Action Taker vs. Tire Kicker sales anti-pattern

Summary:

In a sales message, whether it's a sales letter, squeeze page or phone conversation, you ask the prospect for an immediate action in a form: "Are you an action taker or a procrastinator (tire kicker)?"

Name:

Action taker vs. procrastinator.

When (not) to use:

The pattern was successfully used for decades, especially in MLM. If you are in one of those industries, you may still have to use it. However, in many other cases, there are reason to use it in different forms or avoid altogether.

Details:

This sales anti-pattern attempts to engage the prospect's need for the recognition and approval, even in the eyes of a salesman pitching to him/her. It's usually used after establishing rapport with the prospect, when talk with the salesman is already considered a conversation, not an annoying pitch. Once it is used, most people has an unconcious need to be recognized as "action takers" as opposite to a sniffed upon "procrastinators".

This pattern was successfully used for decades in the industries like MLM and auto sales. In MLM it's often used in a form "Who do you think makes more money, an action taker or a procrastinator?"

Why is it anti-pattern? After all, it was a productive pattern for decades, and it still brings some results. The reason is the changes in the demographics and the marketplace. As you can easily see, the industries using this pattern have a shady reputation. In the interconnected world that leads you to an acquisition marketing as opposed to a retention marketing, an in the modern highly competitive marketplace the cost of acquision marketing is extremely high. That's why getting traffic and building a mailing list is a killer to so many beginning online marketers.

Speaking of the actual question, it is actually deceptive and the prospect is expected to react emotionally and not rationally. While it's, of course, true that action taking is necessary to achieve the results, not every acton gives the desirable results. Just think of most rabid action takers on Earth - lemmings. In Internet business, like in many other activities, using the brain is not optional.