Plan for Buyer's Remorse

We've all bought something expensive, whether it was a college education, a car, a house, or a foundation repair project.  The actual dollar value doesn't matter--it's about perceived cost--does it feel expensive to you?  For some of us, buying a new laptop is just a run of the mill expense, for others that same purchase is a HUGE investment.  

Have you ever felt a sense of panic or anger right after you purchase?  We call this Buyer's Remorse and the phrase was coined in 1967 by Gerald Bell.  


Buyer's remorse is the sense of regret after having made a purchase. It is frequently associated with the purchase of an expensive item such as a car or house. It may stem from fear of making the wrong choice, guilt over extravagance, or a suspicion of having been overly influenced by the seller.




According to the Wall Street Journal, Buyer's Remorse was the number 2 reason cited for product returns and contract cancellations in 2010.  According to research done by the Harvard Business Review, approximately 7% of a company's gross sales are lost annually across the board due to Buyer's Remorse.  This percentage was much higher in service related industries such as Real Estate and Home Improvement--in some industries, it was as high as 23%!


Buyer's Remorse manifests itself differently with different personality types.  If you're familiar with DISC profiles, you'll really love this list of common manifestations:

COMBAT BUYER'S REMORSE--NOW!!  Gerald Bell wrote the book on Buyer's Remorse--it's called The Automobile Buyer After the Purchase.  According to Bell, "customer satisfaction immediately after the purchase is a key factor in brand loyalty.  Managers are becoming keenly interested in how a new purchaser feels after buying" (p. 12).  

Here's the cliff notes version:  

Bell and his team determined that instilling confidence in service and products is the key to getting people over buyer's remorse.   

Overcoming Buyers Remorse:

• Tell what they bought, why they bought, and how smart they are for doing it!
• Repeat these affirmations often when communicating processes
• Provide receipts, communications, and "What Happens Next" steps
• Receipts need to be received within 4 hours
• Communications should occur immediately, even if you relay that you're working on it
• Processes need to be written down and given to clients
• Over communicate EVERYTHING
• Most people start to experience buyer's remorse within minutes of committing to a project or contract, so have your processes in order BEFORE you sell something
• Give people somewhere to go to find written answers and someone to call with questions
• Thank them--repeatedly throughout the process and at the conclusion of business
• Handwritten cards, a small gift and a final copy of all documents should be presented quickly without the client having to ask

Comfortable Selling Widgets? Sell a Gidget, too!

Feeling a little like burnt toast right now?

You know the feeling--like all your creative moisture is gone, you're brittle, and somehow vaguely unappetizing.  It's okay, we all feel that way by November.  We've poured lives into marketing and selling our various widgets to the masses for 11 months.  We've endured heartbreak, loss, hope being crushed, and the darker side of all things financial.  We've felt some pretty amazing highs, too.  Somehow, they are harder to remember when you're toast.
So, how do you recover from Burnt Toast Syndrome (B.T.S)?


Step 1: Acknowledge your Burnt Toast-ness
Everyone gets tired, everyone feels like toast once in a while.  Putting yourself out there all the time is a huge risk and that takes a lot of energy--even on the good days.


Step 2:  Create Healthy Boundaries
Good fences make good neighbors and frankly, they make for good marketers, too.  Down time, uninterrupted down time, is essential to combating B.T.S.

Step 3:  Delegate, Systematize, Organize
That's right, you have to figure out how to share the taxing parts of your job with others--whether that's paying your kids to stuff Christmas cards, or getting your assistant to schedule meetings for you.  This delegation will force you to systematize your approach to marketing and keep you reviewing and revising your marketing plan--you'll be amazed how often that helps!  Finally, it will make you organize your time, space, and events logically.

Step 4:  Selling Widgets?  Try Selling a Gidget on the Side!
If you're teetering on the edge of a nervous break down consider diversifying.  Try to selling something completely unrelated to your current set of products.  Selling houses?  Try starting a Christmas Ornament business!

I market Foundation Repair and Waterproofing products--I started selling handmade Feather Earrings!  Talk about unrelated!  The benefit is that I've learned more about marketing principles than I ever imagined.  I've relearned and reintroduced myself to building something from the ground up--I've had to reinvest myself in learning the latest and greatest technology, etc.  It's made me a better, more flexible and well informed marketer and it's given me a place to try out new ideas without hurting my existing business!


If you're interested in learning more about my "spare time" business, you can check out the Best Feather Earrings on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bestfeatherearrings  or at www.bestfeatherearrings.com

If Video Killed the Radio Star, did Apple Kill the PC-world?

I don't know if you follow "Sing Off" on NBC, but I'm a total addict (don't tell me what happened last night, I'm watching on Hulu Plus later!).

This is my pick for who will win it all--Pentatonix!  I was struck by how futuristic their sound is and coupled with this song, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles, it was eye-opening.  I mean, are any of these kids actually aware of what radio USED to be?  Or what music videos WERE to us in the 1980's and 90's?  For that matter, am I truly aware of what either of these mediums represented to people even 10 years older than me?

Actually, I do know.  You know too.  Remember computers?  I'm talking those truly huge Apple 2GS models that we used in elementary school to play Oregan Trail and Number Muchers.  I remember learning to program the "turtle" to make flowers on the screen as part of my DOS coding in computer class.  Could we have possibly imagined that those computers would become the hub of our society?

Are we prepared to consider that we're living on the cusp of a post-PC world?
Shocking, I know.  With the introduction of the IPad on January 27th, 2010, Steve Jobs and Apple began a revolution.  Now, there are 9 major alternatives to the IPad and more on the way.  Our Smartphones have become smarter, faster, and easier to use.  We're loosed from the weight and trauma of a laptop and many people aren't going back.

What does this revolution mean for marketing?
Frankly, I'm making it up like everyone else.  I've noticed more social media engagement, more blog readers, less hits on the website and more on our mobile site.  At this point, I've got data, but not a lot of theories as to where we go from here.  I do know that if I don't use social media to draw people back to my website, no one's going to see it.  I know that my website has to work without Flash, display nicely on small screen, and have plugins for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

What trends and new avenues are you exploring in this post-PC world?