How I Changed a Copywriters Mind About Selling
How I Changed a Copywriters Mind About Selling
Haven’t You Ever Wondered Why There Is Hardly Anything Online About The Actual Sales Process? Could It Be Selling Become A Dirty Word?
Or even worse, could it be that lots of the so-called experts just don’t really know the difference between selling and marketing? Advertising is simply salesmanship in print (salespersonship just didn’t sound right – sorry!). Advertising has one purpose: to generate sales. It serves no other purpose.
If you disagree, read “Tested Advertising Methods” by John Caples, or Claude Hopkins books “My Life in Advertising” and “Scientific Advertising”. You’ll be left with no doubt.
I had this argument with my friend, heavyweight copywriter Chris Bloor (someone who could sell ice to Eskimos by mail order). Chris disagreed with me. His position was that great written copy was where it’s at.
That Was Until He Heard What I Have To Say Next …
I told him that, like salespeople, there’s both good and bad advertising and good and bad copywriting. Good advertising copy draws buyers to you. Its effectiveness can be measured and the results identified. Unlike sales people, direct marketers rely on high volumes of visitors or readers (traffic). Success in selling relies on high quality prospects, not volume. (That was the statement that got Chris’ attention.)
As with sales, the goal is profitable revenue. Bad advertising is just that. It doesn’t get the phone ringing or the Clickbank account swelling.
When you buy books about copywriting, they give you a formula to follow. The formula is really quite simple.
What they ask you to do is to record your sales presentation and then write it down.
Of course, that’s all well and good as long as you truly understand the sales process, but what if you don’t? If you can’t sell, you can’t use the formula.
A simple truth is that most people get selling and marketing confused. There is a fundamental understanding necessary here - that is that Selling ISN'T Marketing. So the fundamental lesson is first you have to understand the sales process.
There are only a certain number of people you can see to sell to in any given week. Depending on what you sell, that may be as few as five people or as many as 100.
And, unlike an advert, a website or a direct sales letter, the sales process is interactive.
From this two-way dialog comes an understanding of the process.
You need to learn to read the buyer’s response from their body language, from the questions they ask and the answers they give to your questions.
With that understanding, you can start to write copy. You build the copy around the framework of your presentation, including the questions and your replies along the way.
The process of the sale is like a good story or a movie. It has to have a beginning, middle and an end. Even the best Internet marketers will tell you that a 2-3% conversion rate from your site is good. But as a salesperson if you only made 2-3 sales from 100 presentations, you’d be worried wouldn’t you?
A good sale is based on trust. That’s why McDonalds succeeds. In a strange town if we have a choice of Greasy Joe’s Diner or McDonalds, we choose McDonalds. Trust. Whether you like McDonalds or not is not important.
The sale is also based on you the vendor having an understanding of the buyer’s needs and wants. It depends upon the buyer’s ability to make a decision and on their capacity to pay for what you sell.
How often have you tried to sell something and had the response “Thanks but no thanks / we’ll think about it / call me next week / have to talk with my partner”?
Then, when you tell someone that you’re not making sales, they suggest you should learn some ‘sales closing’ techniques. That’s when as a sales manager and trainer, I scream. It's about as effective as my teenage son giving Michael Schumacher driving lessons!
Let me ask you this – would you be confident with your accountant or attorney if they didn’t keep up with changes in legislation? No? Should your customers by happy with you if you don't keep track of trends in selling?
Now ask yourself this – how many books about selling did you read last year and how many do you plan to read in 2004?
Make a bold new start to 2004 by keeping up to date with your profession. Learn effective processes that don't make you sound like yesterday's snake-oil salesman. Start the learning process now and start making more and better sales tomorrow!
How I Changed a Copywriters Mind About Selling - To learn more about this author, visit James Yuille's Website.
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There are already enough marketing manuals and marketing e-books online to make King Kong feel like a midget. Most of them are called “How to write killer advertising copy” or “How to write adverts that draw people to your product like bees to the honey jar”. Not to mention half a gazillion e-books and manuals called “How you can make money on the Internet by selling products called How to make money on the Internet”.
Haven’t You Ever Wondered Why There Is Hardly Anything Online About The Actual Sales Process? Could It Be Selling Become A Dirty Word?
Or even worse, could it be that lots of the so-called experts just don’t really know the difference between selling and marketing? Advertising is simply salesmanship in print (salespersonship just didn’t sound right – sorry!). Advertising has one purpose: to generate sales. It serves no other purpose.
If you disagree, read “Tested Advertising Methods” by John Caples, or Claude Hopkins books “My Life in Advertising” and “Scientific Advertising”. You’ll be left with no doubt.
I had this argument with my friend, heavyweight copywriter Chris Bloor (someone who could sell ice to Eskimos by mail order). Chris disagreed with me. His position was that great written copy was where it’s at.
That Was Until He Heard What I Have To Say Next …
I told him that, like salespeople, there’s both good and bad advertising and good and bad copywriting. Good advertising copy draws buyers to you. Its effectiveness can be measured and the results identified. Unlike sales people, direct marketers rely on high volumes of visitors or readers (traffic). Success in selling relies on high quality prospects, not volume. (That was the statement that got Chris’ attention.)
As with sales, the goal is profitable revenue. Bad advertising is just that. It doesn’t get the phone ringing or the Clickbank account swelling.
When you buy books about copywriting, they give you a formula to follow. The formula is really quite simple.
What they ask you to do is to record your sales presentation and then write it down.
Of course, that’s all well and good as long as you truly understand the sales process, but what if you don’t? If you can’t sell, you can’t use the formula.
A simple truth is that most people get selling and marketing confused. There is a fundamental understanding necessary here - that is that Selling ISN'T Marketing. So the fundamental lesson is first you have to understand the sales process.
There are only a certain number of people you can see to sell to in any given week. Depending on what you sell, that may be as few as five people or as many as 100.
And, unlike an advert, a website or a direct sales letter, the sales process is interactive.
From this two-way dialog comes an understanding of the process.
You need to learn to read the buyer’s response from their body language, from the questions they ask and the answers they give to your questions.
With that understanding, you can start to write copy. You build the copy around the framework of your presentation, including the questions and your replies along the way.
The process of the sale is like a good story or a movie. It has to have a beginning, middle and an end. Even the best Internet marketers will tell you that a 2-3% conversion rate from your site is good. But as a salesperson if you only made 2-3 sales from 100 presentations, you’d be worried wouldn’t you?
A good sale is based on trust. That’s why McDonalds succeeds. In a strange town if we have a choice of Greasy Joe’s Diner or McDonalds, we choose McDonalds. Trust. Whether you like McDonalds or not is not important.
The sale is also based on you the vendor having an understanding of the buyer’s needs and wants. It depends upon the buyer’s ability to make a decision and on their capacity to pay for what you sell.
How often have you tried to sell something and had the response “Thanks but no thanks / we’ll think about it / call me next week / have to talk with my partner”?
Then, when you tell someone that you’re not making sales, they suggest you should learn some ‘sales closing’ techniques. That’s when as a sales manager and trainer, I scream. It's about as effective as my teenage son giving Michael Schumacher driving lessons!
Let me ask you this – would you be confident with your accountant or attorney if they didn’t keep up with changes in legislation? No? Should your customers by happy with you if you don't keep track of trends in selling?
Now ask yourself this – how many books about selling did you read last year and how many do you plan to read in 2004?
Make a bold new start to 2004 by keeping up to date with your profession. Learn effective processes that don't make you sound like yesterday's snake-oil salesman. Start the learning process now and start making more and better sales tomorrow!
How I Changed a Copywriters Mind About Selling - To learn more about this author, visit James Yuille's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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