In this talk, Sandy Waggett introduces the marketing concept of “buyer’s defense,” which he defines as the post‑purchase challenge customers face when friends, family, or colleagues criticize their buying decision. He argues that the sale does not end at checkout; companies must equip buyers with messaging, benefits, and talking points that let them defend and even champion the purchase. Waggett illustrates the idea with a personal story about buying Vibram five‑toe shoes. His wife ridicules the purchase, but a letter included in the box lists product benefits (improved posture, barefoot‑like experience, no plantar fasciitis) that he uses to counter her criticism, ultimately converting her into a fan. The anecdote demonstrates how timely, benefit‑focused communication can turn skeptics into supporters and extend the sales process beyond the transaction. Waggett concludes that providing buyers with a “defense” is essential for sustaining satisfaction, encouraging word‑of‑mouth, and generating ongoing revenue.
Chapters
How's business going for you? Not great, because of the stores and local merchants that just think wrong. I know, I know. 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, "Pfft, 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, they'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 an embarrassment 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, "Ooh!" 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 Bible verse. In the buyer'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, 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 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 Stop. And she goes, "You'll never suffer from what?" I'm like, "Plantar fasciitis." She's like, "That's a big problem in my family." She's like, "I need those shoes." And today, 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.
