In this talk, the speaker introduces the concept of "buyer’s defense," an extension of the traditional idea of buyer’s remorse. While buyer’s remorse is the buyer’s own regret after a purchase, buyer’s defense addresses the external attacks a customer faces from friends, family, or colleagues who criticize the purchase. The speaker argues that without tools to defend their decision, customers may succumb to doubt and even abandon the product. He illustrates the concept with a personal story about buying Vibram five‑toe shoes, which provoked his wife’s harsh criticism. A pamphlet included with the shoes listed benefits—improved posture, barefoot‑like experience, and prevention of plantar fasciitis—that the speaker used to counter his wife’s objections, turning the confrontation into a win. The anecdote demonstrates how post‑sale communication that highlights concrete benefits can empower customers to defend their purchase and even persuade skeptics. The talk concludes that the real sale continues after the transaction: sellers should proactively provide defensive messaging to reinforce value and protect the customer’s confidence.
Chapters
I call this buyer's defense. Have we all heard of buyer's remorse? Right? Buyer's remorse? Buyer's remorse is where you buy something and you're like, "Ooh, geez, what did I do?" I think buyer's remorse is going away. I mean, it still exists, but I think that's inadequate. Buyer's defense is where the person that buys your service or your product now gets attacked by other people people for buying your product and service. Someone buys, maybe you make websites, someone buys your website and their friend comes up and is like, "You paid how much for that? My Uncle Bob would have done that for free." Right? People that are buying your stuff, your customers, are getting attacked by their spouse, by their friends, by other business associates, anyone they know attacks them for how stupid they were because the easier way is always somewhere out there on the internet or an uncle or something. Every one of our customers are being attacked by someone else. If we're not giving them the tools to defend themselves, they may actually give in and believe that they were wrong. If you give them adequate tools to defend themselves, not only will they be confident in their own purchase, they may persuade the person attacking them to come to the good side. It's a real problem, and I experienced this in a very personal way. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a little— So, this new shoe came out called the Vibram. It's the 5-toe shoe. A normal shoe, like we're probably all wearing now pretty much, follows— the point of your shoe will kind of follow your hand, right? It has this kind of shape to it. The Vibram shoe is like an African tree frog. It's like this weird suction thing. You put these shoes on and you can navigate up walls, around, and down. You are— like, you could be the Spider-Man in the play and not get injured. If you wear this thing— so I see these shoes, these Vibrams, I'm like, I am so on that, I am getting them. I go to Zappos, they carry them. I order the shoes, it'll take 3 to 5 days to get here. Now, I strategically plan. I ordered it, I think it was on a Monday, and they actually said specifically it'll take 5 days, so it'll be here on Friday. I decided on Friday I better not go to the office, and I better hide behind this little bush out front so when the mailman comes, I can go intercept the package and run to the office to open this thing up because my wifey won't be too happy. Well, it's Zappos. I didn't know about this whole little shtick they had going on. Tuesday, the shoes arrive. I'm at work. I come home. I'll never forget this moment. I open the foyer to our— you know, the foyer, the little door. It's like a foyer about this big if you want to call it a foyer. It's more of a foyer. It's that small. I go into the foyer, and to the side is our dining room, and on there is a package opened. And all of a sudden I feel this overwhelming amount of heat coming out of the kitchen, and no one's cooking. No one's cooking. And she— that's my wife— comes around the corner with this monster stomping. I've never heard a voice this deep. She goes, "What did you do?" And I'm like, "I don't know what I did." "What are these freak shoes? You're going to embarrass us among the whole Morris County community." I'm like, "Ah!" And then I see them there and she asked the worst question anyone could ask. She goes, "What did you pay for these?" I'm like, "They were $80." Her shoe! And she's like, "Rah!" And it was like a scene out of The Matrix. I'm kind of like flying back, the wind, the heat, I'm like, "Ugh!" Screaming. But what happened in this moment was a buyer's defense, something I never expected. As the wind is blowing, the box with the shoes in it had a little letter in it. And the wind just pushed it out and it kind of did that thing you'd see in the movies, it kind of sweeps down to the floor and lands there. And as I'm sitting back, I was in perfect position anyway, I'm like totally bent over, I thought someone was going to the bathroom on stage. That is like a total panic moment. This is how fast the mind works. You gotta just hear my story. So this knocks over. I'm this. All of a sudden my mind goes, someone's urinating on the stage. Then my mind goes, there's only one person on the stage right now. Oh Jesus. So I'm sitting there. That was kind of a real reenactment actually. I'm like, oh God. And fear and scare. It was disgusting. And then there's this piece of paper and on there was a bottle in my lawyer's defense. And it read something like this. It first said, "Dear Mr. McCallowits." My own name. Beautiful. This at least had my attention. So then I read the next line. It said, "Welcome to the Free Footers Club of America." Now, I don't know what the Free Footers Club of America is, but there are a group of freaks just like me who will accept me in when my wife kicks me out. So I'm like, "Cool, okay." And then, It said the buyer's defense sequence. And this changed my moment. The first line said something like, when you buy these shoes, you have to realize your posture will improve. And I have— naturally, I have poor posture. It's a bad habit of mine. So it's like, oh, perfect. So as she's yelling at me, I'm like, I want better posture. And she yells more. And then it said, every experience— the next line said, every experience you have in life will be like you're barefoot. You could walk on shards of glass like you're barefoot. Not that I ever fantasized about that, but I was like, "Cool! I'll have a barefoot experience all the time." And the next line is what saved my life. The next line says, "You will never suffer from plantar fasciitis." I don't know what the fuck plantar fasciitis is, but I sure as hell do not want it. So as I'm reading this, I'm like, "I will never suffer from plantar fasciitis!" And she stopped. The attack stopped. And she goes, "You'll never suffer from what?" I'm like, "Planter fasciae." She's like, "That's a big problem in my family." She's like, "I need those shoes." And I wish my wife was here. Today, my wife wears Vibram shoes. That is the power of buyer's defense. So, the sale really, really happens after the sale. Tell them the benefits, how they're better and different by purchasing your service and your product after the fact. That's called buyer's defense. Thank you very, very much.
