One of the most effective sales techniques is the “Take Away” sale. When performed with conviction, it will dramatically improve your efficiency as a salesperson as it compels the prospect to move off the fence and either head towards a successful sale or gets the prospect to disappear quickly without wasting your time.
What is a Take Away Sale
A Take Away sale is a closing technique which acts on a person’s inherent need to possess something before it is gone. That is what causes many people to take a last skiing trip of the year because they know that pretty soon the snow will be gone and they will have to wait till next year before they can ski again.
The Psychology Behind the Take Away Sale
One of the prime human motivations to take action is the fear of loss. A properly crafted Take Away sale is crafted around that emotion. It must be crafted in a believable way to work though.
For instance, trying to pull off a Take Away sale for a can of soup at the supermarket would be pretty difficult because there are lots of cans always available (except maybe when a hurricane is coming.) Since the can of soup can’t be made desirable through scarcity, what else could work? Coupons with expiration dates is a good example. Or a store sale – buy three and get one free. These are both examples of scarcity and they both trigger the emotion of fear of loss and inspire action to be sure that loss is not experienced.
A Take Away sale will create a scenario in the prospect’s mind that compels some sort of action. There are typically three emotional steps that occur on a Take Away sale.
- Describe the benefits of having X in terms that make the prospect want X.
- Tell the prospect that even thought X is the greatest thing in the world, it might not be right for him or her.
- Let the prospect convince you that it is right for him or her.
Depending on the complexity of the product, this could be accomplished with a single Take Away or could require multiple Take Away’s over a period of days or weeks.
A Cautionary Point
Buyer’s remorse is something we have all experienced from time to time. Because of the power of the Take Away sale, you need to be sure what you are selling is truly a good product to prevent buyer’s remorse. If it is not, you will most likely experience larger than normal return requests because when the “desire to have it now fades, all that will be left will be the purchase. And to be a keeper, it has to satisfy the customer on more enduring levels of satisfaction.
Examples
Here are a few examples to let you get a feel for different offers that use the Take Away sales technique. Once you are familiar with it, you will see it used in many places. Every time you see it used, you should study its application and see if you can apply it to your business.
(For an eBook) The first 100 buyers will get to purchase this product at $14.99. After the first 100 are sold, the price will be $24.99.
(For a training manual) Offered at a special pre-publication price of $49.00. Once it is published (7/14), the price will be $97.00. Order now and be the first to receive one of these items AND get a great discounted price.
(selling a business territory) We are only selling one person in your territory. We want the person who buys it to be successful in that territory. If you don’t think you can be successful at this business, we don’t want you to buy this territory. We only want to sell it to someone who will be successful. Do you believe you can handle this responsibilty?
Note: Examples must be credible. If you offer something and it is one of those offers that are always available, people will tend to walk away. For instance, when you offer just 100 at a special price, add a countdown of the number available on your webpage and when it hits 0, raise the price just like you said you would. This generates respect for you as it proves your integrity. And the next time you tell your customers about a special, they will JUMP to take advantage of it before it goes away.
How You Can Use It In Your Business
Knowing about a powerful technique does you no good unless you put it into action.
Make a list of the ways you can use it for your business. The technique can be varied in so many different ways that it is really applicable to just about any business type and sales situation.
Here is a technique I have found powerful when doing joint ventures or doing solo mailings to email lists on the web.
Build a special page on your websites for the special offer. Your website may be http://www.xyz.com which has the regular priced offer. You would build a page pretty much identical to the normal offer with the special pricing, perhaps http://www.xyz.com/special.html. On that webpage (and in your ad), you tell them about the limited time special. And you can tell them to verify it by visiting the main website to see what a good deal they are getting. This gives them incentive to buy at the special price as they see that you are indeed promoting at the normal price too. And since it is a time sensitive offer, once that time window expires, remove the special pricing page and substitute it with a new page explaining the special pricing deal is gone as it is past the time limit that the special was offered.
The first time you do this to a particular list, it may not be too effective as there are loads of so called limited time offers on the web that never expire. It has people conditioned to take their time while making a decision (another good reason for a you selling quality product that solves a problem that is explained in compelling language in the sales letter.) When people finally get around to coming back to place their purchase and find the special gone, not all of them will buy but all will remember you are a company that stands behind its word. And that means next time you make a limited time offer, people will respect it and take action – massive action!
Put this technique to use in your business and I think you will find yourself quite pleased with the results.
