Many years ago, a woman emailed me and said she didn’t buy my book despite it being recommended by a colleague. In her email, she said she visited my website and noticed a few spelling errors. To her, it was an egregious oversight and an immediate turn-off, which caused her to walk away.
In business, this is called negative skew— one negative business attribute cancels out dozens of positive ones.
Despite a recommendation from a co-worker, despite all the good reviews, despite every favorable reason for buying, ONE element ruined the entire buying process.
In effect, the spelling error became a poison M&M.
The poison M&M analogy is this: If you were offered to snack from a bowl of M&Ms and one of the M&M’s was laced with poison, would you stick your hand in the bowl and eat one?
Of course not.
That single poison M&M has rendered the entire bowl untouchable.
And it is true with your business.
Consider this example, which happened to me last week.
I was ready to buy this scale from Withings until I read this scathing review.
The Poison M&M: Amazon Review
Withings avoids customer contact and warranty replacement for defective products
Instant turn-off. It was my poison M&M.
I went from a customer ready to buy to a walk-away. Many positive features about their product convinced me to buy, but ONE in their execution convinced me not to.
I can contact Google, Facebook, or the IRS if I want to be ignored and treated like an unimportant POS. I don’t need it from a company supposedly with a corporate mission of better health.
Negative skew. The poison M&M. They are deal-breakers, much like a reason to ghost a date after one dinner.
The question is, what poison M&Ms are in your business that are stopping people from buying?
Sometimes, it’s as simple as a spelling error, and sometimes, it’s as complex as “I don’t like your forum layout” (true!).
No matter what poison M&Ms are in your business, it’s your job to discover and remove them.
Every business guru focuses on value, features, and benefits. But none of them focus on the reasons why people ARE NOT buying. Because the reason why people do not buy is often singular and disastrously poisonous.
MJ DeMarco