Sales: Extremely Simple, Unexpectedly Hard.
Why is the one of the most lucrative careers also one of the most avoided?
Professional sales has fascinated me ever since I worked alongside medical sales reps and understood their upside for earning. Sales is one of the few non-executive positions to potentially reward the right people for salaries upwards of $500K.
It’s a career that’s considered more of an art than a science but I’ve managed to put together some concrete findings on what make this mysterious profession so alluring and soul-crushing at the same time.
The psychology of rejection is fascinating. Often times in sales it will have you oscillating between withering away and living for the next ‘yes’.
I’ve condensed some psychology lessons and foundational truths I’ve learned from timeless authors and my own direct experience.
Any and all of these tips, tricks, and tactics should be used in good faith and without ill-will. These are powerful and should be used with responsibility or else you could very well erode your foundation, respect, and much more.
Fine talkers are rarely good salesmen. They inspire buyers with the fear of over-influence. They create suspicion that an effort is made to sell them on other lines than merit.
Sales is the careful balance of not over-selling and not under-selling something. This shocked me as someone who seeks out objective truths because if you list out the pros and cons of something and one is superior, wouldn’t you want to know all the reasons why one option is better? Not necessarily.
Guesswork is very expensive.
A life lesson but also clearly important in sales, especially copywriting. When you’re running an multi-million dollar ad campaign, so much as a misplaced punctuation mark could cost you thousands.
Good salesmen learn the reactions from different forms of argument and approach. They learn what possible buyers want and the factors which won’t appeal.
The average salesman will learn a few potential pathways to create a sale with someone. The best salesmen will study their product/market fit like a rubik’s cube so they can take any series of distortions and navigate backwards to secure a win. It takes a level of obsession and simplicity that few understand to get here and simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Remember the interests of the buyer.
Extremely simple. Unexpectedly hard. You have to be 100% unselfish and only focus on the buyer’s interests, fears, and desires. Everything else is irrelevant. This is a skill that comes into handy for relationships.
Picture the customer’s side of any service until the natural result is to buy.
No seriously, close your eyes and think about this one. When you envision in vivid detail what this person’s life and job entails in high detail, it becomes very clear how and why this person would buy. Keep in mind the key words ‘natural result’ here. This is something that should come naturally and should not feel like you’re forcing anyone to do anything against their will. It’s educating and reframing perceptions for a greater cause that benefits the buyer.
Don’t talk about your own interests. Don’t blazon a name or brand. Whatever people do is to please themselves. Never forget these facts.
Another life lesson as well as a crucial sales lesson. It’s very easy to talk about our own interests or why we think something is better than the next best alternative. When you’re talking to someone else none of this matters. If you want to understand or sell something to someone it needs to be around them (avoid the ego).
A salesman cannot be ignored, an advertisement can. A salesman wastes time on prospects he can never hope to interest. An advertisement is read only by interested people who study what we have to say.
Never doubt the power of advertising, understand the strengths and weaknesses of both advertising and sales, accept them, and move on.
The purpose of a headline is to pick out people you can interest.
Don’t waste time trying to cast a wider net here, stick to your niche. The world is so vast and you only have so much time. Everything should be highly targeted and you should call out your audience with subjects and headlines to the point where anyone who isn’t your target would immediately disregard the message.
Headlines either conceal or reveal an interest.
Did you know popcorn never took off until it was marketed correctly? “125 million steam explosions in each kernel”. Popcorn was one of the foods that were failures before that factor was discovered.
Don’t think that millions will read your ads to find out if your product interest them. They will decide by a glance — by your headlines or pictures. Address the people you seek, and them only.
Understand that you have seconds to capture someone’’s attention with an ad. This can also apply to conversations as well. Your value is determined in large by your ability to tell great stories to a select audience. Consider the largely successful standup comedians who practice their routines hundreds of times before filming a special. They study their art down to the very last words they use in every bit. Sales is not much different if you think about it. I recommend watching some of them and learning how they deliver comedy gold.
Psychology
Cheapness is not a strong appeal. Americans are extravagant. They want bargains but not cheapness. They want to feel they can eat and have and wear the best. Treat them otherwise and they resent your attitude.
An important differentiation here between cheapness and a bargain. The perceived value here is huge and if you miss it you will be left out. This is why everything is marked up in online stores and then the prices are ‘slashed’ (47% off!). It’s a subtle way to move prospects closer to buying.
People judge by price.
You pay for what you get (for the most part). How do your buyers view you? How are you viewing your buyers? These should align on a deep level. Understand your audience and don’t believe that everyone buys the same way. Someone who buys a Gucci sweater is worlds apart from someone who buys from a reseller. I’ll go into much more detail on this in a future article.
People gravitate to “Try it for a week, if you don’t like it we’ll refund your money” over “Pay me in a week if you like them”.
This is a classic example of using confidence in your approach. You’re saying that you’ll go through the hassle of refunding, returning, and incorrectly forecasting your revenue just to make sure that the buyer is happy. That’s strong.
Never underestimate the power of personalization.
Putting the buyer’s name in gilt on a book resulted in a massive increase in sales for a seller trying to beat his competition. Remember how Apple would engrave your name on an iPod with a laser? It literally has their name written all over it.
