Telling Is Not Selling – It’s Better….
“Telling is not selling” is a phrase used by Brain Tracy and countless others. Stuart Ross and Jay Kubassek co-founders of the Six Figure Mentors (SFM) and Digital Experts Academy (DEA) also often quote it. They have used that approach to build multiple 6,7 and 8 figure online businesses. I’ve earned close to $20k in the last 3 months using just that approach to sell their superb educational products. I’ve never felt less like a sales person and I’ve been one so there is definitely something worth learning here.
Usually however, telling is not selling refers to a sales person talking more than listening to a prospective customer. They talk at them. They tell them all about the features and benefits of their stuff. This leaves no space for them to ask questions. What I’m talking about is telling people about your goods and services and leaving them to make up their own mind. Its a better option than employing, chasing, badgering and other hard sales techniques.
Telling INSTEAD of Selling (Subtle twist)
The telling is not selling (or more accurately telling INSTEAD of selling) approach is particularly valid in online marketing. Its particularly important with higher end products and services such as those of SFM and DEA. Affiliate marketing, which is what I do as an affiliate partner of Stuart and Jay’s, is quite literally telling not selling in fact.
I’m selling products and services that I use myself but don’t actually own. The best way to do that is not to try and ram them down people’s throats but to recommend them from my own experience. To tell people how through them I am now able to make a very nice living working from wherever I choose to. In an online scenario there is no option in the first instance BUT to tell rather than sell.
Of course people do want to talk to me in person. When they do I always use the more traditional meaning of telling is not selling – I listen to them and answer their questions as best I can.
It’s really not that different to recommending a good restaurant or a good film. The difference is that I’m paid commissions for the recommendation when someone decides to buy. I guess in a way restaurant and film critics are reimbursed in a similar, though less direct way.
Telling is Not Selling – Imagine This…
In both cases telling is not selling. Imagine how weird it would be if someone tried the hard sales approach to get you to try a restaurant or see a film. Its possible I guess – try walking along a street filled with restaurants next time you’re in a tourist resort – but you can make a good guess at the quality of the food being sold in that way. You don’t tend to see Gordon Ramsay stood outside his restaurant trying to coax you in ….
Online it’s nearly impossible to do the hard sale, particularly with high end products. We can just click away from the shouty, hyped up messages – the frantic “Buy my Shit!” landing pages and ads.
On the internet the telling is not selling approach yields far better results anyway. When I make sales for SFM and DEA they are usually the result of a blog post or video I’ve produced. I literally just tell the reader or viewer what they can expect, how much it will cost and what will be involved.
The Targeting Advantage
As an online marketer I do have the advantage of targeting my content at the people most likely to become customers. I know that the kind of people SFM and DEA appeal to are of a certain type. I know a lot about what they are interested in and I know where they look for things online. That makes telling not selling a lot easier – for me and for them.
In essence I’m looking for people like myself: People who are principled, realistic, into self development and lifelong education and who want to live the sort of lifestyles that are totally attainable in this day and age. So I’m telling not selling these people that they might want to look at something that has worked for me.
There’s also a strong element of attraction marketing that goes hand in had with telling not selling. Again this is the approach taken by SFM and DEA. They introduce themselves by means of a series of free videos which gives you a chance to have a good look at them, their lifestyle business opportunity, mindset and training courses.
Those videos changed my life and I guarantee they could change yours too. Get them on the link below.
By Dave Menzies