Sell your talent to their reason, part 2
I wrote previously that the secret to riches is to "sell your talent to their reason."
So assuming you've read Tom Rath's book, Strengths Finder 2.0, and discovered what your talent (or group of talents) is, and assuming you've read books on selling and know how to sell, then the next step is to learn HOW your clients reason.
By the way, the ultimate method for selling is made up of only three steps: Show them what you got. Show them what it will do for them. And tell them what the next step is. It's a bit embarrassing for me to admit that I had to read dozens of books on selling to know that! But hey, now you know the secret to selling! All you have to do is practice as often as you can.
Okay, back to your client's reason.
Note that their reason is NOT the same thing as logic. We all have our own individual "logic."
In other words, we all think very differently. Of course, it would be too time-consuming for you to learn how each and every one of your clients think. So this is where segmentation helps.
Segmentation simply means you create groups and put people in those groups. For example, you can look at the market and create a group like "people aged 40+." Or "people who bought a product similar to the one I"m selling." Any textbook on marketing will give you more details about various ways to segment your market (demographic segmentation, psychographic, benefits sought, synchrographic, sociotechnographic (e.g. how much they use social sites like Facebook, etc.), geographic, etc.).
Once you create such groups, you're in a much better position to learn HOW each group actually thinks. For instance, mothers, as a group, will think in similar ways. Obviously, they put their child's interests above all other things.
But even within the mothers group, you can segment further. For instance, mothers of young infants aged 0 to 2 years think very differently from mothers of teen kids.
Anyways, my point is that the more you segment your market, the more you can get to know each segment. As you begin to know them more, you will begin to develop the ability to predict, explain and influence their behaviors.
Indeed, if you can predict, explain and influence their behaviors, then you largely control their reason.
What I mean is that you begin to understand the fundamental truth about human beings: "People can do what they want, but they cannot want what they want."
So if you know what they want, then you are able to predict, explain and control their behaviors.
Therefore, "sell your talent to their reason" really means: "sell your talent to their MOST DESPERATE WANT."
For example, let's say you're a graphic designer. Graphic design is your talent. But you are unlikely to get rich UNLESS you can LINK your talent to your client's MOST DESPERATE WANT.
If your client is a business person, then most likely, he wants to MAKE MONEY. So your selling pitch to him must include constant and repeated, but differently formulated, appeals to that want. For example, you might tell him: "Look, my talent is design, and the bottom line is that I want to use my talent to help you to differentiate from your competitors. This is the easiest way for you to MAKE MONEY. In other words, after I design all your marketing collaterals, you'll be living on Easy Street and you will attract money to you. Effortlessly."
Unfortunately, most graphic designers are too "artistic." They focus on what they do, that is, logos, brochures, websites, etc. They rarely, if ever, mention the issue of making money for their clients. Hence, they fail to apply my success formula of "selling one's talent to their reason."
They fail because they don't know how their clients are actually reasoning. So they CANNOT influence that reasoning process.
Here's how powerful you can be if you learn HOW your clients actually reason. Their brain is like a car, and you're basically getting into that car and sitting right behind the wheel. You're actually driving that car (or their brain)!
In other words, you can become very powerful and very rich if you FORGET how YOU actually think and reason, and start studying how your clients actually think and reason.
If you can talk for two hours on HOW your clients actually perceive, think, reason, and thus behave, then you truly MASTER your target market -- as a result, you can sell them anything. You could sell them products that you have developed, or products that other people have developed (in this latter case, you'd be working as an affiliate or sales rep).
Let me get back to the previous example on graphic design.
I actually owned and ran a graphic design firm for three years. I used to charge $10,000 for a logo that was not bigger than a square of one inch by one inch!
That's because I knew exactly how my clients were thinking. I pushed all the right buttons.
The slogan I created for my company was, "We communicate your value."
This slogan appealed to my clients because they were in the professional services industry, and as a result, their value was mostly intangible. If they had been selling products like cell phones or furniture, they would be selling TANGIBLE VALUE.
So because their services had a highly intangible value, they needed a graphic design firm like mine.
The slogan, "We communicate your value" was a major pitch because I was basically telling clients, "Look, just talk to ME. And I will create a global communications program that will continually communicate your value to all stakeholders, including your investors, clients, employees, collaborators, suppliers, joint venture partners, etc."
I always made it my business to know more about how my clients were thinking than they themselves knew!
What do they know? What do they believe? What magazines or books do they read? What habits do they have? Who do they talk to? What are their habitual thoughts? etc.
So basically, when you look at the secret formula "Sell your talent to their reason," there are two parts: self-knowledge (sell your talent) and knowledge of your client (to their reason).
To become rich in this world, you've got to master both parts.
By the way, notice that most people have a hard time selling -- often, they even hate selling. But actually, "selling" is not really the problem. The real problem is NOT knowing enough about the prospect.
As I alluded to previously, selling is very much like driving your prospect's car. All you have to do is get into their car (which represents their mind) and start driving that car.
It's not that your clients are not able to drive their own car (or mind). It's just that in a buying situation, there are many complex issues and factors, so the client often needs help to make decisions. He also needs a lot of relevant data.
This is why companies like Progressive.com go out of their way to provide relevant data, including data on competitive offerings!
Your job, when applying the secret wealth formula "Sell your talent to their reason," is to show prospects how to actually make buying decisions. Indeed, you are temporarily taking over their decision-making process. You are teaching them how to make effective decisions. You are showing them how to make positive decisions that will positively change their lives for the better. How can anyone, in their right mind, say no to that?
Once you understand that, you immediately understand that the question is not "Who will let me become rich?" but "Who can stop me from becoming rich?"
The answer is, "No one." Absolutely no one can stop you from becoming rich. But you've got to understand and fully master the formula, "Sell your talent to their reason."
So assuming you've read Tom Rath's book, Strengths Finder 2.0, and discovered what your talent (or group of talents) is, and assuming you've read books on selling and know how to sell, then the next step is to learn HOW your clients reason.
By the way, the ultimate method for selling is made up of only three steps: Show them what you got. Show them what it will do for them. And tell them what the next step is. It's a bit embarrassing for me to admit that I had to read dozens of books on selling to know that! But hey, now you know the secret to selling! All you have to do is practice as often as you can.
Okay, back to your client's reason.
Note that their reason is NOT the same thing as logic. We all have our own individual "logic."
In other words, we all think very differently. Of course, it would be too time-consuming for you to learn how each and every one of your clients think. So this is where segmentation helps.
Segmentation simply means you create groups and put people in those groups. For example, you can look at the market and create a group like "people aged 40+." Or "people who bought a product similar to the one I"m selling." Any textbook on marketing will give you more details about various ways to segment your market (demographic segmentation, psychographic, benefits sought, synchrographic, sociotechnographic (e.g. how much they use social sites like Facebook, etc.), geographic, etc.).
Once you create such groups, you're in a much better position to learn HOW each group actually thinks. For instance, mothers, as a group, will think in similar ways. Obviously, they put their child's interests above all other things.
But even within the mothers group, you can segment further. For instance, mothers of young infants aged 0 to 2 years think very differently from mothers of teen kids.
Anyways, my point is that the more you segment your market, the more you can get to know each segment. As you begin to know them more, you will begin to develop the ability to predict, explain and influence their behaviors.
Indeed, if you can predict, explain and influence their behaviors, then you largely control their reason.
What I mean is that you begin to understand the fundamental truth about human beings: "People can do what they want, but they cannot want what they want."
So if you know what they want, then you are able to predict, explain and control their behaviors.
Therefore, "sell your talent to their reason" really means: "sell your talent to their MOST DESPERATE WANT."
For example, let's say you're a graphic designer. Graphic design is your talent. But you are unlikely to get rich UNLESS you can LINK your talent to your client's MOST DESPERATE WANT.
If your client is a business person, then most likely, he wants to MAKE MONEY. So your selling pitch to him must include constant and repeated, but differently formulated, appeals to that want. For example, you might tell him: "Look, my talent is design, and the bottom line is that I want to use my talent to help you to differentiate from your competitors. This is the easiest way for you to MAKE MONEY. In other words, after I design all your marketing collaterals, you'll be living on Easy Street and you will attract money to you. Effortlessly."
Unfortunately, most graphic designers are too "artistic." They focus on what they do, that is, logos, brochures, websites, etc. They rarely, if ever, mention the issue of making money for their clients. Hence, they fail to apply my success formula of "selling one's talent to their reason."
They fail because they don't know how their clients are actually reasoning. So they CANNOT influence that reasoning process.
Here's how powerful you can be if you learn HOW your clients actually reason. Their brain is like a car, and you're basically getting into that car and sitting right behind the wheel. You're actually driving that car (or their brain)!
In other words, you can become very powerful and very rich if you FORGET how YOU actually think and reason, and start studying how your clients actually think and reason.
If you can talk for two hours on HOW your clients actually perceive, think, reason, and thus behave, then you truly MASTER your target market -- as a result, you can sell them anything. You could sell them products that you have developed, or products that other people have developed (in this latter case, you'd be working as an affiliate or sales rep).
Let me get back to the previous example on graphic design.
I actually owned and ran a graphic design firm for three years. I used to charge $10,000 for a logo that was not bigger than a square of one inch by one inch!
That's because I knew exactly how my clients were thinking. I pushed all the right buttons.
The slogan I created for my company was, "We communicate your value."
This slogan appealed to my clients because they were in the professional services industry, and as a result, their value was mostly intangible. If they had been selling products like cell phones or furniture, they would be selling TANGIBLE VALUE.
So because their services had a highly intangible value, they needed a graphic design firm like mine.
The slogan, "We communicate your value" was a major pitch because I was basically telling clients, "Look, just talk to ME. And I will create a global communications program that will continually communicate your value to all stakeholders, including your investors, clients, employees, collaborators, suppliers, joint venture partners, etc."
I always made it my business to know more about how my clients were thinking than they themselves knew!
What do they know? What do they believe? What magazines or books do they read? What habits do they have? Who do they talk to? What are their habitual thoughts? etc.
So basically, when you look at the secret formula "Sell your talent to their reason," there are two parts: self-knowledge (sell your talent) and knowledge of your client (to their reason).
To become rich in this world, you've got to master both parts.
By the way, notice that most people have a hard time selling -- often, they even hate selling. But actually, "selling" is not really the problem. The real problem is NOT knowing enough about the prospect.
As I alluded to previously, selling is very much like driving your prospect's car. All you have to do is get into their car (which represents their mind) and start driving that car.
It's not that your clients are not able to drive their own car (or mind). It's just that in a buying situation, there are many complex issues and factors, so the client often needs help to make decisions. He also needs a lot of relevant data.
This is why companies like Progressive.com go out of their way to provide relevant data, including data on competitive offerings!
Your job, when applying the secret wealth formula "Sell your talent to their reason," is to show prospects how to actually make buying decisions. Indeed, you are temporarily taking over their decision-making process. You are teaching them how to make effective decisions. You are showing them how to make positive decisions that will positively change their lives for the better. How can anyone, in their right mind, say no to that?
Once you understand that, you immediately understand that the question is not "Who will let me become rich?" but "Who can stop me from becoming rich?"
The answer is, "No one." Absolutely no one can stop you from becoming rich. But you've got to understand and fully master the formula, "Sell your talent to their reason."
posted by Super Peter at 8:06 AM
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