In today’s day and age, whether you’re selling something or trying to generate leads, one of the biggest marketing hurdles to overcome, is skepticism.

No matter who you are or who you’re selling to, everyone’s skeptical.  Adults doubt that you’re going to make their teeth whiter… mom’s doubt those vitamins really will make their children think clearer… and even children doubt the power of that super soaker you’re trying to sell them.

And this skepticism exists, of course, because of two things:

First, most claims people make (especially advertising claims), aren’t true.  Few people actually do what they say they’re going to do (including parents!), and this becomes even more apparent with respect to advertisers.

Add to this the incredible number of advertising messages your prospects and buyers are inundated with, and the odds of getting through are stacked against you.

Instead of being “open” to suggestion, most people are completely shut down.  They approach things defensively and this makes your job FAR more difficult.

One of the most important things you can do to overcome this skepticism is to downplay the hype and make your claims and your credible evidence far more specific.

Let’s take a look at a few different ways you can do this, by comparing general claims to specific claims.  You’ll see the difference right away.

**  General claim:  Gets rid of back pain overnight.

Specific claim:

Completely eliminates all your back pain within 90 minutes.

Quantifying your claims makes them far more believable.

**  General claim:  Generates a LOT more leads.

Specific claim:

Generated a 42.7% response on the very first mailing!

Again, being specific makes your claims much more tangible and believable.

**  General claim:  Makes learning how to draw, easy.

Specific claim:

These 20 illustrated lessons, take you by the hand, step-by-step, and show you how to draw in plain and simple English.  Doesn’t matter whether you’re a novice or an art critic, this unique system works for anyone.

Sometimes, people simply need to know your system is laid out in plain old English, and is brain-dead simple.  Especially for tasks that often seem daunting, like drawing, writing, and exercising.

**  General claim:  We are the oldest cigar manufacturer here in Tampa.

Specific claim:

My father started this company right after he and my mom got married, back in 1950.  Over the last 60 years, my family has sold in excess of 15 million cigars, and during that time, we’ve grown and processed over 412 tons of tobacco in our farms in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

We also import tobacco from time to time, as needed, primarily from Honduras.  We do this when our supply of quality outer wrapper tobacco gets depleted, which usually happens once a year.

See, many times when you can wrap your specifics around a story — especially a heartwarming story — this makes your claims incidental to everything else going on.

**  General claim:  You will earn more than you ever imagined.

Specific claim:

One man earned over $578,464 with only a handful of customers, in less than 12 months, and almost all at 90% profit.

Again, making your claims specific and making them REAL, lets you overcome almost all kinds of skepticism.

One of the cornerstone concepts of writing great copy and coming up with credible, believable promotions, is… to approach your marketing and your copy from across the other side of the desk.

Whether you’re generating leads or trying to sell direct, think about how your buyer is seeing your ad, not how you see it.  Because when it comes to selling, what’s going through their mind is the only thing… that counts.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

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