Everything You’ve Been Told About Sales Is Wrong.
Sell or die.
Some of you are in sales because you have to be.
You don’t like sales, you don’t like marketing, you don’t like any of it. You may even already have a great product or you may already be doing a great service for the community, but you’ve realized that your hard work will be for nothing if you can’t put it front of more eyeballs or put more butts in seats at your event.
Before we get into Google Adwords and how to use Eventbrite, we need to address an important issue: you don’t like sales.
It’s true. No one really does.
This is because when we think of the word “sales,” we also think of words like “pushy” and “con-artist.” We think that in order to be successful, we also have to bend the truth, speak only in superlatives, or pressure someone to do something they’re not ready to do.
The best example is the used car salesman.
The reason the used car salesman is such a great example is because most of us don’t know enough about cars to challenge them on any of their claims. We have to trust what they’re saying is true and that they’re not omitting any critical details. This, of course, creates some serious anxiety, because cars are expensive and that feeling in our gut just isn’t going away.
Most of what we’ve been taught about sales is wrong. You don’t have to be pushy. You don’t have to bend the truth.
Marketing vs. Manipulation
Let’s get this first concept into your brain: Marketing is what helps people find things they’re looking for. Manipulation is an attempt to convince someone they will be happy with something they weren’t looking for.
Did you see Wolf of Wall Street? Glengarry Glen Ross? It’s full of pushers. People who interrupt you to tell you about what they want to sell. Then, they tell you how much you need it. They pressure you and you almost want to give them the money just so they’ll go away. This is how we’ve seen the role of the salesman--but that’s not what it’s all about.
Sales is a mutual exchange of value. As a salesperson, my job is you-centric. It’s all about the client, the customer, or the attendee. It’s never about my quota or timeline. Sales isn’t something you do to people, it’s something you do with them and for them. You can only help someone solve a problem by listening and understanding their problem--then you can start the collaborative process of solving it.
Focus On Trust
The main thing missing from ineffective marketing or sales campaigns is trust.
Let’s unpack this with an example. Most of us don’t really understand cars that well. When we go to the mechanic, we have to trust that they will not only diagnose the problem successfully, but also recommend a viable solution. On top of that, we have to trust that the work they did, the solution they proposed, and the price of the whole ordeal is correct. Since most of us don’t know much about cars, we have to just hope that they’re being honest. Sure, we can go down the rabbit hole of Yelp and TripAdvisor reviews, but we know that businesses can pay to appear at the top of those sites, now. We really are at the mercy of the garage because.
Trust is important because it not only creates new business, but it makes the buyer feel good. When a client is confident in your work or product, they will be happy with the price you charge because they understand and appreciate the value you provided.
Trust doesn’t come from being a master negotiator
I’ve worked with a lot of startups. There’s this strange idea around how a “pitch” is supposed to work. The idea is that I tell you my startup concept and how amazing it’s going to be and then you decide that it is, in fact, amazing, and you pull out your wallet. This isn’t at all how it happens.
There’s also this lie that if we use the right words, in the right order, the human brain will react in precisely the way we want it to.
What actually happens is the entrepreneur is expecting a 60 minute meeting with the investor and they set up their laptop and projector. The investor comes in and says “hey, unfortunately, I only have 15 minutes, whaddya got for me?”
Gulp. All of a sudden, the plan has to change. What the entrepreneur doesn’t realize is that the purpose of this meeting isn’t to get a deal. The purpose of the meeting is to start a conversation around a concept that the investor might want to ask deeper questions about.
It’s the same in the startup world as in the sales and marketing worlds. Your job isn’t to present all the right information and negotiate a great deal. Your job is often to start the conversation and continue to ask questions and see where you can best be helpful.
Bring value first
In order to gain trust, you need to do something valuable first. If you’re running ads on Spotify, you will have much better success making potential buyers feel good about you if you “sponsor this ad-free playlist” than if you interrupt the playlist with your ad. This is a perfect example of an “anti-ad.” You’ve gone against the grain by figuring out what the customer actually wants: no ads. And you gave it to them!
The Golden Rule of sales
I think the main lesson here is that everyone feels better when they are authentic and really trying to help others. That’s the key. Start there and figure out how others want to be sold to.
I hope this little mini-lesson is helpful!
Resources
I hope this little blurb was helpful. Also, I didn’t invent this way of thinking. Here are some non-skeevy resources that I’m stealing from to bring you this article:
“How Clients Buy” by Tom McMakin and Doug Fletcher
“Integrity Selling: Values and Ethics.”
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