How Not to Sell a Boat Case Study: "Sailing Yacht" on ebay

The title says "Pt 1" as I know that I'll be doing more of these:

How Not to Sell a Boat Case Study on this boat being sold on ebay.

First things first - I really liked this little boat, which is why I nominated it for my "Boat for Sale of the Week". What I didn't like was some basic schoolboy errors on the part of the vendor.

Let the Search Engines Work For You
What is sad is that this is yet another person selling a boat who has limited his audience - Why not list the boat as "Jaguar 21 Yacht- Great Condition" rather than "Sailing Yacht"... Let the search engines work for you! Nobody who wants to buy one of these is going to search for "Sailing Yacht". Put what it is in the title and Google will pick it up and rank it. If you search for "Sweden yachts 54 for sale", my blog posting from last week comes up as number 5:

What's even more interesting is when you look at the other 4 above me, none of them actually have an SY54 for sale, so you could kind of argue I'm the first relevant result. That was after only 1 week - free advertising.

So what else can be done? Stating what it is similar to in the listing is useful as that too will also be picked up by the search engines. 

Presentation, Spelling & Grammar

There's so much wrong with this, it's just not funny. Let's start with the obvious: Block capitals are just plain annoying. They make text harder to read and are commonly interpreted as shouting at best or just plain rude or ignorant at worst. Don't do it. Ever. 

Secondly the use of spaces, commas and full stops are really sporadic. These are not ever optional. It just makes the whole message painfully difficult to extract. If you struggle with grammar and structure (and a lot of people do), just use bullet points where possible and short sentences where not.

Get the Pitch Right
Make no mistake - this is a sales pitch. The text starts out listing rig dimensions. Who cares? Then there's a jumbled explanation of the good bits, bad bits and description of the model.Here's my standard format for selling stuff on ebay:

1. First things first: Identify the defining characteristic. It might be price, performance, history, condition or whatever and state that:
   "Beautiful Jaguar 21 Sailing Yacht - Fantastic Condition"
2. Personal Statement about what the item is, why you bought it and why you're selling it. Be positive and try to sound like you value the item you're selling:
   "I bought this yacht 5 years ago as my first boat. We've had fantastic summers sailing with my family in the Solent. I've worked hard to keep her in first class condition over my time with her, so I think her new owner will be really happy with their new boat. I've decided to sell because we're saving for a bigger house".
3. Explanation of the type thing that you're selling. In this case talk through what makes the Jaguar 21 such a fantastic yacht. Also mention comparable yachts, link to reviews or forum postings that mention it in a positive light.I just Googled for "jaguar 21" and found the owner's association with a perfect description to borrow:

It's even got those reviews neatly listed on the downloads page
4. Description of the specific thing that your selling. This is the place to mention (succinctly) all the positive points along with the negative ones that have to be mentioned. Bullet point lists work well for this.
5. What's the next step? See below

Think Carefully About the Negatives

Often we perceive negative things differently to others seeing something for the first time. The vendor clearly uses this boat on a trailer and would have liked to have one of his own rather than borrowing one. He sees this as a negative factor.

"THE BAD BITS ARE SHE HAS NO TRAILER  SHE IS ON A BORROWED TRAILER THAT I CAN USE TO TRANSPORT TO YOUR Location ."

Now when I read the advert, It had never occured to me that it had to have a trailer. I was maybe imagining keeping the boat on a cheap swinging mooring in Chichester harbour or similar. Then I read the trailer comment and it makes me reconsider. "Should I worry about the lack of a trailer? How difficult will it be to get one if I need one? My car doesn't have a tow ball". 

In reality this should have been stated as: 

"I am happy to deliver this boat to it's new home using my friend's trailer"

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

I refuse to believe that there are a total of four pictures available for this boat. When selling a boat, then there should be at least twenty pictures showing it from all angles. I'd suggest that the first image be one of the boat on the water if one is available. Alternatively a nice on of it ashore, which is what he went for. Secondly let's see everything inside and out. He's mentioned all of these things in good condition - let's see them. 

Ask for the Sale

All too often, sales people are scared to ask the customer to take the next step. Has the vendor thought about what the sale will look like? I imagine nobody is going to click "Buy it now" without having looked at it (especially without more pictures). 

I imagine that when this boat is sold someone will mail him and ask a few question (and probably more pictures). There'll be a few interchanges and then they'll arrange a viewing. That guy will either buy it with cash on the spot or go away and make an offer by phone or email if they're shy. 

Clearly there will be a lot of time wasting along the way. Only a fraction of queries will turn into viewings and only a fraction will turn into offers and one of those might turn into a sale, but we've identified the process. Now we want to guide the prospective buyer down the process. 

The vendor has invited calls at the end of his posting, but not in a very inviting way: 

"FOR MORE INFO CALL GARY ON 0XXXXXXXXX"

Sounds intimidating doesn't it? I think this could have been better wrapped up with:

"If you're looking for a small yacht and think this might be the sort of thing that would suit you, then please send me a quick mail and I'll get back to you. Alternatively give me a call and I can tell you a bit more about her. If you're serious and would like to take a look at her - again - give me a call and let's have a chat"

Geoff