Proof that Hard Work Is a Legitimate Selling Appeal
Recently, Terry Dean wrote a story about how he and his wife received free ballroom dancing lessons, but declined to continue the paid lessons because the instructor said, “This will be the hardest thing you have ever done.”
While Terry found this statement to be a big turn-off (so much so that he decided ballroom dancing wasn’t for him), I found it to be quite appealing. If I had been in Terry’s ballroom dancing shoes, that statement would have motivated me to sign up right away.
Hard Work as a Selling Appeal
Claiming that a particular product or service could make your life harder is a legitimate selling appeal if there’s a commensurate pay-off on the other side of that effort.
For instance, you might say, “It’ll be the hardest 2 weeks of your life, but once you’re done… benefit, benefit, benefit.”
This kind of approach does two things:
1. The up-front damaging admission automatically gives more credibility to the benefits you describe.
2. Saying that something is difficult is a takeaway selling approach. You’re implying that not everybody can do this or have the end result. This exclusivity will automatically increase desire for your product or service.
I bring this up because it’s critical to understand who your target market is.
I actually like a challenge, always have. And when somebody uses a legitimate qualification process to filter out people, it actually motivates me to see if I can qualify. If somebody claims that their approach is extremely difficult — yet produces amazing results — I immediately want to prove I have what it takes to succeed.
Obviously, this approach doesn’t appeal to everybody. Some people like things to be easy and effortless. And, in certain areas of my life, that’s definitely true for me, too. But in other areas, I’m eager to be pushed to my limits.
For instance, I’ve been going through the P90X program the last four weeks. It’s grueling, but I love it. More than 7 hours of intense exercise every week, and this is in addition to my league racquetball games.
If you’ve seen the P90X infomercials, then you know that they’re not selling “easy” — although they are selling relatively fast results (in 90 days). But the approach must be working because more than 32 million P90X DVDs have been sold to date. Plus, P90X has more than a quarter million Facebook fans.
More Proof that Hard Work Sells!
It’s not just P90X that sells a “hard” approach successfully. Another Beach Body program called Insanity practically has “hard work” built right into the name!
What’s more, the very first line of sales copy says, “Are you ready to dig deep? Then you might just complete the hardest workout program ever put on DVD.”
They’re not just selling “hard” here; they’re selling “the hardest workout program ever put on DVD.”
Sign me up, baby!
(Seriously, I’m in the middle of P90X and there’s a part of me that really wants to try Insanity, too.)
The point is: Know your audience. Know which appeals are going to resonate with them — and which appeals are going to turn them off.
In some markets, you’ll want to promote how easy your product or service is. But in other markets, you may want to go to the opposite extreme and promote how difficult it is, or use a strong takeaway selling approach.
-Ryan M. Healy
