Study Proves People Love Them Some Them
I just read several things that all salesmen and copywriters should already know:
People love them some “them”. A lot.
We knew that already, but I didn’t know just how much.
A study of college-aged women included this test: The women were given a pen and paper and asked to write anything they wanted.
460 out of 500 wrote their own name.
Shown a map, 447 out of 500 pointed to their hometown.
I’ve personally seen people look at a group picture and immediately ask, ” Where am I ? “
Self-interest sells.
Feel free to use it.
I do.
Great Advice About Writing Copy From A Guy With A Black Hat
The great advice the headline refers to is the last sentence in this post.
In between is some other great advice and some opinion all rolled into one dynamic, super blog post !
For those of you unfamiliar with the world of “internet marketers“, there’s at least one good newsletter out there.
I’ve been a subscriber of this newsletter for several years, probably around 4-6 years. Maybe more. Doesn’t matter.
It’s called TalkBiz News and it’s written by Paul Myers.
I’ve “bought Paul a beer” several times for the great content, free software, great reports, etc, that he’s written or bought and resold.
I’ve sent him more money thru PayPal than I’d like to think about.
And now I’ve pimped him on my blog. That’s a trifecta, in my book.
Recently, the main article in his newsletter was titled, “How Long is “Too Long ?”
Here’s an excerpt:
There’s a discussion that comes up all the time on the forums and in various lists. The question that starts it is a sensible one and usually asked by sensible people. The answers, however, especially from so-called “experts,” can be really annoying.
That magic question is:
“How long should my newsletter or article be ?”
The answers that make me wonder if there’s any actual effort of thought behind them are the ones that say, “You can’t go over 350 (or 500 or 750) words. People won’t read them.”
I’m often tempted to respond to those with, “Well, maybe if you’d learn to say something interesting you wouldn’t have that problem!”
That would be rude. So, I just think it.
But it’s true.
That’s exactly what you get with Paul. No nonsense, blunt, to-the-point advice. You know, the kind that makes you money.
I hate to read comments on blogs where the commenter gives his/her advice, which is really just his/her opinion, that says, in effect - People won’t read long copy.
“Scuse me for a second here while I go all redneck and say Bulldroppings !
The truth of the matter is, I’m looking for more to read than is available … most of the time, on most topics.
There’s more than enough pages out there, they just all happen to say the same damn thang, most of the time, because people don’t live their topic, they just read other people’s writings and re-hash what they read, while throwing in their unlearned opinion.
What’s the great advice Paul wrote ?
Here you go:
” When you make someone laugh, you reset their attention span. “
Want to get your readers to read farther into your copy than ever before ?
Want to get them to stay subscribed to your newsletter, ezine or RSS feed ?
Want to get them to read to the bottom of your PPC ad and click the link ?
Want to get them to subscribe to your list ?
Make ‘em laugh.
” When you make someone laugh, you reset their attention span. “
” We Contact The Hell Out Of Them “
He took over a white elephant, an albatross and a dud.
A giant hotel in New York City that had been built at the wrong time and was the hotel industry’s biggest disappointment.
He was young. He hadn’t done anything to make the receivers think he could perform a miracle, but he was all they had. In actuality, things could hardly get worse.
The hotel is The New Yorker, the time was long ago and the man was Ralph Hitz.
He used one simple secret, one technique, to turn this elephant into a towering success.
Hitz’s one simple technique was contact.
No matter which way a guest turned, someone was in contact with them.
Bellhops called them by name.
Linen girls smiled at them.
Elevator pilots called their names.
Managers, assistants and clerks all asked about their stays, their homes, their families, etc.
Guests were so flattered by all this attention, in the nations biggest city, that they dared not ever stay anywhere else.
Then, the guests did something they’d never done before, they went home and told all their friends. They became evangelists for Hitz and his hotel.
Their friends came to The New Yorker and got the same treatment. They went home and told their friends.
Not long after, The New Yorker was the largest and most profitable hotel in the world.
Someone asked Ralph Hitz how he’d engineered the turnaround. How he created this evangelism among his guests.
Simply, bluntly, he said: ” We contact the hell out of them. “
Great salespeople do the same thing with their clients. They contact the hell out of them.
The very best out there are always looking for a reason to call a customer, besides when they ask for an order.
Many years ago, I learned to call them 2, 3, 5 times with news, tips, nuggets of gossip, leads, etc., versus the number of times I inquired about a possible order.
This technique will never go out of style, will never fail to work and will always pay dividends because it’s based on a prime tenet of human nature - that people always want to feel important, crave attention and want special favors.
How Does Inertia Benefit A Salesman ?
Once upon a time, many moons ago, I was a new, young salesman. I worked for a white-haired man who’d seen more sales dollars go by him than Carter had little pink pills.
As I still am, I was full of ideas. He listened and appreciated my thinking about his business.
That’s a kind way to say he tolerated me.
Many older salesmen would have made short work of me and my ideas, but he allowed me to dream and think. Because of that, I never learned that thinking was a bad or painful idea.
I wish I’d remembered this before my daughters were very old. They’d be better off if I’d never shot down one of their ideas. So will every one of the people you have influence over. Never squash their ideas. Allow them to dream, even if it taxes your patience to the max.
The man I’m speaking of allowed me to bring him my ideas and always found a way to gently toss them out like yesterdays coffee grounds.
I remember giving him one of my all-time great ideas and he told me something that I wish I’d remembered before now.
” If this world was populated by anything other than humans, your idea might work. But as long as it’s humans we sell to, your idea won’t fly… because of inertia. “
Huh ? What the heck does inertia have to do with selling, I thought.
He said I expected way too much from the prospects I called on. He was right.
I hadn’t thought about that and that was the problem.
Years later, when I had moved on to another position, I saw this same premise in print - if you want to succeed in selling, you have to expect to meet and overcome human inertia.
If you’ll read the life story of Sir Henry Bessemer, you’ll see the same idea. He was the inventor of the steel making process that still bears his name. But he was more than an inventor and a scientist, he was a world-class salesman.
He had to be a master salesman, because his ideas were untried and way ahead of their time.
Sir Henry said, ” I have proposed things which I was convinced were very useful. ” But ” I do not know of one instance of one of my suggestions having been tried. The difficulty is getting the first man to move. “
He spoke about is 120+ patents and how he had to personally push - and sell - each one himself. Without his never-give-up attitude towards those 120+ patents and ideas, they would never have seen the light of day.
When he brought steel rails to the railroads, they were using low grade iron rails that weren’t really a good solution. But would they listen to him, even as they used a poor solution to their problem ? No. Of course not, or I’d not be writing this post.
He had to personally lay steel rails on one side and iron on the other to test them.
His steel rail outlasted 23 iron rails. After that, selling them was a tad bit easier.
It took him 12 years to convince the British government to use one of his ideas. 12 years.
” Always allow for the element of inertia in humanity. It’s constant. He who would sell must meet it and overcome it . “
Flattery Versus The Compliment
Centuries of success have proven that compliments work wonderfully well. Yet, few salespeople know the difference between a compliment and flattery. Nor do they know how to properly use a compliment.
I was in a retail store the other day and heard an older man gripe about the salesperson’s attempt to flatter him. He said, ” I’d give almost anything if salespeople would quit trying to flatter people. It doesn’t get them anywhere and it makes me mad. “
The problem wasn’t the salesperson using a compliment, it was that he used flattery. There is a major difference.
If he’d known the difference, he’d have been able to use it (properly) and he’d have made a sale.
Are you wondering what the difference is between a compliment and flattery ?
Here it is :
A compliment is what the person wanted to hear, while flattery is praise to which he is totally indifferent.
To put it simply, don’t start complimenting someone you’ve just met, because you don’t know what they want to hear and they know you don’t.
How do you find out what they want to hear ? Shut your mouth and let them open theirs. They’ll clue you in as to what’s important to them.
As long as you’re complimenting something they’re proud of, you’ll do okay. As long as it’s something important to them, you’ll be okay.
Done properly it will improve your sales and forge better relationships.
Done too soon and/or poorly, it will bite you in the soft spots you’d rather not be bitten in.
Why Do People Really Buy ?
If you’ve got the guts, ask one of your customers why they buy from you. The answer may surprise you. Or scare you. Or disappoint you.
The reason I mostly hear is - No reason.
Can you believe that ? Somebody just bought over $100,000 worth of product from me for no reason. Me neither.
There’s usually an obvious reason and a real reason.
I just heard one of you ask why I would even care why they buy. I’ll answer that, before we go any further.
A wise young man named Stephen Pierce said it better than I’ve ever heard it explained.
” Knowing what they buy will make you a living. Knowing why they buy will make you rich. “
Unless you take time to analyze the sale and find the real reason behind the purchase, you’ll never reach your full potential as a salesperson.
Check on Amazon for any sales books by Donald Laird and you’ll find some great sales advice written by someone who looks at it from the psychological angle.
Laird once noted that in selling, it’s fundamental that you get to the reason behind the reason. You have to get down to what drove the purchase.
His case studies get to the bottom of the purchase. For instance - when we buy a car, we say we want to get from here to there. What we really want is to get there fast, while everybody looks at us and wants to be us.
We buy a Bowflex, saying we want to improve our health. We really want to stay attractive to the opposite sex and make the other men who see us quake with fear from the rippling of our giant muscles.
There are millions of reasons for you to find out why people are buying from you.
Customer Relations: Learning Versus Teaching
The fabulous Sethmeister had a post about a couple of Radio shack employees and the new way they run off their customers.
My first two thoughts were, (1) Why in the heck would you venture into a store that lost it’s usefulness a decade or two ago and (2) I don’t agree with his last statement.
I do however, agree that they should have anteed up a power cord with a smile and sent the customer home happy.
In his “listen-and-learn last paragraph”, where he usually teaches us a valuable lesson, he says,
” Here’s the short version: If you try to teach a customer a lesson, you’ve just done two things:
a. failed at teaching a lesson
and
b. lost a customer “
I’m sure he meant this as it pertains to this particular instance, but if not, I’ll have to disagree.
I teach my customers lessons all the time and they thank me for it.
If you’re a salesperson and you aren’t teaching your customers a lesson now and then, you’re shortchanging them and your sales numbers.
You need to be on the lookout for what your competition is trying to sell your customer and help them learn what to not buy into.
One way to do this would be thru white papers. If you need help with this, click over to my blog friend, Michael Stelzner’s blog and learn from one of the best.
I also try to teach them how to interact with the rest of my company ( customer service, truck drivers, AR,etc ), so they can make the most of our shortcomings.
Some of you will say they shouldn’t have to learn how to best use us, we should be perfect. To that I say - What planet do you live on ?
We hire from the same gene pool that you do. We aren’t perfect and never will be. Do we strive to be ? Yes. Do we weed out the less-than-perfect ones ? Sure we do. And we get another imperfect product of a world full of imperfect circumstances in their place.
The best case would be if we, as a company, would learn from our mistakes and from our customers.
But sometimes we hire people who have the deadliest trait known to man, as it pertains to assisting customers, the disease known as - KNOWITALLITIS.
Yes, one of the worst, most incurable diseases a human can have, KNOWITALLITIS is rampant in today’s gene pool of those looking for a job in sales and customer service.
One of the ‘most likely to succeeds’ I ever saw, was infected with this ugly disease.
He had all the tools that were needed for sales success, but he was never able to shed the traits that this disease reflects in a persons life.
He knew it all, he would not learn, heck, he wouldn’t even shut up telling us all he knew long enough for us to force the medicine he needed down his throat.
When a customer tried, in vain, to tell him what they wanted or needed or were ready to buy, all he could do was tell them all he knew about what they needed and wanted.
If you’d tried to write him a note with an order on it, he would have shoved it aside and would have kept on telling you even more about what he knew you needed.
That’s a far cry from another salesman I know. He never says more than his customer needs to hear. He listens at least twice as much as he speaks. He also sells about twice as much as everybody else in his company.
He learns from everybody and so should you. A professional salesman should learn from the wind, the rain, his dog, the cereal box at breakfast. Everywhere. Everything. Everyone.
The more I read about successful people in the past, the more I learn that they learned from everybody, instead of trying to teach everybody they came in contact with.
Try it sometime. Ask someone for their advice and then use it. You will have made a friend for life. And you might learn something.
If Shakespeare Were In Sales …
While our old friend Willie has been quoted on every subject under the sun, I’ve only once heard him quoted as inspiration for a salesman.
A man in Indianapolis, who found out my fondness for sales messages, once told me this:
” Assume a virtue, if you have it not.”
At the time, this man was being paid a LOT more than I was, so I figured he must know more than me. Even if he didn’t, it was worth looking into.
” Assume a virtue, if you have it not “, he said again, after seeing my eyes wide and mouth hanging open. ” That one quote is worth it’s weight in gold to any salesman “, he said.
I needed more to get a grasp on the concept, so he explained it to me in simple terms. You know I like simple.
You assume that the prospect knows everything there is to know about the product. This is very complimentary to them. When explaining the products uses, you never run the risk of talking down to or patronizing the prospect.
You preface your remarks with phrases like:
” Of course, I don’t need to explain this to you, but … “
” You already know this, but … “
” I don’t have to tell you this, but … “
Then you go ahead and explain the product and all of it’s possibilities in the simplest terms you can find.
I’ve found that when I sense someone feeling like I’m trying to talk over their heads, or if I’ve said something that they might consider condecending, I can sometimes gloss it over with a phrase or two like this, as I continue to educate them on something they should already know.
You can also use this to instill a sense of you believing them to be a big player, even though you know they aren’t.
” We only make this offer to the leaders in the industry … “
” This only works for those that are ahead of the curve .. “
You can use some of Shakespeare’s finest sales advice to put you ahead of the curve or to become a leader in your industry… but I don’t have to tell you that.
If Paris Hilton Were In Sales …
Take any young, rich, badly educated heiress with no morals and change her role to one of a salesperson and what would happen to her ?
Well, in my enormous opinion, she’d talk mostly about her favorite subject … herself.
If she did sense the need to talk about the customer, which is highly unlikely, she’d probably say, ” Now then, let’s talk about you. What did you think of my latest video ? “
Unfortunately, there are WAY too many salespeople out there who are just like this. They’re enamored with their product or company.
Their favorite word is “we“, not “you” and that turns the sales process completely around, 180 degrees away from the right direction.
Smart salesmen know that there is only one topic that’s worth talking about and that’s what your product/service can do for the customer.
A lot of customers, I’m not one of them, will be courteous to stupid salespeople who do this. They listen to you talk about how many you can make, how much you like making the product, how your sales are great, etc.
But in his mind, he’s wondering what this has to do with him and his business.
I just read about a salesman who recently passed to the next world. He was a prize winning botanist, too. He won several honors, was awarded a college degree and been a cult hero to those in his hobby.
His customers never knew any of this, because he never bothered talking to them with facts about himself.
Or maybe he was smart enough to know what his customers wanted to talk about … themselves and their business.
The Art Of The Compliment
One of the greatest books on salesmanship doesn’t have the word sales in the title or in it’s contents, but it’s been said that if you’ll read the book every 6 months for the rest of your career, you’ll become a much better salesperson.
The book is Lord Chesterfield’s Letters To His Son. It was published well over 200 years ago, to be used as a guide for his son to use to become a better person, a gentleman and a success.
Salesmanship wasn’t the intention, nor was it even mentioned, but the rules the brilliant diplomat/author put on paper to help his son thru the various social contacts and situations, form a perfect guide for the salesperson who wants to master the human side of his profession.
One of the topics that Lord Chesterfield stresses in many of the letters is the necessity of using compliments to please others.
” Sincere praise is always good. You will easily discover every man’s prevailing vanity by observing his favorite topic of conversation, for every man talks most of what he has most a mind to be thought to excel in. Touch him there and you touch him to the quick. “
The lesson here is for the salesman to listen while the prospect talks, make a mental note of what he is most interested in, and then, when the opportunity arises, steer the conversation towards that topic.
It will take a tremendous gaffe to get a prospect/customer/client to ever leave you, if he feels important, comfortable and desired while you’re together.
Compliments, not flattery, will go a long way towards more sales.
I found my copy on Alibris.com and there’s still several there. Amazon has several versions, too.
