Sean D'Souza: When the going gets tough, customers buy

Sean D'Souza.

It bugs you no end. But the con artist will always sell better than you. The conman has a weapon you don't. It's called greed.

Of course the con artists don't call it greed. They call it "quick". As in: Make $200,000 a year or more (quickly). Or get to the top of Google rankings (quickly). And greed kicks in. We can't help it.

And of course it bugs you no end.

You can see that people - and not just people, but your customers and friends - are wasting their money on con artists. And it frustrates you.

It should frustrate you. Because if you do nothing, you simply drive these very same people to more con artists.

So how do you beat the con artist?

You offer the opposite of greed. You offer difficulty. Now that seems weird, doesn't it? Why would anyone buy into a factor of difficulty? But you see, that's what's needed.

You cannot succeed with the shortcuts con artists promise you. It's impossible to do "just a little" and succeed.

And hard work is difficult. So trying to convince your customers not to go to the con artists is actually counterproductive. The moment you tell them not to do something, that "something" becomes more desirable.

But do your part: promise your customers difficulty, because you see, difficulty is just as powerful as greed. A person will jump hoops and climb mountains to achieve things - if you set the barrier high enough.

As humans, we're very keen to see ourselves in a better light. And so, given enough difficulty, we will push ourselves and come out shining on the other side.

Difficulty works, because we've seen it work at Psychotactics. We sell our courses at the highest prices and we promise difficulty. We push people to achieve their goals with a high degree of difficulty. You'd think that would drive people away, right?

But it doesn't. In fact, we've sold more products by promising difficulty than we've done by sitting on the fence.

You see, you can't promise "quick", because there is no "quick and easy".

But by not promising difficulty, you're sitting on the fence. You're not setting standards. So the customer finds it easier to go to the con artist, because at least that way there's some promise.

So how do you create difficulty?

* In your sales letter and promotional method.

* In your sign-up method (you create barriers such as "forms". For our courses you have to buy and read The Brain Audit. If you don't, you're not accepted).

* In the post-sales process: where people have to do an interview to qualify.

* In the methodology or consumption of your products/services (a specific goal to reach within a specific time period).

* In your price. Yes, you can't be the same price as everyone else. You have to go up.

So you'll want a case study, right?

Well, there's the Article Writing Course (one of our clients calls it the Article "Writhing" Course).

It's billed as the most difficult and the most expensive in the world. You think I'm joking, right? Why would anyone sign up for a difficult and expensive course?

And yet the day we changed from just a "course" to the "most difficult course" our sales went up by 300 per cent. (Maybe more. I stopped counting.) We had to shut the doors in a hurry to keep more people from signing up.

Yes it's the best course in the world - no two ways about it.

Yes it's the most difficult. And yes, at least 85 per cent of the members turn out to be top-notch writers (in every field, there's a dropout factor).

They not only write about their own business, but they can write about your business or anyone's business. Give them any topic, on any subject matter in any field and they can do it.

So yeah, difficulty works. It not only works, but it gets great testimonials. And in every case, the testimonial does the same job: it promises difficulty. Not ease.

This attracts more customers. Amazing and entirely true.

The fact is, you can't win against con artists. You will never win that game. Greed rules. But difficulty rules just as strongly. Because those who run after the "quick" method soon lose time, money and patience.

Promise difficulty. It works. Not as well as con-artistry. But then you don't have any intentions to be a con anytime soon, do you?

Action plan: How would you apply a factor of difficulty in your own field?

Sean D'Souza is chief executive of Psychotactics and an international author and trainer. He is the author of The Brain Audit - Why Customers Buy (And Why They Don't).

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