MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

I just had a reader post the following comment below our post on “How to Get from 20 Million to 100 Million in Online Sales”

I don’t usually publicize comments. But this is an exception. As I was reading this comment and the strategy the writer shared, it kept reminding me of some lessons I learned from the book “The Ultimate Sales Machine” by Chet Holmes. It’s a seriously good book and has a special place in my business library.

Well it turned out the comment was from Chet or from a diehard fan. It linked back to Chet’s website HowToDoubleSales.com.

In any case…this is a beautiful sales strategy and one worth sharing. Here’s the comment.

Powerful Sales & Marketing Ideas of $100 Million Dollar Companies

So let’s imagine that you do sell office equipment and it’s your turn to give your speech and the audience is full of CFOs. If you’re a little strategic, you might go with something like: “The Five Ways our Office Equipment Can Benefit You.” Again, an approach like this appeals only to those who are “buying now,” and possibly those who are “open to it,” but pretty much 90% of your audience is leaving.

So what title would have a broader appeal? How about: “The Nine Ways You’re Wasting Money in your Operations and Administration.” I’m not saying this is going to rivet the executive to their chair, but they’re not leaving either. They’ll stay to hear a little more. This is also true for an ad with that headline. It’s definitely going to appeal to the top two tiers, but it also appeals to everyone in that stadium.

Everyone is interested in saving money in their operations and administration costs. Certainly every CFO is interested in that and, therefore, they would stay in the stadium. And if everything that follows has some substance to it, you’ve now taken your marketing and selling activity to an entirely new level.

The hardest thing we need to do today is grab the attention of the potential buyer and keep the attention long enough to help them buy your product. This approach of offering some education of value to them gives you a significant opportunity to attract more buyers and build more credibility. I call this “educational based marketing” and here’s a line you should write down: You will attract way more buyers if you are offering to teach them something of value to them than you will ever attract by simply trying to sell them your product or service.

As another example, I had a merchant services company as a client. They primarily target retail stores. So in their audience are retail storeowners. If they walk out there and start off with: “I’m going to show you why our merchant services are better than anyone else’s,” the 90% are leaving as they are not in the market for merchant services right now. So what could you say to keep every retailer in their seats to hear a little more? Here’s a great title: “The Five Reasons All Retailers Fail.” The tactical executive reading this is already saying: “But if all I really want to do is sell merchant services, than why would I bother with all this?”

Answer:

1. Because offering an education that helps the buyer is going to get more buyer interest.

2. If the information is actually good and useful, it automatically repositions you in the mind of the buyer as much more of an expert than all your competitors. (You’re teaching them things about their own business that they might not know.)

3. If you think and plan strategically, you will find a way to weave that information in such a way that ultimately sells your services far better than you could ever sell them by simply flat-out pitching your product.

For more information visit www.howtodoublesales.com

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About the Author

Vishen is a co-founder of MindValley. Before MindValley, he was an exec in Silicon Valley and New York for several internet and technology firms. He turned bedroom entrepreneur at 27 and by the time he was 31 had founded 6 web businesses and never had to work a conventional job again.

Check out other posts by Vishen Lakhiani

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