Welp, this email may be my least evergreen one yet.
But I gotta talk about that shitshow of a debate that happened last night. (I’m referring to the first Trump-Biden debate of 2024… for any of yinz stuck years behind in my autoresponder.)
Full disclosure:
I didn’t watch the entire debate.
But did I really have to?
Trump handled himself surprisingly well, as did the moderators. (More on Trump in a second.)
And to no surprise at all, Biden could barely string together a coherent sentence, let alone a couple sentences. This was actually the reason I was watching. Biden was way funnier than Trump for this reason—and I got a good, hearty chuckle every time the moderators were forced to cut Biden’s nonsense off mid-sentence.
Despite Biden being funnier than Trump (a key characteristic of Trump’s popularity),Trump wiped the floor with him. At least from what I watched.
In fact, I find it hard to believe that Biden will end up being the Democratic candidate.
Anyway, there was one sales lesson that I picked up from the hour or so I tuned into this thing. It was from Trump (though the moderators also tried to help Biden with this).
The sales lesson?
Last time we saw Biden and Trump on a stage, Trump tried the same approach that won him the Republican primary: Attack and insult everyone in a hilarious way. By discrediting his opponents—while also being charming and funny and not a politician—Trump easily won the Republican primary and even the presidency when he tried this same approach against Hilary Rotten Clinton.
This approach did not work against Biden though.
Why?
Well, Trump would hurl insults at everyone to try to get into their head. Problem is, Biden ain’t even in his head, which turned out to be Trump’s kryptonite.
But Trump had a different approach last night, at least from what I saw.
He toned down the insults and braggadociousness and instead appeared as the only person on the stage capable of coherent thought.
He let Biden embarrass himself instead of trying to do it himself.
So, what’s the sales lesson here?
Well, it comes down to overselling.
Last time Trump and Biden debated, Trump oversold. He hurled too many insults at an elderly and not all there man. And this left a bad taste in people’s mouth because you come from a much more powerful position when you let your adversary embarrass themselves.
(This is also why the moderators cut off Biden whenever he spoke more than a few discombobulated sentences. They didn’t want to oversell how cognitively impaired he is.)
This is a problem I see happening in marketing too.
Overselling only causes more and more objections. And objections are tricky: You never know which objection could set off someone’s internal alarm.
This is why listing every feature and benefit of your product or service can backfire. Or why making too many claims can steal sales. Or why trying to be too funny or professional comes across as needy.
All of these are examples of overselling.
And overselling comes with a steep cost:
You lose sales you otherwise would’ve had!
Awareness is the first step here. But there’s a fine line between selling enough to persuade your audience to buy… or overselling and telling them that they’re better off spending their money elsewhere.
That’s another benefit—in a long list of benefits—of working with a professional email marketer.
Which brings me to the rub:
Hit reply if you’re tired of not making sales from your emails. Email is still the best way to generate a lucrative ROI. And if you’re not already generating lucrative profits, ol’ El John-o can help.
El John-o
Комментарии