How to answer those unanswerable customer queries

publication date: Jan 23, 2008

eBay Confidential eZine
23rd January 2008

***
-Editorial

-eBay Riches

-Increase Your eBay eBook Sales By Adding
Value To Your Listings
***

Hi,

I'm asked questions every day about making money on
eBay, for most I can provide useful answers, for a tiny
few I can't.

As your eBay business grows you too will be asked
questions you may not always want to answer, some
you may not be able to answer.  I'm telling you this
because, on occasion, it really is best to disappoint or
even ignore your enquirer and risk losing a potential
bidder.  The alternative is to make mistakes that upset
this other person and earn you negative feedback.

In my case, because I don't always give an answer,
doesn't mean I don't have the answer.  In fact I
sometimes do have the answer, but I don't give it
because it might upset the enquirer or that person
might misinterpret what I say and end up in a lot of
trouble.

In my case, one common impossible answer question
surrounds people who are asking too much or
pondering impossibilities, such as: "I need to make
£250,000 in the next few weeks or my house will be
repossessed.  How do I do it?", or "I have a (specific
product) I want to sell on eBay.  I need you to tell me
which category to use and tell me whether to list it on
eBay UK or on the American site.  I also need a good
title, once that will draw lots of bids, and I also need a
sales letter.  How long will it take you to do this for me
and can you also recommend a suitable starting price?"

By the way, those are genuine questions, both asked in
the last 24 hours alone.

The reason I don't get into full swing on questions like
this is:

The first question, about making £250,000 in the next
few weeks: I know it is possible, very possible, but
making that much money so quickly would involve
quite heavy investment on high price products, like
property, for example, or rare antiques.  At the very
least if means sourcing the owner of high profit
products he or she needs wants someone to promote
on their behalf.  Either way the cost in eBay fees will be
pretty high and it's usually the person listing the items
who pays.  I assume if my enquirer is having trouble
paying his mortgage then he may also have trouble
paying eBay!  No way do I want to recommend a way
for him to lose more money or which robs eBay of their
rightly deserved fees!

Question two, about the item my enquirer wants me to
spend the next few days helping him to sell.  And
believe me with the long list of questions he sent about
a product I previously knew nothing about, I reckon two
or three days is the least time I'd need to dedicate to
this man.  The reason I don't dedicate that time is
simple: I can't afford to spend so long with just one
person when so many other people ask questions that
take just minutes to answer and these latter people of
necessity would have to wait until my marathon
exercise helping just one person ends.  But that wasn't
the only reason, my real reason is that the person who
asked this question and others asking much the same
thing every day are never going to grow a business
themselves on eBay unless they put at least a little time
and effort, also research and money into the exercise.

On to those questions I can but won't answer because I
fear the other person misinterpreting my reply and
getting us both in hot water.

In my case they often go like this:

"I found a book and I want to know if it is in the public
domain.  I'm not sure if this is an old book or a modern
reproduction.  There is no date on it.  Can you check it
for me, it's called 'Blah Blah', and tell me if it is okay
for me to copy and sell this book?"

or:

"I read your article about listing (specific product) on
eBay and I hear what you say about the chance of
breaking the rules and being expelled from eBay if I
make the kind of mistake you mentioned.  Can you
check out this product for me and tell me how to list it
and what eBay rules say about this product?"

In more general terms, and the reason I need you to
understand the potential problems involved if, for
example, you are asked to date an item you know little
or nothing about, or someone asks you to prove your
item once belonged to a Russian Count, or you are
requested to scan every single page of a book you
have listed for sale and expect to fetch £10 maximum!

These are the type of questions that frighten me most,
for two main reasons (and they don't involve lost time
or effort):

*  What if I read and paraphrase the rules for my
enquirer, but I haven't understood them correctly and I
give my enquirer inaccurate details?  What happens
then and who will my enquirer blame if they are expelled
from eBay based on my advice?"

*  What if I read and perfectly paraphrase the rules for
my enquirer, but that person misunderstands what I say
and acts based on that misunderstanding?  Who is to
blame then?

All this leads very nicely to how the military can help me
support my belief that you must never answer
questions that might backfire on you because you
answer them incorrectly or the other person
misunderstands what you say.

There's a story from the First World War about a
General whose soldiers are insufficient for his planned
attack on the enemy.  The General sends a message to
headquarters, this message being passed word of
mouth between the trenches and military headquarters.
The message goes like this:

"Send reinforcements, the troops are going to
advance."

Having been passed in whispers across a few dozen
trenches or more and finally reaching headquarters the
message becomes:

"Send three and fourpence, the troops are going to a
dance!"

I wonder!  No it probably never happened at all but it
serves to show how and why messages can be
misinterpreted in transmission.

The other type of question, demanding lots of time and
effort that are disproportionate to potential profits
involved (like that £10 book), I suggest you decide
whether it's worth your while to answer, otherwise say
something like this:

'Thank you for your question which I will try to answer
as soon as possible and get back to you with my
reply.'

If you can research and answer the question without too
much time and effort, then do so, it's good customer
service and it will score you Brownie points.  For
difficult customers, asking impossible questions or
people who are just picking your brains to help them
sell a similar item, send the same reply but this time
check out the individual's buying history.

If he or she is a regular big spend buyer, it could be
worthwhile researching and answering the question.

If the person has heavy negative feedback or does not
buy products such as you are selling, personally I
would remove the person from my bidders' list and
ignore the question. Rude perhaps but time is money
after all!

Happy eBaying!

Avril


*************************

***
eBay Riches
by Kathy Tyson
***

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***
Increase Your eBay eBook Sales By Adding Value To
Your Listings
by Tracey Edwards
***

Have a quick search on eBay for eBooks and you'll
find that many sellers are listing the same one as you.
So what do you do if everyone is selling the same
eBook and you would like to list it as well, how do you
make yours stand out from the crowd so people are
jumping over themselves to buy from you and not your
competition?

The best way to do this is to add bonuses to your
listing.

Ok, so how do you do this?

It's pretty easy and all you need do is find a product
that complements your eBooks and add it to the
package, and then TELL your customer about the
bonuses.

Have you ever gone to a sales page and the offer
sounds really good, but then you find out about all the
other bonus stuff you are going to get and it's like,
SOLD!

Bonuses sell your auctions faster than ice melting in the
desert (or something like that).

So what bonuses do you add?

The best things to add are something related to the
original topic.  So if your eBay listing is on losing
weight, add another guide for free in the package on
the same topic.

It could be something like:

LOSE WEIGHT THE EASY WAY eBook + BONUS Flat
Abs in 7 days

Now that would be a killer combo and it would sell, sell,
sell!  At the very least it would help you stand out from
the competition.

Everybody loves something for free and adding an
extra item will make your listing unique from the crowd.
It's the same principle as the big department stores use
with their 'buy one get one free' offers.  You are simply
adding a gift with every purchase!

Think about what you could add to make your eBooks
even more desirable and start making more eBay sales
today.

Now you know how to add value to your eBay eBook
listings, why not get your 25 Page Guide to Successful
Selling on eBay for great eBay selling tips. You'll find it
at: http://www.traceys-ebooks.com