Selling and marketing is a strange art. But it hit me today when I read this email from a former SCCO optometry student trying to unload his used books to us:
Hello All,
Hope you are all enjoying school. I am looking to sell some ocular disease quick reference books that I purchased last year for rotations and never ended up using. I have 4 of the Rapid Diagnosis in Ophthalmology: Neuro-Ophthalmology, Retina, Lens/Glaucoma, and Anterior Segment that I am looking to sell to someone who may have a use for them. I purchase these books from the student store, unwrapped them and never used them. They are in perfect/brand new condition. I paid $69.95 each and want to sell all four for $200. You can take a look at them in the student store if interested.
Thanks,
xxxxx student
Class of 2009
What a terrible email. It basically says “I bought these books. They were completely useless for me and I didn’t even touch them. You want to give me $200 for them?”
The email also makes a big marketing taboo. He talks about what he wants, not what I want. “He’s looking to sell” something to me. Quite a turn off. I’m going to pretend to be interested 3 weeks from now and ask him if he’s sold them yet. I bet he hasn’t.
How would I rewrite the sales pitch? Maybe something like this:
“Hello SCCOers!
Hope you are all enjoying school. Just remember to study hard now because it can be VERY useful in clinic when you’re working with a complicated patient and your staff doctor is glaring at you for not knowing how to manage the retinal disease patient you have in your chair. It sucks to look stupid but never fear! You’re about to get hooked up. I’ve got 4 of the Rapid Diagnosis in Ophthalmology: Neuro-Ophthalmology, Retina, Lens/Glaucoma, and Anterior Segment books.
These can save you a lot of time when your back is against the wall and you don’t have time to rummage through all your old notes. These books are concise, they get to the point: hence the RAPIDness. These run for over $280 at the SCCO bookstore for all 4 but I’m willing to part with them for only $200 (you can’t even get them cheaper on Amazon, I know because I just looked!) – plus I’ll ship for free =). All books are in PERFECT condition.
Wishing you all the best,
xxxxx student
class of 2009″
I probably could have worded it a little better but the main point is that I don’t mention how I want to sell them something. You can never convince anyone to do anything unless they want to do it. I give them reasons for having knowledge, and then offer them what they want at a price that is competitive.
lol… i bought them.
just kidding
hahaha, that would be REALLY funny if you actually did buy them.