In this talk the speaker introduces the concept of “buyer’s defense,” an evolution of the traditional notion of buyer’s remorse. While buyer’s remorse describes a customer’s regret and desire to return a product, buyer’s defense acknowledges that customers are routinely attacked by friends, family, and online sources who claim there are better, cheaper alternatives. To protect customers—and reduce returns—companies should provide a concise, bullet‑pointed “defense” letter with each purchase. The speaker illustrates this with a personal anecdote about buying Vibram Five‑Fingers shoes from Zappos, where Zappos included a letter that highlighted exclusivity, health benefits, and posture improvements. The letter gave the customer concrete talking points to counter criticism, ultimately defusing a marital dispute and reinforcing the purchase. The talk concludes with a recommendation that every retailer embed a buyer’s defense message in shipments to empower customers, turn attacks into advocacy, and improve loyalty.
Chapters
Everyone. Ever hear of buyer's remorse? Familiar with the term buyer's remorse? Okay, the same three people. There's a fantastic group here. The buyer's remorse. Do you know buyer's remorse became irrelevant 25 years ago? We've been elevated to a new level called buyer's defense. Buyer's remorse. So we're all on the same page. Was where a customer would make a purchase from you and then regret their decision. Ooh, I could have bought this elsewhere at a better price. That was a mistake. And then they will try to unwind the purch purchase. They'll try to return the product or the item. They won't do business with you. Again, that was buyer's remorse. We've now been elevated to buyer's defense. Buyer's defense is where a customer makes a purchase from you, and then they are attacked by the people that surround them. Their family and their friends, their acquaintances. You bought what at what pharmacy? You could have just gone on YouTube. You could have made the medicine yourself. My uncle does stuff like that. You don't need that. I know someone else. Everyone has a better solution that's cheaper because the Internet says so. Your customers, my customers, are guaranteed to be attacked. There's always a better solution out there, and someone else knows it. And they attack the consumer. We need to defend them. And I'll share a great story of how a company called Zappos actually did this. I bought a pair of shoes from Zappos called the Vibram Five Finger Shoe. Has anyone ever heard of this shoe? Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. There's a lot of whack jobs in this section here. Great. So I'm one of you. If you don't know what the Vibram Five Finger Shoe is, a normal shoe, like, the front of a shoe, like here, follows, like, our hand. The front of a shoe's like this. The Vibram Five Finger shoe is like this. It's like an African tree frog. Like, you put these things on your feet, you can literally scale walls and stuff. And I think you're getting to know me enough. You're like, this guy's kind of wacky. He was probably into those shoes, which I was when I discovered them five or six years ago, I discovered them. Zappos is carrying these shoes, so I order them. But I'm also smart enough to know that if my wife found out about this purchase, she wouldn't be so happy. So I came up with the ultimate plan. I ordered from Zappos on. I remember it was a Monday Morning, I order it, and they say, thank you for your purchase. The shoes will arrive by in the week on Friday. I'm like, this is perfect. So I schedule my plan for Friday. My plan is this. I'm going to tell my wife I'm leaving for work in the morning. I'll pull out of the driveway, start driving down the road. I'll tell my neighbor that expect me Friday morning to pull into the. Into his garage and parked my car and don't tell my wife about this. And then what I was going to do is I was going to hide behind a bush. And when the FedEx guy comes, I'm going to run. I don't know why I keep skating. I'm going to run across the yard, grab the package, thank him, and then run back to my neighbors and open this amazing package with these amazing shoes. I ordered it from Zappos before I knew about this whole under promise over deliver stuff. And the shoes came early. Actually, they came on a Tuesday. And I'll never forget this. I come back from work on Tuesday. I drive in, park the car, open the door. You know, a little foyer. I call it a foy. It's so small, it's like a box. I walk into the foy, and to my left side, your right side, is our dining room table. And on there is the package opened, and there's this heat coming out of the kitchen, and no one's cooking. And all of a sudden, around the corner, out of the kitchen, comes Godzilla. What did you do, Michael? That's my wife, by the way. If you didn't, if you didn't catch on. And for everyone that's married in this room, I am about to divulge a technique that every husband has been trained on. So any of the guys in here, I'm sorry, it's time we come out of this. We've been told a technique. When you get attacked by your wife, there's one defense that you should use. It's called the III defense. And what you just do is you go, I, I, I, I. And I tried it, guys. I tried it. And again, it didn't work. So she's like, these shoes are ridiculous. And I'm like, I, I, I. And she goes, if you wear those clown shoes in public, we'll get kicked out of this town. And it's like you can't even get seen out of the Matrix. As she's yelling, I'm getting blown back like this. And she's just, ah. Well, this position is the ultimate reading position. I Found as she's yelling, I can see the box behind me. And there's a letter right there from Zappos. It had a buyer's defense. Here's what it said. It said, Dear Mr. Michalowicz. Now I know none of you care about that, but that's my name. Caught my attention. Remember the power of names. At least they'll get the person's attention. Dear Mr. Mallowitz, we would like to welcome you to the Free Footers Club of America. The Free Footers Club of America. I don't know who these whack jobs are, but if I'm getting divorced over this, I am hanging out with those guys. It's the power of exclusivity belonging to a small group. That's actually another behavioral technique. Then it went through the buyer's defense. Fl the first line said, by wearing these shoes, you can experience barefoot walking in any environment. So as Godzilla here is yelling at me, I'm like, I can experience barefoot walking in any environment. And she's like, that's verticulas. The next line, that wasn't laughter, that was fear. I still remember that moment. The next line says, your posture will improve. And I hunch all the time, I. I'm like, my posture will improve. She's like, who cares about that? Just stand straight, you idiot. Next line. Next line saved my life and my marriage. Next line said this, by wearing the five finger shoe, you will never experience plantar fasciitis. Now I don't even know what it is. Is it like a venereal disease or something? I have no idea what this I'll never experience. So I go, I'll never experience plantar fasciitis. And she stopped yelling at me. She goes, you'll never experience what I'm like, plantar fasciitis. And she goes, it fixes that. I'm like, apparently so. She goes, I have plantar fasciitis, which in short, is a foot cramping problem. It's worse than that, but it's a foot problem. It's a hereditary foot problem. She now owns the shoes. And that is the power of buyer's defense. When your customers buy from you, the sale has only started, they will get attacked. It's guaranteed. People have a better solution. Their friends, their family have a better solution. Every time they buy from you, they should be receiving a letter along with it that is bullet pointed and easy for them to defend themselves by buying in our pharmacy. I don't know if you're aware of this guarantee this promise, this benefit, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then when they're attacked, they. They can refer to this letter and they can start defending themselves from the attack and perhaps even conveying or converting customers over to you. Buyer's defense.
