I bought into that brain-washing philosophy a long time before I finally figured out I’ve been working awfully hard. I’m not talking about back-breaking work. I’m talking about sales. It’s true, ”Sales is the hardest easy work you could ever do.” 

WARNING: Blatant Honesty
There’s nothing on the planet more tiring to me than selling. Talking on the phone, hammering out emails and creating proposals is hard work. I can wake up refreshed in the morning and be so exhausted by mid-afternoon that I’m dying for a nap. I haven’t done anything physical. I’m sitting in a chair thinking, typing and talking – that’s all! Why am I so stinkin’ tired?

Selling is easy for me though. I do in naturally. If my lips are moving, I’m selling something. Ask my wife… She’ll tell you that I never stop. I’ll sell you on the best… best place to eat dinner, best way to run a political campaign, best way to organize your AdWords campaigns. Just ask me, I’ll sell you on just about anything. It must be a first-born trait. 

I wish I had a ”selling switch”… some way to turn this off. It would be nice to just look at a situation, make a simple observation, enjoy the moment and not have my opinions bubble up inside me. Fortunately, God blessed me with the ability to keep my mouth shut – I have the good sense to keep some of my opinions to myself… sometimes. I just wish I could turn the “selling thoughts” off too, because my mind is always running, always thinking and always in gear.

Here’s the hard part about selling - knowing the who, what, why, where, when and how of sales. One wrong move, and you’re dead. You could have the best solution for your prospect, but approach the situation the wrong way, and you’ll never have the opportunity to advance your proposition.

Selling has much to do with timing. Timing takes discipline and experience.

Do you know how to develop discipline in selling?

Unless you’re a fool, you’ll develop discipline in selling from getting burned. It’s the same way a child learns about the dangers of hot stoves. You can say, “Don’t touch the stove. It’s hot!”, but does the kid believe you? Nope! How do they learn? - they touch the hot stove for themselves, get burned and develop some of that good, old-fashioned discipline. 

Making the wrong move when you’re selling is like touching the hot stove. That’s where the experience factor comes in: Make enough bad moves when you’re selling and you’ll learn all you need to know about timing. It is amazing how fast you can learn to sell if you’re willing to get burned.

Are you willing to get burned?

If not, go find another “easy” job!

Peace,
Mike
SEO Dallas

Dallas SEO and Pay Per Click Management

Selling Is Easy, Hard, and Tiring Work

My family wasn’t poverty poor, but I remember enough to tell you what government cheese tastes like.

I read somewhere else that this is called a “scarcity mindset”. Fortunately, you can overcome that mindset because…

Selling to the rich has so much less to do with where you are financially and so much more to do with where you’re affluent prospect wants to be.

Listen, I understand that it is sometimes difficult to focus on anything outside of what you are currently experiencing as a result of your financial limitations. That is your world. You are consumed by what impacts you. You constantly ask yourself, “Where am I going to get the money to cover these expenses?”

In the same way, your rich prospect also finds it difficult to focus on anything outside of what they are currently experiencing as a result of the financial position they are in. That is their world. They are consumed with thoughts of, “How do I keep what I have worked so hard to enjoy? How can I enjoy it more without losing what I have?”

“You are the one who is concerned about your station in life… your prospect spends very little time worrying about your position.”

The answer to the following story may seem very cynical, but I want you to read this parable and then consider what the answer may be. If you aren’t able to come up with the answer, I’ll reveal it in a later post. Okay, read this story now…

A wealthy man finds himself walking down the street of a major metropolitan city. He is “forced to walk” because he’s unwilling to pay a cab driver a few measly bucks to drive him to the convention center – three blocks away.

The sky is blue, the birds are singing. He has a prosperous day planned and is focused on closing a big deal later that morning.

While walking, he looks ahead to see a homeless man sitting among his dirty possessions while holding a cardboard sign that reads, “Hungry – Please help!”.

He momentarily considers crossing the street, but instead reaches into his right-hand, front pocket feeling for any change he may have salvaged from last night’s run to the hotel convenience store.

In that moment, he makes his buying decision… he quickly drops a few coins into the lap of our hungry begger as he scurries past the stench.

Here’s the million dollar question – WHY?

If you can understand why our rich, affluent, prosperous, wealthy lead character would stop and give this smelly, dirty begger his left-over change, you can understand how to sell the rich and affluent.

Here’s a hint:

“You’re the one focused on your limitations… your prospects are focused on your possibilities.”

Peace,
Mike
Dallas SEO

Dallas SEO and Pay Per Click Management

How To Sell To The Rich …Continued

I’m not talking about a little bit of pressure either…

I’m talking about full-blown, all up in your grill, down and dirty pressure. The kind of pressure where you’ve got to make the sale or they’re going to fire you, call your neighbors to repo your car, turn the electricity off in the middle of the day, shut down your cell phone, disconnect the internet and confiscate that lonely, last, expired, dusty can of tomato soup in your cupboard.

Well, have you ever been under that kind of pressure?

Nobody makes it out of life unscathed. Not everyone will have financial difficulties. Some people struggle with their health. Others have difficulty with relationships. If you’ve chosen a sales profession, most likely you’ll eventually find yourself in tight financial straights sooner rather than later. The question is, “Will you be able to sell when you’re under pressure?” Can you look your prospect in the eye and close that big account when your toilets don’t flush because they turned your water off two days ago?

3 Things To Do When You’re Under Pressure

#1 Recognize that you’re not the only one on the planet who is having or has had this problem. Believe it or not, many of the same people blowing up you’re phone, trying to collect money you don’t have, have experienced financial difficulties themselves. Even though it feels like you’re the only one going through it… you’re not!

#2 Understand, they can’t get blood out of a turnip. Unless you’re printing money, you’ll only have so much to go around come pay day. Get on the phone and tell them what you have and let them know where you’re at with your finances. If you’re only going to have $500 and they want $1,000 – well, that just ain’t gonna happen. Tell them what you can do, when you can do it and call them if your plans will change. In the end, they’ll appreciate your communication because there’s a good chance they’ve been in your position before (see #1 above).

#3 Find a quiet place to think about your blessings. Like I said earlier, everyone has their struggles. If you can breathe without feeling pain in your lungs, count it as a blessing. If you can see, count it. If you can read, count it. If you have a good relationship with your spouse, count it. Think about what’s going right in your life. Focus your mind on the positive. The mind can only focus on one thing at a time. If you occupy the space between your ears with thoughts of blessings, you won’t have time to be down and discouraged. Soon, hope will return and you’ll be able to move forward.

Finally, my last point on how to survive pressure is this: Each day only comes with so much mercy. After your mercy for the day runs out, go to sleep. The dawn will break again and you’ll have a fresh batch of mercy waiting for you when you wake up.

Peace,
Mike
Dallas SEO

Dallas SEO and Pay Per Click Management

Have you ever been under pressure?

“Somebody just knock me out before it pulses again!”

I remember feeling that exact same way when my parents wanted to lecture me before a spanking (I grew up in the ’70s). I would sit on the edge of the bed and listen to all the reasons why I should never ever again do whatever it was I was guilty of doing. Eventually, my eyes would slowly cross and I would silently scream, “SPANK ME NOW!!!”

Here’s the point

Human beings (and Americans in particular) like to be comfortable. We (me included) go to great lengths to remove any source of agitation and get back to our comfort level. That’s why all types of pain relief (e.g. aspirin, liquor, drugs, etc) are big business. Help enough people get out of pain and you’re in business.

In the world of search engine marketing, there’s no shortage of companies in pain. If they don’t have a headache now, they soon will. Their competitors are constantly changing bids. Ad rankings go up and down every hour. Sustaining your edge in search marketing is a 24/7/365 day a year job.

Do you really save money doing it in-house?

You can’t give the job to your IT manager and expect him/her to keep you from bleeding money while they’re trying to keep your servers from crashing.

You can’t realistically expect world-class performance from your college buddy who is going to “cut you a deal”. Using a professional search engine marketing agency only hurts when you write the monthly check… the pain quickly fades away when your advertising costs are slashed and your ad rankings move up.

Even if you’re able to get away with less than stellar performance now, the competition isn’t sitting around idle.

Your competition is constantly working on new ways, planning different strategies and developing cutting-edge techniques to beat you.

Like a cavity… it doesn’t hurt much today but ignore it and you’ll soon be wishing someone would just knock you out. Don’t worry – they will!

Peace,
Mike
Dallas SEO

Dallas SEO and Pay Per Click Management

Search Marketing Toothaches

Roofers will knock on your door, call you on the phone and litter your door with flyers until you finally make a decision. The best way to get rid of a roofer is to get your roof replaced… then you won’t see them again… ever!

#1 Loser

It was back then that I learned one of life’s most valuable lessons. I was the #1 roof salesman in my office according to the number of contracts signed but I was the #20 roof salesman in terms of dollar amount. In a few short months, I had managed to sign over 50 contracts while the top dogs in the office had about half as many and were making 3x as much money.

What was the difference? Well, I went after the small roofs. I was comfortable approaching people who lived in homes that looked like the home I grew up in (modest). Nice people but their roofs were tiny compared to the jobs my co-workers pursued. I had it in my head that I could never talk to the people that lived in the nice, big, beautiful neighborhoods. I was convinced that they would never want to talk to me.

Sell Twice As Much – Make 1/3 Less

For over a year, I had to sell twice as many contracts to make 1/3 as much money. One night, I was hanging around the office when one of the top guns asked me, “Mike, why don’t you go after the bigger jobs?” I had to admit my only reason was fear. I was afraid of them. I didn’t grow up with a lot of money. My folks were both Special Ed teachers… not exactly banging the bucks! I told Mr. Top Gun that I had no clue how to interact with the affluent. He then rattled off this common phrase:

“They put their pants on one leg at a time just like you!”

And there you have it.

You’ve heard that saying before but that night it finally resonated in me.

At the end of the day, people are just people. They have the same fears and hopes as you do. It has been said that there are only two way to sell something. Either, fear of loss or hope of gain. I’ve personally found that fear of loss is much more motivating.

Hope Is Fleeting

By the time you hit your early 30’s, you’ve accepted that most of the things you hoped for in your youth are probably not going to happen. As the years go by, it takes less and less time for hope to fade. Those that can hold out hope for an extended period of time are a special breed.

Fear never goes away! It goes with you to bed at night. It will whisper in your ear throughout the day. Fear will stalk you, taunt you and lie to you. You’ll beat it back and it will show up the next day ready to tackle you from another angle. That is exactly why fear of loss is the greatest motivator in sales.

If you want to sell to the rich and affluent, find out what it is that keeps them up at night. What do they think. What fears are being whispered in their ear. Find out what gives them ulcers. Show the rich and affluent that you understand what their fear is and you’re in the door talking business.

Fear The Competition

Almost without fail, the rich always fear the competition. The affluent have worked hard for what they have and are consumed with thoughts of keeping. They have nightmares about someone taking it away. They spend a big part of their time trying to figure out how to protect what they have. Their wealth is their strong tower and they will defend it.

Remind your prospect what their competition is doing. “Mr. Smith, XYZ is also advertising on Google AdWords. In fact, several of their ads rank right above yours. They’re getting most of the traffic.” Show them what their competition is doing better. “Take a look at their landing page. Do you see how they have their keyword as the <h1> tag on the page. That helps their Quality Score. Their ad ranks higher and they probably pay less per click than you.” Believe me, at this point, they’re listening to you! You’ve just confirmed what their little voice has been telling them all along. You have an ally. It’s two against one… which team would you bet on?

Go ahead, pick up the phone and call that rich and affluent lead. Hammer out your email and send it to the CEO. Don’t be afraid. Besides, “They put their pants on one leg at a time just like you!”

Peace,
Mike

P.S. If you’re one of those CEO’s running a search engine marketing campaign, get in touch with me. You’re reading this for a reason. Submit a comment below. I’ll help you keep what you’ve worked hard to achieve.

Read Part 2: how to sell to the rich (coming soon)

Dallas SEO and Pay Per Click Management

How to sell to the rich and affluent