Why It Was a Lucky Day Today for My Future Boyfriend

I got tricked today into giving out 400 ringgit (around 85 EURO) from my pocket -- which was terribly empty already before this act beyond all explanations.

Before you pity me or lose your faith in my ability to manage my finances take a few minutes to read what happened -- and you'll most probably learn a good deal about closing your sales on a rather marketing-resistant well-educated crowd like me.

Hold your breath, I'm about the say something that I've been waiting myself to say in the past 1..no 2, ok - 4 YEARS!

Here goes:

I SIGNED UP FOR A GYM!

(Haha, what did you expect? After 4 years in AIESEC it's a HUGE step for me -- love the organization, but I never had time or money to really do workout)

So I gave out the money and I had no intention of doing it today.

And here goes the 6-step magical sales formula that you can use in your own business - whatever that would be - proved to work on an absolutely broke fresh graduate who loves picking up marketing strategies before they get her off guard.

1. Build a desire - offer a free sample

A gorgeous looking oh-so-popular dance class trainer makes an innocent comment in the end of a fabulous training: "Guys, love making the dance classes with you, but the more people, the more fun. Grab a friend of yours and get her to my dancing class. Don't worry, she doesn't have to pay, just say downstairs you're to Luciano's class and everything's cool."

So, I get an invitation from my roommate - let's go dancing, no charges, great crowd!

2. Get personal

When I arrived to the gym, I had a nice lady greeting me and arranging a meeting after the workout.

Sure I'd meet the lady, I had got the freaking free training -- would be rude to say no, right? And anyway I knew I wouldn't sign up before my next payday.

3. Make it look formal

Don't just sit down with a potential costumer, grab a formal looking form to fill - write down the name, birthday, sex - anything. Seeing this data appearing on the paper works like magic - you feel committed without having a clue why and to what.

4. Freak them out with the price -- and then send to heaven with a special offer

Now use the same form you just filled with the name and other irrelevant data -- to draw the price on it. Yeah, make it visual - this much for registration, this much for one month, this for prepayment and this for whatever comes to your mind. As long as the end-results makes your costumer wanna run away screaming: "IIIIIIKKKK!" you're on the right track.

AND THEN - come out with your special offer. "Just today we have a special offer. It's almost over and tomorrow we're back to our normal price. You don't have to pay the registration fee, the monthly fee is 1/4 smaller for you etc etc - sooooo (oh, I know what's coming!!) - you only have to pay this price if you decide TODAY."

PS: Scarcity makes your costumer WANNA - right now!

5. Make them feel special

It's no surprise that you don't carry around money nor credit cards after it's dark in KL (the naivety of freshly arrived Estonians is kicked out early enough by everyday robbers on the night street ;). So sure you don't assume the money is gonna come now - but the offer ends today. Wiish, what to do now?

Well, you get the costumer feeling special by going to the management and asking if the costumer could pay the next day. Not important if the management is an imaginary creature with a magic stick or a real-time workaholic sitting in the office after 11 PM -- works just fine in both cases.

Just make sure your costumer is busy in filling in the the contract while you're talking with the VIP on the cloud....

6. Get commitment - any kind of commitment is good

So contract signed, but no money on the table. Not good, how do you know your costumer walks back the other day with cash in their pocket?

Easy - make them commit with something so small almost not worth mentioning. In my case - deposit a small amount of money, MYR 10 (2 EURO) is absolutely fine. Who wants to lose their money for nothing? Not a broke me, believe me -- as well as most of the people, rich or poor.

SALES MADE AND DEAL CLOSED! Brilliant, 10 points for Celebrity Fitness and the lovely innocent looking Chinese girl!

But wait, there's something more about it. I have to correct myself - I wasn't actually tricked into anything and the sales was made even before me or the Chinese girl knew about it.

It's something that the kick-ass internet marketing maniac Frank Kern calls "effortless influencing" -- talking from your core identity to the buyer core identity. I assume the fine-looking lady had a thing with fitness - and I had a deeply rooted decision to get my healthy lifestyle something so routine not even worth mentioning.

I have 3 bigger goals for 2009, one of them is to help the gorgeous looking babe hiding under my skin to come out in the daylight, haha. Ok, forget about the wording, but I will be in my top-shape by the end of this year.

Not so hard to sell me a sign-up for gym, don't you think? That's why it's so important to know your market and hit the thought on top of their brains - they'll fall for you, head over heels, savaging the bank doors if that's needed to get what they REALLY want deep down.

On a personal note - my dear future boyfriend, today is your lucky today, Marjam just got signed up for the gym!