Over the past few years I’ve spent quite a lot of money educating myself on the various intricacies of business, both online and offline.

To be exact, I’ve spent around $40,000.

Some of that money was spent on courses of various types – audio, video, manual, books, etc, and some was spent on coaching programs.

A lot of those were very good and I’ve learned a lot from them… others… not so good.

As you can imagine, the prices of these products and services varied from a few dollars to a few thousand dollars.

However, one thing which struck me about almost all of them was the sales processes.

They were all the same… or… at least very similar.

Just because one cost more and another cost less made no difference – they still needed to ‘sell’ me on the value of buying it.

The sellers all had to explain to me why their product was worth the price… and why their product was better than the rest.

(Not all turned out to be true to their words, but that’s another story).

They also all had to answer any and all questions I had, and break down any reservations I may have had about the product.

Let’s face it, just because one may have cost only a few dollars doesn’t mean I was willing to hand over my cash, even if it was rubbish.

And, just because another may have been a bit on the expensive side, doesn’t mean I wasn’t willing to buy it.

If I was getting what I was hoping to get, price was irrelevant.

(Again, I didn’t always get what I paid for.  On the other hand, with some of the lower priced books, I received a lot more than I paid for).

The difference between the higher priced items and the lower priced ones was that I usually took more time over the former – looking for as much information as I could find.

As you can imagine, when the price was higher, I did a lot more reading.

I usually read so much about the product that, if you were to put it altogether it would amount to a 200 page book.

I guess that should answer the question whether or not people read long copy.

The fact is, when the interest is there, people will read as much as is necessary to make a decision.

On the other hand, I usually never read as much for lower priced items, unless the sales copy was so good I just enjoyed reading it.

So there’s an argument for both sides.

What does that say about lower and higher priced products?

Well, it tells me that it takes a lot more to persuade me to part with my money for the high priced goodies.

And I would imagine most people are the same.

However, funny as it may sound, I’ve bought products in the past where I bought the same product from one seller as opposed to another based purely on the fact that they had more information about it.

Does that make sense?

I remember I bought a martial arts video from company (A) and passed over company (B) simply because I liked the way (A) described the product, even though it was the exact same product.

What does that tell you?

What it tells me is that good long copy beats good short copy, even for the same product.

Why?

You see, the long copy answered all my questions.

I think it was Rosser Reeves who said something along the lines of entering the conversation the potential customer is having with himself.

Something like that.

I think what he was saying is you should imagine what he is thinking at every stage of the sales copy… all the different questions, doubts and suspicions he may have as he’s reading.

You see, if you were speaking to him directly, he would be asking you questions and you’d be answering them then and there.

On a sales copy, you don’t have that luxury so you have to imagine what he might be, and probably will be, wondering.

Anticipate them all and answer them in your copy.