How to Sell Your Products

Scenario: "Dude, to sell to people, we gotta excite them to dream. Dream! We'll sell millions. And, make billions. Yay!" A two-second test for ya: Of your last 10 major purchases, how many salespeople converted you from "uninterested" to "happy buyer"? Likely: none. Think of the stereotypical salesperson for a minute:

1. Loud.
2. Aggressive.
3. Animated.
4. Overly-excited.
5. Uses lots of superlatives.

Why do most people avoid buying from them? Because, those mutha slukkas try to make decisions for us. When they do, we wave our fingers and go: "Oh-no-you-didn't. I'm smart enough to make my-very-own-decisions, thank-you-very-much." People, as it turns out, like to make their own decisions. The key to selling your products then: Forget the stereotypical salesperson; instead, seek people who choose to buy from you.

Why the Stereotypical Sales Crapola Sucks

When you're selling, two scenarios confront you:

1. "I want to buy."
2. "Not interested. Go away."

More than 99% of the time you'll get the latter. The stereotypical sales person/book/author would then tell you: "Keep on pushing! Don't take NO for an answer! You-can-do-it! Yay!" Ahh-fa-shizzle. What typically results? If the person still says no:

1. You ruin a potential long-term relationship, because you just irritated the $@!& out of 'em.

   The fattest profits come from repeat sales. Initial sales are good; but it's that continual fattening of purchases from repeat customers that really drives your bottom line. Burn the doorway, and it's over.

2. You ruin access to that dude/tte's personal network of potential buyers, because you just irritated the $@!& out of 'em.

   John has two friends who could use your services. Those two friends have two each. Those four have two each. Those eight have two each. Those 16 have two each. And, so on. Uh-oh.

And, in the rare chance the person finally obliges and buys into your hype (because people sometimes just want to be nice):

• You've sold the customer a product s/he didn't need.
• Long-term selling: Gone.

Here's the Better Way

The secret sauce: Help people make wiser decisions. No fluff. Present facts -- as many facts about your offerings as you can. That tells your customer that you're sincere with what you sell -- and more important: builds a long-term goodwill with the client and his/her vast network. For instance at Trizzy, when a customer needs a CRM application:

• We'll write the advantages/disadvantages to using the sucker.
• We'll list the type of companies that benefit/hurt most from the application.
• We'll describe the best/worst way to use the application.

(Note: Those points come from experience and through the nerdy studies that's been done, so we make the information as objective as possible.) That helps customers make much wiser decisions. If it turns out the client's business doesn't need the CRM application, we still built some pretty kick-ass goodwill for future business. Also, we didn't sell anything the client didn't need -- preventing the often-used: "Oh-you-bizatchi, you sold me crap. No-mo-business-4-u." But, in the cool chance that the client decides s/he needs the CRM? We load up on Carne Asada tacos.

Remember: Selling is a Numbers Game

Novice salespeople think they're confined to a 5 sales prospects. That is "If I don't sell to those 5, I'm screwed!"

• "My business will die!"
• "I won't have food on the table!"
• "Mama will yell at me!"
• "I'll be a 62-year old virgin!"

If that sounds familiar: Relax. Breathe. It's okay. You're still a badass. You're not confined to a limited number of prospects. 17,000,000 United States prospects exist if you're a B2B; 300,000,000 exist if you're a B2C. And, since you're reading this article online, you're connected to freakishly millions more. Great salespeople forget selling to the uninterested; it's a waste of money, resources, and more important: time. Instead, they use that time to find those who are interested in what they sell.

"So what do I do? What do I do?"

Expose your services to as many targeted people as you can, then help them make wise decisions. You know your business much better than we do. So, how you expose your business to your target market is up to you. Some basic stuff:

• advertising your wares in trade magazines,
• building a sweet MySpace for your business,
• cold calling executives,
• passing out business cards that list your products/services,
• joining the Chamber of Commerce.

(One caveat: No e-mail spam. It's associated with enlargement pills.) The basic, but viciously important rule-of-thumb: The more people that know about your services, the more customers you'll find.

Stereotypical selling sucks. Seek people who choose to buy your services. Word.

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