17 Ways to Ask for the Sale (Nicely)

You agonise over writing the sales page for your online course or service.

You’ve already put it off for weeks, because it just seemed like the most enormous task to tackle in one go.

You can’t leave it any longer.

You’ve told people you’re launching next week and you need to have somewhere to direct them.

So you sit down to write.

You know your ideal client inside out. You’re confident you’ve gotten under all the pain points, features, benefits, everything. You’ve articulated what they get. You explain the course modules and process you follow. You’ve laid it out in detail.

You’re happy that your writing sounds like you.

The voice is right. The content is right.

You’ve even got some testimonials in there. 

You get to the end. You’re pretty proud of yourself. (You deserve to be, by the way.)

You launch and share your sales page. Everywhere you can possibly think of. In fact, you’re almost sick of the sight of your own face all over the internet. Your Facebook feed is full of you. People like, comment, say how awesome it is, how gorgeous it looks, but…

It’s not selling. At least, not like you’d like.

In 2015, I edited upwards of 50 sales and work with me pages

Though they don’t always think it, most of my clients have done a pretty great job of their draft. And yet, I can tell the instant I look at it that it’s not going to convert. Not without some pretty serious tweaking.

The common issue? Failing to make a strong enough call to action. Even failing to make a call to action at all. That is they want to sell something…

But they don’t ask for the sale. (Oops!)

To take this further, I often point out that there’s no call to action and then find the problem has gone unaddressed after the client has reviewed the work and sends it back for proofreading.

Clients weren’t following my advice to put a call to action in there. I was puzzled.

So one day, I asked a client why they’d ignored a comment to make a call to action on their sales page. Didn’t they want it changed?

The answer? Simple but surprising. They didn’t know what a call to action was. Let alone how to write one.

Oh God oh God oh God.

Such a teeny tiny tweak can make so much difference to the effectiveness of your sales page. You need to step people through the actual sales process. Tell them what to do next, how, then what to expect.

I went to a meeting with my financial planner last year. I was tight for time. I parked my car nearby and went over to the machine, coins in hand.

A man was already in front of me, tilting his head and frowning at the pay meter. Seeing me approaching, he walked off. (What is it with dudes not being able to admit they can’t figure out how something works?!)

I smirked, as I was confident I knew what to do. But the pay meter had no clear instructions and I was running late. I decided to wing it, didn’t pay for the parking, and came back to an unticketed car.

Score!

Some might say that’s stealing. (But seriously, show me a person who hasn’t tried praying to the Parking Gods at least once.)

Of course I’m not saying people will steal your stuff if they can’t figure out how to pay you. The online equivalent is losing clients. AKA ‘I need your thing but haven’t got time for this’, if they can’t figure out how to buy straight away.

I have no patience for people who I’m perfectly willing to pay, but won’t tell me how I can give them my money. And I know I’m not alone in this.

Help. People. Pay. You.

For the sake of clarity, that means issuing an instruction (in language we use for commands and requests). Remember, they can be in the negative too.

In actual exact words, here are some examples…

1. Get it here
2. Grab yours now
3. Reserve your spot
4. Secure your seat
5. Apply now
6. Join us now
7. Book your place
8. Don’t miss out
9. Get your hands on a copy
10. Enter the programme
11. Become a member
12. Download yours here
13. Watch here
14. Listen in
15. Act now
16. Learn more
17. Sign up here

Maybe you’ve written some damn persuasive copy. It’s convincing, because you’re convinced of the value of what you have on offer. But then you leave it at that.

Don’t be one of those people!

Be bold!

Ask for that sale.

Call the client to act.

In 17 different ways!