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Sell your products like a pro by avoiding these basic mistakes
A year and a half ago, I started the habit of writing once a day. As a logical software engineer, this was no cakewalk. I managed to do it because I learned from extremely talented people who had years of experience.
I found most of these people on Medium and I’ve analyzed what worked for them and what didn’t.
Due to that process, I greatly accelerated my growth, getting published after 5 days and becoming top in seven categories in 23 days.
Today, I get between 150,000 and 200,000 views every month. Not bad for a non-native English speaker and non-creative person!
Realize that your limitations are in your brain. You are more capable than you think you are.
But that’s not the main point of this story.
Today, I received an email update from one of the writers I aspired to be back in January 2018, Anthony Moore.
He is launching a book next month and a course this week. I know it will be fantastic. I learned from his articles on writing and from a previous course he did. Part of the reason I am where I am today in writing is because of his teachings.
So, it’s going to turn to gold for him, right?
I certainly hope so for him because I know the value he’s bringing and how hard he worked on it.
The reality is that there’s a chance it may not do that well. An amazing product or service does not guarantee success. Building it is about half the battle; selling it is at least the other half.
And even though he’s got a very decent-sized audience, it may flop. I’ve been there. I know he has been there too.
To add to that, I’ve seen the exact same happen to my friend and successful writer Ayodeji Awosika. During an interview I did with him, he confessed that a course he worked on for months yielded zero sales.
Zero sales!
Where do most of us fall short?
It turns out that there are four simple classic sales principles.
1. People Buy From People
While this list is not technically in order, I’d argue that this is indeed the most important part of selling your products and services.
When you sell high-ticket items, people need to trust you. In most cases, I’d argue that a half-good video introduction beats perfect copy any day.
I’m selling an online skill development app/program.
I tried as much as I could to explain it in words. I tried long copy. I tried short copy. I tried various other ways, but interest really only picked up when I did a short four-sentence video that (1) showed me as the person selling the product, and (2) visually showed the results.
New HD version of my “sales” video
Tai Lopez became famous because of a video shot from his phone in his garage. Translate his “In my garage” video into a wall of text. I bet you can already see that the impact would not have been the same.
But if you can’t do a video for any reason, fret not, it’s still possible to do great without it!
When you open the sales page of Dave Schools’ courses, you see:
https://mediumwritingcourse.com/ (this is not an affiliate link)
Here’s what’s great about it:
It has a picture of his face.
He tells his, very compelling, story’s results in a short paragraph.
He clearly states the results you’ll get (more on that later).
He shows the story of one of his satisfied customers, again, with his face.
Putting a date on it shows that it’s current.
We’ll dig deeper into some of the other things Dave is going well on his page in point #3 (It’s not about the features, it’s about the results).
I want to emphasize sub-point #1. It’s such an easy thing to do. Put your face on your product.
A lot of people are self-conscious about their image and are scared to put their face on things. You might not be as good looking as Dave, but who cares. It may actually help if you’re not as good looking. It makes you more relatable.
2. We Buy on Emotion and Justify With Logic
I once “won” a free dinner at a private cooking show by attending a wedding trade show. The invitation promised a very interesting gift if I showed up.
“Free dinner and a gift for just showing up? Sign me up!”, I said.
Dumb mistake. I guess you can already predict part of what’s to come.
I did get my free dinner, and it was pretty decent. They demoed some “incredible” cooking set and cooked with it.
At the end of the presentation/dinner, they told the few attendees: “We’re giving you this cruise for free if you purchase the cooking set.” I’m greatly downplaying their sales pitch here; they made it a lot more enticing.
They talked about the incredible benefits of their innovative cooking set. They sold the dream of unlimited sun in the midst of a bad Canadian winter.
I bought the damn cooking set on a loan. I was still a student back then.
Do you know how much it cost?
$2,000!
I was justifying to my wife with the logical benefits. The reality was that I was just fed up with the cold and had never traveled before. This was my golden opportunity. I bought on emotion, yet justified with logic.
When I got home, I read that the cruise was a scam and you still had to pay a bunch of fees to take part in the “free” cruise.
I never went and I was left with a stupid $2,000 cooking set when I actually had a hard time buying good food for dinner.
Think I’m alone in that situation?
Think again. You buy on emotion. Everyone does. As a marketer or salesperson, you won’t do well unless you realize this.
3. It’s Not About the Features, It’s About the Results
Let’s say you want to become a writer and make money from it. If I told you that I, and other people also, have made over $1,500 from articles repeatedly, it all sounds great, but it doesn’t feel real.
How about this:
Again, from: https://mediumwritingcourse.com/
“You’re asking me to pay $49 and I can make $1,500? Where can I sign?”, says the new writer.
That is incredibly enticing. It’s even stronger when you “know” the people that achieved those results.
The more you showcase results, especially from other customers a new customer may associate with, the better.
And always make the results obvious. Qualify or quantify it in a way so the potential customer can understand it in a single sentence.
In the above example, the result is clear: other students made $1,500, so can you.
4. Show Confidence in Your Offering
Authenticity and honesty are very important aspects of selling, but not at the expense of confidence.
Here are two things you shouldn’t do:
Apologize for asking money for a product you know will help your audience.
Down-selling yourself and your product.
Feeling like an imposter? When it comes to selling, keep it to yourself and triple the asking price. That’s what I call confidence!
When I released my Limitless Toolbox (a productivity tool), I ended up selling it for 10 times what I was originally thinking of selling it for.
I thought about selling it for $10. I ended up selling it for $100.
You would think that the cheaper price would bring more sales, leading to a higher revenue overall. But that’s rarely the case in sales.
And if you’re afraid of being “greedy”, think again. Me 10x’ing my price was not greedy. It was a way for me to add accountability.
We act on things we value. If you pay $10 for a product, that’s what it’s worth to you. If you pay $100 for the same product, it’s 10x more valuable. Perceived value is everything.
That product did sell at $100.
So I did an experiment to test my theory and lowered that price to $10. Here are the results:
I sold 5x fewer copies.
People did not use it.
That second one is the important one. I’d give it to you for free if you would use it. I care about helping you. But you can’t help yourself, so I have to charge the right amount for it.
When I was selling it at $100, I got emails from people saying how it changed their lives forever. You can bet I never got that from people who got it cheaply.
The point here is to never devalue yourself or your product. That perceived lack of confidence in yourself will make your customer lose confidence in you.
Summary
In this world, creating a stellar product or service is only half the battle. Most of us leave the battlefield halfway through.
Sales and marketing are at least as important as the creation process, yet even highly skilled people make the mistake of not paying enough attention.
There are four mistakes you can easily avoid. Remember that:
People buy from people.
People buy on emotion and justify with logic.
It’s never about the features, it’s about the results.
People buy from people who have confidence in their own product.
So what are you going to do with this information?
I strongly encourage you to look at your current offering today and see if it suffers from one of the pitfalls above.
Take a short moment to craft a plan to execute the steps required to overcome them, and then execute within the next week or so. At the very least, schedule it in your calendar.
Remember, he who acts receives. He who doesn’t remains poor.
Don’t be poor. You can do this!