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.