A couple weeks ago my business partner Lewis Howes and I co-hosted an event in San Diego. The emcee of the event asked the audience “Who here has purchased any of Sean & Lewis’ products?” The majority of the crowd had purchased at least one of our products. He asked several people for feedback on their experience with our products…. There were lots of compliments coming out and good feedback, etc. and then the gentleman pictured below stood up and told the story of the $1,000 brownie.
EMCEE: So you have purchased one of Sean and Lewis’ products – what did you think of it?
ATTENDEE: I think it is a great product – but can I talk for a minute about the real reason I even went through the product in the first place?
EMCEE: Sure – please do
ATTENDEE: Ok – So I originally attended a webinar with Sean & Lewis. I thought the webinar was great and ultimately decided to buy their $1,000 Social Media Training “500 Million Strong” at the end of the webinar. A few days after I purchased it my mailman delivered a small package. Inside that package was a nice card from Sean & Lewis and 3 gourmet brownies! It was totally unexpected and I thought it was a nice gesture.
I proceeded to devour the brownies that day. And then about 60 days passed and I had yet to spend 5 minutes looking at the course I had paid so much money for. I was gonna ask for a refund and thought to myself – “These guys were kind enough to send brownies, I should spend at least 5-10 minutes reviewing the content to make sure this is something I dont want.” So that’s what I did – and several hours later I decided this was one of the best investments I had made for my business. So I did NOT ask for a refund!
I was quite simply blown away. To think that a $10 gift was the catalyst to save a $1,000 refund simply blew me away. Even better at the next break another person approached Lewis and said he had the exact same experience. He too was going to refund but because of the brownies he decided to dive into the product first.
What’s funny is that this idea was that of a new person we had hired last year. She proposed we do it and I thought it was completely unnecessary but it seemed to make her happy so I decided to go along with it. I am so glad I did. At that conference there might have been 20 people who had purchased our $1,000 course and if 2 of them were motivated to keep the product from the brownie – how many others out there had the same experience?
Thanking the people who buy your products and showing them some appreciation can go a long way. This lesson will for sure stick with me as our business grows and now I am looking for creative ways to show some appreciation to folks who pick up our lower priced products. What are you doing to show your customers some love?
[...] Sean Marlarkey knows that when you show some appreciation it can save your sale, helps eliminate refunds, and becomes a great story. [...]
[...] The $1000 brownieBert Botta. This is yet more proof that good things happen to those who give brownies! Brilliance to your lady assistant Sean. You didn’t mention anything about … [...]