Illusion

It always amazes me how learning small things can completely change your perspective. Maybe just reading about body language and starting to see the little clues that people give off without realizing so you can tell their feelings. Or seeing how computer graphics are made to look real or 3D from simple 2D designs. The biggest one has been seeing how sales really works.

Basically, it's all smoke and mirrors. The average customer probably has no real need for your product or service. If they never met you, they would keep going on with their daily life completely ignorant that they don't have your product. So the idea of sales is to manufacture that need. True or false, however you want to do it, you build a scenario in their mind that involves them and what you are selling that is better than their current scenario. Basically, your ability at transferring your vision to them determines how much you can sell your product for. You're matching the proposed value of your product against their proposed value of the money they have.

This was well summed up in a line from Pirates of Silicon Valley when the character playing Bill Gates says, "You have to make people need you". That's what it all comes down to. Your goal is to get the person to be shocked they were able to take that last breath without your product. It's an amazingly simple concept, but at the same time so powerful and effective.

Sales truly is in every element of life. Everywhere you go, everything you see is designed to sell you an idea or concept, to make you believe what someone else wants you to believe. If you haven't developed an eye for it, then you are at a severe disadvantage.

Previously I posted about determining when you are an expert. When is the point where you can charge someone for goods or services. I've realized now that if you are asking that question, you are never going to get to that point. It's not about asking people for money. If you give them control, if you let them determine what is valuable enough to pay for, then you will never get paid. It is about knowing, better than the person you are selling to even, that you are giving them something worth more than what they are giving you in return. Once you have developed the confidence that that is true, then you are unstoppable because all you have to do is paint the picture for them to see what you already know.