Sales 101

The Art of Selling

Gary Halbert is one of my all time “heroes” in the area of sales and marketing.  Unfortunately Gary is now dead (why does deceased sound so much nicer?) but he left an amazing legacy of books and videos.  I strongly recommend you study his work if you want to become a better marketer.

What the above video (and other related videos on Youtube) doesn’t show is the most basic thing that most sales people are NEVER shown and NEVER discover.  If you think I’m exaggerating, just know that I’ve been a SUCCESSFUL salesman for over 15 years…………………..and I’ve been in sales for around 20!  (do the math!).

Sales People

Salesmen and women are PART of the marketing process; they are the people who are expected to do these things:

1. Follow-up leads provided by the advertising department

2. Close the sale

Sounds easy, right?

The Reality

But in reality……………..IT IS EASY!  Here’s the problem with both online and offline sales pitches.  They are pitched to the WRONG PEOPLE, or the right people AT THE WRONG TIME!

While this doesn’t sound likely, it’s true (AND factual, which are two VERY different things of course).

As a ex-National Sales Director, I’ve seen this first hand.  Very well groomed, well-spoken sales people giving fantastic presentations but to the wrong people.  Once I even witnessed a guy selling to a secretary (erm, I mean, Personal Assistant), who, of course, had NO POWER to make a buying decision whatsoever.

Sell To THE MAN

No ladies, that’s not sexist at all.  What I mean is sell to the M.A.N. Who’s the M.A.N?

M = Money

A = Authority

N = Need

Money: there’s no point making a pitch to the person if they simply can’t afford it.  In your online marketing efforts, why would you try to sell a $10,000 course to somebody who has only ever opted for your free products?

Authority: there’s equally no point trying to sell to a personal assistant, unless your sales pitch to him/her solely aimed at getting an appointment with the M.A.N.

Need: there’s little point trying to sell dental floss to a toothless man (unless of course he intends to use it to fish)

This includes “wants” of course, but then the acronym would read M.A.N.W. and that looks a bit silly. My point is this, until you’ve found the right person to sell to, save your breath (or as an online marketer, save your Pay Per Click budget).

Luke.