If you’re like me, you’re probably daunted by the whole prospect of figuring out how to learn to sell, and more importantly – WHAT to sell.
Far too often, as an eager marketer, you get excited about a particular product, or product line, that you see going viral – and assume that that would be a great business to be in…some have even spent time and money getting into a particular product line or niche – only to lose it, through failed traction.
So that brings us back to – ‘What Should I Sell?’
The ‘Answer’ is not important..the ‘Question’ is.
As explained earlier – effective Marketing is NOT about the PRODUCT, it’s about the PROSPECT (read more HERE)
In the old days of mass-marketing, companies would blast out ads on TV and print, and hope to find the needles in the haystack – or more accurately – the stark minority of customers who would be at a point in their lives where they realized they needed this product – and also had the money to pay for it NOW. Tough luck – those 2 contingencies are tougher to find together than you’d imagine…
It follows, then, that mass-marketing had to be REPETITIVE – so that they could multiply the chances of finding a) Interested and b) Paying customers
The whole thing was ultra-expensive, and worse still – you could never accurately track how many customers who showed up to a store did so because of the ads they watched.
Enter the new era of Digital Direct Marketing – based off the internet and internet-based technology, like email – where you can attract a group of prospects (potential customers) by giving away some compelling information (like an e-book, or a PDF flier), take their permission to market to them in the future (or at least send them more informative material) and EDUCATE them about the value of your product.
Not only do you have a better chance of converting – by sending multiple repetitive messages to someone you ALREADY have the attention of – it’s also FREE. Yes – Email is FREE (or Virtually Free, at least – more on this later)
Seth Rodin has explained the process beautifully in his book – Permission Marketing – I highly recommend you go ahead and read it if you plan to make money in Marketing.
So, back to our original question – ‘What Should I Sell?’ – well, it really does not matter. In practice, if you can figure out how to aggregate a group of people all with a common interest, you can sell them anything. You don’t even need to have a product of your own – you can just sell other people’s products for a commission. (check out my article on Why Sell For Someone Else).
So, all you need to decide right now is – what area of knowledge do YOU love to find out more about? What drives your passion? Do you know about anything in the world, just a little more than the person next door – and can you share that knowledge with a group of people who would LOVE to know more about it?
Well, if you CAN – then all you need to do is find these people, share your knowledge and your passion with them for FREE, and at some point of time – maybe offer them a product (that you may or may not even own) in return for a commission!
There’s just one thing that you really need to put some thought into, though…
You really gotta think hard about which area of knowledge are you really passionate about? It has got to be something close to your heart so that it can keep you going for a few months while you build out your brand and your target market.
What activity or hobby do you get involved whole-heartedly in? Doesn’t matter how silly or inconsequential it may seem. Start sharing your knowledge/expertise with interested prospects and build your own market. (I like to watch a TON of Hollywood movies – and probably have watched an average of 200 movies each year, for the past 10 years…I guess someday I’m gonna start a blog writing movie reviews – and on each page feature an Affiliate link to Netflix – that could keep me going a few years)
My next article will expand on this item, stay tuned!