet.

Even then, though, if a seller made an attractive enough deal, with urgency, and made it easy to pay, then that seller had no problem selling. And neither will you, in 2010 and beyond.