How to Sell Core Products to Cold Prospects

Sure, the ultimate goal might be to sell web design or carpet cleaning or guitars.  

Regardless of what you sell, it’s not easy to sell mid to high-priced “core” offers to cold (or even warm) prospects at a profit. 

Why? Because making a pricey offer to a cold prospect is equivalent to a man proposing marriage to a woman he just met.  

It’s just too much, too soon.

But there’s good news. With the right process and offers in place you can sell mid to high-priced “core” offers to the coldest of prospects.

Let’s talk process first and then I’ll teach you a simple way to “back in” to the perfect offer to make a cold prospect.

How to “Ascend” a Cold Prospect

The first couple of offers you make a cold prospect should graduate them from cold prospect to customer.

We call it Ascension. There’s a bit of a science to it and the remainder of this article teaches the principles of ascending cold prospects.

Two offers are made to cold prospects before they see a higher priced Core Offer:

1. Lead Magnet - a small “chunk” of value that solves a specific problem for a specific market that is offered in exchange for the prospect’s contact information. (e.g. A free rsieport, checklist or software trial)
2. Tripwire - an irresistible, low-ticket offer that exists for one reason and one reason only… to convert prospects into buyers. (e.g. A physical premium, book or paid webinar/seminar)

Exhibit 1: Here’s a look at this portion of the marketing process. Notice how these three offers (Lead Magnet, Tripwire and Core Offer) are made consecutively:

Exhibit 2: This Lead Magnet delivers a case study in video format. A second case study is delivered in exchange for an email address.

Exhibit 3: This low-ticket (Free +Shipping) physical premium Tripwire offer is working very well in the survival and preparedness niche.

Let me be clear --- it’s difficult to sell cold prospects a Core Offer. But leads that receive tremendous value from your Lead Magnet and Tripwire offer are no longer cold.

They’re hot.

They’ve had two successful transactions with you and your chances of converting them into a higher priced (and higher profit) Core Offer are significantly increased.

But while they may be hot and ready to “ascend” you’re ability to do so will also be determined by the offers you make at each stage of the ascension.

In other words, did your Lead Magnet offer naturally and logically lead to your Tripwire? Did your Tripwire lead naturally and logically to your Core Offer?

Product Splintering

A simple way to create a natural progression from low barrier to entry Lead Magnet and Tripwire offers to a Core Offer is “splintering.”

Start by examining your Core Offer and breaking it into smaller chunks.

Find a chunk or “splinter” of your core product or service that could be sold stand-alone at an irresistible Tripwire price point. For example, a web design company could splinter out a logo design. A guitar seller could splinter out guitar picks.

Look for a chunk of your Core Offer that is simple, desirable and easy to communicate that you can sell as an impulse buy.

Then, peel away a “splinter” of that Tripwire offer and position it at the front of your funnel as a Lead Magnet --- available for free in exchange for a prospect’s contact information.

When you work backwards, peeling away splinters of value from your Core Offer to sell at a low-dollar or give away freely --- these offers can’t help but flow naturally and logically from one to the next.

Makes sense, right?

Perfect Splinters

A good Tripwire offer to splinter from your Core Offer will meet all (or most) of these criteria:

• Impulse Buy – The best tripwires are usually less than $20. This is, of course, a rule of thumb. An enterprise B2B Tripwire might be thousands of dollars.
• Simple and Understandable – You haven’t earned your prospect’s attention. The Tripwire offer should be instantly understood and desired.
• Useful but Incomplete – The ultimate goal is ascension to the Core Offer. The Tripwire must have stand-alone value but shouldn’t replace the value provided by the Core Offer.
• High Value – The Tripwire needs to have high perceived and actual value. Remember, the goal of the Tripwire IS NOT profitability --- the goal is customer acquisition.

Ask yourself these questions about your Core Offer to find a good Tripwire “splinter”:

What’s a valuable service you can perform quickly and inexpensively that will deliver results in advance and get your foot in the door? (A dentist might offer a $19 teeth whitening service to acquire customers.)

What’s the one thing everyone needs, but doesn’t necessarily want? (We’ve sold candle wicks to candle makers at dead cost because they’re necessary to the process.)

What’s the one thing everyone wants, but doesn’t necessarily need? (The Permastryke match offer in Exhibit 3 was sold sometimes at a loss to acquire customers and ascend them to the Core Offer)

As for “splintering” your Lead Magnet from your Tripwire, look for…

• Specificity – Look for something ultra-specific that will convert well to an ultra-specific segment of your market. When you’re specific your ad targeting gets much easier too.
• Speed – More leads is not the end goal. Offer something specific that can be consumed quickly (no books, newsletters, 30 day courses) to give the cold prospect results quickly and avoid creating a “speed bump” between consumption of the Lead Magnet and the Tripwire offer.
• High Value – This is a cold prospect’s first transaction with you. They give you their contact information, you give them something of value. Failure to impress at stage one will do irreperable damage at stage two and three.

Lead Magnets can be delivered as case studies, toolkits, resource lists, reports, software trials, quizzes/assessments, mind maps, templates, cheat sheets… the list goes on and on.

In the end, it’s all about “product splintering” to create the natural progression from Lead Magnet to Tripwire to Core Offer that unlocks the ability to convert cold prospects into profitable customers.

Want to learn more about building an Splintering? Read this article...

• Product Splintering: How we Generated $188,674 from a Dead Email List and a Tired Offer.
  

Author Bio:

Ryan Deiss is the co-founder of Idea Incubator LP and CEO of DigitalMarketer.com. He launched his first web-based business from his college dorm room in 1999, and since that time he's founded over 40 different businesses in markets such as health and beauty, survival and preparedness, DIY crafts and home improvement, investing and finance, chemical and liquid filter manufacturing, business lending, online skills training and menswear...just to name a few.

In fact, over the last 36 months Ryan and his team have:

• Invested over $15,000,000 on marketing tests...
• Generated tens of millions of unique visitors...
• Sent well over a BILLION permission-based emails, and...
• Run approximately 3,000 split and multi-variant tests...

In addition to operating multiple businesses, Ryan is also a highly sought after author, speaker and consultant whose work has impacted over 250,000 businesses in 68 different countries.