THE MOST IMPORTANT SALE
It doesn't matter whether or not you have your own product to
sell...despite all the opinions to the contrary. Me and a whole
mess of others have made money promoting other peoples' products.
Sales people are among the highest paid people in the world
because nothing happens until a sale is made.
But there's one sale that you rarely, if ever, hear about. It's
the most important sale there is. It's the one sale that, if not
made, will never make you any money.
And that sale is YOU. You have to be sold on the product -
whether your own or not - before you can effectively promote and
sell it to others.
You should be completely, totally and utterly sold on the
product or service itself. You should have a total confidence in
the product or service you're offering to others.
Yep, the first sale to your success is selling yourself. That's
the first step.
Step 2 is communicating that confidence to your audience.
Funny thing, though, we find that the very definition of money
is...
An idea backed with confidence.
The product or service is the idea. Do you have total
confidence in the product or service that you're offering to
others? If so, are you effectively communicating that confidence
to others so they, too, gain confidence in that product or
service?
See, the 'confidence' part of the definition of money is the
most difficult part to master. There are many, many parts and
steps to confidence.
'Confidence' could be said to be 'the taking of the correct
actions and overcoming the barriers toward a known and
acceptable goal.'
Though confidence itself is a bit deeper than that, going
through the correct actions and blasting through those barriers
that pop up will give you confidence.
The more and the bigger barriers that you overcome, the more
unshakable your confidence becomes.
Making mistakes and failure are two of those barriers that pop
up...and quite frequently at that.
They teach us what the wrong actions are. They give us
character. They teach us, by default, how to succeed.
But that still doesn't teach you how to communicate your
confidence to your audience so they, too, gain your
confidence...or at least enough confidence to take some kind of
action. (That 'some kind of action' could be signing up for a
free ezine, asking for more information, leaving their email
address for something free...or any other step in a multi- step
marketing campaign.)
I can't teach you how to communicate your confidence in a short
article, but I can teach you some basics you can use today to
help you increase your sales.
BASIC 1: Read the sales letter you have for one of the products
that you're offering to others. Only read what's actually
written, and pay particular attention to your headline. Does
your sales letter make YOU want it?
(If you don't have a sales letter for every product you offer,
you should write one and lay everything on the line, tell the
whole relevant story and create want and curiosity.)
BASIC 2: Your audience buys results, not products. Does your
sales letter tell over and over, and in different ways exactly
how the product or service will enhance their lives? Bullet
points are good for doing that.
BASIC 3: People decide to buy for emotional reasons, then they
seek to justify their decision with facts and logic. That's one
thing your bonuses and guarantee are for.
BASIC 4: Curiosity Rules. You lead your reader through your copy
with curiosity. You let them know what the product or service
is, how their lives will be made easier quickly, how simple it
is, that they can do it, and how to get it. You never tell how
it is done. (Very few exceptions)
BASIC 5: Building credibility boils down to getting personal and
almost intimate (not sexual) with your reader. Let him or her
know how to contact you, how you've helped others - preferably
with testimonials, but not necessarily if your product or
service is brand new. (That's covered in a different article
altogether.) Tell them about yourself in such a way so they
trust you.
BASIC 6: Ease of order and quickness of delivery. The easier it
is to order, the more orders you'll get. The quicker the
delivery, the more orders you'll get.
BASIC 7: Does your whole letter convey your own personal
confidence in what you're offering? It better.