George Kao argues that selling to pain points harms audiences who see the ads but don't buy. Instead, emphasize joy, gratitude, relief, and transformation. Mention pain briefly as a diagnostic tool, then pivot to what's possible.
A question was asked by one of my subscribers. They were learning about marketing and how to get a client. You need to use the hook story close model, meaning you gotta get the person's attention by talking about the pain that they're experiencing. Have you ever learned this or heard this somewhere that you need to speak to the client's pain points so that they can really say, oh yes, I'm feeling so much pain with that, that's why I should sign up with you. If I don't sign up with you, if I don't buy product or service, I'm going to feel even worse, right? And that is so much of the marketing advice out there is. It is putting so much negativity into the world that you know, here's the, here's the reality of it. For every one person who buys from you or who signs up with you, do you know that there at there's at least another 10 people, if not another hundred people who saw your marketing message? And my question for you is what kind of impact or effect are you having on those ten and hundred other people who didn't for some reason buy from you that day? Maybe it's timing, maybe they're just not at the right place yet, but they might buy from you at some point. But so much of the marketing teaching out there is teaching us only to care about that one person who buys. We gotta do whatever we can, you know, sell to their pain points until they buy, use scarcity, use any kind of negative tactics, psychological persuasion, so that get that one person to buy out of 10 people, out of 100 people. But I just keep thinking about the kind of ripple effect you are making in the world with those other ten people, those other hundred who didn't yet buy from you today. Are they going to have a better day because of the marketing message that they saw from us? I hope the answer is yes. This is why I talk about authentic marketing. That's why I talk about marketing as a ministry. Whether or not someone buys from you, you are making a difference in their life. So can we, instead of selling to their pain points, what if we instead sell to their joy points? What if instead we sell to their gratitude points or to their relief points or to the transformation that they're so excited by? What if instead of making them feel worse that we talk about what is possible when they work with us, when they buy our product? Here's what the product or service has been designed to do for the right person. You know, here is why I'm qualified to Provide this. This is why I'm so excited by it. And this is why I'm so looking forward to working with you, is because of this kind of joy that I love seeing my clients experience. Why can't we sell to that? Why can't we emphasize that? Now you might say, george, is there no value in selling to the client's pain point and mentioning that? No, no, there is, there are, there are, there's times for that. And let me explain. You know how when you go to a doctor, right. They might gently tap on some part of your body to say, is the part that's hurting right now? Oh, it is. Okay. Okay, good. Now I know that that's the part that's hurting. I can give you the right therapy. I can give you the right medicine. I'm glad. Because if you tap on this part. No, that's. That's not the part that's hurting. This is the part that's hurting. Oh, well, I'm glad that we clarified. Otherwise I would have given you medicine for this. So the pain points can be gently tapped on just to make sure we're on the same page with the client. And then we can start talking about, well, when you do this therapy, it's going to feel so much better. When you do this therapy, you're going to be able to do this. Your arm movement is going to be liberated again. Now you're going to have more energy or whatever it is that the client is really excited about. So let's be aware that, yes, we can talk about the pain points only insofar as it's useful for a diagnosis, for a getting on the right page. But then let's emphasize the joy points, the gratitude points and the relief points so that even the people who aren't buying from us at the very moment can leave that marketing message. Better off. They can leave with joy, they can leave with hope. They can leave the marketing message with hope and optimism that, ah, there is a solution out there. I know that it is possible. And when the timing is right, I'll buy from that person or I'll use that person's service. I hope this is helpful. I'm George Kao, authentic business coach. I love talking about how do we do business from a place that really feels good to us and to our audience and that we're making positive ripple effects in the world no matter what, if the person buys from us today, I don't care if, if you build trust, well, if you come from a place of trust, you will naturally create trust. With your audience and they will naturally come back. They will hear from you again. I promise you. If you show up, continue showing up with compassion, with gratitude, with love, they'll keep seeing you. So anyway, I hope this is helpful and I'll see you again in another video. Thanks for joining me. Take care.
