Sample offers to study

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is an excerpt from book #5 in the Big Al Series: Super Prospecting: Special Offers & Quick-Start Systems. It is reproduced here with the permission of the author.)

Let's take a look at some common offers. Many of these offers can be modified for your personal use. Allow your creative imagination to go to work. Buy a new water filter for $39 down and $15 a month. This offer takes away the price objection and minimizes the cost to the prospect. Prospects like to buy on terms. How many people pay for their home with cash? Most people make monthly payments on a mortgage. How many people purchase new cars for cash? Very few. Many people will lease or make car payments for four or five years. Convenience and small monthly cash outlays make decisions easy to make. It is easier to make a $39 down payment decision than a $199 full price purchase decision. Get super health and energy for only 50 cents a day. Gee, that's less than a few cigarettes or a bottle of beer. This sounds like a real bargain. The principle used here is called "reduction to the ridiculous." Your offer breaks the total cost of your product (health food or vitamin) or the total cost of your service (health club membership) into a small -- almost ridiculous -- amount, to make the decision easier. Let's say that your health club membership costs $180 a year. Now, that will demand a big decision from the prospect. To make it easy for your prospect to decide, you divide the $180 yearly membership by the 365 days in a year. That makes the daily cost only 50 cents, a much easier decision for your prospect.

Want to reduce the cost even more? Take the 50 cents a day cost and divide it by the 24 hours in a day. Total cost per hour? Only 2 cents. How could your prospect refuse super health and energy for only 2 cents per hour? Only two little copper pennies? Hey, your prospect probably doesn't even pick up the loose pennies he sees on the sidewalk while walking to work. How can you use "reducing to the ridiculous" for your product or service? Well, if you sell a $60-a-month diet plan, it only costs a measly $2 a day to be thin and beautiful. If you sell a six-month supply of skin care for $100, it only costs your prospect just $16 a month! Or, your prospect can have young, healthy, great-looking skin for only 50 cents a day. Who wouldn't trade 50 cents a day to change their looks, turn back the aging process 15 years, or to rid themselves of acne? If you sell a consumer buying service for $180 a year, it only costs your prospect $15 a month! Or, to put it another way, for only 50 cents a day, your prospect can be guaranteed the lowest wholesale prices on any purchase.

Just two quarters buys peace of mind and guaranteed savings. 20% off all products in this catalog. This is a boring, unmotivated offer. Only 20% off? Have you ever walked down the aisles in a shopping center? What do you see on the windows? Signs pronouncing terrific sales. Some signs offer two-for-one offers or even three-for-one offers. You'll see signs of 50% off all inventory, 75% off everything in stock, or 80% off all summer wear. A 20% offer is a non-event -- it won't get anyone's adrenaline pumping, no heart palpitations -- only a yawn. You might as well keep the 20% in your pocket as long as you are going to bore your prospects anyway.

Come along to this evening's opportunity meeting and I'll buy dinner on the way there. A great offer that especially appeals to overweight food connoisseurs. A good, filling meal helps the prospect relax (or sleep) during the opportunity meeting. At least this offer is better than the normal invitation which implies: "Come along to this evening's opportunity meeting and I'll waste 2-3 hours of your time. Then, I'll high-pressure you into giving me money before I will give you a ride home. "Would you invest $100 in our program if we invested $200 in you? How? You, your upline, and your company will invest $200 in training seminars, three-way calling, and person-to-person help sessions if your prospect is willing to invest $100 in a starter kit and product. This certainly is an improvement from the normal offer: Give me $100 for a kit and product and I'll be very happy. You can lose 10 lbs. this month -- without dieting! This offer really promises benefits. If your product was an exercise bicycle, you could enhance and illustrate your major benefit by showing a picture of a satisfied user pedaling the stationary bicycle while eating a submarine sandwich. This offer goes directly to the prospect's heart with the promise of a 10 lbs. weight loss. Compare the above offer with a vague promise such as: Use our exercise bicycle to help you burn calories. See the difference? Specific promises or benefits go straight through your prospect's mind clutter and gets his attention. Don't get lost in the fog of the 10,000 advertising images exposed to your prospect. Stand out from the crowd with a specific benefit.

"Bottled water" -- only 4 cents a gallon! Again we are "reducing to the ridiculous" to take away the prospect's fear of a large purchase such as a water filter. Plus, we grab our prospect's attention with the major benefit -- "bottled" or high-quality, good-tasting water. The prospect doesn't want a water filter. The prospect wants clean, good-tasting water. This simple offer tripled one distributor's water filter sales in just three days. Free 24-page booklet when you answer our ad. The word "free" does get attention and results for your offer. Using a premium such as a 24-page information booklet will increase your response. How could we have made this offer better? By describing the benefits or romancing the information contained in the 24-page booklet. Our prospects really don't need an extra 24-page booklet at their house. Our prospects don't suffer from a 24-page booklet deficiency. However, they may want and desire to know what's in the booklet. So, let's re-word this offer. Free 24-page booklet describing how you can travel free to our exotic convention locations. Free 24-page booklet describing the many wonders of vitamin E. Free 24-page information listing of the top health spas in the United States. Free 24-page report on how you can cash in on the booming network marketing phenomena. Free 24-page step-by-step guide to retiring by age 50. Free 24-page instruction manual on how to use our power machine to lose weight. Free 24-page calorie guide when you order a 5-day diet program. Free 24-page tax strategy manual when you ask for our financial opportunity package. Free 24-page recipe book with your "Vegematic" appliance information package. Free 24-page mini-booklet showing the benefits of network marketing. And now for this chapter's final offer:

Get loads of prospects, customers, and new distributors by using specific benefit offers. The above offer is for you. You'll need to create your very own money- making offer that will fill your savings account. Make sure you isolate a great benefit for your prospect. Then make your offer very specific. And finally, if your product is perceived to be expensive by your prospect, reduce the price to a ridiculously minute sum by showing the actual cost per day -- or per hour. So, here's your chance to write your great money-making offer.

This was an excerpt from book #5 in the Big Al Series: Super Prospecting: Special Offers & Quick-Start Systems. Available from KAAS Publishing (713) 280-9800. Call for a FREE 24-page bi-monthly generic recruiting tip newsletter.