The Best Jelly Donuts: Bold Pitches Are OK if You Can Back Them Up
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On Long Beach Island, NJ, there is an italian bakery, Ferrara’s Italian Bakery, that has a sign outside their shop claiming that they have the “Best Jelly Donuts On The Planet.” This summer, every time I passed the shop, I was struck by this sign. That is a really bold statement. When you make a bold claim like that, I am compelled to find out. I can’t let a statement like that go unchallenged. Already, their marketing/sales campaign is working because… well… if you make a comment like the best on the planet then I am compelled to come in and at least purchase a donut.
I went in one day and purchased a dozen for me and my family. Six powdered and six with cinnamon sugar on top.
The verdict?
BEST…JELLY…DONUTS…ON…THE…PLANET.
These donuts are light, fluffy, filled (no..actually..stuffed) with incredibly delicious jelly and are just silly good. I left wondering why they limited their claim to only the planet Earth because I can’t imagine a Martian being able to make a donut that tasted better than these donuts.
Part 2 of this masterful sales and marketing plan is that because these donuts were so friggin delicious, I HAD to go back and sample lots of other things because, clearly, there must be lots of great things in there. And…indeed there was. Nothing that struck me quite as much as the donuts, but delicious enough that I was not upset by any purchase there.
Bold statements work well when you can back them up. Imagine the tone of this article if I thought the donuts were just meh, or worse, if they were bad.
When you are selling and you have great confidence in your product, you can make bold statements, but make sure that they hold up. Prospects will punish you and worse, not trust ANYTHING you say if they find you making comments that are blatant overreaches. Maybe you are the best, but you should be able to prove it with facts or metrics from current customers.
When you have a bold statement to make, and you CAN back it up, well then go ahead and make that statement because then you get the same effect as part 2 of the bakers plan… people come back for more because they want to find out what other great things or claims you have – and even if they aren’t as great as that first claim, you will still get credit for that first amazing claim.
It’s a common mistake that I see too many sales people making, where they think that by building themselves and their product up with massively bold statements, they are in fact, hurting their own chances at a sale because they put EVERYTHING that they say into question. The better bet is to make sure you are truthful about your claims, your comparisons to competitors, and all your other claims. Your prospects will reward you with their signature on the dotted line.
