Selling Simplified

Recently, while listening to a podcast ( wish I could remember, so I could credit it here ) I heard something that sent me on a research trip thru the super ’70’s. I had to crawl into the Way On Back There machine and time-travel to another place and another time, when the radio airwaves were rules by Swedish supergroup ABBA.

It seems that these pop-rockers were also marketing geniuses sent here, by otherworldly beings I’d guess, to encode, in their own unique way, a method that you can use to find undiscovered markets for your podcasts and blogs.

Seriously, I’m not kidding.

The ABBA Method of Finding Listeners and Readers.

The secret was coded so only one as tuned in to marketing as I am could unveil it. I’m honored and humbled.

Here’s how it rides:

A podcaster whose content was about endurance sports accidentally found out that a large segement of his audience was made up of lawyers. Who’da thunk it ?

So to find new listeners, all he had to do was find a way to market his podcast in the places where they hang out.

He went from A, a podcast about endurance sports, to B, finding out that he had a lot of lawyers listening in, to B, places where they hang out, back to A, getting them back to his podcast about endurance sports, which they seem to like.

Hence the ABBA Method.

Why not run an ASK-type campaign on your blog or from your podcast to see where the majority, if one exists, of your people hang out when they’re not on your blog or podcast.

Need help with an ASK-type campaign ? Wanna test this ? Use the Contact form and send me a message and I may volunteer to help you. Or I may charge you an enormous sum of money. You won’t know unless you ask. Me and your audience. Both of us. Hint, hint …

There’s a banner in the lower right-hand sidebar that leads you to the ASK Database if you want to try to do it yourself. You can a get a 21 day test drive for one whole dollar. I’m a paid subscriber and use it every, single day in multiple locations.

Your podcast or blog audience has another life aside from your site.

I know, it’s a sad day for you because I said it out loud. Sorry.

But since it’s true, use it to your advantage.

Find out if there’s a plethora of quilters listening or reading your content. Or Jeep enthusiasts.

Maybe there’s some sexy sax players listening in. Or soccer moms.

Could it be that you naturally attract some group that easy to reach and you’ve innocently overlooked them ?

Why pay for “traffic” when you might easily be able to find “subscribers” ?

What are you waiting for ?

Test the theory and put your Feedburner numbers into orbit !

Meat Loaf never just sang a song.

He held musical events. Each and every song seemed to be an over-the-top, way over-done extravaganza.

His fans loved it. Hint, hint..

He never short-changed his audience. Bigger hint …

The way he added what seemed to be a full fledged orchestra to his work differentiated him from the other rockers of his time. Even bigger hint …

That same genius will serve you well as a blogger, as a podcaster and more importantly, as a content creator.

I hate with a burning, purple passion the blog posts that ride like this:

” I’m thinking that this is good, bad or indifferent. What do you think ? “

Two or three sentences and a question ? Dude. If I’d wanted a survey, I’d answer my phone when tele-idiots call. I subscribed to your RSS feed to hear what you had to say, not for you to ask me what I think.

You probably think Twitter is a good idea, too, don’t you ?

If that’s all you have time to write, then don’t bother. It’s okay to skip a day or a week. Really.

Create an event. Go big or don’t go at all. If you can’t create with the big dogs, stay on the porch.

I’ve been contemplating adding a podcast to Simplenomics and I may as well put the pressure on myself and say I’m gonna do it. That way I have to get it done … soon.

Audio content is much, much easier for most of us to create.

I know I can speak much better than I can type. There are reasons for that, the least two of which are: I can’t type and I sometimes seem to see numbers and words a bit differently than they actually appear. It’s a bit like a very, very mild case of dyslexia, but I’m not sure it actually is, since I’ve never had it tested. I have no idea why, but it seems to flare up more under pressure, even if it’s self induced. I have a half-brother who’s fully dyslexic and he’s much worse off than I am by far. My only “problem” is that I sometimes have to read something 3, 4 or 5 times to get it all and see exactly what the writer wrote. That’s more good than bad, or it’s seemed that way to me so far in my 45 years.

Numbered keypads, fax machines, calculators and such give me fits sometimes, but I can usually work thru it without throwing them … very far.

More importantly, the addition of the Thesis theme here on this site will allow me to do a better job of creating text based posts, even though my aim is to do more audio than text.

I feel like I’m shortchanging the readers and myself by not producing posts that are “events“, to steal Meat Loaf’s methodology, so I’m going to try to go the “event” route and see how that works for you and me both.

I’ve got a ton of audio content stored up and I seem to have no problem is getting interviews with sales and marketing thought leaders, so it should be a fun ride.

Stick with me, tell everyone you know and hang on, it’s gonna be a fun ride.

Me: Acting ?

Him: Acting.

The question asked before this astonished answer was:

What other profession does selling most closely resemble ?

Me: But a salesperson isn’t an actor.

Him: A good one is.

Me: How so ?

Him: They both control their emotions don’t they ?

This is getting tougher, so I’ll let the sales manager I was talking to tell you what he told me.

An actor or a salesman must control:

• His emotions
• His facial expressions
• His body movements
• His voice

Without control of all of these an actor can’t portray drama and if he doesn’t control all of these a salesman may create drama.

About now, the principle was starting to sink into my often closed, never quiet mind, so I asked:

In what other ways does a salesperson resemble an actor ?

A salesman or actor must be able exude confidence.

Not necessarily playing dumb, I asked - How ?

By the tone of his voice, the expression on his face, the words and facts he uses and how he weaves them into the conversation.

Basically, he said, by being sincere.

Suppose, I said, the salesperson isn’t all that sincere.

An honest salesperson never tries to sell anything that the prospect doesn’t really need, no more than an honest actor will take an phony part.

Hey Will Farrell, you listening ?!

The economy is slowing, so you need to accelerate your knowledge.

March 27th is fast approaching. Have you registered for the teleseminar with Bill Caskey and his tremendous team ?I just noticed that there were several bonuses for attending:

• A copy of Same Game, New Rules
• A 60 minute audio about making that first call
• A copy of The Sales Playbook

Each one of those is worth the price of admission by itself. Easily.

Some of the other topics include:

Another selling strategy that is so simple yet so rarely followed by sales professionals. It has to do with your “Basic Orientation” of selling.

A series of customer questions that you absolutely MUST put in your arsenal during a slowdown. (If you get these, they will change your perspective of professional selling.)

How to be relevant to your prospect. This strategy works in good times and slow times, but if you don’t understand “Value Relevance” then you’ll be pushing a rope uphill.

What the “Imaginary Budget” line is inside companies. Do you know some people in companies are not hindered or limited by budget. If you’re getting the objection, “It’s not in the budget,” you’re talking to the wrong person.

How to inventory your assets. (You have assets you don’t know you have). But its’ hard to leverage something that isn’t identified. We’ll give you 5 ways to do this. You’ll be pleasantly surprise and inspired when you make this list.

15 actions items that you will begin implementing the next day. We’ll give you lists to make, thoughts to think and words to say - so that this call will change how you sell during 2008.

That’s more than enough incentive to sign up, so head over and join in on making profits when others aren’t.

” On the road again ….”

Driving down the road today, doing my thang - selling - I was thinking about, uh … selling.

Naturally.

I was thinking that a large percentage of sales people don’t study sales or marketing. I know the one’s I run across sure as hell don’t study or they wouldn’t be as awful as they are at selling.

They don’t even come close, for the most part, to anything that faintly resembles a sales person.

They mostly are lazy order takers or maulers.

Lazy Order Takers just wander around and hope that enough customers call them and do all the work for them.

Maulers show up, mostly unannounced and ask you what you want to buy.

If you don’t want to be like either of these groups, all you have to do is learn The S.A.L.E. Method.

Stop. Ask. Listen. Elevate.

Stop - You absolutely must find a quiet place and think about the ways your product or service can alleviate some type of pain that your customer has.

If they have no pain, you have no shot. Literally.

Your product or service must be more tolerable than the pain they’re experiencing.

People email me every week and ask about how to fight the issue of pricing.

It’s pretty simple. When you figure out how much their pain is costing them, price your solution accordingly.

If you can’t find out how much their pain costs them …

Ask - Simply sit down with them and say something like this:

” I’m not sure our product/service is a good fit for you, so I’m just going to ask you to tell me what causes you the most pain. If my product can alleviate that pain, we can proceed, if not, I’ll move on down the line. “

If the company you work for or are thinking of going to work for won’t allow you to work like this, find one that will.

You’ll enjoy life a helluva lot more and you’ll make more money.

Don’t try to sell your product, just try to cure pain.

Think about it this way:

You go see your physician. Does he come out with a prescription before he finds out what your symptoms are or does he sit down and ask you a few questions first ?

Does he start pricing you right away or does he run a few tests and get back to you ?

Simple.

Listen - Just like a great physician does, you need to really listen to your customer.

How many times have you heard someone say their doctor is the best ever because he sits down, looks them eye to eye and listens to them.

There are doctors out there who make six-figures for listening. Just listening.

Don’t listen and try to think of an answer, just listen.

Don’t listen and look for a place to try and interject a great feature of your product or service, just listen.

Listen.

Because when you actually listen your sales will …

Elevate - You’ll complete ( I refuse to use the word close ) more opportunities than you ever have. You’ll elevate your standing with your customers. You’ll elevate your standing within your organization.

Nothing makes your confidence grow like success. Nothing.

Try the S.A.L.E. Method for 30, 60 or 90 days and if it doesn’t work for you, I refund every penny you paid for this post.

What have you got to lose ?