Posted by I’ve used variations on this technique to sell courses, software, services, books and more. And so far, it’s worked every single time.
You’ve probably heard about the famous 2$ Billion Wall Street Journal sales letter. It’s the one that compares two guys who are very much the same. They’re both better than average students, they’re both personable, they’re both filled with ambitious dreams of the future, and they graduate from the same class.
25 years later they meet for their class reunion. They both work for the same company, but while one is manager of a small department, the other is president.
What made all the difference? In this case, reading the Wall Street Journal.
The idea is simple – take two similar people, give one of them your product and report on the difference it makes. The one without your product is still having the problem, or miserable, or fat, or poor or unsuccessful. But the one who used your product is now problem free, happy, thin, rich or successful, depending on what your product can do for them.
Here’s an example using a variation of this formula. Instead of telling the reader the outcome and then telling them what made the difference, we are taking them on the journey of two people from start to finish.
“Bob and Joe both started their own similar small businesses. Bob knew he could save money by doing his own SEO, while Joe hired a professional to handle his SEO for him.
Because Bob didn’t know a lot about SEO, he took some SEO courses to find out what he needed to do, and then he spent 20 hours a month practicing what he learned in class on his business.
Joe didn’t want to bother with classes, and he didn’t want to spend 20 hours a month on SEO. He’d rather spend his time in other areas of his business, or even taking time off.
At the end of the first year Bob had spent a couple of thousand dollars and a total of 300 hours on classes and doing SEO for his website. Joe also spent about the same amount of money hiring an SEO professional but he spent no time doing any SEO.
Bob’s efforts didn’t payoff the first year. The SEO rules were confusing and kept changing and he simply didn’t have time to keep up with things. When he was honest with himself, he realized he just wasn’t interested in SEO and dreaded working on it, but he did his best. Despite his efforts, Bob’s business barely grew.
Joe, on the other hand, saw his business double in that first year.
The second year Bob didn’t even try to do SEO anymore because he just couldn’t seem to make it work. So, Bob spent no money on classes and no time on SEO, same as Joe.
But Joe did continue to invest in his professional SEO service, and again he saw his revenue double for the year.
In the third year Bob closed his business for lack of customers and went to work at his old job.
What happened to Joe? He sold his business for a healthy 7 figure number and retired on the beach.