It's one thing to get attention, but how do you use it on sales pages? And can you use it in articles too?
In this second part, we see how the power of objections work for sales pages, creating information products and also when writing articles. It's real, it's practical and it works. Here we go!
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The Un-editted Transcript
Part 1: When creating a product, an article or a sales page, we don't think of the objection.
We might think, “Okay, we have to have a uniqueness here. We have to have some kind of problem, some kind of solution, some kind of benefit.” Objections don't seem to rise to the top of whatever we are doing.
This article deals with a question which David Greene asked.
David is a mortgage lender and he wants to create an information product. He wants to create some kind of book or booklet, and he was struggling a lot with it. The reason for all of this struggle is the huge number of topics under mortgage lending. There are just dozens and dozens of topics.
But David also has to deal with one persistent (and often “irritating” question) “How do I get the lowest interest rates?” That's the question that recurs, and it's one of the most controversial of all. It's controversial because the lowest interest rate is not the best thing for you. However, it is controversial, and this is why it needs to be tackled first.
David could start off the book with, “How do I get the lowest interest rates and other questions that cause mortgage problems.” See what happened there?
The biggest objection is: Look, I don't want to know about the other stuff. How do I get the lowest interest rates?
But now, by taking on that objection, putting it up front and centre, what we have is it gets the client's attention.
Now, David said that he doesn't want to take on that lowest rate question, but if it keeps showing up, then he's got little choice. Especially with an information product.
When he's in a consultation with a client it's easier to show the client, you know, this is what I can do, this is why it works for you, et cetera. But it doesn't work necessarily with an information product, and at least this is a good shot.
You create an information product where you can get right to the point, and once they have been hooked with the first issue, which is the problem with the lowest interest rates, then David can go deep into that objection and then choose to take on the other objections, or tackle other main points which are interesting, which are important.
This attention to the objection, however, makes sure that the client locks into the topic, that the client stays focused, and David can diffuse these objections by giving them case studies or by giving them material that substantiates why it's a problem.
But he brings up that counter argument, and this is what I need you to think about when you're creating an information product. The information product might not be a book.
It might be just a booklet, it might just be a short audio or some kind of webinar or web conference, but think of how can I take on the biggest objection, the objection that I get from my clients on a regular basis, and then, how can I make that the title of my book, of my web conference, of whatever I'm doing. Because that gets the attention of the client.
That's the thing that's on their mind all the time, and so getting to the objection first is a really good practise, especially if the objection is recurring all the time.
This is the first thing that we're going to cover with regards to getting the objection, how to use it in an information product. But what happens when it's a topic, like an article that you're writing?
Part 2: This takes us to somewhat of the second part of this episode, which is how to use the power of the objection when you're writing articles.
About two weeks ago, the article writing course began, and what happens in the article writing course is that people really want to do well. They really want to get at the other end of that course three months later and want to write great articles.
So we have to go through some fundamentals, and it's kind of the preparation stage where you learn to write outlines. Here's where the problem lies. I take about, I don't know, 10, 15 minutes and I can write two or three outlines. Sometimes even less than that.
And the client will take 45 minutes, 50 minutes, an hour to write three outlines. You think, “What is the problem here?” The obvious answer might be, “Well, you know, they're just starting out, you've been writing articles for a long time, and that's the difference.” And that's not the difference.
The difference is they are thinking. Yes, you heard me right. They're thinking. They're putting thought into it, and the problem is that they're putting in too much thought into it.
You don't need 60 minutes to do an outline, to create an outline. But how do I get this message across? Because if I bring that message to them that you shouldn't be thinking, they'll go, “No, no, no, no.”
Because they want to write great outlines. They want to get me, the teacher, to say, “wow, that was a great outline. That was a good assignment.”
You notice what's happening yet again. This is not very different from David's situation. If I say that thinking is a waste of time, then immediately the hackles go up. It's like, “What? Wait. Thinking is a waste of time? Thinking is really good.”
And it would be nice to skirt the topic and not take it on completely because, hey, they're already doing something, you don't want them to think more about the thinking process. But that's the whole point.
The point is that when there is a big objection, and, you know, it doesn't matter what you're doing, what article you're writing, there are always going to be big objections. You think, “Well, let's take on this big objection,” because it's controversial. It gets your client's attention.
What I show them is that they're going through a muscle memory exercise that the outlines that they're going to write in this preparatory phase, they're not going to be used later.
I mean, people think, “Yes, I'm going to use these outlines later,” but if you write outlines long enough you know that outlines are like vegetables. You cut them today and you can't use them three weeks later.
They just don't work. It sounds like a really bizarre example to give, but that's how it is. The energy that you have for an outline today can't be put into an article three weeks later.
So, really what's happening is we're going through the process of learning how to write outlines, and the goal should be, “How can I get this outline out as quickly as possible, as efficiently as possible, and so it ticks all the boxes?” But instead, people start to think, because they want to get the assignment right.
They want to not look foolish in any way. That's exactly where you can use controversy to get their attention to make that point.
Then I show them how thinking is very important in the creation state. You know, so, you're thinking, “Well, what am I going to put in this book?” You spend lots of time.
Most writers, most authors, most musicians, most whatever, in the preparatory stage they spend a lot of time. But there's also this other stage that we're going through right now.
We're learning how to get our muscle memory going. We're learning how to write outlines at super fast speed, and that's the crux of the issue. Getting the precise details and the accurate details in the articles, that's not the crux of the issue.
So, to make a long story short, what I have to do is write an article that seems controversial, and once the client starts to read it, of course their hackles go up, but then I can bring across the points that I want to make.
And what we see is this dramatic drop in time used, in energy burnt, and as a result, they start to enjoy their work and they get better outlines and, hence, better articles down the line.
So what are we really doing here? What we're really doing is we're looking at the article that we are about to write, and you're going, “What is the biggest objection that comes up every single time?” You can take this with any article that you're writing and there will be a big objection.
And sometimes, or many times, you can make that the title of your article and start building from there and then work from that point on.
So, the objections become very crucial when you're writing an article or creating an info product, but, as I said, there was a third one, and now we remember, it was about the sales page.
Part 3: So let's go and see how we would use this on a sales page.
Again, the principle is pretty much the same, but let's see the application so that you can use it for your sales page, as well.
From time to time, Renuka and I will go to this little French bistro. It's in [Vermura 00:09:45], which is another suburb. We were sitting at the café, and my friend Vanessa, I don't see her for six months at a time, and then she just shows up on precisely the same day that we show up.
Anyway, so Vanessa and her daughter, Scarlet, they happen to be there at the same time. So, they were having their coffee and their French pastries, and then we were having our coffee, and then I was drawing on the iPad. And when they were leaving, Vanessa and Scarlet showed up and they were both admiring the cartoons.
At that point, Vanessa turns to me and she says, “Wow, I really like your work. I can't even draw a straight line.” Did you notice the objection in that statement? So many people have the same objection that on a cartooning sales page it needs to come up really quickly.
Now, if you read The Brain Audit and you understand the sequence of the seven red bags, well, it starts off with the problem, the solution, the target profile, then we get to objections. So, it's like fourth in the ranking.
But if you go to thepsychotactics.com/davinci you'll notice something quite weird. Very shortly after the headline and a little text, there's a video that suggests exactly that. It says, “I couldn't draw a straight line.”
So, there's a video, and there is a caption about one of our clients who couldn't draw a straight line, and he talks about the straight line and the straight line and the straight line. That's the biggest objection.
That's the thing that people say every time you tell them, “Oh, you can draw cartoons, as well.” And they go, “No. Can't draw a straight line.”
Now, this isn't to suggest that every sales page needs the objection to show up super quick. But if the objection is going to come in the way, and it's going to come up right away, then there's no reason why you should go around that objection and wait for position number four.
Instead, you should go, “Okay, let's start off with a headline and then go straight to the objection.”
With David's information product, the objection is overpowering. This point of interest rates, that is over powering. That needs to be tackled. With the article about thinking is a waste of time, you want to create that change in behaviour, and, again, it's an objection.
They don't think that thinking is a waste of time, and so then you have to demonstrate it. And finally, with this third one on the sales page, all sales pages tend to bring up objections.
In some cases, it's hard to get people to believe what you're offering, like cartooning, and it's hard for them to believe that they could draw exceedingly well in just six months. So the objection needs to shoot up right to the top, or at least close to the top.
And that's the power of objections. They allow you to take on a customer controversial topic and to work your way into the hearts of your audience. Remember, your audience is usually saying, “Show me the proof.”
They might shoot you down completely at first, but you have to look beyond the obvious. Perhaps all they're asking for is for you to diffuse, perhaps completely remove their objections.
This is all about objection, objection, objection. And when you have something that's controversial, it is worth the trouble to take it on.
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