New appreciation for Pitchmen

I've been watching the TV show Pitchmen on Discovery that stars famous pitchman Billy Mays and Anthony "Sully" Sullivan . It's a great show that illustrates how they choose the products they pitch, how they make the spots and best of all the results.

I always knew that Direct Response TV worked, but never really appreciated it fully. People might think spots for products like Oxyclean, SlapChop, Shamwow, Mightyputty (and hundreds more before them) are corny, but you can't deny that they work.

Last week's show was likely the last in the series due to the untimely death of Billy Mays. But the show went out in style with a pitch-off at a home show. For one hour Billy went up against Anthony in a selling content. Billy was selling a salsa maker and Anthony a mop. The person with the most sales in an hour would win. Even though Andrew cheated he still couldn't beat the mighty Billy Mays. Billy pulled in over $900 in sales ($20 bucks at a time) in 60 minutes. That's 45+ salsa units sold in an hour. Andrew only managed around $600 in sales - impressive but not enough to win.

So why does Direct Response TV work?

There is actually a lot that goes into these spots whether they be short form (2 mins. or less) or long form infomercials.

But the basics are the same:

Build suspense:
This means gradually doling out -- and creatively rehashing -- the benefits of the product.

Repetition:
By repeatedly driving home the benefits and purchasing information of a product, you increase the chance of hooking someone and getting them to buy.

Subconscious cues:
you can be subconsciously swayed by a variety of things -- celeberties, beautiful people, relaxing landscapes, engaging environment and of course convincing testimonials of enthusiastic people explaining how lost they were until this product changed their lives. Throw in some canned applause and cheers from live audience and it's getting real hard to resist.

Call to action and price:
Finally a strong call to action and a killer price point like $19.95 brings to all together. Lets not forget the final ... "but that's not all" ... doubling the offering, throwing in something free or some other hard to resist - sweetening the pot beyond the ability to say no closing.

Read more on the psychology of selling here.

Here's some classic Billy Mays demonstrating his great skill and a winning formula for sales.












Now compare these to an all-time classic.



I feel like buying something.