Selling doesn’t have to be sleazy or uncomfortable. It works and feels so much better when it’s not.
We all “sell.” Whether it’s ourselves or our services or our products or the carrots in our lunchbox (that we really want to trade for that kid’s bag of oreos).
In the previous conversation we learned how to do business badly. How do be a douchebag and sacrifice your audience on the altars of profit and vanity.
In this conversation we share the counterpoint: how to “sell” confidently, successfully and goodly… in a way that creates love and relationship with your audience (instead of fear, disappointment, and shame).
None of us were comfortable with sales at first. Most people struggle with it. This is a conversation about how we found our way.
We also answer a reader question from a lovely Scottish listener and I share a big tip from the best salesman I know.
It’s better to listen on the go! Subscribe on iTunes
Show Notes:
Raising Arizona — What a great movie. How are you liking these movie intros, by the way? Also, for those who don’t know here’s Randal “Tex” Cobb.
The Finding Your Voice episodes (001 & 002) of this podcast were really great and mentioned a few times in here. If you haven’t yet, check them out.
Fizzle Sales Video — our attempt to sell in an un-hypee way. Any thoughts on a) how we could do it better or b) how you can apply something to your own business from this video?
Penultimate — stick with logic, don’t be a Wojcik. (Oh! Burn!)
William Wilberforce — Thankfully he wasn’t afraid of coming off as a douche.
Robert Cialdini’s 6 Influences (video) — a 5 minute masterclass. Write the list of each he mentions. Put it next to your computer. Incorporate one or more of these in the next thing you make. Don’t be a douche.
Evernote Essentials by Brett Kelly — Brett is smart and oh-geeze is he a good hugger.
Ogilvy on Advertising — read this.
David Ogilvy’s Copywriting Process — It’s refreshing and human and I’m grateful for this honest look into his thoughts about work.
Ogilvy’s 10 Writing Tips — I tried hard not to need this one as well, but it’s just too good.
The Pejorative Mexican — if you’re unfamiliar with the parable we talk about, there’s an awesome story time in episode 006… literally story time.
Story Bramble — thanks so much, Stephanie, for your question!
Want Chase’s advice on the best cigar cutter out there? You got it.
Chris Johnson — the best salesman I know.
Learn how to set goals that actually stick!
The Top 10 Mistakes in Online Business
Every week we talk with entrepreneurs. We talk about what’s working and what isn’t. We talk about successes and failures. We spend time with complete newbies, seasoned veterans, and everything in between.
One topic that comes up over and over again with both groups is mistakes made in starting businesses. Newbies love to learn about mistakes so they can avoid them. Veterans love to talk about what they wish they had known when starting out.
These conversations have been fascinating, so we compiled a list of the 10 mistakes we hear most often into a nifty lil' guide. Get the 10 Most Common Mistakes in Starting an Online Business here »
Hey guys LOVE the fizzle show! On a previous show, you were discussing the challenges with setting up a paid membership site. I just wanted to say that our site uses Paid Memberships Pro by Jason Coleman. He has been great in setting up the plugin to allow for auto payments thru PayPal OR credit card. I highly recommend it for anybody using WordPress.
Keep it up….you guys rock!
John
Wow, I really hope this would just another great podcast to listen to while I drive out from my home in my car. Downloading it with so much hope.
I was kinda starting to miss your awesome creations Chase. Keep it coming :)
OMG “shitting in the tall cotton” I’m listening to this at work and trying not to laugh out loud! You guys slay me!
I live for that, D :)
What an even better than Penultimate, tall cotton pooping podcast :) You guys kicked some serious booty. Thank you. I LOVED it :) Even took notes.
Keep rocking it like you mean it. Fab!
Thanks so much for letting us know, Robin!
Hahahah! “Shitting in tall cotton” followed by, “Take my pence” had me rolling!
Y’all missed your true calling…comedy.
Love it. Thanks, man.
If I had a dollar for everytime I heard “you know what I mean” I could probably buy a Vespa.
Name your color, Richard. I’ll keep it up and you save up your pennies :)
Hi guys,
Haven’t listened yet to the podcast, but have the ep downloaded and ready to go.
Just wanted to say that I totally was that girl in third grade who traded in her carrots for Oreos (and Fruit Roll-Ups…and chocolate chip granola bars…and…well you get the picture!)
But now I actually read the food labels. Junk food junkie no more.
Thanks for the intro! I haven’t listened to it yet, but the introduction got me interested. I personally am having a hard time selling. This will definitely be an added knowledge. I hope I’m able to succeed at it. :)
Riza, Kingged.com contributor
when i started selling products. i thought selling was just a gimmick. I know a lot about NLP and psychology in general. but it turned out selling is standalone science. what makes people tick and buy certain products requires specific treatment.
I just wish that you get back to write. for me pod-casting or YouTube ‘TV’ is just a lazy way from blogger to offer content to lazy people. i like much your old material.
Love the fizzle show man. Great stuff you have here – I’ve always felt that selling is like cold calling we’re you and the customer have a huge rift between you guys. I’ll try to use some of the techniques here. Thanks!
Hi, just want to say that I’m new here and you have some great articles. I found out about your blog through listening to a podcast on http://www.entrepreneuronfire.com keep up the great work.
I’m looking for some like minded bloggers who are interested in getting together on a weekly bases kind of like a Mastermind class. If you are interested please contact me at [email protected].
Jeff.
Got a question about getting feedback. You guys talked about how you started with a sort of shell version of your service and got 120 people in as beta testers and they gave you a ton of feedback.
I did something similar – I ended up with about 20 people (out of 60 who expressed initial interest) using my service, and part of the deal was they would be the guinea pigs, and I really wanted their feedback. I asked for it every time I emailed them (the service is an email-based one). I got extremely little feedback, even when I made drastic changes. So I have 2 questions:
1. How can I get more feedback?! :) When asking isn’t enough, how do you get more?
2. Is no feedback and no unsubscribes good enough to assume that my changes are useful? Does the answer to this question make the first one a moot point?
-j