Wax nostalgic? Use the "J. Peterman technique"

First, in about an hour I have a special update for you so pay close attention.

O.K., so here we are with our fourth selling strategy, giving you some alternative ways to sell individual items. If you remember, this initially started when I came across this description of a single malt scotch I recently bought:

“This is a toffee gold dram from a refill butt and is very mature for its age. The nose delivers pencil shavings, ripe fruit, nutmeg, flowers and orange toffee. At full strength, the taste was extremely agreeable and longreaching, with flavours of sweet bread dough, coconut and cherry coke. Once diluted, the nose had pepper and sugared violets (much later perfumed soap), while the palate was orangey with caramel creams and some dry pepper in the finish. Very sophisticated and easy to drink.”

Oh, and someone e-mailed in something to the extent that people who drink this stuff are sort of snobby and “like” these descriptions.

That is a misconception. I drink this stuff and not only don’t I like these kinds of descriptions, but I’ve never bought a bottle of scotch because of them. What winds up happening is you look at the category the single malt is in, you choose one, and then you’re literally playing “darts” at that point.

Seriously.

And I’d bet almost everyone is doing the same thing. No one drinks this because the description says it tastes like “pencil shavings,” unless a rat is ordering. And I mean literally, a rat – as in a 4-legged furry little thing like “Ben,” or something like that.

Anyway, today’s strategy is simple: we’re just going to use a bit of Nostalgia to describe the scotch. I’ve talked many times about how effective nostalgia is, when it comes to selling (and I have an entire chapter devoted to it in the Seductive Selling System at http://www.kingofcopy.com/seductive ). If you want to see a company that does a fantastic job of selling using nostalgia, make sure you check out J. Peterman’s catalog or online website at jpeterman.com. Here, see how you’d use nostalgia in a situation like this:

“Remember when Sherlock Holmes used to sit down at his desk to pause for a moment and basically “put together” the puzzle? Well, this is the brain-food Holmes used to solve these cases.”

Or… “Your father probably had a bottle in the back of his liquor cabinet, that he rarely pulled out — and absolutely never pulled out, especially when his friends came over. It was the one covered with dust, and because he never wanted anyone to take notice of it, he made sure to never wipe that dust off. It’s not that this scotch is the “thinking man’s” drink — it’s simply “a man’s drink.” It’s a quiet dram that’s dark and somewhat oily, which creates an intense aroma and deep scent of musk…”

See how you’re able to weave good memories from the past into your description? This is a great way to make your buyers receptive to what you have to offer, and to you, in general.

O.K.?

Good, so let’s summarize: You can either bore someone to tears, or you can use one of these four other selling strategies I’ve given you over the last few days, instead:

* Telling your prospects who shouldn’t buy…
* Selling using stories…
* Just describe simple details about what you’re selling…
* Using nostalgia.

Although there are several more methods we can go through, we’re going to move on tomorrow, since I can’t stand having to go through the original description of this scotch any more. It’s like going through an old photo album and looking at shots of me and my ex-wife, if you know what I mean.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Take your Free 30-day test drive and get 15 Bonus gifts right NOW at http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl — this month you’ll get the answer to the question, “How do you keep yourself consistently focused on what your prospect wants over the course of a multi-step campaign, and how do you let them know this in your copy?”

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