Sneaky Way To Get JV Partners…Or Customers
When I checked my email this morning I found one of those ‘Payment Received’ emails from PayPal, with no product name. So I opened it up to see what the person had bought, and found that it was a payment for just 10 cents.
For a moment I thought somebody had hacked into my sales system and changed the pricing on one of my products to get it cheap…grrr..but that wasn’t it.
No, there was a note in the PayPal comment box promoting a product launch. I think they were trying to get JV partners.
Now, what you’re meant to think here is that these people are just paying you 10 cents to get your attention. But in fact, there is something a little more manipulative going on.
Gifts like this – in fact, any promotional gifts – exploit the psychological expectation of reciprocity that almost all human beings have.
What does that mean in simple language? It means that if somebody gives you something, you have a deep – almost instinctive – feeling that you should give them something back. And if you don’t reciprocate because you don’t have anything to give them, you feel that YOU OWE THEM.
Like any kind of debt, this is an uncomfortable feeling. In most cases, you will try to get rid of it by repaying them in some way, either with a gift or by doing something that you think they will like.
This is why we feel so bad when somebody unexpectedly gives us a gift at Christmas and we don’t have anything for them.
Marketers play on this to get us to buy stuff. You receive a gift (whether it’s a free pen in the mail from Cancer Research or a free ebook you download from somebody’s site) – you feel you owe them – so you are more likely to buy whatever they are selling.
And this applies whether or not you liked or wanted the gift. You might even HATE the gift. It doesn’t matter. Most people will still feel bad if they cannot give something back.
I’m saying ‘you’ for the recipient here, but of course YOU are the marketer as well. You are probably already benefiting from this human response by giving something away for free on many of your sites. But with the free download, we are just offering a gift that people can take if they want. We are not giving them something whether they want it or not, like my 10 cent emailer did.
Have you ever thought about doing something like that? You could. You only have to click on marketers’ Buy Now buttons to see their PayPal emails, then send money. These guys either did it with Mass Pay or as a gift in PayPal, because I wasn’t charged a fee.
Would you think it’s worth trying for some product launches? Of course, you would need to check PayPal’s terms. But if they are OK with it, would you do it? Or is it too sneaky…or too risky financially?
Vote now (you can pick up to three options):
Loading ...P.S. You may be wondering if I clicked on the link in that email and joined their launch. The answer is no, but I did have that nasty indebted feeling…
…so I refunded the payment, and sent them a link to MY site in the comment box 
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Filed under: Get JV Partners
I voted no, for other reasons.
As a marketer, messing with someone’s paypal account is not something I’m willing to do. To me, it’s like depositing in their bank account. I shouldn’t have access to either paypal or bank accounts for other than legitimate reasons like paycheck or payment from them.
As a recipient, 10 cents is not enough money anyway for me to feel indebted to them. I would feel they are idiots for doing that.
Thank you so much for this post. If this ever happens to me, I’ll do as you did – refund and counter offer. I like that!
10 cents? How pathetic! $10 might get my attention but I doubt I would respond. How much to really get my interest…well $$100 at least.
This is a very old trick borrowed from the direct sales industry…$100 note clipped to a piece of paper for the CEO with may I have 15 minutes of your time on it.
PS Rosie if you felt obliged for 10 cents you are WAY too nice!!
I think that it is tricks like this that give internet marketing a bad name. There is no need to resort to underhand or sneaky methods. I’m a strong believer in good karma – just give, with no strings attached, you will get back tenfold.
This could be a bit more complex than it sounds.
First and foremost,yes responding as you have done is great.
But where do you get the Paypal address for the people you intend mailing.
Unless you have already purchased from them.
It would take me hours to find this information about my lists.
I voted ‘yes’ for the JV Partners because I already have this information about the people I would be mailing.
Your email went to my spam folder which has never happened with your emails before, that about says it all.
I think your response was exactly right.
My answer is a No for several reasons:
1) It’s sneaky and the people I want as partners don’t like either sneaky or manipulative
2) There are better ways to get the attention of the partners I want to work with me
3) This tactic feels like a one-time thing, rather than the long-term relationship building that I want with my partners. I would not like to jeopardize the long-term potential for a one-time deal.
Thanks all for your comments!
Norman – I was guessing they went through the WSOs on the Warrior Forum, but you’re right, you don’t get the PayPal email just by clicking on the ‘buy now’ button any more. There was a time when you could get PayPal emails on the Warrior Forum because everybody was hooked up to a ‘buy this Warrior a drink’ thing – do you remember that? I know I have had some spam to my PayPal email address because of that. Maybe somebody is selling the list.
Alex – I’m sure you are right that 10 cents shouldn’t be enough but this does work on enough people for all those charities to keep sending useless pens…!
Rosie
I think in this day and age with sales slowing up all the time and every body almost mailing the same people, a different way could be a welcome relief.
I dont think it’s sneaky, IT’S A BOLD MOVE, bring it on………….DTE