Powerful Lessons From A $20 Bill
By Catherine Franz - Published May 5, 2005

Just last week I was speaking to a group of 50 women 
and men.  I opened by holding up a $20 and asking 
who would like this $20 bill.  I also mentioned there 
were no strings attached.  You would have thought that 
everyone would be raising their hand wanting the $20 
bill.

That isn't what happened.  Less than half the people 
raised their hand.

I gave the $20 bill away and stood in silence.  It wasn't 
a long silence but silence when everyone expects to be 
hearing you talk is long whether its 10 seconds of 
several minutes.  I was waiting until I saw a few 
audience members began fidgeting.

Then one women spoke up.  ¡°Darn, I could have used 
that $20 for gas today.¡±  You guessed it, she was one 
of the hesitant ones.

My topic was on marketing.  The exercise 
demonstrated that even when we market from the truth 
with no strings attached and even though we totally 
think of the customer first, many people perceive, 
assume, that there is going to be a catch to the offer.

This is a powerful lesson when you are expressing your 
offer, whether its written or verbal, the majority of the 
people reading or hearing it are going to be thinking 
with an ¡°it's too good to be true¡± mentality.

This means that whenever you are preparing any type 
of marketing material you need to see your offer from 
this perspective.

The following day I again spoke to another group.  This 
time the audience was all women.  I opened again with 
another $20.  Only this time when I mentioned that 
there were no strings attached, I said it more powerfully 
- meaning more vocal variety - repeated it as if it was 
written in bold print and stated there were absolutely no 
strings attached.  The word ¡°absolutely¡± was set off 
with a mild hand slap.

Every hand raised.

The lessons learned¡­

Whenever you make an offer you absolutely have to 
make sure you tell whomever you want to buy into 
whatever your offer is conveying what's involved on 
their part.  I'm talking about what will they loose out on 
if they pass on this opportunity.  It could be a tank of 
gas or even lunch with a friend. It doesn't always need 
to be something big and bold.

Another lesson learned was that in the first audience, 
the majority of the people raising their hands were 
women.  This demonstrated that women are more likely 
to jump on an offer than a man.  This also says to me 
that women are more willing to take a gamble than a 
man.  Hmmm, that's fuel for thought the next time you 
make an offer, isn't it?

What else does this exercise tell you?  How would you 
present your offers differently?  Here's your assignment.  
Think on this for a few moments and look at one of 
your offers and then ask the questions that keep your 
audience's hands down and make sure you are 
addressing each one of them.

(c) Copyright 2005, Catherine Franz.  All rights 
reserved.

About the Author:
Catherine Franz, writer, speaker, marketing master, 
specializes in infoproduct development.  More at:
http://www.MarketingStrategiesToGo.com and
http://www.AbundanceCenter.com.  Including articles
and ezines.  

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