New to this site? Fill in your name and email to your right (where it says "Free Copywriting Tips"), and I'll send you a (semi) daily copywriting tip each and every week. Plus, you'll also get a FREE copy of my advanced copywriting eBook... "The Copywriter's Crib Sheet." Your information is 100% safe, and you can leave at any time.
Oscar (NOT his real name) writes:
“I was hoping to receive more tips and free advice. [You] seem to send mostly promo’s for other people’s stuff. I don’t want to buy anything. I just want to learn from what’s available on the net for free. If I want to pay for anything, I’ll sign up for a course at my community college to learn about copywriting.”
Sigh.
Forget for a second that I barely ever sell anything to my list (and shame on me for that!)
That when I do send an offer it’s NEVER in a way where I’m just tossing poop at you hoping some will “stick.”
Or that you can probably count the number of community college teachers who can write copy on one hand.
Let’s forget all that for a second and get to the heart of “Oscar’s” REAL problem:
His “allergy” to selling.
It’s almost spooky how many so-called “business owners” have this condition.
Frankly, it doesn’t make sense.
How can anyone possibly hope to sell their own products or services… if they shriek like scared little girls when someone sends them a sales pitch?
Maybe I’m wrong here. But I don’t see how someone can be a good seller if they’re not a good buyer.
For example:
How else are you going to know how it feels to stare at an order form, credit card in hand, hearing those two voices in your head — one telling you to buy, the other telling you to put it off until “later”?
Seems to me unless you experience that feeling yourself (and often), you won’t know how to silence the “procrastinator” voice and magnify the “buyer” voice in your prospect’s mind.
Whatever the case, here’s some FREE advice for anyone who goes into cardiac arrest when someone — GASP! — tries to “sell” them something:
Quit being such a pussy and READ the sales pitches.
ALL of them — good, bad or ugly.
Why?
For one thing, you might learn something.
Heck — you may even BUY something.
And when that happens, make sure you keep that ad and dissect it line by line.
Figure out exactly what it did to sell you… and then start using it in YOUR ads.
Trust me, it’ll be one of the best “copywriting” educations you ever get.
And it won’t cost ya a dime.
Anyway, that’s it for this time.
As one of my favorite marketers, Craig Garber, likes to say:
Now go SELL something!
{ 11 comments }
Thanks for starting my day off with a laugh, Ben. You didn’t even have to make any comments after this guy’s remarks. They stand alone as a stark testament to his naivete. Don’t you love it when your freely-given efforts are received with such appreciation? Maybe this guy is not so allergic to selling as he is to work.
LOL, good post Ben.
I HATE it when I run across guys like that. “Pussy” is exactly the right word there.
I think I’ve seen you promote maybe 2 things to your list the whole time I’ve been on it. If it’s been more than that, I can’t remember them.
And when you do promote, it’s always been for something really good. You could pitch twice, even three times as often and I still wouldn’t care.
This guy is trying to learn how to become a salesman when he himself openly hates selling.
The funny thing is it seems to be a lot of these geeks and Communistic “Web 2.0″ freaks who keep having this “wet-their-pants-every-time-they-see-a-sales-pitch” mentality.
People like the guy you quoted seem to think it’s a sin to “try to make money” off of anything. They want everything to be free in a world of lollipops and sugarplum fairys where we all live in a commune and share everything in front of a campfire while singing together.
No secrets. No advantages. No nothing. Life is “fair.”
They talk about their lofty high ideals of social networking and how we copywriters are “scammy” - then they go home from their J-O-B of an evening and listen to their I-pod and jerk off to photos of Steve Jobs and Seth Godin.
Well, let me tell him (and every snot-nosed wannabe like him) something very important…
If life were fair, we’d all stand in a big line for 4 hours to get our food every day.
If life were hair, you could never have a super-attractive spouse.
If life were fair, you could NEVER get ahead in life.
Well, life ISN’T fair… and that’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time.
Well, since I am new to your newsletter, I have never seen you promoted anything to me - yet.
Anyway, that man (Oscar) really need some brainwashing or else, he doesn’t even know what it feels to take out credit card and buy something. Allergic eh?
Definition of Allergic: having an allergy or peculiar or excessive susceptibility (especially to a specific factor); “allergic children”; “hypersensitive to pollen”
That was a great post, Ben. Thanks for not holding back.
What you said about being a good buyer before you can be a good seller applies to a lot of things. For instance, you have to be a good employee before you can be a good boss… a good student before you can be a good teacher… etc.
The list goes on.
Ben
Very good post!
I agree with post 1 Greg above your subscriber is a PUSSY”".
I will add that my Immutable laws apply here also; I have two-
# 1 STUPID NEVER WORKS. #2 UGLY NEVER WORKS EITHER.
Thud restricted thinking is just stupid. And extend your thought that a handful of college teaches could write copy to zero minus one- They’d have stubbornly strong opinions about what works though. And I have extensive experience with the stubbornness and zero evidence of there ability to teach it or demonstrate it.
Keep up the good work - you’re a bright light on the subject.
Paul G
P.S. Your reader asks for free teaching well, now and not a pitch of another program you have found valuable. Lets see 1 + 1 = insight - # One you write an intro to a program :t hat’s a sample for free . The pitch links ya to # 2 another Free Sample. Which totally bust the cliche that something free is x!!xi not worth xc!?. I suggest rule # 1 is affecting your readers view point.
A peddlar is the easiest sell. Once you realize that you’re on a well-crafted “greased slide” (see Gary Halbert) to pulling out your wallet, it’s a treat all the way. Happy to oblige.
Some get it, some don’t.
Keep it up, bud.
Love to all.
Hahaha, I was heated and ready to post my thoughts, then I read Greg’s post and this paragraph says it all…
” They talk about their lofty high ideals of social networking and how we copywriters are “scammy” - then they go home from their J-O-B of an evening and listen to their I-pod and jerk off to photos of Steve Jobs and Seth Godin.”
HAHAHA!
But yeah seriously Ben — I love getting pitched.
Two examples come to mind
1. — I was walking in times square NYC a couple months ago when a young black dude comes up and is like “you like hip hop” and starts pitching me on this mixtape CD he had, so I stop I listen– and when he gets to the price he’s like “I normally sell this for $20 bucks… but I’ll give it to you for $15 today — and you can have this second mixtape for free!” as he whips out the second CD… then shutsup for like 15 seconds while I read the list of songs on the second CD — then only says one thing — “You need change?” Yeah, I bought the CD’s — you gotta love a good hustle…
2. I was researching a seminar the other day and deciding whether I want to pay for it — and I found myself really reading each and every testimonial — and it made me realize how important they are…
Pussy is definitely the right word for this guy
I thought you guys’d get a kick out of that email.
Maybe I should start a whole new series of blog posts on emails like this?
I figure you guys will get a good laugh… and it’ll discourage the “bottom feeders” from joining my list in the first place.
Sounds to me like the kind of “win-win” deal even an advanced community college copywriting teacher can appreciate…
-Ben
Please, make me laugh.
It’s shocking since you give so much free stuff away.
Your swipefiles are priceless for example.
Like you say, Oscar is doomed until he gets real.
Here’s what my site says:
Please understand that Tim runs a business and that
free advice is rarely a bargain for the recipient, nor a
fair return on investment and experience for the giver.
Comments on this entry are closed.