FBO: Ask Your Viewers, “Why Not Give It a Try?”

Thursday, December 4th 2008 by Shanel Yang

[For “FBO: Remember the Value of Good Maners,” click here.]

This part of the “FBO” or “For Bloggers Only” series is actually NOT JUST for bloggers, but FOR ALL entrepreneurs, employees, and nonprofit organizations seeking to raise funds to support their goals.

If you want millions of viewers, readers, customers, clients, members, etc., then you’ll want to follow along as we go through, one by one, the rainmaking secrets provided by Jeffrey J. Fox in his book How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients.

ASK YOUR VIEWERS, “WHY NOT GIVE IT A TRY?”

A. FOX’S TIP NO. 41 FOR ALL RAINMAKERS

Fox’s Tip No. 41 for how to become a great salesperson, or rainmaker, is the simple tip: “Ask your customer, ‘Why don’t you give it a try?’” As he explains:

Ask someone to toss you a coin, or a pencil, or anything. They either toss it or they don’t. You can’t “try” to do something; you either do it or you don’t.

To close the sale, to get the final customer commitment, the Rainmaker might say: “You’ve looked at everything. Your concerns have been answered. Time is of the essence. Why don’t you give it a try?”

“Why don’t you give it a try?” is a killer sales question.

The “it” is your product.

“Why don’t you give it a try?” is not the same as “Why don’t you try it?” or “Try it for a few days.” To try a product for a few days is a trial. Getting a trial is a good selling strategy, but it is an interim step, not the final step, to getting a sale.

To give something “a try” is, to most people, a revocable act, a decision that can be reversed. It feels temporary, impermanent. Subconsciously, people feel that to try something is to sample, to test, not a commitment to a decision. There is an assumed escape clause built into an agreement to give something a try.

But people don’t try: They act, they do something.

A super saleswoman sold a $1-million computer conversion that took eighteen months to implement by asking the customer, “Well, why don’t you give it a try?”

B. APPLYING FOX’S TIP NO. 41 TO BLOGGERS

If you want to become an A-list blogger, apply Fox’s Tip No. 41 above to your blogging business by asking your viewers, “Why not give it a try?”

In case you didn’t fully understand Fox’s explanation about the difference between asking “Why not give it a try?” and “Why don’t you try it?”—the first question is really saying “Please buy it,” while the second question is offering a trial period, or a free sample, in the hopes that the trial period, or free sample, will help convince the customer to buy it in the future. How do you apply this tip to blogging? Easy!

Whether you sell actual products and/or services or just want your viewers to sign up for something that’s free but still requires them to move and take action, i.e., free ebooks, RSS feeds, newsletters, etc., instead of telling them to sign up, or merely offering these to them, why not ask them to “give them a try?” (You see what I just did there? I applied the tip try to get you to do something I want you to do—for your own blog’s good of course!) See? It’s not hard! Much more effective than: “Ah, come on! Let’s do this already!” Don’t you think? (I just did it again!) ; )

CONCLUSION

Only 10 more lessons left in this series all about Fox’s most excellent book on rainmaking. Just imagine how successful your blogging will be if you diligently apply all of these highly effective yet amazingly practical tips. I know my vision of how best to blog for my viewers has been sharpened quite a bit as a result of preparing these posts. And, with practice, I hope to make these tips such ingrained good work habits that they become second nature to me and my outlook as a blogger.

If you would like your own copy of Rainmaker someday, here’s what it looks like.

[For “FBO: Love Email and Comments,” click here.]

[For entire “FBO” or “For Bloggers Only” series, click here.]

Be sure to get the latest articles as soon as they’re posted by signing up here!

[For “Future Entrepreneurs Test,” click here.]

[For “The Courage to Be Rich,” click here.]

[For “How I Paid of $50,000 of Debt in One Year,” click here.]

[For “Why We Buy It Even If We Don’t Need It,” click here.]

[For “Test Your Spending Habits,” click here.]

[For “Change Your Mindset to Change Your Life,” click here.]

[For “What Would You Do If You Couldn’t Fail?,” click here.]

[For “Do You Want to Fly Like Superman?,” click here.]