Free Online Training

Thousands of studies have been conducted on consumer purchasing behavior. You can find hundreds of books on the subject of why people buy, why people don’t buy, and why people fail to make a decision at all.

The findings are really interesting, but if you want a detailed summary, go look for it somewhere else.

When you boil it all down to its essence, there are really only two reasons people don’t make a purchasing decision.

1. “I’m not sure”

The first reason people don’t decide because they’re just not sure about the thing they’re buying.

They have objections and unanswered questions that get in the way of deciding whether they want to buy, like:

• What can this do for me now?
• What can this do for me later?
• What will this help me move away from?
• What will this help me become?

2. “It can wait”

The second reason people don’t make a purchasing decision is because they feel like they have plenty of time to make the decision.

How often have you heard a prospect say, “This all sounds great, but I need some time to think about it,” only to never hear from them again?

Godfather The Goodie

Remember the scene in The Godfather when Don Corleone is talking with Johnny Fontane?

Johnny is struggling to develop his acting career and is devastated because the head of the studio won’t give him the role in a new Hollywood picture. After crying to Don Corleone about his predicament, The Godfather says, “You look terrible. I want you to eat, I want you to rest well. And a month from now this Hollywood big shot’s gonna give you what you want.”

Johnny responds, “Too late. They start shooting in a week.”

(Now, Don Corleone gives us one of the most memorable lines in film history.)

“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

On the last post, we talked about the importance of using a Thank-You page after a prospect opts in for your lead magnet. I truly believe this is the most underutilized piece of web real estate on the planet.

At this point in your sales process, someone has clicked on your lead magnet offer in a blog post, website, or Facebook ad. Then, they’ve trusted you by giving you their name and email address in exchange for your lead magnet.

This gives you an incredible opportunity to strike while the iron’s hot by pitching your coaching program, high-end product, or live event after someone opts in for your lead magnet.

The offer you make on the Thank-You page will primarily target fast-moving, hot prospects who are ready and eager to buy from you, but even so, making a sale isn’t guaranteed. Like everyone else, your prospects may stall because of the two reasons we mentioned earlier (either they’re not sure about it or they think they have plenty of time).

In the Thank-You page, you’re going to “make them an offer they can’t refuse” by tackling these two issues head on.

Make Them Certain

The first reason people don’t buy is because they’re not sure about it. We’ll make them certain with the Thank-You page.

Usually, when someone opts in for a lead magnet with their email address, it gets delivered immediately. We want to delay the delivery long enough for them to read our offer.

On the Thank-You page, we’ll tell them their PDF will be delivered in several minutes. This buys us 10 to 15 minutes to give them a good reason to buy our offer.

In Robert Cialdini’s marketing classic, Influence, he talks about an experiment by Harvard social psychologist Ellen Langer that shows how people are more likely to do what we ask if we provide a reason.

In the experiment, there was a long line of people waiting to use a library copying machine. They wanted to test the circumstances that someone would let another person cut in front of them in line with three different groups.

In the first group, someone asked, “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?” She provided a request AND a reason and 94 percent of those asked let her skip ahead of them in line.

In the second group, she asked, “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?” In this case, she provided ONLY a request, and just 60 percent complied.

It appeared that using a valid reason with the request was the key difference, but the third group gave even more insight. In the third group, she asked, “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies.”

This sounds like a pretty lame reason because everyone in line is there to make a photocopy. But the numbers held true — 93 percent agreed.

It was the fact that she had a reason at all that made the difference.

On our Thank-You page, we’ll make prospects a good offer and give them a reason why they should take us up on it.

We’ll quickly teach them something valuable from what we’re offering that overlaps with the content in the lead magnet. Then we’ll tease the rest they would get if the accepted our offer, and we’ll tell them why it’s so important.

This takes care of the “I’m not sure” excuse and gives them certainty.

Take Away Time

The second reason people don’t buy is because the believe they have plenty of time to make the decision. In other words, when there’s no urgency, there’s a tendency to procrastinate.

We’ll fix this by using a countdown timer directly on the Thank-You page. In the past, I’ve used the timer from deadlinefunnel.com and it’s worked great.

As soon as your prospect opts in for your lead magnet and is sent to the Thank-You page, the timer starts. Let’s say you set your timer for 24 hours. If your prospect leaves the Thank-You page and comes back to it 10 hours later, the timer will still be there counting down, only now from 14 hours.

When people know their time is limited on an offer (especially if you’re offering your program or event at a discount), it creates a killer sense of urgency and fear of missing out.

Even further, it’s not too pushy. It’s simple and straightforward. In its own subtle way, it says, “If you want to get this great deal on this great thing I’m offering, you have 24 hours to say ‘Yes’. If not, no worries.”

When you make them certain and take away time, you overcome the ‘I’m not sure’ and ‘It can wait’ excuses that keep people from buying.

Once again, I truly believe the Thank-You page is the most important pages out there today. It’s definitely the most underutilized, and many coaches haven’t used it at all. I know how valuable it is because I’ve gotten incredible results by maximizing this page, and I know you can too.

P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways I can help you grow your coaching business:

1. Grab a free copy of my book

It’s the roadmap to attracting prospects, signing clients, and scaling your coaching business. — Click Here

2. Join the Coach Dojo and connect with coaches who are scaling too

It’s our new Facebook community where smart coaches learn to get more income, impact, and independence. — Click Here

3. Join our Implementation Program and be a Case Study

I’m putting together a new coaching case study group at Black Belt this month… stay tuned for details. If you’d like to work with me on your client-getting and scale plans… just send me a message with the words “Case Study”. — Click Here

4. Work with me and my team privately

If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take you from 6 to 7 figures… just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! — Click Here

Learn more here.