Selling

Feel The Room

Garth Beyer

Alfredo lost a sale and started our weeklong vacation experience on a poor note. It’s disappointing that one of the quickest and most common ways to lose a sale, to get a poor review, to turn what could be a returning customer into a one-timer is failure to feel the room.

Alfredo knew we were starving and were running on only a few hours of sleep, yet he stood around waiting for us to get checked in just to pull us to his office and talk about all the upgrades we could purchase and time shares we should consider buying then and there.

Talk about aggravating.

Time would have been better spent sitting at the restaurant with us and talking there or just telling us to come back to him later. It would have saved both our times. But, no. He failed to feel the room.

Actually, he failed to act on what he felt. He knew we were frustrated, tired, and starving. Is that the type of person you want to try selling to? I sure don’t.

I’ll take someone who has energy, who’s content, who I know is capable of desiring what I have to offer.

The concept of feeling the room runs across all life’s themes.

– You wouldn’t tell a joke about the reaper and death in a hospital room full of mourning people.

– You don’t make out with your significant other in front of her parents when it’s your first time meeting them.

– You don’t blast your iPod music during a quiet yoga session.

Of course, these examples seem extreme and quite obvious, but so are all the other moments in life. It’s easy to recognize when someone is frustrated, ancy, nervous or hungry. (And if it’s not, ask how the person is feeling then work on satisfying them on that note first! Selling 101.)

It’s obvious what to do next when someone says they are tired or hungry or mourning, yet so many salesmen (Alfredo!) reject the opportunity to do the unscripted, to turn a stranger into a friend, not just a commission.

 

Stay Positive & Feel The Room Then Act Accordingly

(even if “accordingly” is against the guidebook)

Selling Feelings

Garth Beyer

At a grocery store the other week I got in line with my cart of food, which included organic bananas. When the cashier grabbed the bananas, he said, “you know that it’s dumb to pay extra for organic bananas that are genetically identical to regular bananas, right?”

I had no clue how to respond.

—

You know those “I should have said…” moments, when you think of the perfect response after the fact? It was one of those situations.

If I could rewind time I would have reminded him we don’t purchase things because of what people label them with, not directly anyway. We pay for products and services to feel a particular way.

Organic bananas and regular bananas may have the same genetic compound and benefit my body in the same way scientifically, but they make me feel completely different.

I feel cleaner eating organic bananas, and thus happier, more content with my choice. I feel like my body benefits more with organic bananas: I have more energy, a fuller stomach, better poops. And perhaps it’s just my mind, but I think organic bananas taste better too.

—

When we challenge, doubt, and write off everything, when we settle for the generic and the banal, we also sacrifice the benefits that come with ignorance, that come with placebos, that come with just feeling good!

I’ve been known to say, “It feels good, to feel good.”

I won’t let a know-it-all cashier stop me from that. Organic Bananas, always.

 

Stay Positive & He’s Bananas

Unlocking Potential #16: Q&A With Chris Brogan

Garth Beyer

chrisbrogan-2014-Credit via Raul Colon

I have to admit, I squealed a bit when Chris’s assistant emailed me back stating Chris would be game for a Q&A as part of my Unlocking Potential series.

Chris is full of wisdom, insight, and complete passion when it comes to marketing and living life to the max. His way of working and writing has gotten me to expand my mindset to be a bit more okay with being a bit more weird.

As Chris would agree, weird is good.

Without further ado, please welcome, Chris.

Q: What’s your story in three sentences?

I started out by writing a blog that got more popular. I helped many businesses figure out how to be human at a distance. I continue to help people find ways to build their business by understanding where they belong and how they can better serve those people.

Q: Alright, that was rude of me. Use some more words to explain. How the heck did you build such a strong tribe?

I rarely need more words. The people who I’ve surrounded myself with are people who seek to be of service and who seek to connect others. Growing capabilities and connections. It’s an easy model.

Q: What have you come to find are the two or three most effective ways to get people to share a product, a story or a blog post with one another?

I find that people share what they feel resonates with them. Where most folks get it wrong is they seek numbers, not resonance. Why try to get “everyone” to see what you do? Share it with the folks who feel they belong in the circle with you. They are who want the information in the first place.

Q: What are three qualities you think every person aspiring to be a successful entrepreneur need to have? Why these three over all the other qualities?

I think entrepreneurs need to be service-minded, need to be brave, and need to be eager to share their resources at every turn where it makes sense. I think these three are great because they set up a simple framework for persistent growth of the self and of one’s networks.

Q: I asked John Saddington, who was my 11th Unlocking Potential interview, this same question. What is the biggest challenge you’re seeing today’s entrepreneurs facing?

I think most of the people calling themselves entrepreneurs are actually just people trying to make and sell things without the mindset of serving a particular group of people. They lead with the question “How can I make money” instead of “how can I help someone else succeed?”

Q: Would you tell about the most recent time you had faced a huge challenge yourself and how you did or didn’t overcome it?

I face challenges daily. I think the theme recently is, “Be willing to be even more humble and learn what you aren’t fully understanding.” That lesson keeps being introduced to my life, so I’ll keep learning.

Q: What are you afraid of? Really. Emotionally.

I’m afraid of sharks. I’m afraid of not being able to provide. I’m afraid that my ability to serve will somehow miss the people who most need what I can do to help.

Q: What are a few habits you’ve developed that were essential to your success?

I’m an expert communicator, so that serves me well. I’m very driven to produce. I’m very disciplined. Those really all help.

Q: What is something you haven’t shared with your tribe yet about yourself?

It’d be really hard to figure out what I haven’t shared. I’ll talk about anything. Poop. Sorrow. Depression. Whatever. I’m a fairly open book.

Q: Right now, in the present moment, what would you do or create if you had unlimited resources and time?

Another universe.

Q: Where can people find your remarkable work and what is the best way for someone to reach out to you?

I’m pretty easy going. chrisbrogan.com is a good enough place to start. Grab my newsletter and hit reply. I write back. 🙂

 

Stay Positive & Learn What You’re Not Fully Understanding

Marketing Close To Pain

Garth Beyer

Remarkable Or Pain

When someone is in pain, they’ll do anything and everything for relief, and if you’re in the business of relief, the more you can charge.

Pain is a strong word, but then again, so is need, which is exactly what marketers place themselves in a position to fulfill.

It blows my mind how any podcaster can charge $1,100 a month for a podcast webinar series. It’s crazy how much some marketing conferences cost.

Likewise, it’s never exciting to hear the burger at the airport is $15 or the beer at a hotel bar is $9 a bottle. Yet, owners and businesspeople and marketers and podcasters alike can charge that much because they are in the proximity of pain.

The marketers who invest in the podcast webinar series are in desperate need to get to the top. The starving traveller, well, is starving.

Want to charge more for your product or service? Get closer to the pain, the need.

Or… or… go to the other end, the end of desire and passion and love. The end of connection and bragging and giving.

You have two options. Sell a mediocre burger for an outrageous amount because you’re close to the pain or sell a remarkable burger for a price that matches its value (sometimes even less because it’s a burger you want people to talk about, an experience you want them to partake in, and joy you want to share).

Fortunately for you the market for remarkable is wide-open, there are people there waiting to be blown away with an experience. The market for pain, however, is crowded. Good luck getting in there.

 

Stay Positive & Yes, Fulfill A Need, But Know Which Need You’re Fulfilling First

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Win-Win Situation To Sell What You’ve Worked Hard Creating

Win-Win Situation To Sell What You’ve Worked Hard Creating

Garth Beyer

Bundle It To Sell What You've Worked Hard Creating

A great way to sell your book might be to package it with someone else’s.

A great way to sell your webinar might be to ask an industry leader to add your product to their education bundle.

A great way to get people to see the remarkable work you create may be to publish it on different group-blog or community platforms.

You may want to create on your own, but that doesn’t mean you can’t sell your art with others.

 

Stay Positive & Why Pass Up On A Win-Win

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How To Guarantee Your Product Will Be A Hit

How To Guarantee Your Product Will Be A Hit

Garth Beyer

Inventor At Work / Product Hit Guarantee

In the old days (I’m referring to just a few years ago) we would create a project or service and then try to sell it. We would develop a product and try to convince people they had the problem our product was the solution for.

Now we have to create a remarkable product or service that solves an existing problem.

The first step in any marketing or creation plan (after seeking out an existing problem, of course) is to not just write why our product is the remarkable solution, but show that it is.

In the past we could stay in our dark rooms, write a book, give it to a publisher, and then rely on the publisher to market the book and hope it hits the NYT bestseller list.

In the past we could dream up an awesome product at our desks, contact manufacturers in China, have them build it, send it to us and then hope people would buy it.

Now the publisher doesn’t do the marketing. Now few go knocking on doors.

We can’t stay in our quiet dark room anymore.

Now books gets sold before their written. Now we have a preorder list of 1,200 before we build the product.

The way to guarantee your product will be a hit once it reaches the market is to guarantee your product will be a hit before you build it. You do that by building a tribe of believers, of backers, of supporters.

Instead of putting a book out there and hoping people bite, you can blog about the book before it’s written, create a network centered around the message of your book, then you get a book proposal based on the feedback and impact you already have. You are able to show it will be a bestseller.

Kickstarter works because people have a tribe of supporters that will pay to have them build their inventions because one of their perks is that they will get weekly updates, exclusive promos, and special thank-yous. Not to mention, they simply believe in the maker, the artist, (you?). But those artists have worked hard for their trust, not just hard on the product.

We’re no longer in an age when we can rely on others to sell what we create. Sure, create for the sake of creating, because it’s fun, because there’s no better opportunity we have in life. But if you are looking to make an income off your creation,  doesn’t it make sense to guarantee your product will be a hit before you create it?

 

Stay Positive & We Have The Tools, Now Use’m

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Limits Work In Your Favor

Limits Work In Your Favor

Garth Beyer

Stacks Of Wasted Words

I once had a professor who assigned groups of his students to write an elaborate creative and advertising brief. The document was to include everything from a SWOT analysis to target demographics to a media buying plan. When it was time to turn in parts of the overall plan, each part was 20+ pages when it should have been 2-5.

It was 20+ pages because the students wanted to use big words, repeat themselves in different ways with hopes it would convey their point better, and generally they thought it made them look better and, thus, get a better grade.

Oddly enough (sarcasm), 60+ page documents don’t move people.

Often times it’s one sentence, one page summary, one short video that makes someone move to buy, to research, to book, to subscribe, to hit “like.”

While I agree there are benefits to getting students to have a 60+ page mindset, I’m not so sure it accomplished the goal of what the class was for.

Sometimes limits, ceilings, maximums can work in your favor: they force you to write concise, they encourage big thinking of small ideas, they push you to work in ways that resonate with the target audience you want to impact. No one wants to spent three hours of their day looking over your brief, no matter how good you say it is.

And if you can’t communicate your message in just a few lines, is it really worth communicating, really worth investing in?

The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?
Ecclesiastes 6:11

 

Stay Positive & Can You Guess Where Those Long Docs End Up? (see pic above)

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