It boils down to these 2 things…
Start by observing how you feel towards successful brands when you buy…
And then learn how to produce that feeling in your own audience so they buy.
Sounds pretty simple, right?
It’s sorta like how you know we all fall in love… now you just need to learn about what makes you fall in love.
What makes you want to, happily, spend your hard-earned money?
While you’re pondering deep within your self for these answers to the universe….
you need to read some good content, get a teacher, and learn all about the individual actions and behaviors you need to make as a professional sales person or marketer, so that you can make a gigantic pile of money.
From there, it’s about doubling down on those actions and behaviors and building upon this skill-set.
Yes, this article is about sales and marketing…
but this is a skill-set that you can benefit from in all aspects of your life…. Like in relationships, leading a team, politics and starting a family.
This is the skill-set of experimenting with learned actions and behaviors
NOTE: learning to experiment with different actions and behavior can be very beneficial for you… ONLY if you take in feedback and adjust those actions and behaviors accordingly.
So, before you think this is a shortcut to your riches, that you can write down a few theories and start racking in the cash as it rains from the heavens…
We need to make clear that a lot these actions, that contain calculated words and delivered expertly, require a crap load of practice to do well.
You will find your groove… by painstakingly practicing… And writing horrible garbage content… And making people feel awkward on a daily basis…
But as you become more competent, which you will, because you are so focused…
Your life will change.
You’ll start racking up the points, so to speak. Think, Lambo’s and mansions.
Most importantly, you will be able to serve your audience a high quality product… which is an award in itself.
People love great work. They will respond positively to you. They will buy from you.
That being said, our goal in this article is for you to develop this skill-set.
Having this skill-set will open your eyes to how big brands and expert salesman and marketers make you feel all that good stuff that departs you from your money.
I’ve divided the sales process into 3 parts. Within each part you will need to execute strategy at a high level, in your own style and flair, developed by practicing over and over again. I like to think of this article as an outline, where you could fill in all the details at your own pace.
After reading this article you’ll have a goal to strive towards- a skill-set that you can develop. You can now consistently take your prospect through a well-crafted journey which leads ultimately to a goal…
The sale.
No successful businessman can do anything efficiently and profitably without a system like this.
NOTE: The reason why people can’t capitalize on opportunities in sales and marketing has nothing to do with the product, which is in itself often proven in the marketplace, and it has everything to do with clunky sales processes.
That is actually good news…
If you do treat sales and marketing as a skill-set…
something you practice and hone-in… digital marketing becomes something that eventually works, instead of just another… “business opportunity” you’ve bought into.
I recommend that you should read this book by Gary Vee titled “Jab Jab Jab Right Hook”.
Gary Vee has figured out his own type of mastery in sales and marketing.
By writing this book, Gary has successfully communicated the concept of a “skill set”, outlining the process he has used to achieve so much in digital marketing.
1. The first thing you need to do is…
Make yourself a presence in your prospect’s life.
Obviously…
Before you roll your eyes too hard… it may not be obvious that in every point in this “sales journey”, your prospect needs to be reassured that he is going in the right direction.
If anything feels wrong along the way, the prospect will end the journey.
Attention will be lost.
They will opt-out.
There is, simply, too much distraction nowadays. You face a lot of competition in this growing industry.
In this step of making yourself present, which is the first step in this process, you can very well get blown out of the water. Just like that. Failure can happen right at the start. This is a ruthless game.
If you’ve ever seen a socially awkward person deal with their very first prospects, you get a good idea of what this looks like. It doesn’t matter what he has to say or what his personality is because the prospect has already made their mind.
How could you learn to be confident and bold in your approach so this doesn’t happen?
Make yourself “easy to know”…
Be genuine with a gift of value…
Focus on the quality of your product instead of how much money people should give you for it.
Sales and Marketing Perspective
Instead of a “method”, this is more of a perspective that you need to develop so that you can craft a great presentation for your digital marketing campaigns. In other words, the foundation of your presentation needs to be rooted in giving value.
As a result, if you give enough value, you will inevitably receive your rewards, whether you like it or not. You may not even expect it sometimes… Making the rewards sweet, but opening your eyes to what is actually important: making a great product.
In your digital marketing campaigns you can do this by introducing yourself to your prospect by offering something of value. Examples of this are webinars and information products. Another thing you can do is create a YouTube channel that gives value on a consistent basis…
If you are a real estate salesman you can give a “forecast” of the real estate market in your particular niche or market. Target people that have visited your website with ads that give massive value.
The skill-set of having a great “first impression” is much easier to master in doing digital marketing/sales than in-person sales.
This is because the success of an in-person sales interaction relies a lot on your people skills, whereas in digital marketing, editing and effects can help you communicate effectively, giving the illusion of great people skills.
As a result, your intentions of offering value will be enough in presenting your prospects with a great start to their sales journey.
2. Building a Long Term Relationship
Now that you haven’t blown yourself out of the water from your initial introduction into your prospects life, you can work on providing an apparent infinite amount of value for him.
This will occur in your follow-ups. Which is a sales term for keeping in touch with your prospect without annoying them…
So, instead of pestering them with offers and being pushy, you will be finding out exactly what they need solved… and provide that information unconditionally for as long as it takes.
Yes, unconditionally.
This means you will have a few prospects that you will be keeping in touch with for something like years without them ever giving you any of their money…
Before you throw in the towel in dread… remind yourself that marketing is a numbers game- you are reaching out to as many prospects as possible with the highest value possible…
On a side note, while you will be more effective by making your value offer the best work you can produce, the internet has made it so that even horrible content can be monetized. You just have to be consistent. With the poor quality of some of the media that is “popular” lately, this is evident.
I don’t recommend sending out sub-par content, though…
Reaching out to your prospects and potential prospects requires resources. Whether it is money or your time, you don’t want to waste any of it promoting content that is watered down or promoting scammy, gimmicky, unproven offers.
The better bet would be to give a genuine impression of good-will, which means putting in the appropriate effort to do a good job instead of seeking short-cuts and gimmicks.
As a result, your prospect will know that you are not only an expert, but someone who is willing to provide solutions at your best ability. This means being committing to producing high-quality content, making room for a high-quality offer down the road when you get there.
Sales and Marketing in Real Estate
Using real estate as an example again, you can tell an agent is going to be making sales consistently when he is genuinely putting in work to obtain real estate knowledge for his clients and prospects.
A great way to endear yourself to your prospect is to put in a lot of hard work in serving them. This is a great way to endear yourself to anyone, really.
Although, some people respond better to this kind of treatment than others. Read 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman.
Everyone loves working with someone that they can trust. Part of that trust is built by a demonstration of your willingness to work hard and be a professional.
With consistent value and a professional line of communication with your prospect, you will build a trusting relationship, where both parties can benefit in the long-term.
3. The Close
The third and final skill set you need to master in sales and marketing is the close.
This part of the sales process is where you design a sales pitch full of techniques that exploit human cognitive bias’.
This includes scarcity timers, displays of social proof, limited time offers, free bonus’, and other age-old methods.
As you’re beginning to feel like an evil wizard pulling the puppet strings of your prospects, you’ll be relieved that they will find joy and value in your product and you are simply serving your prospects, but just at a different phase.
That’s because you did a good job in the 2nd part, in building a long term relationship. Perhaps you are serving the good, after all.
Asking For The Sale
“Asking for the sale” is something that I struggle with in my own journey. I’m an agreeable person by nature and there is just something so seemingly abrasive about hard-selling.
Don’t let the discomfort of hard selling stop you in your tracks though.
I want to emphasize that the first 2 skill sets will eventually make you more comfortable at this step of the sales process…
This is because doing a good job in the first 2 steps will make you feel like you have put in the appropriate amount of effort to justify the hard-sell of your offer.
You will know right away whether you’ve accomplished this. If you have, you will have a very profitable campaign. Lots of prospects will convert.
If not… Well, get back into your skill-set and hone it some more. Learn more about yourself and learn more about what you can do better.
As time goes on you will become confident, and you will develop a feel for which campaigns are working right from the start- a campaign in which your prospects are locked-in, engaged, and eventually buy.
Easier Said Than Done
You now have a guide line in learning the important skill-sets in sales and marketing.
That being said, it is important to reiterate that there are many nuances and details within each of these skill-sets that will take your own individual effort to discover and eventually master.
For example, in building a long-term relationship, you will need to learn how to utilize the platform in which your market exists in. This may include writing content-filled emails or uploading videos that meet the production standards of your market audience.
As for closing, these details may be creating a sense of scarcity for physical products, or displays of social proof for your information products.
Keep Practicing
Creating an amazing sales journey using your finely honed knowledge and skills will not come easily and without hard work. Do not let any one tell you that success in sales and marketing, even digital marketing, can come with a push of a button.
There will be a lot to learn, both about self-awareness and about proven, age-old techniques. I am extremely passionate about both of these subjects, and I hope you get a sense of that in this article.
Please leave me a comment below. Let me know how your journey in sales and marketing has been. Let me know if you I can help.
Sales and marketing aren’t always easy. But it doesn’t take too much to learn.
You have the steps laid out here that make sense. My weakness has always been sales more than marketing.
I’ve done some marketing over the years with my online book business.
I like your recommendation of the Jab Jab Kab Right Hook book. Who better to learn from than a master?
I agree about too much distraction. It’s like the prospect has the same information overload as I and many others do.
The best part is your suggestion of making yourself “easy to know!”
Are webinars one of the best avenues?
Thanks for the comment, Rob.
From what I’ve seen Webinars are going through a peak right now in popularity. I think it combines the very best of in-person sales and digital marketing because you will be able to communicate a “pitch” to a lot of people at the same time. Hope this helps.
See you around!
Hi, I’m coming from the perspective of institutional sales, or large ticket sales as opposed to consumer sales. I’m curious if and how your advice would change for these sectors. E.g. I’m not going to personally buy the large ticket item, let’s say I want to sell MRI machines, but they cost several million dollars each.
I’m interested in making a career transition towards sales, perhaps something in high tech, and MRI scanners are a good example. Your article sounds attractive as a way to learn the sales process, but I wonder if it would work for me! Thanks
Thanks for reading, Phil!
I’d say sales for any niche is in it’s foundation the same. With something like MRI’s you would just need a lot more expertise and social proof to warm the client up. Either way, you would have to eventually close, just like any other sale process.
Take care!
Well done and a genuinely thought provoking article. I found the tone of your article to be very authentic and down to earth. No hustle, just good intentions and displaying your good intentions in several ways. The self awareness and old age techniques seems to me the foundation of the process you outlined.
I was doing some research on sales/marketing funnels and one of the articles I read was very much a similar tone. Figure out who your customers are, provide them with value, build a relationship and for goodness sakes don’t email them too much. Even with good intentions, it’s easy to get carried away when we anticipate a sale is imminent.
It boils down to respect for people and giving them value in return for their attention, such as reading an article and providing their email address. Giving them a free ebook is always a good idea. Giving them free access to Wealthy Affiliate to help them build their online business is another one.
Great article!
I started a career in sales and marketing for 4 years now and I realized one must learn to love what they do and then commit yourself to becoming excellent in yourfield. Invest whatever amount of time is necessary to improve your sales career pay any price go and distance, make any sacrifice to become the very best at what you do.
Thanks, Wilson Lee, I appreciate your reply. Yes, I agree something like MRI requires more social proof and expertise, but it’s good to hear that the basic skills required are just the same.
Thanks again, Phil
Sorry, Phil. That reply was a bit watered down. I was in a bit of a hurry.
I’ve been thinking about how one would approach selling MRI’s. Often times, the owner of clinics are intimidating to approach for beginners. I have a feeling that would be the toughest barrier for a high-ticket product like a MRI. The initial impression that you are an authority to get through the gate keepers and then getting to decision makers and pitching correctly.
Thankfully, with webinars and digital funnels, that could help you with your process. Especially with the areas where you are building trust and a mutually beneficial relationship. Good copy-writing about the features and benefits, showcasing a high quality product… Also, good copy-writing to gain social proof… Throw a limited extra feature in with your product when the time is right, and you could be making a lot of money with high ticket sales soon.
Keep in touch, man. Let me know if you want to chat about this topic.
Great article on learning the skill set it takes to succeed. You can talk all day about doing something but until you DO something its all talk. You’re so right about being a trusted source and developing a relationship. Before I buy anything I have to have a good relationship with the source. I watch them for a while and I learn about them, then I can feel confident knowing I’m buying a good product. resource.
Hello Willson, I must say that this article is very helpful and informative. I have a little experience in marketing but I am still a beginner so your tips can help me a lot to succeed even more. I think that distractions are the most common reason for the failure. Thank you for sharing these very useful tips.
Great article. I am just starting out with my marketing for my new website and I am already writing lots of horrible garbage content lol. Content is king 🙂 . I feel when I do start out writing my content I need to be in the zone or else I do not get very far.
Thanks, Darren. If someone reads your comment without having read the article they may think you’re calling my content garbage 🤣
I totally agree with you- being in the zone and focused is the only way to practice.
Actually, this is a good discussion. I like how you initially tied everything into falling in love and how to get people to feel the same way you feel. You giving steps in to starting a career in sales and marketing will be very helpful to individuals are that lost. Great training and I enjoyed the read.
When you say ‘get a teacher’ who and what do you mean? do you recommend a teacher? And what sort of teacher, would and online tutor suffice?
I respect John Maxwell as a teacher of success, however, I have never met him, nor communicated with. John teaching is in his books? Is reading books sufficient to be successful? Personal coaches cost bucket loads of money that I don’t have.
I found your article to be very educational and informative. I do agree with you in that developing a long term relationship with the customer is important. I definitely tend to want to do business with people that I trust. Trust is critical to me.
I have been a very good sales person but after reading your article, I feel I can be better at it.
Thank you!!
Interesting read Wilson.
I really agree with you on doing my best to make my prospect feel exactly the way i felt when i make any purchase. It’s like a feeling of contentment also of assurance that you’re doing the right thing. It’s indeed a lot of work, and like you mentioned, it’s more important to build long-term relationships with your prospects even when you aren’t making any sales as at yet. I have done some sales before and all the time, my client wants to be assured that they are doing the right thing getting the product.
Oh my god, this is just like a marketing course. I should read this over and over. thanks for the time and energy you put on this article. and the Love language is very helpful not just in business but in all our relationships. the marketing is all about psychology and a little bit the quality. but if you want them to come back it is about the quality.
good job!
🙏 Thanks, that’s a huge compliment. Just trying to write interesting stuff once in a while lol.
Thanks for reading.
I love this post! I actually had to stop reading mid-way so I can bookmark it, just in case my laptop dies and I lose the link (it’s an old laptop and is breathing its last). Thank you very much.
I have such a difficult time with sales and marketing. It’s like I have an innate aversion and I go round and round in circles to the point that my prospect isn’t even sure if I’m selling something or not. In fact, sometimes, I don’t even know if I’m selling or I feel worried that I’m conning other people, even though in my head I know that the product is good and it would be very helpful for others.
I will definitely read and re-read your post. Thanks again.
Thank you for the kind words 🙏🙏
Yeah, having a structured “close” portion is important. That’s where you sell as hard as you can unabashedly lol.
Keep me posted on your sales business. Take care.
This is a reply good post. I like how you have brought everything together by saying that one should first fall in love then make the customers fall in love with the product as waell. U think that it is a very effective way. I also think that selling value before the product is a reply good start seeing that it is your first step in the list. Well, I am starting off and this is really helpful to me. Thank you for this well written educative post.
I’ve done a little home work about attaining success in ones business and I’ve come to realise that success in business has to do with one approach towards it. Just like you said, like what you do and make your customers see the reason with you. Reading through this post was a slippery slope for me because I could relate to it very well. Success lives in the heart of everyone all we have have to do it is embrace it. Sale and marketing isn’t as big as most of use sees it, one mindset is all thay matters.
Brilliant survey. I completely concurred with your point of view on getting a decent substance, instructor and learn individual activity and conduct to turn into an expert deals. You’re so directly about being a believed source and building up a decent association with prospect notwithstanding when deals are not coming.To be fruitful involves decision with assurance and determination. A debt of gratitude is in order for the marvelous post.
Wonderful… Thanks a lot for this great and educating review. In have sought online for ways to begin a full time business in sale and marketing and the journey has never been easy. I have read a lot of platforms and read a lot of post but this is the most relevant and documented I know. The use of simple English and nice illustrations to explain better is an exceptional al thing and this is like a blessing to me because it is contained with everything I have Always wanted to know. I’m grateful.
I agree with you that in order to success in sales and marketing you need to think as the customer or buyer will think. And this is as easy as thinking what makes you fall in love when you buy products from successful brands. So the key is just think how the customer will think or feel.
Also it is important to build an uncondiational long-term relationship with the audience, even without requesting any money in return. This will strengthen and enhance the expectations and credibility with them and probably will boost the sales in a long-term basis.
No need to comment that any convincing and appropriate deal can always be a good marketing practice to atract even more audience. How competitive should the deals be? Well, as it is obvious, it depends on the economic part, so a trade-off between the marketing and your economy must be achieved.