How to sell so people buy

Irresistible offers deciphered.

Maya Sayvanova

Aug 06, 2024

∙ Paid

Your business success comes down to one thing: selling more.

You want a bigger audience? “Sell” more of your free stuff.

You want to make more money? Sell more of your paid stuff.

You want to change the world? Sell more. Hobbies don’t change the world.

Selling is the essence of any business.

And the sales process always starts with an irresistible offer.

All successful solopreneurs can build irresistible offers.

Nicolas Cole has built a multi-million dollar ghostwriting agency through cold messaging. How? Irresistible offers.

Dan Koe has sold millions of worth of his digital products. How? Irresistible offers.

Irresistible offers:

Create instant pull
Make people read all you have to say (so don’t tell me short attention spans are the problem)
And most importantly, make people buy from you.

What is an irresistible offer?

There are two parts of an irresistible offer:

What you’re selling.
How you’re describing what you’re selling.

Ideally, you’d hit both right.

Most people online don’t even get one of these right. They sell what they want to sell, and describe it defensively — not to sell it, but to explain why it’s a great idea.

This is good news for you. Even if you get one of these right, you have a massive advantage.

But you’re part of Smarter Solopreneurs now. We don’t half-ass things here.

We’ve all seen irresistible offers online.

Here are just a few examples of short-version irresistible offers:

“The Copy Cure is a step-by-step online training course that shows you how to write copy that’s powerful, persuasive, and 100% YOU, so people will love — and buy — what you sell.” — Marie Forleo

“Create Your Niche Of One. Write Follow-Worthy Content. Monetize Your Creator Business. Get instant access to the 45+ module Creator Course, 80+ article strategy library, monthly templates, top content drops, and question forums for serious creators.” — Dan Koe

“This micro-offer strategy made me $16 million. Become a part of the Micro-Hacks Lab today for just $7 per month and get 77 science-backed micro-hacks. Each one of these has the potential to make you $1000 per month.” — Bushra Azhar

Even though it’s easy to recognize an irresistible offer when you see it — it’s the one that gets you to stop scrolling and pay attention — irresistible offers are difficult to create.

So let’s break them down and make it easier.

The elements of an irresistible offer.

What you’re selling.

An irresistible offer is irresistible by its very nature. It’s built & positioned correctly.

So let’s talk about the decisions you have to make when building your irresistible offer.

Who’s your audience?

I can’t stress this enough. You must know who you’re talking to or how would you know what they want?

Don’t just think demographic, think psychographics. Who are your people?

Example: In Dan Koe’s irresistible offer, he mentions his program is for “serious creators.”

Choose an existing problem.

Most online sellers try to “think of a problem.” That’s how they end up inventing problems people don’t have.

I want you to get into people’s heads.

Take the time to:

See what’s your most popular content.
See what are the most frequently asked questions in comments or DMs.
See what are the popular pieces of content of the big guys in your industry.

Then, write down 5 problems or questions that seem to come up a lot.

You’re not done. Now, it’s time to get specific.

Say, your audience wants to lose weight and get fit. No one will believe you’ll take them from overweight to an Olympian in a single program.

The more specific the problem you’re solving, the better.

Every irresistible offer solves one problem. It could be big, it could be small. One problem. Preferably one that keeps your audience awake at night.

Present one specific solution.

Some creators get the solutions wrong.

Coaching is a premium offer. Not everyone can afford it. It doesn’t make sense to offer coaching to solve micro problems.

It also doesn’t make sense to offer a tiny product to solve a huge problem. Like an e-book on how to make money online. Like… seriously?!?

When choosing the type of solution you want to offer, consider these:

How much does this problem hurt your buyers? Quantify it. Make it a scale from 1–10. The higher the number, the more elaborate/expensive your offer.
How much can your buyers afford? Really, anyone can afford anything up to $200-$300 if they really see the value in it. Anything above that requires more thought (but CAN be done).

So, what is the specific solution you offer?

What’s the result?

What will this solution help people achieve?

Obviously, it would solve their problem, but what are the signs that the solution works?

Example:

In my Fiverr Launcher course, the result I promise is that if anyone applies the tactics I teach them, they will get their first order on the platform within a week.

I already have a few buyers who’ve confirmed this result, too.

Maybe what you’re selling is not as tangible? Make it tangible. Even if you’re writing a funny commentary on the news, you can promise a result: “laugh more and feel better about the world we live in.”

People buy results. You should know what results you’re selling.

How to describe what you’re selling.

If you’ve made the right decisions above, your offer is already kind’a irresistible.

Let’s try it: “I help busy moms lose 10 pounds with my self-paced workout program.” Specific. A self-paced workout program is the right solution for a busy mom. Results are clear.

But you’ll get even further if you add these to your offer.

Credibility.

The credibility section answers the question why are you the best person to work with?

Ideally, it’s where you mention your results.

If you don’t have results to mention, you can:

Use the research you’ve done (what science says or what other successful people do).
Use guarantees. For example, a money-back guarantee instantly increases the chances of me buying something from someone I don’t know.

Time reference.

People want fast results.

If you’ve been specific enough in creating results, you can give us a time frame. How fast can we expect these results?

And if you really have no idea, it’s cool to say “faster than you thought possible” — as long as you address the big fat elephant in the room, which is that everyone wants instantaneous gratification.

Urgency.

Make sure time is running out.

You’ll offer this course at this price for one week only. You’ll include a bonus if they get it today.

Substack’s way of offering urgency is by locking archives. If you’re not subscribed, in two weeks, you won’t be able to see this post anymore.

I turned that off, but that’s the idea.

Numbers.

Most irresistible offers have a number in them.

Our mind sees numbers differently than words. They bring instant clarity.

All copywriters know clarity sells more than anything else. No one decides to buy out of confusion.

You can use numbers any way you want. If you want to say you’ll 5X my creative output, that’s fine. If you want to say you’ll do it in 7 days, great. If you want to say this strategy worked for 10 other clients, perfect.

Marie Forleo says she’ll teach me to write copy that’s 100% me, yet sells. I’m all for it.

Now let’s try the offer we created with the add-ons.

We had: “I help busy moms lose 10 pounds with my self-paced workout program”

Now, we can do: “I help busy moms lose 10 pounds in 10 days using science-backed strategies. My self-paced workout program comes with a full seven-day money-back guarantee. Get it today and you’ll also get my list of 20-min low-calorie recipes.”

Do you see the difference?

How to create an irresistible Substack.

You just learned the basic rules of irresistible offers.

But there are specifics based on whether you’re building an offer for a product, a service or a membership.

And things are even more specific when we’re talking about Substack. Because what if you don’t even solve a problem? What if you’re sharing stories?

I got you!

On the 22nd of August, I will hold the webinar “Create an Irresistible Substack” which will be for paid subscribers only.

After this webinar, you’ll wish you could subscribe to your own Substack.

During the webinar, I’ll also give specific feedback & advice to 10 Substackers about how to describe their newsletters so they become irresistible.

Want to be one of the 10? Go ahead and message me with a link to your Substack and I’ll add it to that list.

*Please, note, that I won’t be able to do more than 10 during the webinar, but I will try to respond to everyone who messages me.*

Paid subscribers will be able to RSVP to the webinar below. Replay will be available but I encourage you to hop on for the Q&A session.