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Bad Mouth Your Products For White Paper Success??

By Michael Stelzner

Does it ever make sense to say to your readers, don’t buy our product or service?

This is the underlying question in an interesting post  by Adele Sommers (a little hint, he believes your white papers SHOULD do this).

The claim: By appealing to consumer research, he determined that, “People who were exposed to both pros and cons indicated a greater intention to buy than those exposed only to pros.”  The conclusion was based on research conducted with bicycles and toothpaste.

His conclusion, “People who are exposed to both the pros and cons have the impression that the information is complete. Therefore, they don’t need to put forth the effort to generate and then weigh out the cons before they can make a good decision.”

The white paper connection: Sommers asserts, “Rather than trying to convince everyone to buy, you’re trying to convince people NOT to buy if they’re not good candidates for your wares.”

He goes on to say, “Your white paper can therefore explain the product’s features, benefits, and parameters in such a way as to clearly assert: ‘Please buy this product only if you meet the prerequisites! If the shoes do not fit, we can’t be responsible if they hurt your feet!’ ”

Here’s a few questions for you:

  • Do you think this consumer research applies to the world of business white papers?
  • Do you buy the claim that convincing people not to buy will actually improve sales related to your white paper?

I’d really like to hear your thoughts.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 8:41 am and is filed under Writing White Papers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Owen
    We could consider the teaser approach and let people read freely a segment of the white paper for free and gain value from that segment. Then in order to receive the full value they could buy an unlock code by clicking the Paypal Icon and the balance of the document would unscramble. Just a thought on how to do it with a value involved in advance of payment.

    Owen
    mentor-one@usa.net
  • It is much better to be neutral as it will sound too rough 'buy this or that product' for the readers. Everyone who will be intrerested will purchase for sure'
  • I agree, in promoting a product we better make neutral review. I think most customer will put "wall" when they hear common promoting words, such as buy this bla bla bla, or this product is the best bla bla bla. But, when they know the complete and true information about a product they will decide them self to buy it if they found it suit to their need. I believe customer who decide to buy a product because of our promotion words and at the end they found that the product isn't really suit to them, they will hear us no more.
  • Ntarugera François
    Mike:

    If you are appreciating what Goran say, then you understand that the selling psychology has been always there. But people shifted the key element of the best selling strategy into bad mouth for business success not only for white papers. I've been performing with news business I know what you are talking about. People prefer big mouth rather than following marketing ethics.

    Sad but amazing to death!

    Ntarugera
  • Well that's playing reverse psychology with the market. It will most definitely come off as sincere and refreshing to the usual advertising mumbo jumbo that sells the product as flawless and for everyone. It's quite a great concept
  • Most every product or service begins life by focusing in on the market niche that they want to enter, get a foothold in or dominate. Other niches develop as the uses and modifications are adjusted to address those markets. Further to the point there are a variety of methodologies to address thoose markets such as price point, quality, value etc.

    By focusing on what a client business does well and slanting the areas that it doesn't compete well in [price vs quality] so that what appears as negative to some, in reality appears to the target market as logical reasons to purchase. By considering this use of "percieved negatives" we can craft papers that appeal to the market our client is focused on addressing. In other words, all market approaches have intrinsic trade offs such as [price vs quality, price vs features and add ons etc.

    Mike, isn't bad mouthing a merely a strong word for informed consumer marketing:-)

    Owen
  • Dan
    Maintaining that one's product is the perfect solution for every reader is counter-productive -- it shifts the whitepaper into the puffery zone, with no room for shades of gray or appropriateness of fit. It also insults the reader's intelligence! That said, it's not necessary to "bad-mouth" one's product to make clear that a particular kind of prospect with a specific need will benefit the most.
  • This reminds me of an ageless sales tactic from the old days. We called the approach the Ben Franklin. In this approach the sales person would enumerate the pluses and the minuses of two or more products/services by drawing a line down a sheet of paper and listing the good, bad and ugly factors of their offering and that of the alternative. By weighing all the factors a customer could add up the pluses and the minuses thereby forming an informed decision on the purchase. It is good psychology to point out both good and bad factors involved in a potential purchases because that establishes a sense of credibility for your white paper. It goes without saying that in the writing pluses should outweigh negatives if you intend to get paid for your work and not produce waste paper;-)

    Owen
    mentor-one@usa.net
  • Stephen Wertzbaugher
    To me, the idea of bad-mouthing your own product in your white paper smacks of reverse psychology, where you tell someone the opposite of what you want him or her to actually do. Under certain circumstances, this may be appropriate, but in a business situation, where you are promoting your own product, I don't think it is appropriate. If you have given your white paper a compelling title and crafted it properly then your prospect should already be qualified when he or she reads it. Will you convert 100% of your qualified leads? No, you won't, not even using reverse psychology. But that's what makes things exciting.
  • Ntarugera François
    Mike:

    I'm always convinced that the bad mouth comes when you start being critical of what other are doing rather than showing what you are able to do than them. Leave space& independence for people to choose.

    At least shows how wise& professional you are. You don't leave fire behind you because you know that you will come back using the same road.


    Ntarugera François
  • Pat
    "Telling your prospects not to buy" can be a great way to qualify leads. Why waste your sales budget on talking to people who won't benefit from your product anyway?

    A good white paper can discourage unqualified prospects, and at the same time invigorate qualified leads.
  • I'm not sure that telling people not to buy is necessarily the right approach (unless you do it in a very tongue-in-cheek humorous way, which is not generally appropriate for business whitepapers). Certainly, presenting the information in a non-biased, balanced manner is good practice though - for the very reasons mentioned above. If readers perceive the information as being impartial and honest - although the very fact that the paper is produced by the company itself can ruin this approach in one fell swoop - they are more likely to believe the conclusions.
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