Lie #2 in Sales & Marketing

Lie #2: 'You've just got to get in front of more people.'

Lie number two used to be the first thing I'd say to myself when I woke up each morning. Waking up every morning with a lie circulating in your brain is a very, very bad thing. This one gave me ulcers. It caused me to spend untold thousands of hours in my car, driving to see anyone who would allow me to walk through their door. It caused me to spend untold thousands of hours on the phone, trying to set up appointments. It also caused me to owe staggering amounts of money to Aunt Visa and Uncle Master Card.

Here's the truth: If you are nothing more than a 'salesman,' then nobody wants to see you. Ever. Because nobody is ever jazzed about having an adversarial discussion with you about whether they're going to buy something or not. 100 years ago, face-to-face selling was often the only way to find out about a new product or service. Not now. We've got a PC right in our dining room and a DSL line - and ANY TIME my wife or I want to know about something, we jump right on the Internet and go find out. Just yesterday Laura and I were discussing housing prices and five minutes later we were surfing a real estate site and learning everything we wanted to know. Isn't that a lot easier and safer than inviting a real estate agent over for tea & crumpets? You bet. But please understand, the issue is NOT that real estate agents are obsolete.

The issue is:
1) Is the Internet working FOR the agent, or AGAINST her?
2) Does she add legitimate value to what the customer can already get from the Internet?
Is she positioning herself such that customers who are ready to do something see her as a valuable resource and call her when it's time to act?
Or is she just a friendly face who really just wants their listing?
She must clearly position herself as someone who drastically speeds the buying or selling process and makes it MUCH EASIER for the buyer / seller to get what they want.

OK... So how do you DEMONSTRATE that you, as a sales person, make your customers' life easier - that time spent with you is time well spent?
Here's how: In your marketing, you focus on their problems, not your solution. You focus on the itch, not the scratch. This might sound simplistic, but even so, hardly anybody really does this. If you doubt me, just pick up ANY magazine and flip through it. Ask yourself this question as you look at every ad: 'Is this ad about my problem, or is it about somebody's product?' 90% of the time it's about their 'cool' product. And nobody really cares.

The only thing people care about is their problem. So here's a major shift: Instead of being a sales person who's trying to get in front of people, become a problem solving Information Source. (Usually it's *written* information first, not a phone call.) You'll get five times as many sales leads that way. No joke.

After you've provided information that helps them solve their problem, the next logical step is for them to meet with you. They call you first - you don't call them. And you walk through their door as a problem solver, not a peddler. I call this 'Information Marketing.' It's THE fundamental concept in my marketing system. People aren't interested in your solution. They're interested in their problem.

Original Source: Perry Marshall