Following is a brief email exchange with a procrastinator who thought – in his infinite snow flake-ish-ness – he should be allowed to get the bonuses offered with the $20 Gene Schwartz offer I did in September after the deadline.
If I banned or blocked you or someone you know from buying, this’ll illustrate why:
PROCRASTINATOR: I sent you an email some hours ago. I wanted to purchase the course but the payment link wasn’t working. Can you please send me the link with the same offer?
elBENBO: The link went down at midnight PDT last night that was the deadline, you had all weekend to buy
PROCRASTINATOR: I sent you an email before the offer would expire. You can check. I tried and it wasn’t working. Could you try again please?
elBENBO: …your email came 2 minutes after the deadline…and the P.S. literally said: “Direct any customer service questions to Michael Senoff, not me.” You done screwed up by first procrastinating and second by not reading instructions
PROCRASTINATOR: Great customer service man! You’re the best
There are many ways this sort of thing makes my business lots of sales.
One of the main reasons is the act of trying to test (i.e., break) people. It always brings the crazy out of the crazies & the truth out of the irresponsible, so I can identify & ban them. (Incidentally, I will be dedicating an entire Email Players issue to this very topic and how to do it some time in 2021.) And by curating out the low class would-be customers & procrastinators who can’t even follow simple instructions like the guy above, I have more time, energy, and “bandwidth” to serve the high class legitimate customers.
And the longer I am in business, the more aggressive I get about it.
Frankly, these days, Yours Crotchety bans people for the slightest of infractions.
Take these schlubs who wanted back in “Email Players” for example:
“Thanks for the reply. i didn’t know about the possibility of not being able to re-subscribe and i only wanted get the first issue before proceeding (no evil intended). Really sorry i cannot re-subscribe. Like my first email, i intended to re-subscribe hopefully at the beginning of the next month(November) so i can be on track for prompt receipt. If you could have a change of mind on the ban, i am always at your door to subscribe. thanks again for your time Ben.”
The result:
BANNED! for lack of faith.
Here’s another:
“I have been a member of the Email Players newsletter for a few months and have learned quite a bit about writing emails. Unfortunately, I have to cancel the membership, at least for a short time. My wife and I got an opportunity to relocate and will be moving this month. We will be without an address for a couple of months. Nomads so to speak while we wait for our new home to close and be updated. I know your policy is to never let anyone back in once they leave, but I am hoping that under the circumstances you may reconsider. If not, I understand. I appreciate your thoughts on this, but either way, I understand.”
The result:
BANNED! for lack of imagination.
One more:
“You’re keeping your word and not letting me back in the email players newsletter. I do appreciate it. Can you please let me back in? PLEASE for the love of god. I’ll pay for the entire year if that makes any difference, and I will never quit again. Can you please please please please. Make an exception? A few of my friends are already subscribers and doing monthly implementations and I want to pay for the newsletter and be in the group. Please?”
The result:
BANNED! for quitting Email Players twice prior (he somehow snuck back in).
And also, for not being as smart as his friends.
And the BANNED marches on.
Anyway, here’s the point:
On the surface it looks like I am losing sales banning all these schlubs wanting back in.
But after some 20 years up in this business, and testing and experimenting and aggressively practicing what I preach & teach about this… I have only seen growth, a business with more high class customers than anyone else I know… and a peace of mind most business’ always catering to & chasing down anyone willing to give them money will never understand.
I talk more about this in the December “Email Players” issue.
Specifically, in the bonus elBenbo’s Lair insert.
I also show some more examples of the BANNED & Banished.
The deadline to get the December issue is coming up quick.
To subscribe in time, go here immediately:
The deadline to get in on time is Nov 30 2020.
Ben Settle
