All guys, welcome back. I’m really excited today to talk about sales. As you guys have heard, I’m a sales guy. I’ve been in sales since I was 17 years old. I spent a lot of time learning about sales. Sales is equal parts: artistry and science. Today, I want to talk about utilizing sales on social media. With my network marketing business, I’ve spent a lot of times selling products, specifically, via social media. It’s been a huge help for me to be able to understand exactly how to hook intention, how to get somebody excited about what you’re talking about without overburdening them and giving them too much information so that they can’t assimilate it correctly.
As a part of this podcast, I want to be able to give that value and help people understand what they’re doing wrong in some cases, but also what they can be doing right. It’s not that hard. This applies really for any sales. In my day job, I’ve talked about it a little bit, I do sales. The things that I’m going to talk with you about here are just as relevant for anybody selling anything. You could be selling lotions and potions. You could be selling telecommunications, you could be selling cell phones, you could be selling sporting goods, you could be selling electronics; it doesn’t matter. This particular set of ideas is applicable across anything that needs to be sold by anybody.
One of my mentors, Russell Brunson, he runs the One Funnel Away challenge. If you haven’t done it, I highly recommend it. It’s fantastic. For a small investment, frankly, you get millions and millions of dollars worth, for my money anyway, of ideas and training and learning. One of the things that he beats into you is the idea of hook, story, offer. Every single advertisement that you see, whether it’s done in a fashion magazine, Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal, or online uses the same basic building blocks: that’s a hook, that’s a story, and that’s an offer.
Let’s talk about what that means a little bit. Hook, something that gets you hooked in, something that gets you excited. Maybe it’s a little bit controversial. In fact, the best ones are controversial because they get people excited and get people talking about, now I’m not saying to go and make a political post on your social media. It’s been well documented that if you’re a conservative by nature and you want to post something conservative on social media, you’re going to get attacked. I don’t recommend that; frankly, that’s not going to help you. But if you put something that gets people’s attention, that grabs them, that talks to a problem that they already have.
When you’re talking with somebody about buying something, there’s going to be three objections that could come up, and Steve Larsen talks about this a lot too, but first one is going to be a vehicle. Is this the vehicle going to get me where I want to go? If I’m buying a car, is this F-150 going to take care of my needs for running around and getting things done for my home improvement project. External: Is it something outside that’s going to stop me from being successful? It’s going to stop me from being happy. And then internal, some belief or disbelief in yourself that you’re not going to be able to accomplish whatever this item is intended to help you accomplish.
I’ve got a son in place, literally baseball, maybe it’s a cleats. My son is particular about the cleats that he likes to wear. He likes harder cleats versus softer ones that he thinks help them get better traction when he’s running around the outfield, and maybe it’s personal preference. There’s plenty of others that feel exactly the opposite, and that’s each individual person. That’s an internal objection that he has to say soft cleats.
Now, an external objection to that would be, hey, I can’t use this kind of cleats because of some rule. For example, he’s younger in age. They need to be using plastic spikes. The pitcher’s mounds that they use are portable and so they’re made out of wood or it could be fiberglass, even sometimes it just depends obviously on the mound. They specifically say you cannot wear metal spikes. The pros and some of the older age kids that their cleats will literally be metal, so you can imagine what that would do. And so that’s an external objection to him by includes. You can’t get metal cleats. It’s not allowed, even though those are much harder than his hard plastic cleats, which maybe it would be preferable for him, but that’s an external objection.
Now the vehicle is, but this week we’re playing on turf. Do I really need cleats? Maybe I just need to run around on my tennis shoes. all winter long. We’ve been practicing indoors on turf. He’s been playing in his tennis shoes, which works. That’s the vehicle.
But with any hook you want to be, you want to attack ideas. you want to throw rocks maybe at somebody else, but you want to cause curiosity. Curiosity is what gets us sales. When people are curious about what happens, that’s when you get sales. Say you’re making a post on Facebook–with the group that I work with, we do this quite a bit. I’ve had some pretty good success in selling product.
I took a product and I said, “Guys, you know what? Maybe you’re like me and you have a hard time staying asleep at night or sleeping on airplanes where I travel a lot for work, but I have now found the solution for that.” That’s going to cause intrigue because anybody who can’t sleep through the night as we were like, oh, I want more sleep, and so they’re going to ask about that. After, as a part of that hook though, you want to have a story mixed with emotion. Emotions is what gets people to buy.
It’s really important to understand here that people don’t like to be sold. Does anybody go on to a used car lot on the weekend just for kicks and giggles? No way. It doesn’t happen, but people love to buy. That’s why retail therapy is a thing. You buy something because it makes you feel good. You get those endorphins; you get that dopamine hit.
When you mix a story and make it emotional, it becomes golden. This weekend I had a training for work, and they talked about, it was this emotional story of this kid. The story was entitled How I Got My Son Back? The story was basically this kid had some real behavioral problems. He was diagnosed with ADHD. What it came down to is that he wasn’t breathing well, and he wasn’t getting a restful night’s sleep. And it’s been shown to cause other ancillary issues. I sell sleep medicine device. It was emotional. This kid, suddenly he went from contemplating suicide to going back to being a regular kid. Mom says, I have my son back. There is nothing more emotional than your kids.
When I talk about finding my why, those four kids plus my wife are central to that. When you can tie into those emotions, when you can tie into a reason for being for somebody, that’s going to make your job that much easier as you sell something.
First, start off with, I can’t believe this happened. Talk about, this is why it’s so impactful. From there, move on to your offer, which is the proof. The proof is in the pudding; that’s an old adage. And the call to action. Again, hook, story, offer. You’re going to hook somebody, get them pulled in.
I remember in high school, some kid getting very clever and it was funny at the time, but very high school sophomore humour? He put up a campaign poster. He was running for student body president and this kid wasn’t going to win. We all knew that he wasn’t going to win. He was a funny guy. He wasn’t going to win. And he was funny to the point where he literally put up a sign in foot-tall letters that said sex. And then in small print down below it said, now that I have your attention, please vote. Please vote for Benjamin for student body president.
He got them with a hook, and then brought in, brought in his offer. Now, he was missing a story. There was an emotional story there that he missed out on, but bring them in with the hook, grab them with a story that evokes emotion that brings people to a place where they can be happy.
You’ve got to think about this because sometimes it’s going to be different. How do I get a story about hot cocoa? How do I get a story about a mowing the lawn? Those are things that maybe you need to sell. I’m here to tell you, you can do it. It’s not about what the service that you’re providing. It’s the value that the service is providing. It’s not the service itself. It’s the value that it brings. If I’m a lawn mowing service, I’m talking about playing in the backyard with my kids. I’m talking about running around with the dog in the backyard and playing and being with family and being surrounded by people who you love; that’s how I sell the idea around lawn mowing service.
With anything that you’re selling, you’re selling either health, wealth, or relationships. Health, wealth, relationships. Write that down because with anything, it doesn’t matter what you’re selling, you’re selling health, wealth, or relationships. I’m selling a lawn mowing service. Guess what? I’m selling relationships. Relationships with my family. I’m not selling that I’m going to come cut your grass and make sure that it’s the greenest in the area. That could be maybe wealth. The definitely plays on vanity, but I’m going to sell relationships because that’s what’s going to be meaningful to me.
Say, you’re selling a keto coffee or something like that. You’re selling health. You’re talking about people getting thinner. If you’re selling financial services and trying to get people to invest in the stock market, that’s wealth, that’s an easy one, but it’s not so much wealth as it is what you can do with that wealth and the freedom that that wealth can bring you. Ultimately, when you get to the bottom here, you’re going to go to the proof in the pudding. You’re going to show your social proof. You’re going to show people excited about what you’re doing. You’re going to show people excited for your particular product.
Some of these guys online are doing an amazing job. They’ll pull up references. I have some of those on MLMdonedifferent.com or they’re pulling up Facebook messages or Facebook posts talking about that are raving reviews and they’re able to share those. And then there’s a call to action. Make it very specific you want somebody to do on a Facebook post where you’re trying to sell something, you’re not transacting the business there. What you want them to do is message you.
One, here’s a, here’s a tip. If you’ve got a product that you’re selling on there and you want people to message you, never say the name of the product, only what it does. Let me say that again. Never say the name of your product, only what it does. Why? Because people are going to be driven nuts to try and figure out what the product is. That is marketing gold. They are being driven nuts by you and they are. They’re getting emotional because they just want to know people want what they can’t have and if you don’t give it to them, they want it.
The other thing is don’t tell people how much it costs, message them, make it a private conversation. Sales happen one-to-one in a situation like this. Obviously, you can have a webpage where you can go one to many, but sales happen in this regard on social media, especially one to one and again you don’t want to post that out there. Now maybe you’re thinking, oh well, I’ll just give it out there because everybody’s going to want to know it. Everybody is going to want to know it, but when they know it, they don’t necessarily engage with it and they won’t buy from you. I have done tests where I’ve posted the price and where I have not posted the price: 10-1, they outsell when you don’t post the price. You are selling to them the value, the benefits, what’s in it for them? That’s what you’re selling to somebody. When you can do that, when you can show them what’s in it for them, it doesn’t matter what it costs.
Russell Brunson, I’m going to go back to an example he did. He said, “Here’s my iPhone, and I’m going to sell you my iPhone for $10,000.” My gut reaction is like, yeah, I’m not going to buy your phone for 10 grand, a used iPhone, are you insane? But then he shows the value behind having his specific phone. He was like, “Look, you’re going to get my phone. It’s an iPhone. It does the things that an iPhone does. You’re going to like that because you want an iPhone, but more than that, you’re getting my contact list in fact right here, yeah, that’s Tony Robbins phone number You’re going to have his phone number. You can text him. It’s my phone.
“Now beyond that, I have spent years listening to personal development. I have my favorite personal development audio books on my phone. You’re going to get those. You’re going to know my library that I use for my own personal development, and it’s going to be awesome for you. Second of all, I’ve also read a ton of books. All those ebooks are also loaded on my phone. Beyond that, I also have a whole series of trainings that I have done, videos and audio alike, that I’ve also loaded on my phone so that I have ready at the drop of a hat.”
Now, all the sudden, gosh, 10 grand doesn’t sounded so crazy for this phone. Let alone just the people like Dean Graziosi, people like Tony Robbins, a Brendan Burchard, some of these guys who were just incredible in the space of personal development and growth. He’s got access to those guys. He talks to them. Now, listen, I can have access to that. There are people out there who will pay 10 grand just for that contact list. It doesn’t matter what you’re selling, you provide a value in it. You can set the price.
Here’s the other trick. When you’re selling something, it makes zero–and I mean zero–million sense to have a price that is the second lowest price. If somebody mark something down to say, maybe it’s a $20 originally and they mark it down to $15 and you got, gosh, I can’t make $15 but I’ll be close, I’ll be $16 doesn’t make any sense. There’s no advantage to you to doing that. You either need to be the cheapest and if you’re not the cheapest, be the most expensive. Let me say that again. If you’re not the cheapest, be the most expensive. People love luxury items. They love luxury goods. Why do think Mercedes Benz and BMW sell so well? They are luxury items. People aspire for them. They view that as success. Now I don’t. I love good cars, and I love driving good cars, but a car doesn’t indicate success to me. What I’m telling you, people love luxury items. Figure out what the market is willing to bear and price at that height. Figure out what is, what people are going to be willing to purchase for and price there.
Here’s an interesting thing. There was a business school study done where a guy came in. It was a dry-cleaning store. This guy who was a very successful dry cleaner, but he brought in this business consultant to help him to grow and to make more money because he was just running around. He was busy as crazy and he was making good money, but he just wasn’t able to get over the hump. After a week of watching the operations as business analysts came back in, and the owner said, “Well, what do you got for me?” The business analysts said, “It’s really simple. You need to double your price.” Looked at him, he’s like, “You’re crazy. I’ll lose half of my customers if I double my price,” and the business consultant looks at me. He’s like, “Exactly,” because what would happen? He’d lose half his customers, but the other half is making up for the same amount of money, so he’s doing half the work and getting the same pay.
Value is relative. You can make something more valuable than it inherently is and people are willing to pay. I’ve seen a lot of books recently that had been priced out at like a hundred dollars, but they’re giving them away. I’ve also seen books that are free that have thousands of dollars worth of value in them. Ryan Levesque is now doing a campaign for his book Choose. His first book Ask is fantastic, and can help you learn to build a business with all of these things. If you price them as a premium, you’re going to get premium pricing and that’s going to give you an opportunity to grow a business far beyond where you could be now.
Guys, I hope this has been helpful. I’m really excited to share some more sales insights in the coming weeks and months. It is my passion. I love the thrill of the hunt and sales gives that to me, and I know that for you guys that for whatever you’re selling, if you’re willing to use a good hook, you’re willing to use an emotional story and an offer, and then show proof and give a call to action, you can sell things via Facebook and you can make a lot of money doing it. My wife has made thousands of dollars, quite literally thousands of dollars by selling things via Facebook. It can be done, and it should be done. And for your MLM, it can help you grow to grand new heights.
If you’re not in an MLM, you’re in a traditional business, like my buddy Coby who has a print shop and does a vehicle wraps. If you’re willing to price your services in such a way that you can fulfill your obligations, and still make great raving fan customers. You found the proof in the pudding and you’ve won. That’s all I’ve got for today, guys. I look forward to talking with you next week. Until then, make it a great day.
Hey, thanks for listening. Please remember to subscribe, and if you loved us, leave us an awesome review on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you consume your podcasts. If you’d like some free training for your team on how your recruiting efforts can be bettered and brought into the 21st century, go to podcast.MLMRenegade.com and get your copy of the Renegade Recruiting Kickstarter.