What Baby Chicks Can Teach You About Handling Your

By Ray Edwards
Posted Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Handling customers and their queries about your product or service. Looks at difficult clients. The best way to chase your prospects away is to show them that you really need them! This may appear strange at first but truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

I've seen this repeatedly in cases where my website visitors would sometimes ask for some clarification on my offers. I noticed after a while that 99% of those who inquired by email or phone never made the purchase. Frankly, this was quite puzzling to me.

First I thought that maybe my heavy Caribbean accent drove them away. But then again what of my emails? I doubt that you can hear an accent through the written word.

Then I recalled the saying:

"Follow love and it will flee, Flee from love and it will follow thee."

You see, sometimes you can appear so desperate to make the sale that you drive the customer away. The prospect senses this in your voice and `persuasive' emails and they shy away. It's a strange human phenomenon that people like to buy but they don't like to be `sold'. The customer frequently wants to feel as though he is in control of the buying process.

Nobody wants to know that they were pressured into making any decision and this includes buying. This is where the whole psychology of offering your products in different colors and versions comes in – you are giving the customer a choice.

So here is a typical email that I would get from a prospect:

Hi Ray,

I was just at your website and think that I like your ebook. I've been burnt before by some useless junk that I've bought on the web. So I have some questions that I hope you don't mind answering. (Questions about the product follow ...)

You seem to be an honest person but I just want to know if you'll really refund my money if I didn't like your ebook. If I don't hear from you then I would just go and purchase another product. No hard feelings.

Signed,

Prospect.

Now, originally an email like this would get me into high gear in `defending' my product and listing all the virtues that were already stated on the sales site. As I mentioned before I often never heard from these customers anymore and so I had wasted my time trying to close the sale.

Sometimes I would just ignore these letters as I had labeled these people as just `doubters' or `freebie seekers' who would not have made a purchase anyway. This was until I got a really harsh anonymous email that blatantly accused me of just trying to trick people out of their money. Me? I take the time to return shopping carts to their storage area in the parking lot – you can't get any more honest than that!

Anyway, after recovering from this `e-blow' I replied to the email suggesting that the sender did NOT make the purchase. In fact I insisted that he saved his money so he'll not be ripped off. I was not fully prepared for the reaction. He wrote back this time giving his name and said that he was only `joking'. Needless to say he bought the ebook.

Some Copywriters refer to this technique as "Intimidation". If you act as though you do not really care about the sale you're more likely to make the sale! This is because you immediately place the prospect on the defensive.

So what do baby chickens have to do with all this? You see I've learned from handling baby chickens that if you squeeze too tightly you can suffocate the little feather bundles. Yet at the same time, if you open your hands fully they will jump out. You have to master the art of `not too tight but not too loose either'.

If you parade the fact that you don't need your prospects you're holding them too loosely. But if you chase them down and keep pounding at them with emails or phone calls then you can suffocate the purchasing life out of them. A balance must be struck and only experience will teach you that balance.

At first I was too aggressive and they ran away. Then I simply ignored these prospects as just plain losers. Finally I found the middle ground and it simply said; "I want you but I don't need you."

When you think about it, gaining a new customer isn't too different from winning the heart of your one true love. If you're too aggressive and send very expensive gifts for every occasion your lovebird will likely be scared away. Just skip some phone calls from your usual schedule and you'll have her wondering (that's another word for `thinking') about you.

And trust me, it works just as well with your prospects as it does with your potential life partner. I know … I've been happily married now for 8 years and counting!

About the Author
Ray L. Edwards is the author of "77 Ways To Skyrocket Your Website's Conversion" and "The No-Click Traffic Secret". Learn how to drive targeted traffic to your site and convert them into buyers in the quickest time. Visit him at: (http://www.raydal.com).