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Leverage the Power of Selfishness
Guys, remember what your big brother taught you in High School about dating girls? That same thing holds true for selling just about anything! Didn’t have a big brother to show you the ropes? Well, sit back and let me be your big brother for the day (or at least the next 5 minutes), because what I am about to tell you can revolutionize your world. Actually, I hesitate to freely give this principle to just anyone because it’s so powerful, but it’s fun to talk about, and probably only 1 in 10 of you will put it into practice, anyway. So, let’s get our minds off the girls (for now) and talk about how we can leverage the age old temperament we humans call selfishness.
In terms of “bad things”, selfishness ranks right up near the top. We hate people who are selfish, because, well, we are selfish. We don’t like when people talk about themselves, because deep down inside we want them to ask questions about us, so we can talk about…us. There is generally not a thought that crosses your mind that doesn’t have you as part of the equation, and once understood, the bad thing you call selfishness can be leveraged to your advantage to sell anything from your blog, your product, chocolate candy, yourself to that girl and to anything else that can realistically be sold.
Your homework over the next couple of days is to watch good and bad salesmen. A bad salesman will talk about himself or his product first; he will try to sell himself and his product to the customer. A good salesman talk about the customer first, all the while figuring out the needs of said customer and how those needs can be met with one of the his products.
(Back to the dating scenario) My brother used to tell me, “Always talk about the girl; don’t talk about yourself! Ask her questions, comment on her outfit, find out what she likes, find out what she doesn’t like, and when you have done all that, continue to remain focused on her.” Remember that guy in school who seemed to get all the girls? Well, he either had some magic mojo, or perhaps he knew this concept and used it to his advantage.
The point is, your customers don’t care that you won the community’s Golden Gopher award last year, or that you are certified in XYZ (leave that on your “About Us” page). Your customers care about themselves and what you can do for THEM. To some, the ability to involve or focus on others comes naturally, and we usually say, “They just have the gift of salesmanship”. But to most of us, we have to work at applying our focus to other people instead of ourselves. Remember, your brand isn’t just your logo and the colors on your website, it is also YOU wherever you go. What are people going to think about your brand if you talk about yourself non-stop? Start leveraging the power of selfishness to your advantage today; show interest in others!
Don’t believe me, yet? Go find someone (casually), and tell them they look nice, ask them questions and show interest (but don’t be creepy). You might be surprised at the results you get!
