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The Art of Selling Expensive Programs to Smart People
The Art of Selling Expensive Programs to Smart People
Can selling high-ticket items become second nature?
Master the art of appealing to smart, discerning customers with items over $5,000 as Domi uncovers the secrets to success.
Learn how to avoid common pitfalls, like expecting instant bookings from video sales letters (VSLs), and instead, understand the necessity of delivering top-notch content right from the start.
We’ll reveal why presenting your best work in VSLs can establish trust and goodwill, and how genuinely valuable sales calls can convert skeptical customers by focusing on their needs rather than pushing for a sale.
Ever wondered if honesty truly pays off in marketing?
Explore the ethics and effectiveness of transparent marketing techniques aimed at savvy consumers.
Domi delves into the importance of truthfulness, highlighting how tactics like visible spot counters for events can foster trust, while deceptive methods can backfire.
Hear why "fake it till you make it" strategies often fail with discerning clients and appreciate the power of genuine representation. By prioritizing authenticity and sincere efforts, discover how you can build lasting credibility and successfully connect with your audience.
Welcome back to another video. If you are selling expensive things to smart people, this video is for you. Or if you're listening to this on the podcast, then this episode is for you. Welcome. My name is Domi and I'm an online marketing and business consultant. I've been doing this for the past five years and I've been working with clients who are consistently selling to smart people and also expensive things to smart people. I want to bring this conversation to the forefront very simply because I have been seeing and being exposed to entrepreneurs who are selling to smart people, but they're not selling in the way that shows that they understand how smart people think. So if you have difficulties into selling expensive things to smart people, then this video is going to be great and very helpful for you. Or if you're listening to this, then this episode is going to be very helpful for you.
Speaker 1:Now, the first thing that I see when it comes to selling expensive things to smart people because I might do a video on how to sell low ticket or cheap things to smart people, because I believe that's much, much easier to do, but selling expensive things to smart people is much more difficult. So what do I mean by expensive? Is I mean anything over 5,000, okay, everything over 5,000 is. And then you know, 5, 10, 20, 30k and plus is considered to me as a more expensive things, especially on the online landscape. And if you're selling or have a program or mastermind or some kind of thing that you're doing online that you are running for relatively smart people and you're struggling to do that, then I'm sure it is going to be really helpful. So one of the things that I see that as far as mistakes goes and I have a couple that I collected is that you expect for smart people to book calls right away. Okay, and the typical scenario would be you putting out a VSL and you hire me to help you run your ads to your VSL. So what we did VSL is a video sales letter where people can put their emails and phone numbers and name to access some kind of a free training. You know, the webinars like this is kind of like those eras. That's there, that's where we're coming from so that they put and submit their emails, phone numbers and names. There's a short, you know written text to sell them on what's the outcome of this free training. And then you kind of show up for the free training. You give them some information and then you expect them to book a call or to submit an online application to get involved to your programs, and usually they come to me because it's not working and they keep investing money and they don't understand why people are not booking calls and why people are not purchasing or applying to work with them.
Speaker 1:Now, that's the mistake right there To expect from smart people to see your ads for the first time and watch a training with you, even though you think you poured your heart and soul into it. Think you poured your heart and soul into it. Most often than not, what I've been seeing is there is a, there is a hold back from the seller side, so from the entrepreneur side, that they are giving some information, but really not giving too much information, just like a little bit, just like scratching the surface, and there's a lot of gaps between what is promised and the journey of the entrepreneur presenting. There's a lot of jumps that somehow doesn't make a logical connection to who is listening and even though you have a chance to really put your best foot forward and your best work without filtering yourself, most entrepreneurs don't do that. So, if you can, if you want to fix this issue and that's how you roll. I would suggest to you the first thing to do is put your best work out there in these VSL videos, go out of your way, blow their minds. If you're able to do that, if you're able to do that and also you stay very much in connection and congruence with your story, that you don't hold back, you give more context if needed and what's relevant for the listeners, then you're able to build that initial trust throughout your videos and whoever is watching it, they are like oh wow, this is crazy. I also don't want you to go into massive lengths, you know, in this videos, in this small trainings, but I do want you to have just go out of your way in order for you to provide the best work that you can give to these people. Okay, and don't worry about giving too much or giving away the farm, like there is this expression about this situation. Just give your best and you will be rewarded. You know, not necessarily a book, a call, but sometimes you know you have massive, you know goodwill that you manage to build with people, and I'm going to move on to the next part is to make the call as valuable as possible, and I'm going to move on to the next part is to make the call as valuable as possible. This is a second way for you to maximize your chances. If that's what you are doing If you have a VSM, you want to kind of automate your client acquisition and you're selling to smart people is to have value calls, and value calls are basically just giving benefits of the call and really giving them and making sure you're helping them in the call instead of thinking about how I'm going to sell them, Because smart people know that this is like a sales call.
Speaker 1:They also know that they're not ready to buy from you, even though they watched a video. It's very rare that they're ready to buy right away, especially if there's something they can already sense that this is something that's going to be very expensive, okay. So what you can do instead is make the call about them and really follow through on your words. Unless they ask you about your products, you don't have to talk to them about your products. You know you can just listen in and try to actually provide value when they come to a call. Now you have massive goodwill points and the rest that you can feel is basically buyer-free content, and this is the second point that the people who are selling to smart people expensive things.
Speaker 1:They don't have a robust content system, body of work behind them. So, for example, when they watch a video from you, they cannot go on YouTube and consume more of your stuff, more of the things that you put out there, more of valuable things and insights and things that they can learn from you. So you haven't built up that robust thing, even if you have some kind of an email sequence that you deem somewhat valuable or you hired someone to write your emails for you. I write a lot of emails for entrepreneurs because that's unpaid to do that, to create compelling emails for their audiences, but sometimes those emails are just you know what you send out after the video. They're just like serving them to book a call once more and just reinforce your authority, and you're very much focused on how can I make money out of this as soon as possible instead of how can I show people that what I'm doing is helpful for them, so that they understand that there's so much value here and they would want to become a client. So I think that's one of the the most that's like one of the most important mindset shifts that you can implement.
Speaker 1:So not having a body of work behind you and not having some kind of you know content system, not just like posts, but like something that they get. Oh, this is helpful, this is helpful, this is helpful. So the more they can learn from you, the more they can have an internal motivation to want to be becoming your clients. And whenever you're putting out those offers, whenever you talk about your offers, they're already like I'm kind of pre-sold or on the other side, when we give so much value to them and they constantly come and get help from our content, when that happens, they actually just feel so much gratitude. They want to reach out to you to book a call and see what are you selling, like, what do you have going on? I want to work with you.
Speaker 1:That's kind of what happened to me. Like I didn't put any kind of specific offer that the content I was putting out there was so helpful, but people wanted like hey, how can we work together? That's kind of the normal occurrence and that's how we can build those smart relationships, because it's an illusion to think that smart people are just like they see a video and just because you think you nailed down their problems, which sometimes even that's the issue that you are making assumptions on their problems. That is not even relevant to them. It's not even true to them, because you haven't gone deep enough in your research or haven't been exposed to these people so to know accurately what they are struggling with. But it's an illusion to think that just because they see a VSA and just because you have spent money on the videos, and just because you hired someone to write a copy for you, that suddenly someone would just want to be your client just because you did all those things. You know that suddenly someone would just want to be your client just because you did all those things. You know it's not something that they asked you to do. It's something that you did because you expected them to become a client this way.
Speaker 1:But, like I said and I'm going to go to the third thing which is very important when you are selling to smart people expensive things is patience. Okay, so patience is what is the number one? Quality is the number one quality that you can acquire as you're running your business. And for you to be able to be patient, you also need to have security in your business, meaning that if you don't have security. If you're in your business, if you're constantly scared about cash flow and money and not making become a buyer because you have invested so much money, like it's time to start making money back, the people can feel that in you and in your messaging and in the way you show up, they really want to make a sale.
Speaker 1:There's nothing wrong with wanting to make a sale. It's just when smart people are making decisions and they invest in expensive things, they like to think about it, they like to do their research, they like to, they like to dig deep into understanding what the benefit is for them, especially if you are expensive. You know, like 30k, 20, like I don't know 25k, 30k range, right or above. You know so smart people care about that. You know, unless you have like a big personal brand like garyvee and and basically your reputation is running you in the sense of like you have such a reputation built like millions of followers that technically that reputation is like a sailboat. So people know that you are doing something very high level and this is expected from you to not only charge premium, but also that what you are teaching is actually going to be beneficial. So that is a whole different game and I think I've just realistically, most of us are not at that million level right With followers and everything just yet. So, yes, that takes a lot of time, with followers and everything just yet. So, yes, that takes a lot of time to build and a lot of showing up for yourself, but of course, at that level, your reputation is outrunning you. So that's smart.
Speaker 1:People are like, okay, I have so much, but because of that, you know, there's so much content out there, there's so much social proof, there's so much of that that smart people are willing to put some serious money because of those things. But most of us are not there. So we need to think about okay, so what can we provide for them? How can we be patient with them? And how can we really focus on what we have in our control, which is how we show up, how much value we give to these people? And then, when it comes to their decision-making, how can we be patient? How can we help them navigate the decision-making process as much as we can without being desperate for a sale? So security within your business and within yourself is very important if you're selling expensive things to smart people.
Speaker 1:The other thing that is I think it's a little bit of a cheap marketing technique is like how many spots left in your program? Like 10 spots left, you have to come one spot left. You know, even though that's something a lot of people use in order to instill some urgency, I also believe that unless it's true like unless you really really are running a retreat and you really really have 10 spots left and you really really have 10 spots left and you really really sold nine and you only have one if that is really on the truth frequency, meaning that this is actually true, like that's literally what's going on then you're good to go. You know You're good to go and maybe that would help someone to make a decision relatively faster if they really want to and it's just they're on the fence because of other reasons, okay. But if you're using this constantly and you're lying about how many spots you have left, well now you're not entering through frequency and you become this person who constantly have sparse spots left and just to get people to make a decision, like I with smart people, it's not really going to work that well.
Speaker 1:I remember I actually liked the transparency in this aspect. I remember going to for a VIP day which was not only me but other people as well and they were actually having a counter of how many spots were sold and how many spots are still left. And I really appreciated that transparency because I was able to see that in fact they have spots left when they closed down the registration. And I didn't mind that. I wanted to have an intimate experience with the people that I'm meeting, but I actually appreciated that more than if they would say, oh, I just want spots left, come you know. So I appreciate the truth in this aspect and regard, say, oh, I just want spots that, come you know. So I appreciate the truth in this aspect and regard, and I consider myself a smart person. So, in that regard, be just truth, truthful on the spots you have left, the opportunities you have left, the amount of people you're able to work with, so that they you know, people can really get that truth from you and not just be like some kind of rush marketing right.
Speaker 1:Another thing that I don't think that works with smart people and this is very often, very often overlooked by them, by entrepreneurs is the fake it till you make it type of marketing, and what I mean by that is, you know when you have a couple of things okay. The first thing that I would put here is when you like pay for pr, okay, and you're like here on your facebook page celebrating that you just got featured in a big magazine, to me it's almost like you don't know that the people who are smart, who are your buyers, who are willing to invest in expensive things that they are dumping off, that they don't know that this was a paid publication, okay, and you, acting as if this was such an honor for you and you did not pay for it, is you're trying to trick smart people into investing with you and you're not leading with the truth, you know, in the way you're marketing yourself. So that's one figure to make it, the other figure till you make it type of thing, and it's just something that often entrepreneurs get wrong basically creating a look of a very expensive business, like very clean and marbly and perfect and very high, like very much charging, crazy amount of premium prices for a call with you. And when I look up your company details, I found out that you just founded your company a month ago and your income statements are where they that when you but you're charging for, like basically you haven't made even five figures in your business through the entire existence of your business and you're here charging thousands just because you have a fancy looking website or like a fancy looking design. So that is massive incongruency in a way. And it's massive incongruency because smart people can look up those things. You know I can look up those things. I can look up your income statements. If you're a company, I can look into your terms and conditions and look up your company name and just see what's going on for you.
Speaker 1:Really, when we see those numbers and you're here charging some crazy pricing and most often than not these people are also, you know they don't have a body of work, like I haven't even. I haven't even found anything of them online no podcasts, no content, no videos. Maybe some kind of stuff on their Facebook or some kind of stuff on Instagram, but really nothing else. That indicates to me that this is a person that knows what they're talking about. So, being a stick of fake it till you make it type of marketing where you are or like another thing, like here celebrating high income months when you're really not making that so that's like again, just going back to truth, frequency and just being truthful in the way you show up and not want to deceive people, because smart people they know and they can smell that you're trying to deceive them, like the fake publications, the paid publications that you claim that was just such an honor for you, even though you paid for it. You don't disclose that information. You. You know you do the fluff things, very fancy things, and you don't have a body of work that backs you up in that. You know what you're doing and support those claims and you just like you really take people for full and you expect them to buy into you because of those vanity metrics or smart people know those type of things. You know. They know how businesses work, especially if you're selling to other business owners. You know most of us are actually doing that, but we know how businesses work. But even if you don't, if you're not selling to business owners, but you're selling to actual people expensive stuff, um, if they are smart, they will look into you and your work more without telling you about it. But I also look at people who come at me with crazy prices. I'm like bro, like based on what you weren't trying to charge that much If those things check that.
Speaker 1:So what you can do instead is lead with honesty. Build up your body of work, start showing up for yourself. Start showing up in your start showing up in your content. Be helpful in your content and you can get opportunities to create paid publications for yourself or free publications. But get it featured. But you can be truthful about it and you can even walk people through the process that you went through to get into a publication if that's what you want.
Speaker 1:But I'd rather you be honest with people that you have actually faith, like you are responsible for your own luck. I think people appreciate that more than to you being deceitful in the way that you're marketing yourself and expect people to believe that and if they don't, you get angry. Thank you so much for being here. I hope this was helpful for you. If you need my personal helping helping you grow online and you're selling to smart people and you want me to help you make that happen, you can send me a message. You know. Feel free to do that. Again, thank you so much for being here and until I see you guys next time. Bye guys.