Charm Your Customers Into Handing Over Their Credit Card
Mesmerize your way to more sales
If only you could play a pipe to mesmerize customers like those stereotypical snake charmers in Hollywood depictions of the Middle East.
Slinky reptiles may not be your target market, and perhaps you can’t draw them in with melodious tunes, but you can charm customers with your words.
Like any musical instrument, this takes practice and instructions to do so correctly.
Make your writing personal
You want customers to give you their trust? Give a little of yourself in return.
Getting personal not only humanizes you and breaks down the façade of corporate ghoul, but it also opens up an avenue for authentic connection.
When a customer thinks you’ve had the same experiences or have the same values, they are more likely to support you. Because, in some ways, It’s a bit like they’re supporting themselves.
Use your active voice
The passive voice can be great when you’re getting poetic. But it doesn’t always allow the content to engage the customer as much as you need it to.
The active voice grabs them. By describing what the subject is doing rather than what is being acted upon it, you can create a sense of suspense, and the customer is more likely to be swept along by the momentum of the content or story.
For example you could say, “The email was opened by 10 people.” That is the passive voice. The thing or people doing the action come second. In an active voice you would put the subject performing the action first. So the sentence above would be, “10 people opened the email.”
As a general rule of thumb avoid words like “was” and “were” when possible, as these are usually indicators of the passive voice.
Engage their senses
Proust is famous for writing a very long story about a seemingly simple smell. The aroma of the madeleines drove him to write pages upon pages of text that will bore you to death.
And yet that smell inspired him toward action.
In the same way, your descriptions can entice customers to engage with your content and products. Which sounds better?
“Silk skirt”
or,
“The sumptuous silk of this skirt will practically whisper as you stroll through the library, stroking your fingers across ancient leather tomes while breathing in the smell of dust and long-held knowledge.”
Eh, maybe that’s overkill, but you get the idea.
If a reader feels like a product is practically in their hands, they’ll be more inclined to engage with your pitch.
Let’s get emotional!
The quickest way to a customer’s heart is through their emotions. If you can connect with them in a profound way, you’ll capture their patronage.
What are some of those emotions you want to get at?
As Machiavellian as it sounds, fear is a good place to start. Use the famous Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to pinpoint how your product can address one of those concerns.
If you forgot about that bane of every high school student’s philosophy 101 class allow me to refresh your memory. It’s a pyramid that showcases a human’s basic needs, from most important to least important. Do we want them all? Yes. But before the needs at the top become important to us, our needs at the bottom must be addressed.
For example, at the very bottom of the pyramid is food and shelter. Without which no one can survive. So let’s say those are met. Well now people want to know they are safe. This means you could sell them a home security system targeting the desire to not be in danger. Someone who can’t afford food won’t care about this need, they are preoccupied with that baser requirement.
While not complicated, being able to pinpoint who your target market is and what they need through psychology is always helpful in business.
Harness their inner-curious George
The silly character couldn’t help himself; his curiosity always drove him to investigate something he found interesting.
Your customers may not end up in crazy hijinks but they too need their curiosity stoked. Like being in a class where you already know all the material, when you’re bored and not learning, your brain switches off.
So don’t dump information on them. Ask questions that they’ll want to know the answer to. Engage them with stories that make them want to keep reading. Let them see how what you’re selling is unique.
Be the dominant one in this relationship
No safe words here, you’re completely in control. Though without appearing to be.
Much like a pilot of an airplane, we all want to be taken somewhere by someone who knows where they’re going and what they’re doing.
The same goes for a marketing pitch. If you seem unsure of yourself the customer will sense it and won’t join you for the journey to the endpoint.
So grab them by the metaphorical hand and lead them to the destination you want with the confidence of a high school cheerleader in a 1980s movie.
Don’t worry. Everyone likes to be told what to do now and then, especially customers.
***
If you’re in sales, charming your customers is part of the role. This may be through the clever use of words, personal touches when talking, or an almost magical insight into their needs.
However you do it, always remember that this is about
THEM. You mustn’t forget that you want to serve (not trick) them into seeing the brilliance of your service.
But first you have to charm your way into their good graces, so they’ll listen to you.
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