In this clip from his Simple Writing System course, John Carlton talks about the psychology of selling. Selling is an inherently hostile act, even if what you are selling is perfectly suited to the buyer’s wants and needs.
His comments:
One of the hardest things to do is to take entrepreneurs and turn them into salesmen. Teach them how to step forward. The way you sell…and that’s where people get confused about hype. They say “I don’t want to have hype. I don’t want to be a hard sell.” That’s fine. You still have to step forward and say “this is what I have. It meets all your needs. This is what you have to do now. You need to call this number, you need to give them your credit card number, you need to do this, you need to move forward.” You have to push. If you want to define that as hard core selling, then that is what it is.
It really isn’t. It’s just selling. Hard core selling would be.well…it’s why we have freebies. It’s why we push that process forward. Because people don’t want to do it. Selling, the act of offering a product for sale, being a customer, a prospect, even if they need what you have, if they want it, if it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to them…the act of selling it to them is a hostile act.
If they come across your ad or your sales piece, you know what the first thing they are looking for? A way out. They want to find out that you’re a charlatan, that you don’t really have it. They want an excuse to leave your webpage, toss your direct mail in the garbage, to stop reading your ad, to stop watching your video. They’re looking for that. It’s a hostile act.
Because, if you actually deliver, and have something that they want, that they need and can use, you’ve created a new problem in their life. Because now they have to muster that vague sense of crushed hope that has been destroyed over and over and over again by lies. And they have to get excited again. Paying the money is the last thing they are worried about at that point. It’s “Oh God, am I going to be taken for a sucker again? Is my wife going to yell at me? What’s my neighbor going to say when he finds out? All that stuff starts coming up. OK? It’s a hostile act. And your job is to get by it.
Before you go…
This is just a snippet from John's Simple Writing System course. You can get an additional mini-lesson here.
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