Why Sales Go Flat

You have an online store… but your sales aren’t increasing as fast as you’d like. You’ve hit an invisible ceiling. You’ve tried different copy… different copywriters… different appeals in your copy.?

You’ve tried all the usual tricks - social proof… an ironclad guarantee… scarcity and limited time offers… appealing to greed with discounts… and getting people into your email flows for retargeting.?

You’ve done Conversion Rate Optimization… tested different headlines… tested different copy in your calls to action… tested different offers… tested different button colors… and results have been inconsistent.?

You’re tired of the same old copywriting “hacks”... and hearing from the same old experts with the same old bags of tricks.

You’re thinking there has to be a better way.

You want to increase sales quickly… with minimal effort… by getting people to trust you… your brand… and your products.?

You know… deep down… that your company is destined for greatness… that you could reach and delight thousands or even hundreds of thousands more customers… making a real difference in their lives… if only you could find the “golden path” with your messaging and copy.

What the marketing and copywriting masters knew and hid in plain sight

How many times have you tried “swiping” a classic piece of sales copy… perhaps a masterpiece of a headline… adapting it to your message… and later found that it didn’t work nearly as well as you’d hoped in tests?

There’s a simple reason for that which you will learn below.

In his marketing classic Breakthrough Advertising… Eugene Schwartz tells us that every advertisement… every marketing message… is an opportunity to solve a unique marketing problem in time.?

Your unique?marketing problem requires a deep understanding of your prospect… and the current world in which your prospect lives.?

It requires a deep understanding of - and empathy with - your prospect’s beliefs… desires… and fears.?

It requires meeting your prospect right where he is… and not where you wish him to be.?

Being able to do that is like being able to spot gold hiding in plain sight on a California riverbed.

Done correctly… it is an ability which has the potential to unlock greater success for you and your business… because your prospect will feel seen… heard… and most importantly?- understood.?

Done incorrectly… it is a mistake that makes it difficult to make any sustainable progress at all in increasing your business and sales.

When you understand this mistake… you can sidestep it and gain an automatic advantage in your market

Here is what the mistake looks like.

It is when you mistakenly put yourself… your own fantasies… your own wishes… your own needs… ahead of those of your prospect.

It is when you start using hacks… tricks… swipes… and other shortcut mechanisms to nudge your prospect into action.?

Some salespeople… some copywriters… and even some behavioral scientists are fond of these tricks. But tricks have an expiration date.?

Here is the reason why. As tricks get used more and more… the buying public becomes wiser. The tricks become less and less effective… until eventually… simply using the tricks can cost you more sales than they bring you.?

Hacks… swipes… behavioral sleights of hand… clever rhyming catchphrases… are no real substitute for careful analysis of a market… a product… and your prospect’s innermost workings.

You’ll find the honest gold at the intersection of substance… consideration… caring…?and a deep understanding of human nature.

That is something the master copywriters knew and practiced well… people like Dan Kennedy… David Ogilvy… Drayton Bird… Eugene Schwartz... Gary Halbert… Joe Sugarman… and others.?

The masters knew that you didn’t have to be the best with words… you didn’t have to be the slickest with “conversion copywriting” tricks... you didn’t have to be college educated with a degree in communications… and you could still sell hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars of goods and services through superior understanding.?

How understanding your prospect… and making a 1/4 inch shift in a key message… can create a mile wide difference in sales

One day, I had a conversation with a friend who is part owner of an online store.

We’d been running tests on his email copy for months… and in this test… one of the more “daring” ones we’d done… I’d tested a new approach to handling a key customer objection.

The approach had its roots in clinical psychology… and in deeply understanding the roots of anxiety in our prospect.?

The copy change wasn’t big… just replacing a few short lines in a welcome series email.

What we found was that… not only did this unconventional Prospect First approach work… it worked many times more effectively than what we’d been doing before.

You might think we were jumping for joy… but there are at least two downsides to operating in this way… and they are significant ones at that.?

Reasons not to use a deep Prospect First approach

The first reason not to use a deep Prospect First approach is because it’s not for everyone.?

If you have deeply held beliefs about what “marketing” should or shouldn’t say… if you feel that certain marketing principles are as set in stone as the Ten Commandments… if you consider yourself a complete marketer already with nothing left to learn… then this may, respectfully, be the moment at which we part ways.?

I bring that up because putting your prospect’s needs first - in a genuine way - can feel downright uncomfortable at times.?

It can mean facing up to our own imperfections and flaws as business people… and asking ourselves how we can do better.?

Not everyone is ready to do that, and that’s okay.?

The second reason not to use this approach is because you heard it from me… and I am still a relative nobody of a copywriter… a newcomer in the field of e-commerce… and not a classically trained marketer by any stretch of the imagination.?

However… what I can bring you is insight about the human nature of your prospect… earned through life experience and self-directed research… and give you simple ways to make the 1/4 inch shifts that can bring you mile wide differences in results.

What if you could increase the monthly sales of your online store by 5% or more… just by making minor adjustments to your copy with your own two hands?

In most cases… the differences between copy that performs well… and copy that falls as flat as a pancake… are smaller than you think.

In most cases… all that are needed are small psychological adjustments to your core messages… small changes to your word choices that signal to your prospect: “This is an offer you can trust.”

These small changes are far more effective than the cookie cutter “copy hacks” you read about online. These small changes are far more effective than using swiped headlines… or generic formulas like Attention, Interest, Desire, Action… or Problem, Agitate, Solution.

These small changes are changes built on understanding… your understanding… of the unique human nature, desires, and fears of your prospect at a given moment in time.?

In fact, the best person to make these copy changes is you... because you have a deep intuitive understanding of your prospect… and they are easier and faster to make than you think… because they are mere “1/4 inch” adjustments to your copy.?

You can let someone else on your team do all the grunt work… all the background research and surveys… all the summaries… all the competitor research.

You can even let someone else handle writing the rough draft… and then... when the moment is right… you can swoop in and add the final touches… in the same way that an artist adds just the right brush strokes to a canvas… making it a masterpiece with your personal touch.

Gaining the knowledge of how to make these adjustments is easier than you think… and can take less than 60 minutes of your time

If you want guidance in making these copy adjustments… then I offer you this.?

In a live 1-on-1 video call… in 59 minutes or less… I will teach you how to make the “1/4 inch” copy adjustments that can build trust… increase sales… and give you the confidence to adjust your copy for months and years to come.

I will teach you how to take the dry facts you know about your prospect’s life… fears… and dreams… and turn them into effective copy that increases sales.

I will teach you how to take something as simple as a guarantee and make it work even harder than it does today… without making the terms of your guarantee any more generous than they already are.

I will teach you how to justify a high price without having to justify it at all… without even resorting to the trick of “anchoring”… and make your prospect more willing to pay your price.

I will teach you how to increase your sales without increasing the number of your claims… by using a simple technique from persuasive writing.?

In your session... you will be able to bring forward a copy challenge of your choice… even more than one copy challenge if time permits… and we will adjust it live together… making it more persuasive by demonstrating to your prospect a deeper level of understanding… of caring… than you ever have before.?

I guarantee that you will be… to some extent… unsatisfied when we finish our session… because you will realize how simple… easy to implement… and obvious the advice will sound.?

You will walk away feeling like you could have figured it all out yourself… because it will make so much sense that it will seem like child’s play.

You will also find some relief. You will have the relief of knowing that you are finally doing something different with your copy… that you are deepening your connection with your prospect in a lasting way… that you are becoming more persuasive… more trustworthy… more worthy of your prospect’s hard-earned dollars… all through some simple changes in how you present yourself… your products… and your brand.?

Here’s how to get started today

To sign up and get started… just follow these simple instructions:

—> 1) Send me a direct message on LinkedIn to reserve a time for your 59 minute call.

—> 2) [This might feel unjustified, risky, and expensive ] Once we've agreed on a time, send me your $3995 service fee via PayPal to https://paypal.me/jessebastide?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US

—> 3) After receipt of your payment, you’ll get a meeting invitation with a Zoom link. We will meet at the agreed upon time and you will gain a deeper understanding of how to connect with your prospect… and how to increase your sales in a lasting and significant way.

Imagine your current monthly earnings… and getting an extra 5% every month… almost “for free”… with the copy adjustments that you’ll be able to make once you deepen your understanding of your prospect.?

Imagine how simple it will be to take the copy that already exists on your homepage… on your landing pages… on your product pages… and make minor adjustments that take only a few minutes of your time.

No more second guessing yourself when you write and adjust your copy… no more wondering if you should have swiped something different… no more wondering if you got the formula right.?

When you master these deeper Prospect First copywriting principles… the rest of your copy will fall into place just like puzzle pieces meant to fit together.?

Why wait longer? Book your call today by sending me a direct message on LinkedIn -> https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/bastide/

Thank you for your time, and all the best.

-Jesse