One of my marketing friends called me up a few months ago in a panic. I had to act fast to talk her off the ledge.
Here’s how it happened . . .
“Chris,” she blubbered “We’re screwed!! We opened up our cart for our launch two hours ago and have only gotten ONE sale. I already told my guy to put the multi-pay up there and cut the price to see if we can save this thing!”
And then there was a bunch more blubbering.
Blubber. Blubber. Blubber.
This actually happens all the time. Folks think their price is the number one factor keeping them from selling BAJILLIONS of widgets.
And while I totally agree that price is important and that too high or too low of a price can kill your sales, cutting your price right after you open cart is one of the WORST things you can do.
Let me explain . . .
Suppose I walked up to you and said “Hey, pay me $2,000.00 and I’ll punch you in the face.”
You’d probably say “No,” right?
OK, so what if after you say “No” I turn it around say “OK, how about I do it for $500 instead?”
Weirdly enough, I bet the answer is still no.
Dropping the price of your product NEVER works unless you actually make your customers WANT what you’ve got to sell first.
You don’t want a punch in the face at $2,000.00, at $500.00 at $5 or at ANY price at all . . .
In my friend’s case, the PRICE wasn’t actually the problem at all. The problem was that she’d never done the work of making her customers really WANT what she had to sell. she’d never painted a picture of how it was going to transform their lives. She’d never created that LUST for a product that’s at the heart of all successful launches.
And unless you create that DEEP ROOTED DESIRE for your product it doesn’t MATTER what you charge, nobody is going to buy what you’re selling.
Steve Jobs will bite off your face if you mess with his iPhone Launch
Quick quiz: You walk up to Steve Jobs. You look him straight in the eye (aren’t you brave) and you say, with a lot of confidence and bravado in your voice, “Steve, you’ve got two choices:
Choice one is we cut off your left hand right here, right now, cauterize the wound on a hot car engine, add some nice seasoning and make you watch as we use your digits to feed our particularly carnivorous and hungry goldfish pet goldfish.
Choice two is we break Apple’s vaunted secrecy and security and actually let a fully-featured iPhone 4G prototype out into the wild MONTHS before you’re ready to launch the thing . . .
It was pretty to look at, sure. But in that vacuous, crazy way Hollywood seems to prefer these days. Pretty like an ice sculpture. Pretty like a punch in the face.
But bloodless in the purest sense. It lacked anything resembling life.
I saw it at the Imax. My girlfriend and I got there late and had to stand up and dance around in the back of the theater at first. Then we saw seats way down in front of the screen. We snuck like sneaky rabbits, hunched down in our seats and stared up at the God-sized face of Johnny Depp.
I put this video together for the “PLM” section of my site.
See, ever since I hung out my shingle as a “Product Launch Manager” I’ve been getting a LOT of inquiries/quote requests/marriage proposals.
So I put this video together to “Turn down the flow” a bit and keep folks that I just can’t take the time to work with from getting in touch with me in the first place.
There’s a few “mumbles” in the vid, but overall it’s a good example of how you can use Keynote and a cheap mic to put something relatively “pro” together really quickly.
In fact, the techniques I use here are a large part of what Andy Jenkins is talking about in his “Video Boss” launch.
You can find the “real” version of this video on the PLM section of this site. Enjoy.
Here's a quick "reversal" that will let you come up with killer Pre-Launch Content Fast
Recent, maddening conversation I had with a potential launch client (Facts have been changed to protect . . . nobody. But facts are kind of boring for a blog intro so let’s be light and funny instead. We’ll get to the “meat” in a second) . . .
Me: “Um, what are these videos you emailed to me?”
Him: “Those are our pre-launch content.”
Me: “These are your pre launch content?”
Him: “Yeah.”
Me: “Uhh. . . but it’s just video of you wearing funny superhero boxer shorts and screaming the lyrics to ‘Thriller’ in Spanish. On a pogo stick.’”
Him: “I know, awesome, right!”
Me: “Not awesome. Bouncy and strange and sexually exciting. But not awesome. Your prelaunch content is supposed to SHOCK AND AWE your market and prime the pump for the sale.”
Him: “This is shocking.”
Me: “Wrong kind of shocking.”
Him: “But you’re in awe.”
Me: “I’ve never seen anyone do that with a pogo stick. I never WANTED to see anyone do that with a pogo stick. I mean . . . where does the handle go?”
Him: “What handle? Anyway, what do I do instead?”
Me: “Great question. Read after the jump to find out. (Super sneaky launch-content creation trick.)
Special treat for all you copy critique fans today. Normally I do these videos “on my own” in my swank office with no feedback from the client in question. But this time I managed to get Robert Murgatroyd live on Skype and “rake him over the coals” for all of you to hear.
It’s a great chance for you to see what it’s like to work with a pro-level copywriter and “launch dude” one on one . . . and will give you some powerful tricks and tips to go through next time you’re planning your own sales page.
(Pay special attention to the types of questions I ask Robert and how much work I do trying to get to the heart of what his prospects want.)
While I was in LA for his Product Launch Manager training event, a very tired Jeff Walker was kind enough to give me an endorsement.
He also chimed in on the Facebook version of this video to say:
“Holy cow… I really DO look pretty exhausted there. Much better 30 minutes later out by the pool after I had a Red Bull…
In any case BELIEVE what I said in the video. I literally saw Chris go through the creation process while working on a real launch under in a very pressure-filled environment… Chris has MAJOR skilz.”
Just got back from Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Manager Training in LA . . .
I’ll be blogging about this event more in a day or two . . . but for now, check out this “behind the scenes” video where I ask a bunch of drunken MARKETING GODS what they got out of the training . . .
Plus I drag Jeff Walker himself ACROSS THE COALS and make him spill his biggest secrets =-)
