tugboats

Same
thing with heart attacks. Ask any doctor. Often a poor soul in the
throes of cardiac arrest will say something like:

"Excuse
me, I hate to bother

you but I think I'm having

a heart attack."

Very
polite. Very eager not to make waves. Very concerned about not being
too much of a bother to anyone. Very concerned...

ABOUT
NOT DOING ANYTHING

THAT WILL MAKE HIM

PSYCHOLOGICALLY UNCOMFORTABLE!

Now,
when you ask someone to buy your goods or services, you are asking him
to disrupt his comfy routine. And, if
what you're selling is new to him, you're asking him to do something
very uncomfortable which is to make a decision
that will alter his lifestyle.

And
listen, it is just as uncomfortable to alter your lifestyle up as it is
to alter it down. You see, in a word, the thing that's most
psychologically uncomfortable for humans is...

CHANGE!

Any kind of change, good or bad.
Which means you must use great skill in order to sell someone a new
product or service. Most direct response advertisers don't acknowledge
this. What they do is, they act like all their prospects are "already
pre-conditioned" to buy their wares.

Which just ain't so.

Look,
if you're a dope dealer and you walk into a room full of strung-out
junkies, you can get away with a simple pitch like...

Hey
scumbags! You

wanna buy some heroin?

And
that's the way all too many folks in our business approach

their
would-be-customers – as though they were already eager for what they're selling.

Let me tell you something: the average American is subjected to some
1,500 sales pitches every
day.

HEY
SCUMBAG! YOU