Today’s post deals with the age old question – “to sell or not to sell”.

I recently had a fellow marketer (who shall remain nameless so don’t ask)  approach me about his success or rather his LACK of success when promoting products to his followers and subscribers.

I looked into his recent emails because I have been one of his subscribers for quite some time and they were all stored in my gmail account.

The answer was clear… the guy is simply afraid to sell.

Here’s the thing with sales, THEE most important thing to convey when selling
is confidence in the product you are selling. You simply can not pussy foot
around the notion that there is a product being presented and that it requires a purchase.

Look, here’s the reality, whether you’re selling on a website, in a video, or on an email, the point is to persuade the prospect to make an informed decision that benefits both you and them.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when promoting an affiliate product or selling on your own site:

1. Know what you’re talking about, if you’re not familiar with the product then you have no business selling it.
2. Speak with concise certainty. Failing to do this will only raise doubts in the prospects mind and inhibit their likelihood of following through.
3. Give them one option and one option only, that is to purchase NOW. Don’t provide alternatives or weak closes that leave them with the opportunity to consider not to making the purchase.

Does that sound too aggressive to you? Well then you’re probably one of the people that isn’t making as many sales as they can be. You’re simply afraid to sell. So, what you need to do is research that fear instead of trying to come up with an excuse as to why your marketing efforts are not working. It’s not the product, it’s not the prospect, it’s not the economy, it’s you.

Selling is not bad, it’s not evil, it’s what makes the planet go around. Perhaps, if you feel as if selling is bad or aggressive, it’s because you yourself at one time or another has had a bad experience with an overbearing salesman. You didn’t like the way it made you feel and you don’t want to make others feel that way and that’s understandable. However, selling is good for all the parties involved. When you are ethically representing a good product that you know you’re prospect needs and you’re offering it at a fair price. You are doing your customer a disservice by letting them convince you of why they shouldn’t buy. You are failing them, you are failing yourself, you are failing the family that you support and you are failing the worlds economy by blaming things other than yourself for the lack of sales.

To become a high preforming closer you must be so absolutely confident that your product will help the prospect by either solving one of their problems or otherwise improving their life, that you will do everything in your power to guide them through the purchase decision.

The fellow marketer that I was talking about earlier was making multiple mistakes in his sales tactics, learn from them, here they are:

1. He had never personally purchased or used the product he was representing. Therefore, he lacked confidence.
2. He was promoting multiple products at the same time, over complicating the purchase decision of the prospect.
3. He was using all kinds of disclaimers to soften the blow of the reality that an exchange of money is required to complete this interaction. He was saying things like, “as always, be sure to look into everything yourself before you buy a product, I can’t personally endorse this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” Now come on, if you’re going to sell me something then stop yapping and sell me something already.

As my good friend Marshall Sylver says, “selling is good, it helps you because you get something you need. It helps me, cause I’m making a living and it helps the economy because money is exchanging hands.” If you don’t firmly believe that then you will never discover your true potential and you will never be completely successful at sales of any kind. I wish you lots of sales success and as always I welcome your intelligent comments.

To Your Success,

Omar Martin, President & CEO

3 Comments

  1. Great stuff!

    I can relate to this “I need to help people” type of approach.

    I still stand by that “be a resource” principal, but at some point we MUST venture into the sales territory.

    I know that I STILL feel that sense of shying away from offering a product for sale, because it feels “pushy” or “aggressive”.

    But…

    No sales means no business… which means we all need JOBS !!!

    Thanks for the post.

  2. Hi Omar,

    Awesome post! Thank you for being honest about selling and promoting.

    I think there are a lot of people that have just tried to sell instead of actually believing in the product and truthfully as a potential buyer I can tell if someone has used the product they are promoting or not!

    A person that actually believes in the product is naturally more natural and more passionate about what they are talking about. A person that is just selling has the same cloned email that every other marketer out there does and no wonder they don’t make any sales!

    I think honesty and integrity as well as selling is a good combination for creating a business online.

    Thank you for the points.

    Kind Regards

    Jacinta 😀
    (Trying to create a business online while her 2 year old sleeps!)

  3. Hey Omar,

    Great post man, I know exactly what you mean. We’ve all had a bad experience with a salesman at some point, and the experience does stick in your mind when you are trying to sell something to someone.

    And it can make you feel like you are doing something bad. Just because your experience of being sold to is a bad one.

    I’m sure the marketer in question will be making a lot more sales if he follows the points you make in this post. 😉

    Take care,

    Paul.

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