Ad design,
placement, compelling headlines, color (or not) brought your prospective buyer
to this point. They are ready to deal, ready to spend their money with you. The phone is in their hands. Now they
look to the ad's body text.
They are
looking for a reason to back out. Don't give
them one.
We all hate being lied to, and half-truths aren't much better. Any claim
you make must be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Yes, you
are on trial. The buyer is judge, jury and executioner. His word is law. The reality may be that you are a
candidate for sainthood, but that doesn't matter, if he doesn't trust you, your goose is cooked.
An Outright
Lie is rare. Half-Truths are common. Both are
Deal Killers
Chances are you will not, and have never, outright lied to a customer. Some
of your competitors do, but never you. But, if two businesses say they have the
fastest service, one must be lying. Two businesses cannot both be fastest. Even
if they actually are tied in speed of service, they both come off as lying.
Avoid this trap by not making unsubstantiated claims, or by quantifying your
claims. "Fastest Service" is out. "1-Hour Service" is in. "Fast, Courteous
Service" is much better than "Fastest Service." Do not use superlatives, even
if no one else uses them in your heading. You have no way of knowing what they
will use next year, and any mistake you make will haunt you until the next
publication date.
These mistakes are usually over-eagerness or simply innocent exaggeration.
It is safest to avoid terms like "best," "fastest," "only," etc., but if you feel you must use them, be very
cautious. Even a stone-cold truth can change over time. We know of a mattress
and bedding dealer who had exclusivity on a particular line. He advertised as
being the "only authorized dealer in the valley." Three years later, there were
five authorized dealers, but his ad still reads the same way.
It's not just an Outright Lie that can hurt you
The Yellow Pages reader is looking for someone he can trust. That means, he is looking to eliminate the ones he doesn't think he can trust. If two people make the same claim, one must be lying, and he can't trust a liar. So what does he do? He doesn't know either of them, so, with many others to choose from, he will likely eliminate both.
Unless you can prove it,
do not use any superlative.
Realistically, are you really the best for every body? Are you always the fastest? Are you always the lowest priced (and would you really want to be?)? You might be the biggest today, but what about tomorrow? The slightest doubt you allow to creep into the readers mind is your guarantee that he will call someone else.
What about us? Are we the best design service company? Not to everyone, and not all the time. Don't get us wrong -- we're good, darned good, it's just that some people are already well-served. We have done Free Yellow Pages Analysis where we've said that any improvement gained would likely not justify the cost of re-design. We believe the harm is not in telling someone you can't help. The harm is in saying you can help and not helping. That's the reason why we offer the Free, No-Obligation Yellow Pages Ad Analysis in the first place.
