The Puppy Dog Close

Have you ever wandered how to sell a puppy dog? The solution to the problem is quite simple and goes back to the time when man first started keeping pets. To sell a puppy dog you must find a family with a small child. You offer to let the family keep the dog for a few days. You may use a ploy, such as informing the family that you are going out of town for a few days and cannot take the dog with you; you also offer to leave the necessities of puppy maintenance with the family and offer a little something for their effort. The family accepts the gracious offer and you hand the puppy dog over to the child.

Needless to say, the child becomes very attached to the puppy dog in the few days that you are gone. The child breaks down into tears when you return to reclaim the animal because because the puppy and child have become best friends during that short period. The parents, now concerned with breaking their child's heart, plead with you to sell the fine animal. After much haggling, you agree and make the sale. Both you and the child are happy. The parents will, however, put up with the inconvenience of dealing with the upkeep of the animal.

This marketing ploy has been used in some variation to sell many gizmos and gadgets. Everything from vacuum cleaners to get-rich-schemes are marketed using the puppy dog close. How do you accomplish such a feat without taking advantage of the feelings of a small child? You simply need to increase the customer's interest. This can be accomplished by seemingly offering something for nothing.

Advertising campaigns often use this ploy by quoting a price then increasing the urgency of the offer by eliminating or greatly lowering the price for a limited time. Free trials accompany the tiial period at the end of which time, the customer must return the product if not satisfied. All the customer must pay is shipping and handling. Of course, the shipping and handling are marked up so the company makes some money every time a customer accepts the offer. Even if they later return the product, the company makes money from the shipping and handling fee..

Free trial offers are a variation of the puppy dog close. The free trial permits a perspective customer the opportunity to try a product or service free for a limited time. Usually a couple weeks to thirty days. The perspective customer is then liable for the full price at the end of the trial period unless the product or service is returned or terminated.

There are a number of reasons that the free trial offer is so successful. First is the obvious reason that the product or service is so excellent that the customer decides that there is no way to live without it. In this case the customer is happy and both the company and customer get what they want, which defines a good deal.

However, more times than not, the customer puts the offer out of mind and forgets about the upcoming deadline. The customer only remembers about accepting the free trial when the bill arrives because the free trial ended and the customer is then liable for the full cost. This is the reason that I try to avoid free trial offers.

Only accept a limited free trial if you are willing to pay the full price for the product or service at the end of the trial period. If you have any doubt whether the offer is worth the full price then do not accept a trial offer. Personally I always forget about free trial deadlines so unless the product is something that I really want or need, I avoid these offers like the plague.