Motivation

Why You are a Salesperson Whether You Think So or Not

By Christian

Everyone is a salesperson. Just like everyone is an actor. This is a responsibility that most of us do not want to undertake, because it means extra work. It means paying attention to every detail. But even though it’s extra work, it’s worth it. The fact is, we cannot decide how things are; we can only decide whether or not we are going to be effective and successful, given the circumstances.

Running a blog is hard work, and if you’re reading this you are someone who wants to learn to do it effectively. This is a theme that comes up many times in my writing, and I think it’s important to cover it regularly, because there is SO much information steering us down the wrong path…a path that will waste our time. This is information that caters to the little voice inside all of us that is always seeking a shortcut. We need to destroy that voice and get to work!

Why to be a Salesperson

Being an effective salesperson means that you will be effective in getting the results you want out of your readers. It means you will present yourself deliberately and professionally. It doesn’t mean your blog needs to be prim and proper…it means you need to present yourself in a manner consistent with getting the results you want and need to run your business effectively.

Being an effective salesperson means you will not be afraid to ask for the order. Maybe this means you will ask people to comment your posts, maybe it means you will ask them to buy your product or services…but it means you WILL ask for what you want. This is something most bloggers fail to do.

Not only will you ask for the order, but you will study and perfect the craft of asking for the order daily…constantly seeking better and more effective ways to improve what you do. Maybe you need to phrase your requests differently. Maybe you need to use a pop up window. Maybe you need to frame your request in red and put it in the upper right hand corner of the page (the statistically most effective placement for an opt-in box). Details matter. As an effective salesperson, you will care about these details, and you will attend to them daily.

What Happens When You’re NOT a Salesperson

If you’re NOT a salesperson, you will have a much easier time of it. You will simply write what you want, post when you feel like it, and you will expect your readers to do what you want them to do. Some of them will, but most will not. Success will remain a nebulous and mystical phenomenon to you, because you’ll see a lot of other websites and blogs that seem to you to be very similar to what you’re doing. Yet some of them will have vastly more traffic and make a lot more money than you, and you will always wonder why. After all, you will think to yourself, you’re blogging. You’re working every day, so why aren’t you getting the results?

At some point you will decide that it just isn’t for you, and you will quit…not ever having realized that you were a salesperson. You thought you were a blogger. You thought wrong.

Success is in the Details

You are a salesperson, whether you think you are or not. That is the business we’re all in. If we do this for money, then we need to get results…it’s just how it is. A lot of what I write about will be conceptual stuff like this, but it all leads into a detailed analysis of the mundane details. Details which will make many of your eyes glaze over. If you’re one of the ones who glazes over, it will be because you will not want to do the work I’m describing. That is the moat which separates the successful and unsuccessful…in blogging, internet marketing or any business endeavor. Big success is made up of millions of tiny, seemingly insignificant successes. Success is in the details.

Does it matter whether you use Verdana or Times New Roman on your sales page? Yes, it matters. A true salesperson knows this and is EXCITED to determine which one to use. Why? Because choosing the right mundane details is what will create tiny, incremental improvements. And those tiny improvements, done consistently over time…THAT’S what makes you a huge success. A salesperson knows this.

Those of us who are successful at making money online have embraced this fact. And we’ve embraced the work that comes with it. We do what it takes. Are you a salesperson? You better believe it!

Don’t Compare Your Blog to Others

By Christian

You have a unique value proposition to offer your readers. Get in tune with it! What do you do better than anyone? Competition is fierce. That’s not news, and it shouldn’t surprise you. I’ve written about how to research keywords and find little pockets of opportunity here and there, and that’s good stuff. It’s important to be able to do that, but it’s MORE important to simply know who you are and work really hard at being better than anyone else in something.

There is SO much content out there right now about niche marketing. I get it. People want to make money online. They want to connect with a lot of people really quickly, easily and very inexpensively. And there are a ton of people out there talking about how to do it…how to find “your niche”. There is certainly such a thing as niche marketing, and learning how to write for search engines is important, but there is way more value in just going out every day and creating huge value for your readers. This is what’s going to create long term success for your business, nothing else.

Niche marketing is the equivalent of writing a great ad. It will pull in sales, and that’s a good thing. But it doesn’t last forever. It’s not substantive. If you want to be successful in business, you’re going to need to get in touch with what real value you can offer your customers. Nothing short of this will do.

Niche Marketing is not a Magical Cure

Please keep your magical thinking in check. We’re all subject to falling into this trap. God knows I’ve done it…but magical niches that provide you with huge traffic, tons of sales and easy money cannot be counted on. Can you make millions in internet marketing? Of course, but please don’t waste your days on trying to find some magical niche…in other words, don’t shy away from competition. Competition is a good thing; it means there is strong demand, and strong demand means you can make money in that area.

But what we see is not opportunity, we see competition. We see all the other guys and gals out there competing in a certain niche, and we think that because there are so many others that there is no room for us. Not true. Stop comparing yourself to others! And definitely don’t compare your blog to the others out there in your niche. You are unique. You are an expert in your field. You bring a new and fresh perspective.

Why I Write This Make Money Online Blog

Look at what I’m doing…a blog about making money online. This has been done before! But I bring a unique perspective. I come from direct sales; I’ve had a lot of success in that area, and over the last few years, I’ve been applying everything I know about sales…to online business. I look at making money online in a unique way because of the experiences and successes I’ve had, and I can offer value in that area. People who want to purely do internet marketing from a technical perspective and who are only interested in making money are not likely to find a ton of value in this blog, but people who understand the value of connecting with their customers on a human level and who want to build a real business will be able to see that I actually know something about that.

By not comparing your blog to others and focusing intently on the value you can provide, you can get in touch with what you really want to do. This is huge! It’s absolutely essential for you to like what you’re doing and to have a LOT to say in whatever niche you decide to target. Don’t pick something just because you think it’s a good market. Bad idea. Do what you love. Otherwise, you’re setting yourself up for failure…forever seeking some magical niche that will solve your problems. Not gonna happen! Answer these questions:

What niche do you WANT to work…regardless of competition?
What unique value can you add to it?
What experiences and unique successes have you had that can lend to your expertise in this area?
Why should people listen to you?
Is this a topic that you talk about a lot anyway?
Would you do it for free? (the answer should be “yes”)

If you can answer these questions, it will help you get in tune with what you ought to be blogging. Regardless of what others are doing…you need to develop the conviction necessary to market in the area where you really feel the most competent and where you can really provide the most value to other people. That’s what a real business is built on…it’s built on you, not a niche.

The CASE Method of Success

By Christian

Terry Watson is a sales trainer I’ve learned a lot from, and I credit him with teaching me the CASE method of success. Copy And Steal Everything. Couldn’t be simpler, and I love it when things are simple! It’s one of the great myths of all time that if you want to be great, you need to be 100% original and do everything on your own. People take on too many things if you ask me. Success requires a lot of work; why make it harder than it needs to be?

I’m NOT saying to not be true to yourself, and I’m surely not advocating plagiarism. What I’m saying is that the model for success is likely already laid out for you. Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to!

Who’s already out there doing what you want to do? Go out and model your efforts after them. Before I started selling things online and doing internet marketing, I learned how to sell face-to-face. I started in direct sales. I learned right away that if I wanted to make any money, I needed to sell, and if I wanted to learn to sell, all I needed to do was watch what successful salespeople were doing. I basically became a stalker! I followed them everywhere. I literally sat in on their sales presentations and watched their every move. I took notes. I copied their techniques. I learned to say the same things and act the same way in front of a prospect. I modeled my behavior to match theirs in every way I could think of, and when I did this a funny thing happened. I started to make money. I started to make sales. And that’s how it started.

I found that I could simply choose what level of success I wanted and then achieve it by simply modeling others who had already done it. I started off copying the top people in my office, and within months, I had learned their techniques and was the top salesman in my office. Then I branched out and started talking with the top performers in OTHER offices around the country. This increased my performance to where I was the #1 salesman out of 1500 in my division.

This is what the CASE method will do for you when you apply it yourself to YOUR business. I guarantee it. Success is free for the taking. All you have to do is go steal it 🙂