When did this all start?
I don’t know when it started, but a long time ago someone decided the way to capture attention and get people in an agreeable mood was to ask them a bunch of questions to which they had to answer yes.
Do you want to make more money? “Yes”
Do you want to do it quickly? “Yes”
Do you want an easy way to do it that is foolproof? “Yes”
Do you want to invest in my program? “Ugghhh…”
Is this the dumbest sales technique ever?
This has got to be one of the dumbest sales techniques ever invented. It presumes that if a person says ‘yes’ a couple of dozen times in a row, then like a brainless automaton they will automatically say yes when you ask them to buy. This is a "technique" straight out of a sales playbook from the mid 1970's.
I was in the B2B sales industry then and this is exactly the sort of sales training that sales reps and account managers received back then. Thanks fully things have moved on a bit.
The problem is, it sounds like it should work, too. But what happens instead, is that the person puts their guard up because they know exactly what you're doing and they do not appreciate being manipulated. No-one does!
For example, I just got an email that reads,
“Would you like to save time and money usually spent on vetting and hiring overpaid graphic designers?"
"Would you like to stop worrying about NOT getting sales with ugly, dull, and watered-down graphics that crush your credibility and repel your audience?"
"Would you like to stop settling for mediocre designs because you’re behind schedule and over budget?"
My skin was crawling before I was halfway through the first sentence, and I didn’t even read the next two questions until I started writing this for you.
Here's what you should think about doing instead.
Here’s what you can test the very next time you are writing an email, sales copy or anything else where you are tempted to ask a bunch of "yes" questions:
Ask questions that elicit a “no” answer. It's counterintuitive but bear with me...What about this?
“Do you love forever hiring and firing expensive, inexperienced graphic designers?” - No!
“Do you like paying for graphics that end up hurting rather than helping your sales?” - Definitely No!
“Do you enjoy the nightmarish, heart attack inducing stress of launching in 2 hours and you still don’t have the graphics you ordered 2 months ago?” - HOLY CRAP NO!
Would you respond better to this approach?
Well, speaking from my own point of view, if you write me something like that, I promise I will stick around and finish your sales message.
Test it for yourself, see if it works. Let me know what you think!
Drop a short message via our contact page. I'd love to hear how this works for you.
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