Copywriting For Cashflow – Is Curiosity Any Good For Selling

Copywriting for cashflow is probably the most valuable business skill on the planet. That’s why it never surprises me to see hoards of wannabes trying to claw their way into this game. Unfortunately, this also means a lot of false information about what works and what doesn’t. So speaking of…does curiosity sell or not?
I can remember as a sales professional in the corporate world, we had “customers” who we would call “looky loos” or “curiosity seekers.” You know them: the people who waste your time and theirs looking at your sales offer or talking to you on the phone, but they have no intention to buy.
Sure they’re curious, but is that enough to motivate someone to purchase? Some copywriters say curiosity sells, I say it doesn’t. However, what it does do is get your prospect from step one (trance breaking) to step three of the persuasion process (hope). So curiosity has its place in the sale process, but you have to get the timing right…let me explain…
(By the way, if you’re curious about this stuff I’m putting in parenthesis, I’m referencing “21 Immutable Laws of Persuasion”)
The Second Law of Persuasion
Copywriting for cashflow starts with trance breaking, but once you get that accomplished, you use curiosity to get your customer to tune in a bit more. Curiosity does this well because it’s neutral. In other words, you’re not promising someone a benefit and setting off their “Uh oh, sales pitch!” radar.
You’re just getting them curious about reading more, and then you’ve bought a few more seconds to start working the more potent laws of persuasion and massaging your message into their psyche where the buying buttons are.
However, you have to transition to the third law of persuasion (building hope) quickly and let Mr. Curiosity step. If you over use curiosity, you come off as obnoxious and your prospect will eventually decide that curiosity isn’t enough.
This transition is so subtle that a good copywriter or sales person can do it without prospect even realizing what’s happening. It’s like when you’re reading something interesting and by the time you realize it’s a sales pitch, you’re already sucked in. Ah, gotta love the smoothness of a great sales letter.
So go ahead and use curiosity (after you’ve broken trance of course), just be sure to start building hope and make the transition right away so you can get the sale.