How to Sell Like Steve Jobs

It’s a simple formula.

To convert readers into buyers of your product, you must provide them with:

1. Jaw-droppingly relevant benefits
2. Reasons they can give to their spouse

If you can provide your prospects with the reasons that they want/need/expect to own your particular product, it can go a long way toward helping in that crucial — and inevitable — spousal “sales” conversation.

Writing that fails to convert often contains only half of this formula.

Take a look at how masterfully Steve Jobs (and his copywriters) accomplish this — with product after product after product …

I didn’t even know I had iPad envy

I was recently in a meeting with a graphic designer.

I watched — starry eyed — as she zipped through the stunning examples of her work on her brand new iPad. The screen was breathtaking.

She instantly moved from a five to a ten on the cool scale.

“The economy is tough out there buster. You already have a laptop, desktop and a smart phone. Besides, your wife will kill you if you drop 800 bucks on an iPad! You can’t justify that purchase,” I said to myself.

Translation:

“I’ve got to get me one of those. Now.”

Getting hooked on mere words

Two hours later I found myself researching iPads on Apple’s website.

As I read the sales page, language like …

“It makes surfing the web, checking email, watching movies, and reading books so natural, you might forget there’s incredible technology under your fingers”

… made me imagine myself lying on the couch with the power of the Internet resting in my hand.

Then, I read that …

“iPad is one big, beautiful display — 9.7 inches of high-resolution photos, movies, web pages, books, and more.”

… and I fantasized about using my iPad in front of colleagues, proudly displaying my membership in an exclusive, imaginary community I called iPaddians.

Oh yes, I would be one of them!

But these were just fleeting thoughts. The practical side of me quickly threw cold water on this emotional, shallow thinking.

While I wasn’t buying a Malibu beach house I was still making a significant investment.

How could I tell my wife I spent $800 for such vanity?

Nope, I’d have to pass. The iPad would have to wait until next Christmas.

How I was eventually sold

Then, I saw that the iPad has:

• A dual core A5 chip — I could work so much faster with this technology!
• 10 hour battery life — That’s like twice the battery life of my laptop!
• Instant on — I must have been wasting like 3 minutes a day booting up!

20 minutes later, I was printing the sales receipt. And I felt good about it.

Steve’s copywriters had assured me that the purchase was justified.

Here’s how they did it.

Getting emotional

You’ve heard it before, because it’s true — buying is an emotional experience.

And there are numerous ways you can tap into the emotion of your prospect.

The sales page for iPad uses a number of strategies to cause an emotional reaction in their reader, including those discussed below.

• Make them feel it: If you are selling a product, make your prospect imagine they already own it. For services, use language that stirs the satisfaction of receiving the benefits that service provides.

Apple is second to none in writing copy that conveys the experience of owning their products:

“The view is amazing … hold it up to someone across the room, or share it with someone sitting next to you, and everyone gets a brilliant view.”

• Include them in the club: Tap into your readers desire to belong to a group that owns an exclusive product or experiences a unique service. The desire to “belong” is a powerful motivation to buy.

The copywriting for iPad is riddled with language that excited my emotional need to join the iPad clan by purchasing this unparalleled product:

“Now iPad is even more amazing. And even less like anything else.”

• Kill them with curiosity: Any time you are selling something that cannot be physically touched, curiosity is a powerful motivator to buy. If you can make your reader say “I wonder what it would be like to experience that!” you’ve done your job.

The iPad copywriters did a wonderful job of exciting my curiosity:

“Apps on iPad look and feel like nothing you’ve ever experienced.”

The power of assurance

Now that you’ve excited the emotional side of your potential buyer, you need to satisfy their more prudent side and, perhaps more importantly, their spouse.

No one wants to make a mistake and your potential buyer will want to be ensured that they are making the right choice.

The Apple copywriters provide logical arguments for buying their product using a number of methods including those discussed below.

• Tell them what’s different: To help your buyer determine why they should buy from you, you must differentiate your offer from other offers of its kind. You must answer the questions in your readers mind. Why should I buy this product? Why should I buy it from you?

Apple copywriters are masters of differentiation:

“iOS 4 is the reason no other device has yet come close to iPad.”

• Get physical: Let your reader know each and every relevant characteristic and why it matters. Where does the service take place? How is it delivered? How much does the product weigh? What colors are available?

Apple gives numerous physical characteristics and explains their benefit in their copy including:

“[iPad 2 is] 33 percent thinner and up to 15 percent lighter, so it feels even more comfortable in your hands.”

• Appeal to their inner-geek: For the right offer and the right audience, a technical explanation will be critical. Tell your readers how the product works and display your expertise in the industry. In some cases, using language that your reader may not completely understand is warranted.

Consider Apple’s description of their LED display:

“Because [iPad] uses a display technology called IPS (in-plane switching), it has a wide, 178° viewing angle.”

Failing to provide practical reasons to buy, is failure to provide your buyer with the benefits to tell themselves (and their spouse).

As a result, no sale.

Finish the story

The emotion you stir in your readers will often be the primary reason they buy.

But it will require technical descriptions, physical characteristics and other rational descriptions to seal the deal.

It’s human nature to repress the emotional and cite the practical when justifying a purchase to ourselves or others. This is such a powerful psychological principle that, in most cases, it can hardly be called lying.

When I broke the news to my wife, it wasn’t pretty. She went all “down economy” and “day care costs” on me.

So, I did what any confident owner of a new toy would do.

I looked my wife square in the eye, and with ammunition provided by capable Apple copywriters, I said “Honey, I bought this iPad so we can do video calls with your mother in Florida.”

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