Many prospects are afraid to try a new product or investigate an opportunity. They kindly tell us, “No. I’m busy. I’m not interested.”

You can use a simple guilt approach to motivate the prospect to at least look at what you have to offer. Here is an example.

A company sold water filters. Their distributors were trained to simply loan a water filter to a prospect for one week. At the end of the week the distributor would pick up the water filter or take an order for a new water filter.

Only one problem. Prospects wouldn’t let the distributors leave a trial water filter.

The company devised a simple guilt offer.

The distributor now said the following to the prospect:

“Just try this water filter for one week. This gives you a chance to win a free trip to Hawaii. Every week the company draws the name of a trial user and gives away a free Hawaiian vacation. But not only does the trial user get a free vacation, but the distributor that loaned out the trial water filter wins one, too! So why not try this filter for one week? Do it for me. I’d like a chance to win that vacation and go with you to Hawaii.”

The prospect is motivated by the guilt of not letting the distributor have a chance at winning a free vacation.