Selling Your Ideas

How to sell

Nicholas Boothman author of “Convince Them in 90 Seconds or Less”

• 90sec?
• tv commercials do it in 30 seconds, magazine ads in 3.
• If you go over 5 minutes trying to convince someone, you’ve lost.
• Confirmation bias: tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions, leading to statistical errors.
• trust, clarity and emotional impact, and they have to happen at the same time.

trust

Trust comes from the first impression and comes from lots of body language. We don’t always have the luxury of time to build that trust when we need to quickly sell.

Clarity

Your message has to make sense … and it usually it has to be in the positive.

If you say to someone, 'Don't hesitate to contact me,' they don't know what you mean. What you really mean is, 'Phone me Friday,' or, 'Call me if you need some help.’

Speak clearly, don’t qualify what you want. Instead of saying “my services are available” – say “When I make a website for you, it will directly impact your business, drive more leads, and give your company the presence on the internet that it needs.”

Emotional Impact

The emotional impact is the big one. Eighty percent of the time, people make decisions based on their emotions, even though they think they're being rational.

Think of the emotional triggers that led to you making a recent purchase. Did you picture how that purchase would impact your life? Did you envision yourself driving that car, placing that furniture in your living room, or taking photos with that new camera before you bought it?

That story came from somewhere. If we can attach our ideas to our prospects desires, they themselves will work to make it a reality.

This is catching the vision.

Use what means you have, in person talks, email, video, social influence (show them other people using your service or product). To implant in their mind the image of them benefitting from whatever you have.

The lost art of the follow up

People are quick to make emotional decisions and quick to loose that emotion. That is why you should follow up with them. Early and often.

A quick email, a phone call, whatever. Remind them that you exist and that your idea can still change their lives.

Follow up. You will have a much higher success rate if you just follow up with the people that you have already pitched.