As You Like It
I was having a conversation with a client yesterday. She is attempting something in her business that goes against what “everyone else is doing.” And, I love this, because I very often do this in my own business.
I like to call it - being true to your authentic self!
My client is about to launch a new product, and she was putting together her sales page yesterday. She called me in a panic because she was trying desperately to bang out one of those looooong, drawn out sales pages. She was stuck somewhere in the middle of the page. The words wouldn’t come and her internal mental alarm was screaming that this was absolutely NOT the right thing to do - but she couldn’t figure out exactly why.
Then, she realized that writing these long sales pages was just not “her.” So, she came to the decision that she was not going to do it.
She was a little apprehensive because she saw this system working so well for everyone else - but it just didn’t feel right to her. That’s where I came in. She called because she wanted to bounce this off of me and see what my thoughts were, and how to better approach writing the sales page.
My client actually thought I was going to give her ideas on how to become un-stuck and plow through the rest of the sales page - and just “get it done.”
Nope. I went in a completely different direction. I agreed with her that those pages weren’t “her.” I told her she had permission to create the sales page in a way that felt authentic to her.
I told her, she didn’t have to do what everyone else was doing - and then I asked if everyone else was jumping off a bridge, would she jump too? Ok - I know - that was terrible… but I had to! It added just a tiny bit of humor to the situation, and eased the tension she felt enough that she actually saw that she didn’t have to follow the crowd.
It’s ok to not follow the crowd. It’s ok to do things in a way that is authentic to you. All you need is a goal and a plan.
Have you ever succumbed to business peer pressure? Have you ever done things that didn’t necessarily feel right to you? What have you done to overcome the business peer pressure?
October 31st, 2007 at 3:27 pm
This whole post I am thinking about how it’s being different that makes you stand out, which is going to make you FAR more successful than trying to do what everyone else is doing!
I think this is especially true online. If everyone is doing it, we’ve been exposed to hundreds or thousands of times. I’ve come to hate those long sales pages on principle. I don’t trust them because I know they are just putting in all their effort into trying to manipulate me to buy their product–and rank well in my search engine, even if their product ISN’T what I’m looking for exactly.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Amen Bonnie! I love what you’ve shared here.
All of that in-your-face marketing is so over-rated. People are so used to seeing the long sales pages, and we’ve all been educated about the “formula” behind them… it’s tired in my opinion.
When I purchase something from someone, I don’t want to see mountains of text - and I don’t want to have automatic audio played on the page.
I don’t want to be “sold” and neither does anyone else.
We’re all intelligent adults who would rather see the REAL person - rather than those BIG BOLD headlines and the sea of text that follows.
In the interest of authenticity - I have myself tried the long sales pages - UGH - that was awful. I stressed and strained putting them together, and then felt horrible having it out on my web site. I think I let it sit out there maybe a week before I changed it.
Wanna know something interesting? No one bought my service when the long sales page was sitting out there. After I changed it, I sold quite a few seats.
So Bonnie, I couldn’t agree more - being authentic really does make you FAR more successful than following the crowd
November 27th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Hi Jenn,
I know this post has been up for while, but I’ve just read it and had to say how much I enjoyed it. I really struggle with long sales pages - I’m in the middle of writing one myself and I knew I felt uncomfortable writing it but I’ve just kept persevering… Guess what? I think I’m going to be making some changes!! Thanks so much for the advice!