i tell people about stuff pt 2.
Day 11 of 30 — Public Thoughts
Continuing from day 9
sales + mktg.
i tell people about stuff — How I think about sales and marketing to avoid the complexity, pushiness, and quite frankly… douche-baggery… rampant in many businesses… to create an experience someone actually cares about.
---- 1. What people think about sales + mktg.
I… like many people… didn’t care for sales and marketing.
Some words that come to mind might be…
Slimy.
Pushy.
Like that sleazy used car salesmen we can all picture in our heads.
---- 2. But the truth. But the truth is…
People LOVE to buy!
I know I do! I woke up at 3:57 AM on a Sunday morning just to order the special editions of a book series I’m reading…
Which sound crazy, but I’m far from the only one…
Look at the Swifties out there! They literally stay up til midnight just to hear the title… the TITLE… of the next track on her new album?! ([https://youtu.be/ruUssWHHcqE?si=ti6PcPUtTBoE_qgj])
Or how it used to be common for people to camp out in front of Apple stores to secure a launch day iPhone. (img)
So, where’s the disconnect?
Why will people sacrifice sleep and camp out for some things, but “hate” buying others?
It comes down to what’s being taught to the people and the business trying to learn marketing and sales!
If you’ve been in the space over the last decade, sales and marketing almost become synonymous with renting a Lamborgini for a day, posting some Stripe screenshot “proof”, and telling you that they alone have the sales and marketing secrets you’ve been looking for…
(img) (Basically modern day snake oil salesmen.)
%% We try these things because as business owners, marketers, sellers, we need to make money to keep the lights on, yada yada yada %% But all this does is move us away from the businesses we’re trying to build %% With the followings like Taylor and Apple. %% Here’s the real real… %% %% When we treat people like… hear me out… people… our business grows?! %% %% So when I first got into sales and marketing for my first business that’s just what I thought it was… %% Never once was it mentioned you could create these amazing experiences… %% But when you start trying to learn about sales and marketing, people usually aren’t telling you how to create experiences like these %% So what ends up happening is these sleazy tactics and hacks get passed forward… %% Because business don’t have any money without sales and marketing %% The weeds of Complex, pushy, slimy, sleazy, dueschey… %% Now it’s a long story how I got to the other side… %% But it doesn’t have to be this way… %% The concept that made me learn this… %% The real real…
---- 3. So real truth. So the real real…
Sales and marketing is just… telling people… about stuff.
That’s it.
As humans, especially humans in sales and marketing, we like to make it more complicated.
But at the end of the day, the act of telling people about stuff is not slimy or pushy. Or it doesn’t have to be at least.
Now that you understand…
- Sales and marketing is not good or bad.
- Sales and marketing doesn’t have to be pushy.
- You don’t need to learn all the “new tactics”
- Learn the principles.
- And start thinking in terms of creating experiences people want to be apart of.
It’s important to highlight one particular word as well… people. So often when it’s easy to be disconnected from the other end of the screen, phone, what ever medium you’re using. But we don’t have empathy for a number. It’s a number. If we orient ourselves back to the PEOPLE on the other end, now we can have empathy. Meet them where their at, understand them…
Rich Shafran, marketing message framework; what you think is the problem is X so you do Y. But actually the problem is Z and why makes Z worse
Have you ever gotten help from an expert that knows more than you ever cared to know on a subject? The difference is instead of focusing on tactics and pressure to make money… It’s creating an experience
We think sales and marketing is the problem. So I hated sales and marketing. But actually…
Analogy Which is like saying you don’t like steak because you only had steak prepared by this guy (picture of sloppy chef) and had it come out looking like this (piece of steak that looks like a tire.
Good examples
- apple release event
- ads during the Super Bowl
- viral campaigns like dollar shave club
- Imagine this… have you ever worked with an expert… like someone who knows so much more about an industry than you ever care to know… had a cars salesmen, real estate agent, coach, …, sit down with you, actually figure out what your situation, the problem your running into, what soltuions you’ve tried, so they truly understand what you’re looking for… so that way they can match you up with exactly what your wanting… that you didn’t even know you’re wanting…. That’s still sales, but its lead with empathy and creates a great experience.
