A few days ago, I had a lightbulb moment. In a webinar. That was selling something I wanted. 

It wasn’t an uncommon experience, to be in a webinar and want the thing on offer (you’ve probably been there, too), but it has been all I can think about for the past few days. 

 

The Classic Sales Formula

 

When I first started learning copywriting and marketing, I was taught a classic sales formula: pick a particular type of person, find the thing the person needs help with (pain point), build a service to solve that problem, and then promise a transformation from where they are now, to where they want to be. This, in itself, isn’t a bad thing- it’s how most of the service industry works! 

Where I start to feel less comfortable, however, is the also-classic pain-point-poking.

 

Pain Points

 

Many sales and marketing strategies feature a lengthy recounting of problems and failures, and how those struggles make you feel. The effect is that you start to feel seen, heard, and understood by the presenter. They have  very likely been in exactly the spot you are, and have found a way though, and have overcome these very same obstacles. In a typical live webinar, the chat box is also lighting up with “YES! Me too! It sounds like you’re in my head!” There is a feeling of community, of others with the same problems, experiences, and failures, all united together. You feel less alone, and like maybe your problem is about to be solved. You start to have hope. 

 

You have a problem, they know how to solve it, you want that solution, and are willing to pay for it. Win-win!

 

Except what happens when you don’t actually have the money required by this person to fix the problem? You already know, like, and probably trust them. You’ve sat in the webinar, feeling all the feels about the problem, you see a way out of the painfulness of this situation, you experience the companionship of others agreeing that they, too, share this problem, but then when the price comes up, it’s 3x, 5x, 10x more than you can comfortably pay for. (And sometimes, the reason you can’t afford it is because of the very problem they’ve been describing so well for the past 30 minutes).

 

FOMO Happens

 

Now what happens? This is not a secret, this is the expected human response in a commodity culture…the fear of missing out. 

Now we’re out in deep waters. There’s the problem, which you’re now hyper-aware of, and the solution, which some nice person has promised you, but you can’t have it, because you don’t have the money. You feel suddenly bereft of the community being built in the chat box, inadequate, embarrassed that you can’t dig yourself out of this hole, and even worse about the problems you are having, because they’ve been compounded. You feel vulnerable, and when you’re vulnerable you are more likely to make spontaneous, risky decisions, like buying something you can’t comfortably afford. 

 

Classic…but not win-win

 

Maybe, hopefully, the FOMO passes quickly, and you can self-select out of the thing of your own volition. But I’ll bet there are many people who willingly go into debt to enter the program that promises to get them out of it. No judgment- I’ve done it, too. 

 

This experience left me with more questions than answers 

 

> How can we become more aware of using FOMO as a sales tactic? How else can “the thing” be presented so that it doesn’t put webinar participants (or website visitors reading our copy) on a roller coaster of emotions?

> Is there a way of having a financially profitable business while still being able to make room at the table for those with fewer financial resources?

 

There are business coaches who will tell me that these are not my problems to solve

 

If someone can’t afford my high ticket offers, they are not in my niche anyway.  Somebody else can serve their needs. We can’t possibly know all the emotional responses someone might have to something we’ve written, posted, or said in a webinar. 

 

And they might be partially right, but…

 

Maybe it’s the former classroom teacher in me, expected to design inclusive lesson plans to meet the needs, learning styles, and personal preferences of as many kids as possible…

 

I think we can do better than the classic sales formula.  

 

I must state clearly that I don’t have a solution to this problem. But I do have suggestions for a more conscious marketing strategy:

 

1. Awareness

 

The first is to develop an awareness of yourself as an authority in your field-a person others look up to, especially if you are a coach or consultant. Ask yourself:

• Do I need to push pain points in order to have an impact on people, in order to get people to engage with me and my services? 
• What would happen if I just offered solutions to problems, without digging so deeply into the issues themselves? 
• What if, instead of pointing out the 25 things you’re doing wrong, I offered an inspiring list of 25 things to do right? (Which one would you rather print out and pin to your bulletin board?)

There has to be a way to acknowledge difficulty without digging a knife into the wound. 

 

 2. Options

 

The second suggestion is to consider pricing options. What if you were able to create multiple points of entry to access the content of your programs and services, so that those without financial means are not left behind? 

• the material could be presented in multiple ways (think books, videos, pre-recorded classes, a membership…)  
• you could offer PWYC (pay what you can)
• you could create a tiered program, or à la carte packages
• you could create a certain amount of lower-cost scholarships, paid for in part by those within your group who have the money to pay it forward (An organization doing a good job of this is The Ethical Move, with “solidarity pricing”.)

I’ll leave you with a metaphor, which I first heard described by George Kao: what if entrepreneurship was more like friendship? If you considered the people in your audience, reading your copy, attending your webinars as friends, would you design these experiences differently? 

Tell me about it in the comments, or talk to me over on Instagram. I’d love to hear what suggestions you can add to this list!