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Why People Don’t Buy Your Stuff

Ultimately, the goal of any sales letter or marketing email is to get people to buy your stuff. I realize that’s not the most elegant way of putting it, but that’s the outcome we all want. So how can we get more people to buy more stuff from you?

One item that’s often overlooked when people sit down to compose a sales letter is the answer to “Why don’t people buy my stuff?” The more we understand the answer to that question, the better able we are to overcome those objections in the body of the message. So let’s think about that for a moment. Why don’t people buy your stuff?

One possible reason is that your stuff isn’t any good. That’s a huge obstacle, and my personal belief is that selling is difficult enough; you don’t need to be trying to sell something that is mediocre or worse. If you’re getting consistent feedback that your stuff is of inferior quality, you need to either upgrade the quality or find a new product/service to represent.

Trying to sell inferior stuff falls under the general heading of “life’s too short.” I’d move on.

Here’s another issue. Your product/service isn’t particularly bad, it just doesn’t stand out. It’s stuck in the middle of the proverbial bell shaped curve. However this problem can usually be addressed with a little bit of creative thinking. Who is it being targeted to? By saying “This is a solution that is specifically developed for dentists/home owners/entrepreneurs ect.”, we’ve immediately differentiated the product by making it the solution to the needs of a particular niche. The reality may be that the product might service the needs of all the previously mentioned groups, but by communicating that it is “specifically designed to meet the needs of a specific group” we create an aura of uniqueness that otherwise would be missing.

Now here’s the biggest reason.

It’s the one that’s communicated the most often, although it’s usually not really the reason why people don’t buy your stuff. That reason is, money.

Now sometimes money is in fact the reason why people don’t buy your stuff. The old “champagne tastes on a beer budget” mentality. However, the more common reason that money is used as an excuse is because you haven’t provided the prospect with enough reasons to believe that your product or service is worth the investment. That’s the reason why you want your sales letter to be filled with all the compelling benefits that the reader will get when they buy your stuff. Without those, asking for one small dime is too much money.

While we’re on the topic, it’s important to remember the difference between features and benefits. Far too often, sales letters are filled to the brim with dry product specifications and endless details on the specifics of the services that are being offered. But remember the old saying, “People don’t buy grass seed, they buy beautiful lawns.”

Thus, whenever you communicate something about your product or service, you want to think to yourself, “Why is that important to my prospect? Why should they care?” The answers to those questions are what you want to include in your sales letter. Don’t make the mistake and assume that the reader will figure the benefits out on their own. They won’t. You need to take the time to articulate them, even if they seem obvious to you.

If you follow these suggestions your next sales letter will be a far more powerful selling tool.