Why Is "Sell"
A Four-Letter Word
Why do people hate to sell?
It's a question I've asked myself
many times over the years as I've struggled with this part of the
business puzzle. Since nine out of ten businesses fail for lack of
sufficient sales, it's quite clear that marketing is a challenge for
many people.
But why? Why is this one element so
difficult to master?
After thoughtful study and much
discussion, I've come to the conclusion that most people have formed
their life-long attitude about selling by the age of ten. And it can
all be attributed to a simple three-word phrase: school fund raiser.
Or, in my case, Girl Scout cookies.
You know, door-to-door sales. The
most difficult, stress-inducing, rejection-generating form of selling
there is.
Like lambs to slaughter, we're led
all-trusting to this one-eye monster by well-meaning adults who feel
this is an essential skill we need to learn. Unfortunately, it's
trial by fire. The average person gets burned quickly and has a
negative view of selling from that day forward.
Now if you somehow managed to
escape this time-honored initiation, chances are you've been exposed
to another negative sales experience that helped form your opinion:
the commissioned sales person.
You know who I'm talking about: the
high-pressure, hard- pushing, "won't-take-no-for an answer"
vulture who swoops down upon you when you least expect it. Even when
you DO know he's coming, like when you step onto a used car lot, you
have to steel yourself against the persistence. It's the kind of
stress-inducing situation that can send your blood pressure soaring
and cause countless replays in your mind of what you should have
said, were you to relive it.
So, with experiences like that
dotting our pasts, is it any wonder that the average person hates to
sell? You either face rejection, or you come off looking like a
pariah to innocent, unsuspecting people.
It's why "sell" a
four-letter word.
And it's the single biggest reason
that so many businesses fail.
Selling takes the average person so
far out of his comfort zone, that he simply ignores or neglects that
part of the business puzzle. Consequently, his potential customers
ignore him. The end result? No business.
Fortunately, not all selling
involves door-to-door sales or high press tactics. If you can rid
yourself of those mental images, you're halfway to the finish line. I
know more businesspeople who spend more time trying to figure out how
NOT to sell than I can shake a stick at. If they'd spend their energy
finding and testing marketing methods that they're comfortable with,
they'd reduce their stress and increase their income significantly.
All it takes is a little
determination to overcome the "fear" factor of selling.
Here's a simple plan for doing just that:
1. Study Successful Marketers
The best place to start is to see
what's already working in your field of interest. No need to reinvent
the wheel here. Study the biggest successes in your field and see
what they're doing that's getting results. Read marketing books and
trade journals. Spend some time at the ibrary and online. Once you
see how many marketing avenues are available to you, you can pick and
choose the methods that suit you best.
2. Get Into Your Customers' Shoes
When you're contemplating a
purchase, what runs through your head? How much the salesperson needs
to make the sale today? How he'll crumble if you reject him? Of
course not! You're thinking about what the product or service will do
for YOU. You couldn't care less about the other guy.
You know what? It's the same thing
your customer thinks about you! If you begin with HIS interests
first, not yours, you'll make a lot more sales. Give him what HE
needs, and you'll get what YOU need in return.
3. Test, Test, Test
No marketing campaign is a failure.
Even if you don't make one sale, you now know something you didn't
know before: that particular method didn't work. It could have been
the wrong day, the wrong audience, or the wrong headline. Change
something and try it again. When you find something that works, stick
with it. The only way you'll know what works and what doesn't is by testing.
4. Repeat
Once you've studied successful
marketers, gotten into your customers' shoes, and tested the results
of your campaigns, repeat the process. Most successful marketers only
have a handful of techniques they use consistently. Why? Because they
work! Once you have a steady stream of customers and you know you can
pay the bills, it changes your whole outlook. You're not afraid to
market anymore. You can respond to your customers' questions and plan
for future projects. In short, you'll have a business.
All because you took the time to
learn how to sell.
Think of it as constructing a
building. If you've ever seen a house or other structure being built,
you know that the foundation takes the longest amount of time to put
down. The ground needs to be cleared and leveled, the concrete needs
to be poured and set. It all takes time. But once the foundation is
solid, the rest of it comes together pretty quickly.
So, too, will your sales, once you
get serious about marketing your business.
Successful marketers aren't
necessarily the smartest people on the planet. What makes them
successful is tenacity. They just don't give up when something goes
wrong. They "fail forward", if you will, eliminating what
doesn't work and keeping what does. Once you know what works best for
you and your business, successful marketing becomes a snap.
It just takes a little time to
fine-tune it.
Want a good resource to get you
started quickly? Try Peter Sun's "Maximum Profit In Minimum Time",
http://www.niftybusinessideas.com/resources/maxprof/index.html
I recently discovered this ebook,
and boy am I glad I did! Peter's a marketing consultant from
Australia, and one of the things he does that I really like is use
his clients' stories as examples. Showing how his methods worked with
restaurants, real estate, and bingo parlors, among others, you get a
real flavor of how these ideas work in real businesses. They're very
"do-able". In fact, when I recently applied one of his
customer mindset techniques to a sales letter, my conversion rate
went from 2% to 5% literally overnight. A 150% increase for 30
minutes worth of work? Not too shabby, I must say.
If marketing is a challenge for
you-or even if it isn't-download a copy of "Maximum Profits In
Minimum Time",
http://www.niftybusinessideas.com/resources/maxprof/index.html
I highly recommend it.
So what's today's theme in a
nutshell? If "sell" is a four-letter word for you, it's
time to take that bull by the horns and wrestle it to the ground.
Once you study other marketers, put yourself in your customers'
shoes, and test your materials for maximum performance, you'll soon
discover another four-letter word that will make you smile: "sale".
Good luck! |
