Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Paraliminals, Paraliminal Resets, Paraliminal Walkabouts, Natural Brilliance, Sonic Access Advertising selling self help products - what sells you?

Another thread made me realise that I am not as easily sold on self help products as I used to be. Rather than posting it there I thought I'd start a new thread

Since discovering photoreading and applying it to everything that I read I've noticed that much of the advertising doesn't 'sell' me anymore. In particular with self improvement gimicks.

Photoreading helps me get past the emotionaly hype that they tend to use and I find myself looking for "how will this product help me", "how does this product work", "What do I have to do to get the results they advertise".

Has anyone ever really noticed that when they regular read an advertisement that the mind is going 'yes' to their 'do you want...?, Have you ever wished you could..., What if you could have this now without any effort? Well our tapes/CDs will do this for you. ... But wait there's more... Our tapes/CDs will fix you so that... So by the time you get to the point where it says buy this... your still saying 'yes' and now you want it.

I admit that is a bit of an exaggeration for some, yet I've seen advertisements that were overly long and after photoreading them and searching for the answers to the questions I posed I often discovered they weren't answered. That the advertisement is the create a problem / here's the solution technique.

This is one reason why I love photoreading the advertisements. I can bypass the emotional tug they pull on the reader and get to the real answers. It's particularly saves me the frustration of reading an ad and finding out that the product has to be listened to for at least 30 days 'to see results". I know that I cannot physically wear headphones daily and frankly I find it deplorable that that is encouraged. (for reasons I won't go into here).

What sells me is when I can see how the product can benefit me, knowing what I have to do to get results. Testimonials no longer have the impact they used to, though I still look at them to see the impact the product has had on others usually after I decided that I am more than likely to buy.

What sells you?

Alex

I find self-help programme advertising always seems to offer so much, you just 'have' to buy it.

Take PhotoReading for example, the advertising says, blast through books - 25,000 words p/m - greater comprehension - improve memory - sharpen concentration - get through information at least three times faster. etc. It's hard to resist!

The reality of course is that the courses always need so much more commitment than we would originally agree to give, for example .... a standard text book would still require 10-15 hours of study using the PhotoReading whole mind system! would I still have bought the course if I had been told?

These days I find out all I can about a product before buying - the internet has made this possible - forums like this at LSC are invaluable and loads of other sites where you can get the view of others with experience of a system/course.

At the end of the day - it was the advertising that sold me on the idea of for example, PhotoReading, it did its job and introduced me to the amazing world of self-help, body and mind improvement, the search for excellence. Thank goodness for the ad men, we do however, need to develop the ability to sort the wheat from the chaff!

Interesting to photoread the ads to catch the "fine print".

"What sells me" depends in large part, of course, on me (a variable). But that's probably not what you meant.

It helps me to imagine the details of using a product. Step into the picture, if you will. The information they provde has to fill in enough of the blanks. If they provide too little information (ie, you can't see how it would work, or they've left out too much) I walk.

There's always a gap, of course. (They don't want to give you the course in the ad). Taking the leap might depend on who's selling it, the importance of what they've left out of their description, the relevance of the material to my needs.

What sells me? That is hard. Maybe it's easy to talk about what doesn't sell me.

But first, some comments on AlexK observations. The train of yes is a very old and widely used sales technique. It's almost cliche and I'm sure some people use it without realizing what they are doing. However, it and other techniques detonate and warning in my mind when I'm looking to buy something.

Ads are just like real sales people, but more limited. The trick is the make sure the customer leaves with a product, maybe not the one they came for, but make a sale. Ads do this my hooking into common desires, then leading you to their products. Sales people can take the time to know you and develop a rapour and then decide which product to lead you to.

The body language mirroring is another alarm trigger for me.

I'm not sold by: emotions, promises, guarantees, testimonals. I guess my need and a sense of sincerity and not overselling.

For self help material I would say they have a tough job. Because, they have to be careful not to give away the essence of the course. Note that the details of the course can often be given without giving the true value away. Also the true value is presented, but not seen or appreciated until after going through the course.

end of ramble.

Iam2