Don’t Sell The Steak. Sell The Sizzle.

This is a great quote from the great copywriter, Elmer Wheeler.

Basically, as humans, we are all emotional creatures. A lot of what we do are driven by emotions. And you will include buying decision in that.

Emotions are what we made us buy. And then we use logic to justify the purchase.

Therefore, if you can appeal successful to your prospect’s emotions…and press his hot buttons repeatedly…you are going to get his business.

So what can spark off his emotions, you may ask?

The short answer is put your focus on “benefits”.

Elmer Wheeler, calls this selling the “sizzle”.

“WHAT WE MEAN by the “sizzle” is the BIGGEST selling point in your proposition – the MAIN reasons why your prospects will want to buy. The sizzling of the steak starts the sale more than the cow ever did, though the cow is, of course, very necessary!

Hidden in everything you sell, whether a tangible or an intangible, are “sizzles.” Find them and use them to start the sale. Then, after desire has been established in the prospect’s thinking, you can bring in the necessary technical points.

Using The Power Of Imagination For Persuasive Salesmanship

Sometimes when you introduce a product to a prospect, he may resist your attempt to sell him.

Now, just because he is showing some objections, doesn’t necessarily mean that he may not like your product.

Often, he may just not be immediately aware of how the product can help him. His mind is closed.

If you are a salesman, it’s your job to open up his mind on the various possibilities on how the product can benefit him.

We want to paint a nice picture for him to imagine. For him to feel it. And actually using it, reaping all the rewards in the process.

That’s utilizing the power of imagination for you, my friend.

Let’s take an example to illustrate my point, shall we?

Say you are persuading your prospect to buy a life insurance for himself…

You can get him to imagine the following scenarios…

• What if he falls ill? Who will take care of him…?
• What if he loses his job because of his illness? How will he support himself? And what about his family? Who will put food on the table for them…?

The Single Most Important Detail You Must Remember To Make People Like You…

If you are a sales or a marketing person, one of the first thing you must do is to establish rapport with the person or party you want to sell to.

You want to make them like you. To trust you. With that done, half the battle is won.

So, how do you make them like you?

Simple. Make them feel as if they are worth a million bucks. Make them feel important. Make them feel that YOU…like them.

And one of the first step towards doing that is…

….remembering their names and using it often!

Often when we are introduced to new people, we forget their names at the next instance.

From now on, for your own sake, and your own business or sales sakes, make a concerted effort to start remembering all the names of people you come across with.

Even better, compliment how nice their name sounds.

That will totally rock their world! Totally… It really helps to open up doors and get them to open and warm up to you.

I tried that numerous times. All done with sincerity, of course. And the look of happiness on their face is just…priceless!

We Went In Empty Handed, But Came Out…

You know what? I actually typed out a whole long entry for this. But I wiped them off on second thoughts. Too long-winded.

So now, I’m just going to go in to the meat. Straight to the point.

In the last entry, I talked about an encounter with a cab driver in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia, during our holiday there. And how we persuaded him to lower his cab fare.

Got some nice comments and email feedbacks. I thank you folks for that - from the bottom of my heart!

Today, I want to talk about something else. I want to talk about a trip to a store (a chocolate boutique) during the same trip in KL, whereby we went in empty handed, but came out….you guessed it…FULL of products!

Why?

1. Personal Attention

The shop assigned a staff to us. Specially for us.

He tended to us, catered to our questions. Brought us around. Let us try various chocolate samples. Even letting us try more on our request. Carried our basket as well.

And finally also completed the payment for us.

Fantastic service!