In the market today, you can so see many alternatives lining up. People have so many choices, and it’s either your product or another business’. Ken goes deep into the buyer’s psychology with alternative choice close. He shares the story of Sam Walton and the genius discovery of selling your products. Learn how to position your business best while helping others as well.
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Choices Baby
We’re going to call this episode The Alternative Choice. I have on a few occasions spoken about Sam Walton’s marketing challenge back in the day when he could not, for the life of him, sell a lawnmower. He came up with the concept of middle pricing where after six months to a year of frustration, he couldn’t sell this fundamental Toro lawn mower. It was the best one made, it was $79. He finally had this grandiose idea. Even though it would take up a tremendous amount of shelf space, what if he put one of these $19 push mowers with no engine, just blades that spin fast to the left of the $79 lawnmower? What if he went crazy and got rid of all of the stuff on the shelves and brought in a number of these brand new, at that time, $500 tractor-trailer lawn mowers most people know them as a common John Deere tractor lawn mower, but it was a Toro brand.
It was the same thing. You sit on it and it cuts your grass, but at the time, it was $500. In Walmart, that, today, would be about $3,000, $4,000 $5,000. Sam Walton had a meeting with management and he said, “Here’s the deal guys, please don’t get mad at me. I know we’re not going to move any of these $500 lawn mowers because our audience, visitors, clients or customers, they don’t have $500 for a lawnmower. This is Walmart. If I can psychologically position the $79 lawn mower next to the $500 lawn mower, we’re going to finally move some lawn mowers.” Was Sam Walton correct? Yes, he was. All of a sudden, they started selling a lot of $79 lawnmowers, but to Sam Walton’s shock, 19% of the sales were the $500 lawn mower. Sam Walton had to rethink the whole psychology of buying and selling and he had to rethink the depth of wallet of the shoppers at Walmart.
Take a good look at everything you sell from the eyes of someone who has never bought from you before. Click To TweetThis is to set the table for what is known as an Alternative Choice Close. If you’re a direct salesperson, you’ve probably read the books, heard the audios, and have been mentored by your coaches that when you’re putting forth of piece of business, you don’t want to put forth a proposal that has a yes or no, you want to put forth a proposal that has a yes or, “I need to think about it.” Meaning, “Here’s one product, Sir. It’s $18. We also have the same product without some of the features. It’s only $15 and if you want, we do have the same product with a bunch of other features that’s $38.”
The concept is you’re offering an alternative choice and I bring this up because I was reminded when I went to go purchase a website for a site partner and he had a website already wanting to buy another one. He wanted it to be something in the digital space and I remember a broker calling me and he said, “Can I get a hot site for you to look at?” I remember having sticker shock at what they wanted for this website and it was something like $800,000 $900,000. The site made about $200,000 to $300,000 a year.
The only thing inside of this little five to ten-page website was a review comparison of the product, Infusionsoft versus the product, ONTRAPORT. ONTRAPORT is a high-level competitor of Infusionsoft. Infusionsoft is a software that can track clients, customers, email lists, and sales. It’s a very robust software as a service to help people track client base and product flow. ONTRAPORT does pretty much the same thing. Here’s the power of this kid’s website. This kid, he was a kid, too, he’s in his early twenties that bought both software. He did the most exhaustive homework and review of Infusionsoft I have ever read. I read the whole thing, it was amazing.
We use Infusionsoft, so I knew what I was reading. He also bought ONTRAPORT, used it in similar websites, and did just as thorough of a review of the investigation of that software. What was amazing is the conclusion at the bottom were both incredibly supportive of each product. He wasn’t doing a review saying, “Infusionsoft, albeit more expensive, is so much better,” or “ONTRAPORT, for two-thirds of the price, offers as many features, if not more.”
No, his whole point was this. “I’m going to do an honest review and assessment of Infusionsoft. Then I’m going to do an honest review and assessment of ONTRAPORT and I’m going to put both feet forward because I’ve got an affiliate code. I don’t care which one they buy. If somebody buys either one of these, I get paid.” This is common online, but it was genius back in the day when this started ten years ago.
Here’s my question to you. When you’re pricing your stuff on your website, are you offering this and this only and it’s either buy it or buy nothing, or are you packaging what you’re selling? Are you helping the buyer who can’t quite afford your stuff with a slimmed down version of your main product? Are you helping the people that money is no object, they want to buy the absolute best time-saving, money-saving, value-add product on planet earth, no matter the cost? Are you taking your baseline product, making an advanced version, even partnering up with other companies and adding other services, but then bundling to sell a bundled offer? In almost everything I do at Income Store is a bundled offering with a lot of people, sometimes even other companies.
Whatever your routine is, do something drastically different. Click To TweetI want you to take a good hard look at everything you sell. I want you to do an out of body experience and look at it through the eyes of someone who has never bought from you before. It’s easy to do, just pretend you’re not you. Wake up in the morning early, don’t have your regular coffee. Whatever your routine is, do something drastically different. If you need to go to a park and use a phone instead of a laptop, do that. If you need to have a red bull instead of a coffee, do that. Find a way to psych yourself out that you’re not you, do some jumping jacks and some pushups. Open up a computer, then pretend you’re shopping for your product. You’re not you, you’re a potential person that’s never bought from you before.
Ask yourself, “Am I looking at something that is one entity or one person trying to push their belief of a product down my throat? Am I looking at a website where someone with a truly serving heart is evaluating my needs and meeting me at three different levels? One I can definitely afford, one I’m not sure if I can afford, and one I probably can’t afford, but if I had the money I’d buy it.” For episode 238, let’s do an out of body experience and find out if your company’s offering in an alternative choice close, giving options, or are you just providing what you think is best.
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