Get prospects to the call and run it 18 of 25 in this group
SOP 244
Sell to what the buyer knows and lengthen the runway
What this page is for. Use it when cold ads or cold outreach are not converting, or when you are working out how much selling a buyer needs before they will decide. It carries the view that buyers differ by how much information they need, not by whether they buy on emotion or on logic; the share of a market believed to be ready to buy now; the verdict that businesses go for the sale too fast; what marketing and selling are for; and a tactic for cold traffic that will not convert, which is to make the selling longer. Whether selling is your constraint at all, and which part to fix first, is SOP 245 — Check sales is the constraint and fix the worst part first.
SOP-244-Sell-to-what-the-buyer-knows-and-lengthen-the-runway.md
1. High- and low-information buyers
The idea dropped here. A common claim is that some buyers are emotional and others logical. It was once taken on board here too: someone on a stage had said so, and someone who made more money seemed worth listening to. After a lot more thought, the view here is that it is not true.
The view instead. Buyers differ by how much information they need: there are high-information buyers and low-information buyers. It is not binary, a point made plainly: not high or low, and not logical or emotional. Buyers sit on a continuum that runs from high to low.
The shape of the market. Picture the market at large as a curve: far more people need more information before they can make a decision, and some people need less.
Two vectors. There are two vectors to this:
- Some of it is natural. Where a person sits on the curve, nearer the high end or nearer the low, is partly something they are born with.
- You can move the whole curve. Messaging that is clear and teaches the market moves it, so that buying becomes more likely.
Where the levels of awareness are treated as one continuous scale, see SOP 118 — Write hooks for each level of awareness, section 2.
2. The small share of a market believed to be ready now
The figure. Some of you, and many of you, have probably heard the statistic: only 3% of a market is ready to buy, while the other 97% is not yet. Some of you may have heard it before. It is strongly believed here. Where the figure comes from: Not established on this page.
Brands against pure direct response. Set big brands, which grow so large and make far more money, against the classic straight direct-response business. That business, as described here, has no reputation; it has only arbitrage on media. Put x into media, take y out, pocket the difference: that is all the business is. Nothing is wrong with that; the catch is that it will not earn you nearly the money it could. Everyone who works this way is fighting over the same small 3% slice, and all the rest is the 97%. How you capture that larger group is not established on this page.
3. Going for the sale too fast
The verdict here: you go after the sale too fast.
What limits the business. As worded here, that 3% accounts for 100% of your revenue. In this picture, "the 100%" should come from the "massive circle" outside, and the buyers who are ready now ought to make up 3% of your business. That, on this view, is the game.
Brand and the buying continuum. Brand matters over the long term, on this view; the reason is not established on this page. Selling is one portion of getting someone to buy, and you have to understand the buying continuum.
4. What marketing and selling are for
The objective. Marketing leads into the sales process, and the aim of the two is simply to carry a customer forward until at last they know enough to decide to buy.
When no salesperson is needed. A buyer who already has enough information can click and buy from a checkout page, with no salesperson involved. People say you could never sell something high-ticket that way. Of course you can, on this view; the example is a maker of expensive cars that sells them from a checkout page.
Where selling comes in. For many of you, the selling is there because your marketing brought people part of the way, and a bit more information is still needed before they will decide. The selling is what then gets them to buy.
This frames how selling is thought about here, in general. The same picture of marketing and selling as one continuum, with a carmaker selling online, is in SOP 65 — Convert a free consumption asset, section 3.
5. When cold traffic will not convert, lengthen the selling
Where it comes from. It is offered as a quick tactic drawn from lots of years of experience.
When it applies. You are running paid ads above all, and sometimes even outbound, and it is not converting. It is typically with cold ads or cold outreach that things fail to convert. Warm traffic is different. With content, for instance, everything converts, since people already trust you; they are already there. You might be good at branding and bad at selling, and that is fine, or kind of fine.
The fix. When it will not convert, lengthen it. A small amount of selling can only sell someone who is already close to buying; otherwise, the selling has to be longer. Call it extending the runway: a longer runway lets a bigger plane take off, and a bigger plane means a larger share of the market you can capture.
With ads, a sequence. A second practice, from an ads practitioner: instead of hunting for one winning ad, plan a run of different ads, each showing another part of the offer, such as what is included or the access to people that comes with it, so a buyer who does not act on the first sees a second or third. In that view, it is usually a sequence of three to five ads, not one, that gets someone to buy; the figure comes from what that team has seen among its own members.
SOP 65, section 3, uses the runway picture the other way round, for how much time a more expensive sale needs.
6. What this page does not decide for you
- Where the 3% and 97% come from. Many have probably heard it, and it is strongly believed here. Not established on this page.
- Which end of the curve people start nearer. Not established on this page.
- How the 97% is captured. Not established on this page.
- Why brand matters over the long term. Not established on this page.
- How much longer to make it. This page gives no figure for how much longer the selling should be.
- What the longer selling is made of. Beyond the ad sequence in section 5, what to add is not established on this page.
7. The checklist
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Think of buyers by how much information they need to decide, on a continuum, not as emotional or logical |
| 2 | Expect far more people to need more information than to need less |
| 3 | Use clear messaging that teaches the market, to move the whole curve toward buying |
| 4 | Treat most of the market as not ready: the belief here is that 3% of a market is ready to buy now and 97% is not yet |
| 5 | Check whether all your revenue comes from the few who are ready now; that, in this view, is going after the sale too fast |
| 6 | Judge marketing and selling by whether they move the buyer on until the buyer knows enough to decide |
| 7 | If cold ads or cold outbound fail to convert, lengthen the selling |
| 8 | With ads, a second practice: plan a sequence of three to five ads, each showing another part of the offer |
8. Where this sits
- What a brand does for every other channel, and what it buys you: SOP 216 — Make content for the customers you want and build a brand, sections 11 and 13.
- How few people know you exist, and what it costs to change that: SOP 194 — Count what it costs to become known.
- Selling as controlling the conditions of a sale, and the other principles put before any tactic: SOP 243 — Control the conditions, keep every step congruent and clear.
9. What this page does not cover
Building a brand is SOP 216 — Make content for the customers you want and build a brand. Putting a video before every conversation is SOP 247 — Put a video sales letter before every conversation.
Terms defined on this page
- Buying continuum
- The path a buyer travels until they know enough to decide. Marketing carries them part of the way and selling covers the rest; with enough information, no salesperson is needed, even for costly items.
- High-information and low-information buyers
- Buyers differ in how much information they need before deciding, not in emotion versus logic. They sit on a continuum, far more need more information, and clear teaching can shift the whole curve toward buying.
- Pure direct response
- A business with no reputation, only arbitrage on media: put money into ads, take more out, keep the difference. It works, but it fights over the same small ready-now slice and earns far less than it could.
- Ready-now share (3% / 97%)
- The belief that only about 3 percent of a market is buying-ready at any moment, with the other 97 percent not yet. In the view here, a business whose revenue all comes from that 3 percent is going for the sale too fast.
- Runway (lengthen the selling)
- When cold ads or cold outreach won't convert, make the selling longer: a longer runway lets a bigger plane take off, and a bigger plane is a larger share of the market you can capture.