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How to sell anything
#1

How to sell anything

Hey everyone.

I've been thinking a lot lately about ways I can contribute. I haven't been posting here regularly and realized how much value I've received from reading some threads of popular posters. It's time to give back.

This isn't going to cover everything there is to know about selling. I'm not here to write your cold-call script or design your one-page sales funnel. This thread is meant to give you a great foundation to use, from which you can expand on and choose to target more specific areas of knowledge.

How can I sell anything?

You hear a lot of people say things like "I could sell ice to a penguin." How do we do that? The VERY FIRST THING you have to understand, before you can be a great salesman, is psychology.

Understanding basic psychology is the foundation of any great sales pitch. This is useful for a variety of different reasons.

Psychological Triggers

This is covered VERY well on BHW. (http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-se...iches.html)

I'm going to summarize the main components here. When selling, you need to understand why people do the things they do. This involves their emotions - How they feel, or WANT to feel. Every action is justified by their psychological triggers, leading them to the desired end result.

This doesn't mean you will change their mind about your product/services' usefulness. They either need you or don't. I want to help you sell to the people who DO need you. You'll miss out on a lot of people who are simply on the fence, don't completely understand etc. Back to the emotions.

Emotions can be broken down into subsections. We'll break them down into 3 generic groups which encompass a lot of more specific emotions:

Greed

This is arguably one of the most powerful emotions. People always want more. They want secrets no one else has, more money than their neighbour, they want YOU to give more stuff. This is one of the most utilized triggers in sales. Greed is dirty, but it works.

Some ways you can maximize this are providing FREE insider secrets to "only the first 20 people who sign-up" or have things automatically "upgraded" if you sign up today! Give them more, more, more. Tell them they're going to be rich/richer (in time or money). Tell them they'll be BETTER than the other guys. This leads into wanting a feeling of importance.

Everyone wants to feel important. I'm not sure whether to classify importance under greed, fear, or happiness. It overlaps... Which of course leads us to the next group.

Fear

People are so very afraid of:

  1. Feeling unimportant
  2. Losing out on anything they DESERVE
  3. Being inadequate
  4. Losing to people they hate
Keep these things in mind. The word "deserve" is also HUGE. This could be classified under greed. However it ties in with importance. People are self-centred. They feel like they are entitled to things, because they're special. Let them know you're there!

Quote:Quote:

You DESERVE this product! Are THEY going to keep you from the life you are entitled to?! We're going to make you a better person.

I agree this appears salesy. I'm just trying to convey really obvious examples. You can use this in a more subtle manner.

Happiness

People want to feel happy.

Happy about themselves. Happy about their family, their possessions. Happy about how they are spending their time and money.

Ways you can utilize happiness:

  1. Genuine compliments (make them feel good - but don't flatter.)
  2. Offer them something that will really improve their life
Now these are just very general things that I'm sure a lot of people here already know. But if you don't have the basics down pat, it can cripple your efforts, no matter how valuable your product or service is.

When making a proposition, you want to be understanding. You understand how much trouble they have had in the past. Honestly put yourself in their shoes to compare your offering to competitors. Brainstorm any objections or even read the one star reviews on review sites to find the most hated thing your competitors do.

Emphasize that you UNDERSTAND their frustrations. It's part of the reason you do what you do. You're there to help, make their life easier and save them time.

Once you have taken the time to understand their problems (ie: make them feel special), it's time to position yourself as the authority who is taking time out of their busy day to help.

REMEMBER - NO AMOUNT OF SALES TECHNIQUES CAN CHANGE THE REAL, TANGIBLE VALUE YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE PROVIDES. DON'T SELL SHIT.

We talk a lot about social proof here. It's a very important thing to use in any part of your life, including sales. You want to appear as though:

  1. You are an expert at X
  2. You are someone people trust
  3. You're busy. But not too busy to talk to the little guy.
In addition to this, you want to seem exclusive. This conveys value. You see this tactic all the time with sales copywriting - Buy now, only 7 copies left!! It goes deeper than that though. You're a busy person/company. Your service is valuable and you prefer to only work with people you know you can help.

This is when you can use reverse psychology.

WARNING: DONT buy this if you don't X
This product may not be right for you if...

Not only will this weed out the bullshitters, it will also push people off the fence. Giving them an ultimatum like that, you'll lose sales... but you'll also cause people to subconsciously prove themselves worthy for your services. Once you have some of these things covered, return to the social proof. Build a reputation.

Building a reputation can be done through: Being active and helpful within communities such as blogs and forums. This is a tactic matthew woodward used to build his blog into an authority site. Help people. Be of service. This will in turn automatically start building your network. Doing things for people with no pre-conceived notions of reciprocation will ironically lead to other people doing more for you. Basic psychology. Use this tactic in your pitches.

One of the last things I'd like to mention is to use very precise numbers. Studies have shown that peoples' eyes are automatically drawn to numbers in text that they read. Numbers showcase facts.

Last month we saved our client 368.79 in unnecessary expenditures.
We increased our conversion rate by 267%

Also, make sure to use powerful vocabulary. Action verbs will definitely turn skepticals into believers. For this you will have to learn copywriting. But as a quick example, look at the difference simply changing a few words can make.

Before: We offer you the next great diet pill. Start trimming inches off your waist and look good naked!
After: Start blasting fat off your core, incinerate that stubborn 20 pounds and fast-track your weight loss!

All of these are things you can use to boost your credibility and show people you're serious while simultaneously inciting excitement and enthusiasm.

TL;DR

Understand psychology- starting with greed, fear and happiness. Be understanding and helpful in your pitches. Do things for free, and always position yourself as an expert. Brownie points for being human (vulnerable).

Build your network, use hard facts, write with powerful vocabulary, and make people feel special. Oh, and another thing. NEVER criticize. Anyone. If you haven't already, read: How To Win Friends and Influence People.

The rest is up to you. [Image: angel.gif]

EDIT* I just wanted to stress one last thing. EVERYTHING IS SALES. No matter what you're doing. Whether you're in a job interview, or at a bar trying to pick up a cute girl. You're selling yourself. The level/type of psychology you need to know will change by each situation, but it's still an integral part of basically any social interaction.

Understanding social cues and psychological triggers is a rudimentary part of being someone who can interact in the real world. Sales can help you in every other area of your life. Like picking up girls, confidence is key. Know how to sell yourself and your brand. Everything else will fall into place (as long as you're providing value).
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#2

How to sell anything

Help someone achieve some of their goals and they will buy from you. Sales will come once people trust you can deliver what you promise.
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#3

How to sell anything

Quote: (02-26-2015 12:14 AM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

Help someone achieve some of their goals and they will buy from you. Sales will come once people trust you can deliver what you promise.

Yup. This ties into social proof and helping people for free.

I hope this was a decent read. Let me know if you found anything of use here [Image: smile.gif]
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#4

How to sell anything

"EVERYTHING IS SALES. No matter what you're doing. Whether you're in a job interview, or at a bar trying to pick up a cute girl. You're selling yourself."
WORD!
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#5

How to sell anything

"We talk a lot about social proof here. It's a very important thing to use in any part of your life, including sales. You want to appear as though:

You are an expert at X
You are someone people trust
You're busy. But not too busy to talk to the little guy."

I've been successful in selling in my business by actually being someone people trust, actually being good at what I do and I really am busy.

What you're describing are high pressure sales techniques. Great for an extrovert to apply but not for an introvert.They must work on some people, but they don't work on me! I'm the opposite, low pressure, let others do the recommending.

Personally I prefer the more subtle, low/ no pressure sales tactics, be helpfu, advise. If you have a good product/ service and are genuine you will have more customers than you can deal with.
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#6

How to sell anything

Quote: (02-26-2015 08:44 AM)Guitarman Wrote:  

"We talk a lot about social proof here. It's a very important thing to use in any part of your life, including sales. You want to appear as though:

You are an expert at X
You are someone people trust
You're busy. But not too busy to talk to the little guy."

I've been successful in selling in my business by actually being someone people trust, actually being good at what I do and I really am busy.

What you're describing are high pressure sales techniques. Great for an extrovert to apply but not for an introvert.They must work on some people, but they don't work on me! I'm the opposite, low pressure, let others do the recommending.

Personally I prefer the more subtle, low/ no pressure sales tactics, be helpfu, advise. If you have a good product/ service and are genuine you will have more customers than you can deal with.

In my opinion, being genuine/honest are pretty much prerequisites [Image: smile.gif] Unless you're selling a shitty self-help or spam product.

I do think that different techniques are required in different situations. Some people don't like to be pushed. HOWEVER, you cannot expect to do well at sales if you are an introvert. I'm not sure if you meant introvert customer or salesperson... but the key to being able to sell is being sociable. If you're an introvert that's a little harder. With that said, you can retrain yourself to be comfortable in those situations over time.

The great thing about having a good service (and customer service) and being honest with your customers, is you'll get good reviews. IE: social proof.

You may have to use the high-pressure techniques while you're still building up a rep. But when you know your shit, and you have people backing you up... like you said, you'll have more customers than you can handle!

I'm still in the high-pressure stage lol.
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