How do you Tempt your Customers to Sin?

To sin or not, that is the question. However, upon serious and due reflection, I feel satisfied I am just framing a sales and marketing challenge to help businesses meet their customers vulnerabilities and needs. I am extremely proud of the significant contribution of small business marketers all over the globe who enable and generate billions of dollars of value creation, which in turn creates new opportunities and jobs for millions. In this context, I write this piece with a clear conscience.

So what are the seven deadly sins?
No, I am not suggesting that you do anything illegal or ask anybody else to do anything illegal. Most of you have perhaps known or heard about the seven deadly sins also known as the “cardinal sins” or the “capital vices”. These have evolved over a period of time and have been translated from Greek to Latin and the modern marketing version as I know them today are:
1. Extravagance (and greed)
2. Gluttony
3. Pride
4. Lust
5. Wrath
6. Sloth
7. Envy

As you develop the customer value proposition or even if you are in sales, keep these in mind. Almost all mere mortals succumb to these seven sins. Take advantage of human frailties’ and temptations. Check if your value propositions give your customers the opportunity to succumb and be tempted to commit these sins.

Extravagance is the luxury of the poor, penury is the luxury of the rich – Oscar Wilde. Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed – Albert Einstein
Extravagance and greed are unrestrained excess. In whichever industry or business you are, it always pays to entice your customers to be extravagant, spend more, to buy that extra something that they will not use or fully use, treat their loved ones to a special gift of extravagance.

Check and recheck if your value propositions offer the opportunity for your customers to feel that they are being extravagant and that it is worth it. Ensuring that customers are extravagant in a value proposition ensures that the customers will buy something that they don’t necessarily need immediately, buy more than what they need, pay more than what they intended and so on.

Extravagance and greed is also often thought to apply to a very excessive or rapacious desire and pursuit of wealth, status and power. I am sure most of you have had exclusive invitations from credit card companies, airlines and other providers that seem to imply that you have a special status. Most luxury goods marketers thrive at bringing out the greed in all of us. Do we really need that $5,000 handbag? It is the divine duty of all marketers to poach you away from alternative propositions from the competition; therefore, betrayal for personal gain can also be considered greed.

As greed and extravagance are inordinate desires to acquire or possess more than what you need or deserve, especially with respect to material wealth, this is an easy one for marketers. Communicating subtle or direct aspirational messages often brings out greed in all of us. So the next time you see that credit card company’s messages or the designer goods ad or cell phone manufacturers urging you to be cool with a newer version of something new, which you already have, remember, they are all tapping into your sense of greed and extravagance.

Gluttony is not a secret vice – Orson Welles
If you are in the food or hospitality industry, this is an easy sin to tempt your customers with. We all know gluttons, but they do not necessarily have to be just overindulging or over consuming food to be gluttonous. You can consume anything to a point of waste to be a glutton.

Do you really need that iPhone when you already have a BlackBerry? How often can you use both? Isn’t it just a waste? Offering a fixed price buffet lunch is surely tempting the glutton in all of us. How about the wonderful buckets of minutes that your telecom provider offers? How about that two-for-one that your local supermarket or department store offers?

These are wonderful and great propositions from a marketer’s or a sales point of view as the incremental cost to offer the next or nth unit is marginal for the provider. If the actual cost is truly marginal or the opportunity cost is too high not to offer it, it behoves the marketer or the sales team to tempt gluttony in crafting the value propositions so that customers can be tempted to be gluttonous.

It is a beggar’s Pride that he is not a thief – Japanese proverb
In almost every list, pride is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins, and the source of the others. It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self.

So my dear fellow marketers and sales professionals, this is an easy one. I am sure some of you have excelled in making your customers feel inferior if they are using your competitors’ services and products, or conversely making them feel superior by using your “well designed” propositions.

Pride and vanity is taken advantage of in almost all industries. Marketers name their services Platinum, Superior, Super, Exclusive, “you are special” and so forth. If you are marketing or selling designer apparel or accessories, then this is a no-brainer. However, tempting your customers to be proud can be applied to the hospitality industry, consulting, banking, politics, entertainment and lots more.

Lust’s passion will be served; it demands, it militates, it tyrannises – Marquis De Sade
Is any sin easier to sell than lust? Not really, I would imagine. My dear folks, have you seen “ugly” models in any communication that marketers put out? Even the ordinary testimonials from the supposedly ordinary people appear to be extraordinary.

No, I am not suggesting that you engage in vices of that sort. Just think of it, almost all marketers seem to be selling lust. I often wonder if they take a second and think about what their true intentions are by the models or spokespersons that they select for their communications to their customers.

Some industries and companies take it to an extreme. Just take a moment and look at the airlines industry (in some countries), the hospitality and restaurant industry (Hooters is a good example), the entertainment and fashion industry, and others. These folks seem to have mastered the art of marketing and selling lust more

And Wrath has left its scar, that fire of hell – William Cullen Bryant
Wrath, also known as anger or rage, may be described as inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred. Anger, in its purest form, is presented with hate that may provoke antagonistic feelings towards someone.

This is one of the two sins I personally am comfortable in tempting my customers to commit. Imagine how easy this is, if I can get my customers’ wrath on to my competitors. How do I do that? Make the customer realise that I have a better deal, that I offer a better customer experience, and that considering others is not currently being made a choice for them. Irk your customer’s ire and wrath on to your competitors’ offerings.

Marketers and sales folk should remind their customers what you are offering, that your competitor is not offering or is unable to do. This is called differentiating yourself in the market. Make the customer feel mad that his or her existing provider is not doing what your company is able to do.

Conversely, remember that it is good business sense not to irk your customers’ wrath on to yourselves.

We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty – Marcus Fabius Quintillan
Sloth is considered more a sin of omission rather than commission. We all have been lazy one time or another. In this digital and Internet age, we have a tremendous opportunity to make our customers lazy. This is the other sin I am happy to tempt my customers with. Taking away customer difficulties is called offering conveniences that they appreciate. Saving time and money by tempting them with convenience makes good sense for the customer and your business. Any convenience that takes away customers’ difficulties makes obvious sense. It also makes good business sense for us as it can often mean more sales, less costs and more profits.

Envy aims very high – Ovid
Those who commit the sin of envy resent that another person has something they perceive themselves as lacking, and wish the other person to be deprived of it.

So what does this mean for your business? Well, get your competitors’ customers to feel envious of your customers. Let them join you in droves after realising the poor deal or the poor service or faulty proposition that they have been sold. Spend your money making them aware of what they are missing or what they must have.

Let your potential customers know that they don’t have to be envious but that the proposition, product or service is available to them easily, affordably and conveniently through you.

But beware of having a taste of your own medicine; do not let your existing customers who have committed long term to you feel envious of your competitors’ customers. Imagine the frustration of someone who has signed a 60-month car lease or a long-term contract with penalty provisions for early cancellation.

If you slip up, please be assured that it is not only envy that you will elicit from this customer. You will also bear his or her full wrath. Hell hath no fury like a customer scorned!

About:
John Lincoln has over 20 years telecommunications experience in the USA, Japan, Europe, India, Dubai, Malaysia, Latin America and various other countries. He has extensive senior expertise in international telecommunications sales, marketing, business development and customer service delivery. John also has executive experience with general management, marketing, P&L, product development and revenue management responsibilities in both consumer and enterprise segments for both the fixed and mobile sectors. In addition John has an impressive operational and management portfolio of established proven expertise in incremental business value creation and management of large multi-cultural teams in Vodafone Global in the UK, Japan Telecom in Tokyo, AirTouch and Pacific Bell (now AT&T) in San Francisco and Tokyo, Airtel in Delhi and other telecom and technology companies. Additionally he has extensive large scale business development, M&A and operational project experience across the USA, Europe, Asia and Latin America. John has an MBA and MS in Telecommunications from the Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California, USA. You can find John’s personal blog at johnlincoln.blog.com .