>> <i>Find your typical customer's main objection.
Nuke it.</i><p>Interesting post with a lot of good advice based on the philosophy described above.<p>I also think that this sales philosophy should have a qualifier around it.<p>It is important for any salesperson to seriously consider the (potential) customer's objection objectively. Nuking the objection shouldn't be the primary goal and it shouldn't come at the expense of the customer's interests.<p>In some cases, it is quite likely that the customer's objection isn't something that must be nuked. In fact, I'd even go further and say that (in some cases) a good salesperson should think of potential reasons why a product may be inappropriate (e.g. little value, too risky, too expensive etc.) for a certain customer. IOW in some circumstances, walking away from a sale (based on a customer's objection) might be the right thing to do.
Basically there are two kinds of sales: high value/reasoned/important/logical sales, and impulse/low value/time limited/etc. sales.<p>You address fundamental objections when dealing with a "real" client, and any attempts at deflection or subterfuge will be net-harmful. The only "trick" is knowing about internal champions and the customer's multi-person purchasing process (when the user isn't the buyer and/or doesn't have ultimate purchase authority in a single person).<p>For random impulse shit, you can trick people. Used car dealers define the upper bound of bullshit for deal size. Generally few substantial purchasing decisions by educated (i.e. business or professional) buyers happen like that, but if you're selling a product on late night tv, you can minimize and bypass objections through trickery, "sell the sizzle", etc.<p>Neil Rackham's SPIN Selling and Major Account Sales Strategy are the best books I've ever found on sales.
> <i>some of the best results I've ever had for writing sales copy... come from repeating a simple tactic: 1) Find your typical customer's main objection. 2) Nuke it.</i><p>I'd love to apply this... but I don't see how/where. I mean, your main tactic has to be explaining what the product simply <i>is</i>, and what benefits it will bring you.<p>Overcoming potential objections seems far down on the list, not something you're going to put in your main ad copy or home-page copy.
I believe this is what Apple did brilliantly with their Christmas commercial (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImlmVqH_5HM" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImlmVqH_5HM</a>).
This is one of the key reasons why long copy converts so much better than short copy. A significant proportion of prospects really want to buy your product, but have one deal-killing objection; They will read pages and pages of copy until their objection is addressed and <i>click</i>, you make the sale.
>I'm an engineer, not a copywriter<p>Then don't think you are qualified to write copy.<p>You sell people by convincing them they can't live with out something. That they need it. They will do the rationalization for why they will buy it, if they feel they need it. What is the main objection to buying the latest iPhone? Cost. Often the feature differences from the previous model are not worth the price of a new phone, but people buy them by the millions. Why? they "Need" it.<p>If you are selling to enterprise often the biggest objection is "I'll be needed less" your product is likely going to reduce the need of the person buying it. You can't reduce that objection. What you can do is convince them that they need to reduce their work load. That it is a good thing. You don't "stomp the objection" you instill a need.