Recession-Proof Your Business With Dynamic Sales Copy That SELLS!

Sean Ryatt

When I was talking recently with a group of business friends, one question came up that interested me more than the others: “Is it just me, or is everyone else finding sales coming much slower than this time last year?”

Everyone agreed. A resounding “Yes!” was the unanimous reply.

Which then begged the question, “What can we do about it?”

Instead of throwing money around left and right, business owners are carefully considering every dollar, every budget expense. It’s a recession, after all. We all have to watch our costs in a recession.

Both business operators and individuals alike all need to closely monitor expenses as a recession bites.

For businesses, this means every advertising dollar must also be spent wisely. Advertising must work all that much harder. You need to prove beyond doubt the value of your product or service. You have to work extra hard for each sale.

In times of recession, buyers have fairly rigid criteria to decide whether to buy or not. And there is much less “Ah, it’s only a few bucks” types of purchasing going on. If your product or service measures up, you get the sale. If not . . . tough luck, buddy.

The trick is WHAT to say in your advertising. Work out how to make your advertising meet your prospective buyers’ demands.

SO I’ve worked out a few vital tips so you can recession-proof your advertising sales copy:

1. Get into your prospect’s head. Mentally align yourself AS your prospect, and ask the question: “What’s in it for me?” You must get a handle on what your prospect truly wants.
2. You really need to comprehend what they need, what they want.
3. Give it to them. Assure them of guaranteed results. Whereas, in times of plenty, your prospect might try out your product, just to “see if it works” in a recession your buyer must know without doubt their outlay will be well worth it.
4. Reinforce the BENEFITS. You need to build trust, you need to convert your client’s caution into readiness to buy. Use the FAB formula, Features AND Benefits. Tie every feature with a tangible benefit. For example, “Our dankter is light (feature), so you’ll never get a sore back even after you’ve carried it all day (benefit).”
5. Promise successful results. Offer proof that your client’s results will be just as you promise. You may choose to use testimonials, video footage of product demonstration or impartial case studies conducted by impartial bodies like universities or government departments
6. Offer a 100% GUARANTEE. Beef it up. Strengthen it. Overdo it. Out-guarantee your competition. And don’t save it for last. Introduce it throughout your presentation, referring to it as something already theirs.It’ll assist in securing you the sale.
7. Repeat. Remember the old adage . . . “Repetition equals respect”. In times of recession, the number of times your prospective client needs to “come across” you in one form or another may well increase from around 7 times to more than double that. By the way, you’ll need to work out much less expensive ways to do this, otherwise you’ll have effectively doubled your advertising budget!

By reworking your “good times” sales copy so that it becomes recession-proof, you can weather the bad times, and maintain your sales targets successfully.