Sales Lesson from my Mom - There's Two Types of Salespeople

Apparently there's an air of authenticity and the innate ability to speak as only an owner of the goods/services could, which gets transmitted to the potential buyer. Kind of like members of the same club speaking to each other of inner experiences.

Your Mom sounds like a smart woman.

Yup, the believers will almost always outsell the most experienced salespeople.
Do you know why? (I'll bet you do)

Because they are certain...and that certainty shows through to the prospect in a thousand different ways. It may not even register consciously, but their body language, voice inflection, tempo, and expressions convey a sincerity that can't be faked.

And buying your product for personal use is not only a sign of belief in the product, but it's smart selling.

I had a great life insurance salesman once tell me that he could tell me how much life insurance I sold that year, based on how much I owned myself. And he was close.

Great post. Not as good as mine, but great enough.


By the way, if someone asks you if you own the product you sell (as long as it makes sense....fighter jets are an exception)...and you admit that you don't...no reason you give is convincing. And if you don't own it, why should they?

This is one of the main reasons that consultants/marketers that have achieved great results for clients can easily outsell people just starting out. They know and believe that the prospect is nuts for not buying from them and that comes across.

That is why so many people taking courses/coaching on charging high ticket prices fail miserably on sales calls. They have all the scripts and pitches and funnels down but deep down inside they have not done it yet and do not really believe that what they are selling will have the impact that they are pitching.

I know for example that Claude that just commented has sold a marketing system for offline businesses. He has done it many times including for himself and knows the impact it has on a business. He does not need to "sell" anything when talking about it. He is simply recounting previous experience of something he believes in and knows to be true. He knows the price he is charging is more than fair based on the results it has delivered in the past. The "sale" conversation at that point is simply about if he has time to do it, if the prospect is a good fit and has the cash. There is not really any question about the end result.

This can be taken online too. A common question over the years in the Main WF is "what should I sell?". The recommendations are often based on things like the commission, etc. I would suggest that people considering selling things they bought themselves and like.

A good technique for online sales pages is to include a graphic of your receipt showing that you actually bought the product yourself. In most cases I'd bet that this more than pays for itself, unless you're selling fighter jets.

BTW Claude, be careful with the life insurance. You don't want to get the payout too high as I'm sure Cheryl already has more than enough motivation to "take action".

Maybe a small wrinkle on this whole idea.

Some salespeople who are completely sold on their offer know everything about it. It is that knowledge that makes them sure it's a great offer.

But I've seen several beginner salespeople outsell the pros, because they know so little that their belief in the product/service is just sheer unbridled enthusiasm....based on very limited knowledge.

My friend Julius Toth sold a vacuum cleaner that he demonstrated better than anyone I know, including me. He was a force of nature. He didn't have customers...he had followers.

If you believed him, you bought. And most people believed.

But his presentation included several explanations that were nonsensical. I even asked him once if he knew that some of what he says simply wasn't true....and he said "No, and I don't want to know".

He got it. If he really thought about everything he said, it may create doubt. And doubt is the enemy in sales.

And he hired and trained a woman to sell air purifiers out of his store. She sold more than every else combined (in the store). Part of it was an unwavering belief. But that belief was based on claims that she heard...that were simply not true. She wasn't lying. She was convinced that the air purifiers cured diseases and created Oxygen out of the air....and so were her customers.

What I'm saying is, an unwavering belief in what you sell can move mountains. But it's that certainty that gives it power, not whether it's based on reality or not.

And for the rank beginner, it's often based on incomplete information.

Yeah Kurt, this is pretty much it.

Follow your fun. Or, sell your fun. Or, sell something you feel passionate about. Then you are not selling. You are sharing. People get onboard - quickly if they vibe with your passion - if you are super duper authentic empassioned over some product or service.

Energy deal; you feel excited and folks with some interest get swept up too. Look at Tony Robbins. I have met folks who sat at his live events. They always go back. Buying in again and again, feasting on his passion. They all highly recommend I go myself. His passion sells passively. Or his passion inspires customers to sell on his behalf. Amazing.

Then you have slick folks who master manipulation. The lack passion. But master persuasion. Nothing wrong with that. We are all adults here. BUT....this person never feels fulfilled because they lack passion. They develop the skill of manipulating people to see numbers on a screen - aka money - but feel empty as those numbers rise. Because you cannot be genuinely happy if you are trying to manipulate people into giving your stuff. Poor exchange. No exchange, really. Since people are buying not on passion but on being manipulated to buy. Crappy way to earn a living.

I sell what I feel passionate about. I pass on everything else. No better way to sleep at night. And no better way to generate more sales too, because your passion both detaches you largely from selling actions while acting like a selling agent.

Here's how: your love of what you do/sell invites people to buy without any heavy selling on your part. It is sharing. Nothing more. People love when you share with them. People often pay up fast when they are not sold to like objects, but when sales people share neat products or services with them, as human beings.

Passion also inspires happy customers to sell almost like informal affiliates. Note the Tony example above. But let's get more specific....

3 years ago I spent 4 months in Savusavu, Fiji. I lived in a home with breath-taking views, overlooking Savasavu Bay and the Pacific Ocean. One of the most beautiful islands in the world.

Tony Robbins' Namale Resort sits in Sauvsavu. He hosts retreats regularly for big ticket clients or attendees who drop serious coin to either see Tony speak live, in person, or via simulcast, all while enjoying a stunning location.

As my wife Kelli and I flew home - in an airport no bigger than a bathroom at JFK Airport in New York (I am being dead serious!) we met 2 women who were flying home from Tony's recent retreat. One modestly shared how she was the top broker for a prestigious financial firm. The other was a wealthy house wife.

Both women could not stop raving about TR, the event, snorkeling with all types of wildlife, the resort, spending time in Tony's house. Endless marketing, endless selling, all but goading me to go the next time I spent time in Fiji.

This is passion, manifest. This is the amazing power of a guy who believes so much in his craft and loves his craft and people so much that all they do is rave about the guy and sell his courses and live events and retreats and books and everything that the guy puts out there.

I genuinely believe he's one of the ultimate examples of how a sales person can build a stunning empire from a passionate, heart-centered space, all while starting from a dead broke, down and out, space.

Ryan

So the question is did the vacuum salesman tell other people he bought his own product or did people know this from seeing the vacuum cleaners in his house?

My point is, this is a sales pitch, AKA, I'm not only the Hair Club President, but I'm also a client.

I do agree that knowing what to sell from your own buying habits is the easiest way to sell.

It's a battle between doing what can earn you an income and pursuing something that you're passionate about and selling it as a product.