5 Ways Good Copywriting Can Prevent the Sticker Shock that Stalls Sales

It’s no fun to quote a price to a prospect and sit through their stunned silence before they stammer out, “Oh. That’s a lot more than I was planning to spend”…especially if you’ve just spent a half hour or more discussing their needs.

The good news is strong website and sales page copy can subtly and not-so-subtly help set pricing expectations–and prevent you from wasting time on prospects who are several ballparks away.

Even if you reveal your price in the copy, what you say beforehand can reduce the sticker shock that quickly kills a sale.

For example…Would you walk into Diane’s Gourmet Pizzeria expecting to buy three pizzas for the price of one?

Of course not, because the word “gourmet” makes it clear this is not your 30-minutes-or-less pizza chain. She made made it clear from the get-go by including the word in her business name, but she could have also used it in a tag line or her copy to the same effect.

Unfortunately,”gourmet” doesn’t work well for services like web design or sales coaching, so here are five ways you prep prospects for your rates…

1. Avoid words like “price” and talk about “investment” and “value.” Not only do you expect to pay more for an investment or something of value– these words suggest they’re not just just throwing money out the door, but will get something worthwhile in return.

2. Pepper words that imply high quality and value in your service or package names and throughout your copy. Words such as:

3. Include references to premium brands to underscore the point. For instance…

• “The difference between a Ritz and a Motel 6″ instead of “the difference between night and day”

• “Mercedes-like engineering”

4. Use apples to oranges comparisons. If you’re not the cheapest provider, it doesn’t help to compare your rates to your most similar competitors. Instead, you have to be a little more creative, such as…

• “Given that the best known copywriters can charge $25,000 or more for a sales letter, $3,000 is is a steal. In fact, I should probably raise it, but…”

• “Going to a 3-day workshop to get all this information could easily cost you $5,000, but by using my program to learn the exact same information in the comfort of your own home, you save $4,000 plus all the travel costs, time and stress.”

5. Be direct. This may mean just coming out and saying…

• “I may not be the cheapest SEO provider on the block, but my clients always land on page 1 for their top keywords within 30 days.”

• “If you’re looking for $5 article writers, you’ve come to the wrong place. I don’t use warmed-over articles you can find anywhere. Everything I write is researched and written from scratch for that client. The result is a publication-worthy article that achieves their goals and creates a high-quality, professional image of their business.”

• “As they say, if you pay peanuts, you’ll get monkeys. And honestly, I’ve never really liked peanuts.” Humor is tricky to pull off–especially in writing. But if you succeed, it can be a powerful way
  to disarm objections.

Finally, this isn’t an either/or situation–especially if you’re using the more subtle techniques such as 1-3. The more ways your copy can help create the right pricing expectations, the better it will be for both you and the prospect.