5 Selling Truths You MUST Learn

The 5 Selling Truths you must learn are very simple.

You’ll try to deny them. But the more you get anxious, sad, or even angry as you read these, the closer you are to accepting the truth. That’s because the part of you that wants to deny these 5 truths really, deep down, knows they are, in fact…

THE TRUTH

about how to get your business moving.

So, let me tell you, as you read these very simple statements and begin to feel pissed off or annoyed, use that emotion as the signal that you will overcome your fear. You will accept the truth of these statements.

You will look for ways to put these truths into action in your business, starting today.

There are hundreds of ways to do it. There are ways to put these truths into action that will uplift you, encourage you, improve your business, and build your confidence. You can make it work without violating your basic values.

Truth #1: If You’re in Business, You Are Selling

That makes you a what? That’s right. Now, get over it.

When you take your car in for service, the guy who writes you up, usually called a service writer (oddly enough!) isn’t a salesman, right? When he tells you that you need new brakes, you don’t feel like some sleazebag is trying to con you, do you? So 99 times out of 100, people presented with that information get the brake job.

But you don’t have to get the brake job. You don’t have to get the brakes fixed there. You could shop around and find somebody to do it cheaper. Hell, you could do it yourself!

But you won’t. You’ll say, “Oh, really? Well, darn, I wasn’t planning on spending that kind of money today. But you better go ahead. Don’t want to die in a fiery crash.”

Did that guy just SELL you? Of course. Did you feel like you were sold? No, you felt like the guy told you the truth and in the long run, you’ll be better off. Even if you didn’t want to spend the money right then. That’s selling. That’s what you do too.

You don’t have to put on a seersucker suit and slick your hair back and be loud and obnoxious. You just have to communicate to your customers that they need to buy something, when they actually need to buy something to get what they want.

Truth #2: Sell Products and Services that People Want to Buy

Quit trying to sell stuff that you think people should want. Or need. People are a lot simpler than you think. They, like you, are driven by some pretty basic desires. Does that mean we all need to sell lottery tickets? No. If you sell writing services, for example, you can’t convince most people to buy your services because:

• you’re good
• you’re creative
• you’re cheap

They don’t care about any of that. What’s in it for them? Find their pain and heal it.

If they’re in business, they have the same desire you do:

to make more money and work fewer hours.

Figure out some way that you can honestly and truly make one or both of those things happen for people with your writing services. You won’t have to worry about getting new business.

Truth #3: Increase Your Number of Contacts to Get More Business

It’s simple arithmetic, folks. The more people who know about you, the more business you’ll get. There’s nothing magical about this truth.

But you hate this one, don’t you? Because it means that somehow you’ve got to communicate to more people and you’d rather be sitting at your desk drawing, or writing, or creating something.

Yeah, and I’d like to lie in bed reading novels too. Instead, I have to convince people that I can help them make more money, so they’ll give me some of their money, so I can afford to lie in bed reading novels some of the time. That’s just a fact of life.

You’re going to have to do something to get more people to know about you. And you’re going to have to take more than one action:

• asking everybody you already know if they know anybody who needs what you’ve got
• emailing people
• writing letters to people
• connecting with people online (LinkedIn, Facebook, Monster.com, or wherever)
• giving talks to small groups
• teaching a class
• going door-to-door
• dropping flyers on cars or at businesses
• sending postcards

Or, get somebody else to do it for you. If you’re starving for business, you better decide how you’re going to get more contacts. And quick!

There are people out there who, unlike you, don’t worry about rejection or about talking to other people. Find one of them and pay them to help you. If you don’t have any money (well, that’s another problem) you might be able to get them to work on commission. There is a way!

Truth #4: Help Fewer Kinds of People

This might seem to contradict Truth #3, but it doesn’t. Focus on a smaller group. Your product or service can’t possibly appeal to everybody in the world, or even in your neighborhood. So quit trying to appeal to everybody in the world. Pick a group that can afford to pay you and that wants what you’re selling.

Now, I just read a blog post in which some guy claimed that niches were bunk. He claimed that Bill Gates didn’t focus on a niche when he started Microsoft. What a crock. Of course Bill Gates focused on a niche when he started Microsoft. That niche was people who were willing and financially able to be early adopters of personal computers.

I suspect the guy who wrote that blog post was a kid in 1983. Maybe he didn’t realize that buying a computer was way down on the list of needs and desires back then.

I bought my first computer in 1983 and it cost me $4400. That was a hell of a lot of money back then, especially for a machine that didn’t even have a disk drive. It was essentially a glorified typewriter. I could have bought a brand-new IBM Selectric for about $900. Why didn’t I?

Because I had an instinctive, gut response to that computer. I knew it would change my life and what I wanted right then was to change my life. It certainly did that! It put me into debt and eventually cost me my marriage.

But it also got me into computing, programming, and the computer business, where I have spent the last 24 years of my life, making really good money.

Trust me, Bill Gates was marketing to a niche when he started Microsoft. If focusing on a niche was good enough for Bill Gates, it’s good enough for you.

Truth #5: Don’t Sell, Solve Problems

Now, after all of this talk about selling, here I am telling you not to sell! This has more to do with your frame of mind than anything. Like I said before, quit thinking about selling like you have to put on a plaid jacket and a white belt. Get it into your mind that you are a problem solver. You solve a particular kind of problem in a particular way using particular technologies, methods, skills, and talents, for a particular kind of person in a particular kind of business.

When you think of it that way, you can start to think about helping people. People are willing to pay you for real help. You’re not ripping them off or selling them something worthless. As long as you follow Truth #2, you’ll stay out of trouble.

Your homework is to learn these 5 truths and write down how you can apply them to your own business:

• Who has a problem that you can solve?
• How can you solve their problem? How can you help them?
• Do they really want what you have? If not, do you have something they do want?
• How can you get more people to know about you and your product or service? Is there anybody else who can help you?

When you’re done, read your answers at least twice a day and take action!