Sell me this…

What is the message you’re telling your clients? And what do you really offer? Well, let’s talk about it! Hey there friends, Thomas Joyner with BOP here.

I’ll never forget sitting in professional selling class at Clemson University and the professor pulls out the age-old selling conversation. 

He calls a student upfront and says, “sell me this pen.” The first student clearly rattled, asks him if he wants to buy the pen.  Uh, no, said the professor. Next!

The next student walks up there and says, “I’m curious, are you interested in any pens? I’ve got some amazing options that I’d love to show you.” Nope! Said the professor and he sent him back to his seat. 

Then the third student walks up there. At this point, we’ve all had a few minutes to calm our nerves and think through what we’ve learned so far. The student sits down and just says, “so Jesse, tell me a bit about yourself.” They go back and forth a few times and the conversation slowly gets to what he does and what his needs are for his business.

From there, the student starts solving his problems one by one... all with the purchase of this pen. He went on and on about it taking 3 years to develop the way it fits in your hand and the slow release of ink so there’s never too much or too little. He talked about how when you click it to get the point to come out it’s quiet, not like other ballpoint pens that you can hear from down the hall. And finally, he finished by saying how professional it looks and how reliable it is. 

“I’m sold!” Said the professor and we all just laughed.

You see selling almost never starts with an object. A thing, a widget, a service. No, it starts with understanding a problem and then finding a solution. The process of understanding that problem and finding that solution is your story! 

And people always want to buy a story. 

We had our 12-week live event last week and had just an amazing assortment of 20 businesses join us in person and another 20 or so through zoom. Our speaker, Billy Watterson spoke all about the power of story to change your life and change your business.

I was struck when he said this, “People don’t buy the thing, they buy what the thing can do for them!”

Man, that is so true! People don’t care how great your thing is or your service is until they know what it can do for them.

So, are you telling them what it can do for them? Are you highlighting the benefits and all the ways it improves life for them? If not, why?

Tell your story! Tell how you came up with your design and your service. People need to know the why behind everything you do from an operations standpoint. And if it’s not something worth sharing? Change it! Find a way to make it share-worthy.

There is so much noise from a marketing standpoint right now. So many things being thrown around that authenticity sticks out like a neon t-shirt on the beach. People can spot it from a mile away.

So take some time today... maybe for the first time, to write down your story. Write down the why behind your product or service and begin to document it and share it with the world. I wonder how many great products or services have fallen by the wayside because they never shared their story with the world.

Remember, “The world doesn’t want to buy your product, they want to buy what it can do for them!”

Now don’t lie to them. Don’t make something up. But craft a story to be proud of and highlight all of the benefits for your ideal client.

Find what problems you solve and relate it to your client. That’s it! The rest is up to them.

That’s all for today friends. Make sure to check out our podcast and YouTube channel when you get a minute. So much great stuff on there!

Have a great week!