Team Alpha 375

Up Words to Up Sales
by Michel Fortin

I once watched a TV newscast reporting on a devastating forest fire. "We now take you to reporter Sally Smith," said the news anchor, "who's in the station's helicopter above the scene of the fire. Tell us, Sally, how big is the fire?" In a voice partially drowned by the whizzing sound of helicopter blades, Sally reports: "It's burning over 140 acres of land - that's about 200 football fields back-to-back for you and me." Mark Twain once said, "Numbers don't stick in the mind; pictures do." People tend to think in pictures, not in words and certainly not in numbers - unless, of course, it is told to do exactly that. That's because the mind hates confusion. And in sales... The confused mind always says "No."

The mind will naturally translate words or phrases into something it can refer back to and already knows, rapidly and almost unconsciously, in order to fully grasp what it is told. We do this all the time. For instance, if I told you to think of a garbage can, you're not going to think of "G," "A," "R," "B," etc. Your mind will automatically visualize some sort of garbage can. If the reporter didn't give a visual equivalent, the audience - unless comprised of land surveyors - would have ignored this important piece of information or attempted to visualize "140 acres," which, in all likelihood, they would have visualized it wrong.

To ramp up your sales, use what I call "upwords." It's an acronym that means: "Universal Picture Words or Relatable, Descriptive Sentences." Upwords are words that paint vivid pictures in the mind, or expressions that describe an idea to which the mind of your reader or prospect can quickly and easily relate to. In other words, upwords are metaphors, similes, analogies, examples, comparisons, mental imagery, stories, illustrations, etc - anything to help the mind instantly visualize what it is being told, without the need for critical thinking.

We must be aware of how our readers will "decode" the message we are trying to communicate. Our job is to encode a sales message by choosing the right symbols - i.e., words and phrases - to convey what, hopefully, our prospect will decode in the way we intended. The big test, therefore, is to put ourselves in our reader's shoes.The more you use upwords, the more your reader will not only be able to visualize the message you're trying to convey, but also appreciate that message at a deeper and more intimate level.

If your market consists of artists, use art examples. If it's comprised of managers, use business analogies. If it's made up of fishing aficionados, use fishing metaphors. For example, say you sell customer service software to florists. You can say: "Your clients are like fresh-cut roses; they need to be handled efficiently. But if handled improperly, they can prick and hurt your business, or simply wilt away."

As a copywriter, one website I critiqued sold skincare lotion. It's a facial scrub that helps to smooth out wrinkles, which they call "microdermabrasion." Problem is, not a lot people know what microdermabrasion means. Granted, the term has been bandied about on TV and in beauty salons. And most people may have heard it before. But a lot of them don't know what it really means or what it can do for them. After some investigation, I realized that "microdermabrasion" offers three main benefits.

· It reduces the appearance of wrinkles,
· It comes in a easy-to-use homecare kit,
· And it's gentle on skin (i.e., it's pH balanced).

But these are not benefits let alone ideas her prospects can easily appreciate. Again, they may understand what these are, and they likely understand what they can do. But to help them truly appreciate what they really mean, I told her to change it to:

"Reverse the aging process by giving your skin a youthful radiance with our facelift in a jar! No inconvenient or embarrassing visits to clinics… no risks associated with harsh chemical peels or injections… and no costly doctors and painful surgeries with forced downtimes. Get beautiful skin naturally, in hours, in the comfort of your own home. It's like getting the power of a sandblaster applied with the gentleness of velvet glove!"

Bottom line, different words mean different things to different people. We are different by our education, experiences, and environment, which all condition our thinking. So use imagery that will make your sales message easier to grasp by your prospect's unique set of circumstances. As Jack Trout once said… "A word is worth a thousand pictures."